By: Claire Baralt

The University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute has been awarded $17.5 million to continue to pave the way for a swifter and more collaborative journey from research to improved health in the nation’s third largest state.

Florida State University joins UF as a community research partner on the four-year award, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical and Translational Science Award, or CTSA, program. Led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, the program supports a nationwide network of approximately 60 CTSA hubs that develop, demonstrate and disseminate advances in translational science, a field devoted to turning research discoveries into new approaches that improve health.

“Renewed CTSA funding allows us to galvanize new teams and opportunities to accelerate the translation of research into improved patient care at UF Health and statewide,” said David R. Nelson, M.D., assistant vice president for research at UF and director of the UF CTSI. Nelson leads the institute with co-director Betsy A. Shenkman, Ph.D., chair of the department of health outcomes and policy in the UF College of Medicine and director of the Institute for Child Health Policy.

In 2009, UF became the state’s first recipient of a Clinical and Translational Science Award and remains one of only two awardees in the state, with the University of Miami receiving a CTSA in 2012.

The UF CTSI leads programs that develop new capabilities for research and translation to practice, offers education and training programs for research teams, and provides services and resources to facilitate research, such as pilot funding, data tools and specialized facilities. An economic impact analysis completed in 2013 found that every $1 of UF CTSI operating expenditures helped spur an additional $11 in external funding awards, with total spending on CTSI operations supporting an estimated $1.1 billion in economic activity in Florida.

During the initial award, CTSI programs developed new methods and technologies in areas including biostatistics, epidemiology, community engagement and health outcomes research. CTSI-supported research teams made significant advances along the full continuum of translational research — from preclinical to clinical to population health sciences.

At the molecular level, for example, the CTSI helped unite expertise and resources to form UF’s Southeast Center for Integrated Metabolomics, one of six such NIH-funded centers in the country. In the clinical arena, the CTSI-led UF Health Personalized Medicine Program successfully implemented a process for genetic testing that helps cardiologists identify which patients may not respond to traditional anticlotting medications, with improved outcomes for patients who are treated with an alternative medication. At the population level, the CTSI is working with FSU, the University of Miami, community stakeholders and clinical collaborators to develop the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium. The OneFlorida vision first began to take shape in 2010, when FSU’s College of Medicine teamed up with the UF CTSI to develop new capabilities for community-based clinical research.

“We look forward to deepening our work with the UF CTSI and our 2,500 faculty physicians to aid in discovery and translation of the best scientific evidence into everyday clinical practice in communities throughout the state, and to give our medical students early exposure to research experiences,” said Myra Hurt, Ph.D., senior associate dean for research and graduate programs at the FSU College of Medicine.

Over the next four years, the UF CTSI will lead further development of the OneFlorida consortium and a research agenda that emphasizes the health priorities and diversity of Florida’s 20 million people. The institute will chart new pathways for translational workforce development, embed translational science in health systems and physician practices, and accelerate the collective impact of the national CTSA network and the research studies it supports.

To meet the growing demand for a workforce with the skills to lead and contribute to translational team science in a variety of environments, the CTSI will reshape how it supports development of careers in science. The CTSI will provide students and scholars an opportunity to explore career tracks not just in academic medicine, but also in community engagement and clinical research navigation, industrial biotechnology, technology transfer and entrepreneurship, research education and outreach, and regulatory science and government. The CTSI will offer a CTSA KL2 career development program for junior faculty and a CTSA TL1 training program for Ph.D. students. The KL2 and TL1 program awards are led, respectively, by principal investigators Thomas A. Pearson, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., executive vice president for research and education at UF Health, and Wayne T. McCormack, Ph.D., a professor in the UF College of Medicine.

Within UF Health, the CTSI will expand its work at the intersection of research and patient care. The CTSI’s 14,000-square-foot Clinical Research Center will serve UF’s growing portfolio of clinical trials involving participants across the lifespan. In tandem, the CTSI will partner with UF’s health system and FSU to integrate evidence-based health interventions into clinical practice.

The CTSI also will expand UF Health’s Consent2Share program, which offers patients an opportunity to allow UF researchers to contact them about research studies for which they might be eligible based on information in their electronic health record. To date, more than 21,500 patients have agreed to participate in Consent2Share, which was recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges with a 2014 Learning Health System Champion Award.

“By bridging the clinical, research, education and community engagement missions of our academic health center, the CTSI increases the exchange of ideas and knowledge to create a learning health system environment,” said David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health. “The CTSI and its work over the next four years will play a central role in realizing the vision set forth in UF Health’s new strategic plan, the Power of Together.”

Institutional support more than doubles the resources available for the CTSI’s efforts, reflecting its role as a research hub that mobilizes teams and engages participants across the university, state and nation. CTSI programs spurred multidisciplinary preeminence initiatives in metabolomics, genomic medicine, biomedical informatics, translational communication research and social network analysis.

“With its mission to accelerate translational science across all disciplines, disease areas and populations, the CTSI has created an environment that breeds collaboration not only at UF but across the state and country. This culture of collaboration will continue to fuel scientific progress over the next four years,” said David P. Norton, Ph.D., vice president for research at UF.

The UF CTSI is supported by NIH awards UL1TR001427, KL2TR001429 and TL1TR001428.

CONTACT: Doug Carlson, FSU College of Medicine
(850) 645-1255; (850) 694-3735; doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

Oct. 2, 2015

FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AUDITORIUM BEING NAMED FOR PEADEN

The Florida State University College of Medicine is naming its auditorium for the late Florida Sen. Durell Peaden, a Crestview physician who sponsored the legislation creating the medical school in 2000.

FSU President John Thrasher, who was Florida’s House speaker at the time, will be present, as will numerous other current and former legislators. The College of Medicine’s main administration building is named for Thrasher.

Also being named for Peaden is the college’s Rural Medical Education Program.

Peaden had been concerned for years that not enough new physicians were available to replace the aging doctors in the rural towns of Florida’s Panhandle. In the late 1990s, he began conversations with FSU administrators that ultimately led to the College of Medicine’s establishment. Previously, in FSU’s Program in Medical Sciences (PIMS), students completed their first year of medical school and then transferred to the University of Florida to complete their studies.

Like PIMS, the College of Medicine targets a diverse array of students, including those from traditionally underserved communities, and stresses primary care, patient-centered medicine and hands-on learning directly from community physicians.

The College of Medicine’s first class graduated in 2005. Nearly 270 current and former students have come to the medical school from Panhandle towns, and more than 50 alumni are now practicing in the Panhandle.

The naming ceremony will take place:

MONDAY, OCT. 5

4:30 P.M.

FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AUDITORIUM

1115 W. CALL ST.

TALLAHASSEE, FLA.

Directions: From downtown, travel west on Tennessee Street and turn left on Stadium Drive. Parking is available in the parking garage at Stadium Drive and Spirit Way.

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CONTACT: Doug Carlson, FSU College of Medicine
(850) 645-1255; doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

Oct. 15, 2015

FSU RESEARCHERS FIND WEIGHT DISCRIMINATION
IS LINKED TO INCREASED RISK OF MORTALITY

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In recent years, Florida State University College of Medicine researchers Angelina R. Sutin and Antonio Terracciano have found that people who experience weight discrimination are more likely to become or remain obese, to develop chronic health problems and to have a lower satisfaction with life.

Now they’ve found that people who report being subjected to weight discrimination also have a greater risk of dying. Not because they may be overweight, but because of the apparent effects of the discrimination. Their findings have been published in Psychological Science.

Sutin and colleagues examined data involving more than 18,000 people from separate longitudinal studies, comparing those who reported experiencing weight discrimination with those who did not. Accounting for other factors that might explain a greater risk for mortality, the researchers found that individuals reporting weight discrimination had a 60 percent greater chance of dying over the follow-up period.

“What we found is that this isn’t a case of people with a higher body-mass index (BMI) being at an increased risk of mortality — and they happen to also report being subjected to weight discrimination,” said Sutin, assistant professor of behavioral sciences and social medicine at the medical school. “Independent of what their BMI actually is, weight discrimination is associated with increased risk of mortality.”

Data came from two long-term and ongoing studies. The Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which began in 1992 at the University of Michigan with support from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), involved more than 13,000 men and women with an average age of 68 for the time period Sutin and Terracciano examined.

Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) is a study begun in 1995 by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development with support from the NIA. Sutin and Terracciano examined MIDUS data involving about 5,000 men and women with an average age of 48.

Results were consistent across both groups of study subjects. In both samples, the researchers accounted for BMI, subjective health, disease burden, depressive symptoms, smoking history, and physical activity as indicators of mortality risk, but the association with weight discrimination remained.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time that this has been shown — that weight discrimination is associated with an increased risk of mortality,” said Terracciano, associate professor in the College of Medicine’s Department of Geriatrics.

Sutin points to a series of studies involving both experimental and epidemiological approaches examining links between weight discrimination and health. “Ours and other groups’ epidemiological work converge with evidence from experimental research,” Sutin said. “The experimental work shows the immediate effects of weightism and our work shows the consequence over the lifespan.”

Weight discrimination is not always meant to be mean-spirited, but a body of evidence demonstrates that it has harmful effects nonetheless. Previous studies indicate that teasing a person to lose weight has the opposite effect over the long-term, including a study by Sutin and Terracciano that was published in PLoS One in 2013. Indeed, people who are stigmatized because of their weight are more likely to engage in the kind of behavior that contributes to obesity, including unhealthy eating and avoiding physical activity.

Some people think, ‘Oh, well, you’re just hurting somebody’s feelings when you say something bad about their weight, but it will motivate them to lose weight, which will save their life,’” Sutin said.

Sutin points out that contrary to such beliefs, in addition to the psychological effects, weightism increases the risk of weight gain and premature mortality. “Our research has shown that very clearly this type of approach does not work and there are really serious consequences to it,” Sutin said.

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CONTACT: Doug Carlson, FSU College of Medicine
(850) 645-1255; doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu
or
Ron Hartung, FSU College of Medicine
(850) 645-9205; ronald.hartung@med.fsu.edu

Dec. 16, 2015

NEW PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT PROGRAM NAMES FOUNDING DIRECTOR

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida State University College of Medicine has hired a founding director for its proposed Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies program after a national search.

James Zedaker will join the program in January, focusing on helping the program through its initial and lengthy accreditation process.

The program at the FSU College of Medicine is new, but Zedaker has done this before. Twice.

He was the founding director of a new physician assistant studies program at Ohio University, where he also served as a clinical assistant professor. Prior to that, he was a founding faculty member and academic coordinator for a new physician assistant studies program at Indiana University. Zedaker earned a master’s degree in physician assistant studies from the University of Nebraska.

“We are very pleased with the result of our search, and I am excited to have Jim accept our offer and begin this new role soon at Florida State,” said College of Medicine Dean John P. Fogarty. “He was attracted to our mission and our program, and this is a great fit for him. He has all of the requisite skills that we were looking for in a director.”

FSU is hoping to admit its first class in 2017 and intends to grow to 60 students a year at full enrollment.

The FSU College of Medicine was created in 2000 to address the need for more physicians in Florida, especially those who will serve in primary-care specialties and work with elder, rural, minority and underserved populations.

The medical school has been successful in producing physicians consistent with its mission, but it’s not enough. Physician assistants, also known as PAs, provide another layer of primary-care providers capable of further strengthening the College of Medicine’s commitment to improving access to care in Florida and beyond.

Physician assistants work as part of a health-care team under a physician’s supervision. Students in the new PA program at Florida State will spend two years learning within the same network of faculty physicians who teach FSU medical students.

“We have an ideal model here at FSU with our distributed regional campuses to train future physician assistants in office settings providing patient-centered care,” Fogarty said. “Learning to work in the same settings as our medical students will provide early experience in team-based care, a critical model to address the primary-care shortages in our state.”

Physician assistants are in high demand as Florida and the United States look for ways to address a physician shortage that also has been the impetus for a wave of new medical schools in this country. The FSU College of Medicine was the first new M.D. program to open in the U.S. in 20 years. Since 2008, more than a dozen new medical schools have been established nationwide.

Physician assistants are expected to play a critical role in meeting rising needs in primary care as millions of formerly uninsured citizens gain access to health care as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Forbes magazine ranked physician assistant first on its list of “The 10 Most Promising Jobs of 2015” due to increased demand for PAs, high pay and short completion period. The median pay for a PA is $98,387, according to the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants. More than 75 percent of recently certified PAs reported receiving more than one job offer.

“The commitment that the College of Medicine has made to embrace, support and integrate our students into the already proven community-based clinical education setting will not only provide a unique model for our students, but may also prove to be a benchmark in PA education,” Zedaker said. “This is a great team that is student- and patient-centered, and I am honored to be part of it.
PA students at Florida State will spend one year at the main campus in Tallahassee and one year at one of the medical school’s regional campuses, which are located in Daytona Beach, Fort Pierce, Orlando, Pensacola, Sarasota and Tallahassee. Students will learn basic and behavioral sciences at the main campus and will focus on clinical education in the second year at a regional campus.

A similar approach is the basis for the College of Medicine’s successful four-year M.D. program. In fact, clinical subjects for the PA program will follow the medical school’s curriculum to include family medicine, geriatrics, internal medicine, psychiatry, emergency medicine, pediatrics, general surgery and elective rotations.

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FSU researchers win GAP awards to propel work from lab to market

Kathleen Haughney
01/06/2016 1:01 pm

Six Florida State University researchers are getting some extra cash from the university to help transform promising research into viable products for the global marketplace.

Researchers Pradeep Bhide, Biwu Ma, Geoffrey Strouse, Mykhailo Shatruk, Wei Yang and Jianping Zheng will receive a combined amount of $155,000 from FSU’s GAP program to work on projects such as a new drug to treat cognitive inflexibility, organic light emitting diodes and a hybrid battery and capacitor.

“We have some outstanding faculty at Florida State,” said FSU Vice President for Research Gary K. Ostrander. “This program gives them the financial support to help move their ideas to the next level and explore business opportunities that could arise from their research endeavors.”

The GAP program provides university researchers with funding to help prepare their work for commercialization and potentially find outside investors. Over the past 10 years, it has doled out nearly $2.2 million to help researchers develop products such as new cancer treatments, food contamination test kits and next-generation wound dressings.

Ten researchers presented their ideas last month to a volunteer panel of local business men and women, in addition to Ostrander and Office of Commercialization Director Brent Edington. After a deliberation and budgeting process, the panel agreed to fund five projects.

“This is a direct help to researchers,” Edington said. “This will allow them to get their technologies ready for commercialization.”

The winning projects are:

• A new treatment for cognitive inflexibility: Bhide, director of the Center for Brain Repair at the FSU College of Medicine, is developing a new, non-stimulant drug to treat cognitive inflexibility. Cognitive inflexibility hampers a child’s ability to learn by making it difficult to switch between thinking about one concept to another or multiple concepts simultaneously. Aspects of cognitive inflexibility are found in autism, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactive disorder. It affects roughly 25 million people, but no drug has been developed specifically to treat this condition.
• Organic light emitting diodes (LEDs): Ma, associate professor of chemical engineering, is working with a class of materials called perovskites to build organic LEDs. Perovskites are any materials that have the same type of crystal structure as calcium titanium oxide. Perovskites have shown tremendous potential in creating LEDs that are both more cost efficient and brighter than traditional LEDs.
• Nanostructured permanent magnets: Strouse, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Shatruk, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, have developed a new process to make permanent magnets that are cheaper and less dependent on rare-earth metals.
• Computational drug discovery: Yang, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is developing a computer-aided drug design system using novel approaches, which will substantially decrease the time and cost associated with drug development. The computer-aided drug design system is based on an algorithm that predicts the efficacy of potential drug molecules.
• Hybrid li-oin battery and li-ion capacitor: Jianping Zheng, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is an expert in supercapacitor technology and has been working on creating a hybrid lithium battery and capacitor that would provide both the energy and the power sources.

CONTACT: Julie Jordan, FSU College of Medicine
(850) 645-9699; julie.jordan@med.fsu.edu

March 2016

FSU GERIATRICS RESEARCHER RECRUITING CAREGIVERS FOR DEMENTIA STUDY

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Antonio Terracciano, a researcher with the Florida State University College of Medicine, is recruiting participants for one of two grants related to dementia.

Terracciano is seeking dementia caregivers from the Tallahassee community to measure the effectiveness of an educational program designed to improve their quality of life. With his other grant, Terracciano will test whether personality change can help predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

With a $250,000 grant from the Florida Department of Health, Terracciano will conduct a clinical trial for dementia caregivers. Using Tallahassee volunteers, he will test the effectiveness of the Powerful Tools for Caregivers educational program.

“Powerful Tools for Caregivers is designed to help caregivers to better manage the stress of caregiving,” said Terracciano, an associate professor in the Department of Geriatrics.

The six-week program was developed by Legacy Health System in Portland, Oregon. It provides caregivers with tools and strategies to improve self-care behaviors such as managing emotions, communication and improved use of community resources.

“We provide this training to people in the community through the Alzheimer’s Project and the Westminster Oaks community,” said Terracciano, “but we wanted to do this clinical trial to learn more about the program’s effectiveness.”

Although its effectiveness has been measured before in pre- and post-tests given to caregivers, Terracciano wants to take the research one step further with a randomized clinical trial.

“Research shows that the program is effective in creating more self-confident caregivers who take better care of themselves,” he said. “If this is true, can it also help with the behavioral symptoms in the person with dementia? That’s one of the ideas that we’ll test.”

The clinical trial is not without challenges: “Finding caregivers to participate will be difficult, because Tallahassee is not a huge city, and the funding only lasts through June. But my hope is that through this training we will see improvements not only in the caregiver but in the person with dementia.”

With his other grant, totaling $148,000 from the National Institute on Aging, Terracciano will examine data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. In that study, almost 2,000 participants had regular cognitive and personality evaluations beginning in 1958. As participants aged, 10 percent developed clinical dementia. Terracciano will explore this data sample to determine personality change in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer’s disease.

Common personality changes associated with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are increased sadness, increased irritability and decreased conscientiousness.

“These changes are part of the clinical diagnosis,” Terracciano said. “To date, it is unknown when these changes occur. I am looking at whether change in personality occurs before people show cognitive impairment.”

He is confident the sample will help provide clues.

“The measure used for personality is the gold standard in the field,” said Terracciano. “There were people who filled out this questionnaire every couple of years for 20 years before they developed dementia.”

He cited the benefits of using self-reported personality measures from the Baltimore study: “We want to say great things about our loved one and how it’s the dementia that causes these changes, but there is potential bias when that happens. It’s best to see how people describe themselves.”

There are also implications for diagnosis.

“If you see a little bit of deterioration in memory, and you also see deterioration in personality, that will strengthen the confidence of the diagnosis,” said Terracciano. “Whether personality changes can be used as a diagnostic tool is one of the ultimate goals of this research.”

Caregivers of those with dementia wishing to participate in Terracciano’s Powerful Tools for Caregivers study may contact his assistant, Lametra Smallwood, at lametra.smallwood@med.fsu.edu or (850) 645-2993.

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CONTACT: Doug Carlson, (850) 645-1255;
doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

March 3, 2016

FSUCares SPENDING SPRING BREAK ON MEDICAL OUTREACH TRIPS

For some Florida State medical and nursing students, a spring-break trip to South Florida won’t involve a visit to the beach or a bar. This year, like every year since the Florida State College of Medicine welcomed its first class in 2001, these students will be giving out medical supplies and treatment – and getting a cultural education in return.

On Friday (March 4) they will be available for interviews and photos as they pack medical supplies donated by the Tallahassee community. First- and second-year College of Medicine students and FSU nursing students will make the annual trip, along with faculty members. Their destination is Immokalee in Southwest Florida.

The team will arrive in Immokalee Friday afternoon and return to Tallahassee Wednesday. Spring break for Florida State is March 7-11.

FSU medical and nursing students will be available for interviews and photos on:

FRIDAY, MARCH 4

9 A.M.

FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

1115 W. CALL ST., TALLAHASSEE

Directions: From downtown, travel west on Tennessee Street and turn left on Stadium Drive. The College of Medicine is at Stadium and Call Street. Press parking will be available in a parking lot located off Call between the College of Medicine and the Psychology Building. Additional parking is available in the parking garage at Stadium Drive and Spirit Way.

For more about FSUCares, visit: /fsucares

# # #

CONTACT: Javier Rosado, Ph.D., director of clinical training, Florida State University College of Medicine – (239) 823-8508; Javier.rosado@med.fsu.edu

March 4, 2016

FSUCares SPENDING SPRING BREAK IN IMMOKALEE

A number of Florida State medical and nursing students are looking for more than fun in the sun during spring break. This year, like every year since the Florida State College of Medicine welcomed its first class in 2001, these students will be providing medical screenings as well as patient education – and getting a cultural education in return. It’s a chance to learn, as well as give, as part of the College of Medicine’s effort to produce compassionate physicians.

Five medical students, four nursing students, and two College of Medicine faculty members will be joined this year by five nurse practitioners from Sarasota. The contingent will be doing health screenings and medical outreach while assisting migrant farm workers in Immokalee.

“FSUCares is a medical, student-run organization designed to help the underserved and underprivileged populations both locally and abroad,” said Karen Myers, FSU College of Medicine faculty adviser to FSUCares. “The trip to Immokalee is a service learning trip in which first- and second-year medical students spend part of their spring break providing medical outreach to migrant farm workers who do not have access to health care.”

Students and faculty will be available for interviews and photos in Immokalee:

SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church

MONDAY, MARCH 7, 5-7 p.m.
Immokalee Community School

Contact Javier Rosado to make other arrangements for interview opportunities, March 5-9

For more about FSUCares, visit: med.fsu.edu/fsucares

For more about the College of Medicine’s Immokalee Health Education Site, visit: med.fsu.edu/Immokalee

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CONTACT: Doug Carlson
(850) 645-1255; doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

March 16, 2016

FLORIDA STATE MEDICAL STUDENTS TO MEET THEIR MATCH

On Friday, the 119 members of the Florida State University College of Medicine Class of 2016 expect to find out where they will receive residency training — a defining moment in their medical careers — during a Match Day ceremony.

The students will simultaneously open envelopes, learning for the first time where they will spend the next three to seven years completing training in the medical specialty they will practice.

Graduating students at M.D.-granting medical schools across the United States receive their match information at the same time through the National Resident Matching Program, the primary system that matches applicants to residency programs with available positions at U.S. teaching hospitals.

The ceremony will take place:

FRIDAY, MARCH 18

NOON

RUBY DIAMOND CONCERT HALL

WESTCOTT BUILDING, 222 S. COPELAND ST.

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA

The ceremony can also be viewed online. Visit /matchday for parking and map information, as well as details about the webcast.

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CONTACT: Doug Carlson
(850) 645-1255; doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

By Doug Carlson
March 18, 2016

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
ANNOUNCES MATCH DAY RESULTS

U.S. News Names College Second-Most Competitive Medical School in Nation for Admissions

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Graduating students in the Florida State University College of Medicine Class of 2016 received notification today of where they will enter residency training this summer.

Sixty-eight of the 116 graduating students (59 percent) who matched with a residency program did so in a primary care specialty, including internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology.

Also on Friday, U.S. News and World Report published news from its recent graduate-program survey revealing the FSU College of Medicine as the second-most competitive medical school in the country for admissions. The College of Medicine extended 151 offers among the more than 6,200 applicants for the class admitted in May 2015. The admissions rate of 2.4 percent trailed only Mayo Medical School (Rochester, Minnesota).

“We clearly have become a medical school of choice not only because our students consistently match with outstanding residency programs, but because word has gotten out about the tremendous experiences our students have during their four years of medical education in our unique, community-based approach,” College of Medicine Dean John P. Fogarty said.

“While we may be extremely competitive in the selection process, our priority is finding students who believe in our mission and will help us continue to produce the doctors Florida needs most. As you can see from our match results today, our students are choosing to serve in areas of greatest need. They clearly understand the call to serve their fellow man.”

Other students matched Friday in general surgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, orthopedic surgery, neurology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, diagnostic radiology, radiation oncology, dermatology, neurological surgery, otolaryngology, pathology and urology.

Nine students matched in Tallahassee, including three with the new general surgery residency program sponsored by the College of Medicine at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. Four others matched in family medicine at TMH.

Fifty-one students matched in Florida, a state that ranks 42nd nationally in the number of available residency slots. To help address the issue, the College of Medicine has been partnering with institutions around the state to sponsor more residency programs. Eight students matched with programs sponsored by the College of Medicine.

The residency match, conducted annually by the National Resident Matching Program, is the primary system that matches applicants to residency programs with available positions at U.S. teaching hospitals. Graduating medical students across the country receive their match information at the same time on the same day.

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For information about Florida State’s Match Day history, visit /alumnifriends/residency-match-day-results.

To see where past College of Medicine graduates are practicing, visit http://public.med.fsu.edu/alumni/alumni.aspx?class=2005.