College of Medicine

During the summer of 2012, College of Medicine student Juliana Matthews and College of Law student Carly Souther completed a collaborative medical-legal research project, "Factors Associated with the Implementation of the POLST Paradigm: Results from a Survey of Florida Physicians," to investigate physicians’ awareness of and attitudes toward the Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) concept and to identify barriers and opportunities for the expansion of it. Ms. Matthews and Ms. Southers sent a survey to physicians around the state containing questions about satisfaction with current advanced directives, perceived benefits of POLST, and other related issues. They were pleased by the results and submitted their paper for publication.