http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oimGvgOEXLQ

Few other events bring together USF’s emerging scientists better than the annual USF Health Research Day. The day-long event showcases the best and the brightest researchers across all USF Health colleges, as well as guest researchers whose work focus on the science of health. It also allows many of them to spotlight existing collaborations, as well as form new ones, said Phillip Marty, PhD, vice president for USF Health Research.

“These kinds of opportunities for multidisciplinary collaborations are the essence of what academic medicine is all about,” Dr. Marty said. “The best science comes from academic medical and academic health centers.”

This year’s event, the 23rd Annual USF Health Research Day, kept the promise for top research projects and a steady crowd of interested faculty, staff and students reinforced the fact that research is at the heart of USF Health.

A record 340 presenters participated in this year’s USF Health Research Day, an event that showcases the work of graduate and postgraduate students and residents, and even faculty and staff, from throughout USF Health, as well as across campus.

In addition to those from USF, 14 of the poster presenters were students from charter high and middle schools in The Villages, showcasing their own award-winning posters. This is the second year the young students’ posters were judged by USF post doc students. The mentoring effort formed out of a partnership between USF Health and the Villages. The young scientists seem to hold their own when various visitors inquired about their work and the charter students seemed to enjoy interacting with USF faculty, even having a group shot with USF Health CEO Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, dean for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

The event began bright and early, starting off with the 4th Annual Annual Joseph Krzanowski, PhD, USF Health Invited Oral Presentations Session, when only a select few researchers present their work. The 10 invited to present their work orally this year were: Juanjuan Yin, Ingrid Ramirez, Ravi Kasiappan, Lee Stratton, Tigran Kesayan, JungA Alexa Woo, Nadine Nelson, Shabnam Mehra, Evelyn Anegbe, Andrea Bingham and Jessica Gordon.

Immediately following the oral presentations, the full poster presentation session began. Judges made their rounds to each presentation, asking the lead researchers to further explain their methods, results and conclusions before deciding on the award-worthy entrants. Many of the budding researchers use the day-long event as a prime opportunity for collaboration and as a “practice run” for future national research meetings.

Culminating the day was the Roy H. Behnke Distinguished Lectureship, featuring Howard McLeod, PharmD, professor of pharmacogenomics and director of the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His talk was titled “Using the Genome to Guide Therapy.” (See related story)

As the day wound down, winners were announced at the Awards Ceremony: Best MCOM Graduate Student Poster Presentations: – Allergy and Immunology: Chris Laird – Allergy and Immunology: Amorce Lima – Cancer Biology: Nadine Nelson – Cardiovascular: Justin Hooper – Clinical Science and Outcomes Research: Ty Bowman – Molecular and Cell Biology: Shannon Kesl

Best MCOM Medical Student Presentations:

- Med II Student Poster Presentation, Allergy and Immunology: Daniel Olson

- Med II Student Poster Presentation: Cancer Biology: Shonali Midha

- Med II Student Poster Presentation, Chart Reviews and Case Studies: John Pham

- Med II Student Poster Presentation, Clinical Sciences: Yin Zheng

- Med II Student Poster Presentation, Education: Candace Haddock

- Med II Student Poster Presentation: Stephen Aradi – Med III Student Poster Presentation, Chart Reviews and Case Studies: Gregory Horn

Best Undergraduate Student Poster Presentations:

Clinical: Annie Castillo

Molecular and Cell Biology: Peter Moran

Neuroscience I: Beatrice Attilus

Neuroscience II: Awa Sanneh

Best College of Pharmacy Poster Presentations:

- Graduate Student: Athar Naif

- Postdoctoral: Chapalamadugu Kalyan

Best College of Public Health Poster Presentations:

- Graduate Student: Margeaux Chavez

- Graduate Student: Korede Adegoke

- Graduate Student: Pamela Guevara

- Graduate Student: Jennifer Sedillo

- Graduate Student: Blake Barrett

- Graduate Student: Christopher Campbell

- Graduate Student: MahmoodaKhaliq Pasha

Best TVCS High School Student Poster Presentation: Kathryn Fairchild

Best TVCS Middle School Student Poster Presentation: Kunal Upadya

***

USF Health Vice President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Oral Presentation: Andrea Bingham

MCOM Outstanding Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Ravi Pathak

MCOM Outstanding Postdoctoral Poster Presentation: Jessica Chang

MCOM Best Resident Poster Presentation: Jiangchuan Tao

MCOM Best Resident Poster Presentation: Midhir Patel

Watson Clinic Award to a Fourth-Year Medical Student: Chad Engel

Dr. Christopher P. Phelps Memorial Fund Annual Morsani COM Graduate Student Travel Award: Laura Blair

Pediatric Administrators Awards for Best Presentation on Children’s Health: Sarah Maness

***

Video by Allyn DiVito, USF Health Information Services

Social Media by Elizabeth Peacock, USF Health Communications

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

RELATED STORIES:
Research Day 2013: Bringing USF Health together
Research Day speaker:  Move genetic discovery to medical practice

Cancer, cardiovascular illnesses and most other common diseases now have multiple medications that may work – yet none of them work on more than half the patients, keynote speaker Howard McLeod, PharmD, told an audience gathered for the 2013 USF Health Research Day Roy H. Behnke Distinguished Lectureship.

“So when prescribers are faced with choosing a medication to give a patient, which do they pick?” said McLeod, who directs the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “They often make their decisions based on familiarity with drugs they know best.”

That’s because there is no way to predict with great certainty whether a patient will respond to a drug very well, somewhat, not at all – or perhaps even adversely. The result, for many patients, is a time-consuming, sometimes costly, trial-and-error approach to finding the right drug at the right dose.

Howard McLeod, PharmD, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy, was the keynote speaker for this year’s USF Health Research Day.

McLeod is a prominent researcher in the emerging field of pharmacogenomics, which explores how variations in our individual genetic makeup influence how we react to drugs.  The institute he leads is working to integrate personalized into medical practice by providing the tools and tests for physicians to identify patients at high risk for toxic side effects as well as those likely to benefit from a particular treatment.

During his Research Day presentation, McLeod focused on the need to harness the growing body of information obtained from DNA analysis to attain comprehensive and more meaningful understanding of which genes are important in guiding drug therapy.

Easy-to-use informatics solutions must be in place before clinicians and pharmacists can broadly apply complex information about the multitude of genetic variations, and other factors interacting with genetic makeup, to select and dose medicines, McLeod said. Some progress is being made. For example, he said, there is now an iPhone app, called iWarfarin, that can help determine the optimal initial dose of  warfarin, a widely-prescribed anticoagulant drug, based on an individual’s genetic signature. “It’s not as fun as Angry Birds, but almost,” McLeod quipped.

McLeod challenged academic medicine to be more proactive about translating genetic discovery into applied knowledge that will mean safer, more cost-effective care for patients. “We get the grants, do the discovery, validate findings, publish papers… but then what? Are we creating the science that will help grandma?”

Stephen Liggett, MD, vice dean for research at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, said that McLeod’s relay race analogy of progressing from basic science discovery to validation to implementation of research and incorporation into medical practice was a good one.

“If at any one of those points, your institution or group of collaborators doesn’t pick up the pace and move the baton forward, then it’s possible all that work will not come to fruition,” said Dr. Liggett, who joined USF Health to lead the university’s personalized medicine and genomics research.

USF, known for its innovation, will move forward with implementation, Dr. Liggett said. Our relay race, he added, “could be helped along by hospital partners willing to be adventurous with us” in tackling the complex challenges and issues of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

Florida Governor Rick Scott has appointed USF Health’s William S.  Quillen, PT, DPT, PhD, FACSM, as a new member of the state’s Board of Physical Therapy Practice. 

Dr. William “Sandy” Quillen

Dr. Quillen is associate dean and director of the USF School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences.  His term, which begins immediately, will run through October 2014.

The Board is comprised of seven members appointed by the Governor: five licensed physical therapists and two consumer members charged with  protecting the public’s health and safety through health care licensure, enforcement, and information.

Read more….

Despite countless hours of prevention training for healthcare professionals, urinary tract infections (UTIs) remain a big problem in nearly every hospital in the country.

To help curb, and even reduce, the prevalence of UTIs, USF Health students took the initiative and set up a training session for fellow students to teach on the proper way to insert a Foley catheter.

The aim of the effort: to instill early on a habit of prevention and improved patient safety, prior to entering the hospital workplace.

Attending the Foley catheter training is Peter Silverman, first-year medical student.

The Foley training session, which was held in the USF Health Center for Advanced Clinical Learning last month, is the first of many types of self-training exercises to be hosted by the USF Health Healthcare Improvement Group (HIG), an interprofessional student organization dedicated to developing a culture of healthcare quality improvement and maximizing patient safety.

Established last Spring, the USF HIG is a chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and currently includes students from the USF Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health. The interdisciplinary group was started primarily to develop a culture of change for improving patient safety and providing training to advance healthcare quality improvement, said Neil Manimala, a first-year medical student and a co-president for the USF HIG along with Anthony Desantis.

“HIG is committed to not only improving patient safety through specific projects but also changing the culture of healthcare to one of true quality improvement and teamwork rather than blame, liability, and total practitioner isolation,” Manimala said.

The USF HIG was founded primarily by Trevor Lewis, along with Jennifer Bruno, Christopher Centonze, Christopher Childs, Melinda Fang, Ian Mark, Keith O’Brien, Alexandra Printz, and Bruna Zanolini, all of whom are now second-year medical students.

Although currently including only medical, nursing and public health students, HIG is looking to include all USF Health professional students, Manimala said.

“We are currently working together with nursing students and public health but would like to expand the scope of our student involvement to the rest of USF Health, as well,” he said.

HIG began as an extension of the Morsani College of Medicine’s scholarly concentration called Health Systems Engineering. Within that, the group connected with the IHI in order to tap into the national group’s online training series called IHI Open School for Health Professions, which includes multiple patient safety training modules. USF students expanded on-site sessions for the modules to include concurrent training sessions with panels of experts, typically USF faculty, who spoke and led team discussions.

The localized focus has helped the group broaden its reach beyond those interested only in the modules and resulting certificate and helped reinforce concepts by seeing real-world applications by invited faculty with interests and experience in patient safety and quality improvement.

Ever-increasing interest in the modules and training sessions has meant looking ahead for the new group.

“We are looking to expand this training facilitation to the Northwestern University Patient Safety Education Program,” Manimala said.  “And we hope to one day integrate these patient safety education efforts into the formal health professional student curriculum. Besides these projects, members are constantly brainstorming for new ideas on how to improve the healthcare system.”

The hands-on Foley catheter exercise was just one example of how the group aims to facilitate change.

“At this event, students taught each other how to insert Foley catheters into plastic models and to also brainstorm on how to create procedural checklists,” Manimala said. “This exercise is part of a larger long-term student-led project to educate MS-III’s entering their clerkships on safe and effective Foley catheter insertion to avoid UTIs. And the aim is to offer other types of sessions for different procedures. These types of sessions help us train to become leaders in the area of patient safety and healthcare improvement.”

Prepping for training is Neil Patel (MS1).

Inserting a Foley catheter are, from left, Samson Lu (MS1), Daniel Myers (MS1), Viktor Flores (MS1).

At the first Foley catheter training event were, from left, front row, Melinda Fang (MS2), Jennifer Bruno (MS2), Yilmarie Rosado (MS1), Bruna Zanolini (MS2), Viktor Flores (MS1), Kathryn Dean (MS1), Aaron Block (MS4). Back row, Neil Manimala (MS1), Neil Patel (MS1), Emelia Hammond (fourth-year nursing student), Derek Djavaherian (MS1), Anthony Desantis (MS1), Christopher Centonze (MS2).

Story by Sarah Worth, USF Health Office of Communications

Photos by Neil Manimala, first-year medical student, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine

Jim  Burkhart becomes Tampa General Hospital’s new CEO on Monday, March 4, marking a new era  in USF Health’s longstanding partnership with its major teaching hospital.

Burkhart joins Tampa General  from Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, a private, not-for-profit teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Florida.  He was president and chief executive officer at Shands Jacksonville since 2010, after serving as president and adminstrator there since 2003. 

Jim Burkhart

“We welcome Mr. Burkhart to the Tampa Bay region, and we look forward to working with him,” said Stephen Klasko, MD, CEO of USF Health  and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, who served on the search committee for Tampa General’s new CEO.

Under Burkhart’s leadership, the operations and financial position of Shands Jacksonville was successfully repositioned.  He also built collaborative relationships and alliances with both academic faculty and community-based physicians that significantly affected the recruitment of key additions to the medical staff and faculty.

“I believe Jim is the best choice to lead Tampa General into the future.  He has demonstrated strong leadership at a fully integrated academic medical center, and will be a great partner for USF Health at our primary teaching hospital,” Dr. Klasko said. “Once Jim has settled in, we will explore new ways in which USF Health and Tampa General can work together for the benefit of our patients and families.  We believe we can strengthen an already close relationship, and that our futures are aligned.”

USF Health CEO Stephen Klasko, MD, with Elaine Thompson, PhD, president and CEO of Lakeland Regional Health Systems, Inc.

March 1, 2013 (Lakeland, FL)  – Upon the  recommendation of Elaine Thompson, PhD, president and CEO of Lakeland Regional Health Systems, Inc. , the Lakeland Regional Medical Center/LRHS Board of Directors announced  today that Lakeland Regional continues to move ahead with its goal of becoming a teaching hospital by developing an academic affiliation agreement with USF Health.

“We continue to talk with Lakeland Regional Medical Center about the direction and composition that our proposed health model system might take, and I am very pleased with the way in which our relationship continues to develop,” said Stephen Klasko, MD, CEO of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine. 

“CEO Elaine Thompson, PhD, and President Mack Reavis, MD, have  demonstrated a deep interest in academic rigor and excellence. They are strong advocates for the promise of academic medicine, and we greatly appreciate their clear vision for how Lakeland Regional can help the community’s health by becoming a teaching hospital.”

Read more …

Their first day as third-year medical students began with advice and words of wisdom, as well as applause and hugs.

On March 4, as friends and family watched, 128 medical students took part in the annual Student Clinician Ceremony, an event that marks the transition from being second-year students who focus primarily on classroom and textbook learning to third-year students who will learn primarily as apprentices to physicians and interacting with patients in clinical and hospital settings.

“You have spent your first two years learning the science, and now you have to put everything you’ve learned so far into practice,” said Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, dean of the Morsani College of Medicine and CEO of USF Health. “But remember, this is your time to learn things no book can teach you. You will have to develop a level of trust with your patients because, once you don your white coat, people will talk with you in a very different way.”

   Dr. Steve Klasko reminds students that patients respond differently to a physician’s white coat.

Christopher DeClue and Kirk Chassey partnered to speak to their fellow students, presenting a unified message on the importance of working together. Both are medical students, with DeClue in the Core MD Program and Chassey in the SELECT Program.

“We represent the unity of our class,” Chassey said. “We’ve learned together and we’ve thrived together.”

“Medicine is becoming more of a team-based sport,” DeClue said. “If we can learn together early in our careers, we’ll provide the best care possible.”

Urging the group to maintain existing partnerships, like that with the Morsani College of Medicine, and to form new partnerships, Alicia Monroe, MD, chief academic officer and vice dean for Educational Affairs, helped the students see the bridges that are formed across a lifetime.

“Remember that to be extraordinary caregivers you have to be good partners,” Dr. Monroe said. “Your personal values you bring into the partnership and who you bring to the table sets the stage for how effective you can be.”

The day’s keynote speaker was Robert Ledford, MD, director of the Medical Observational Unit at Tampa General Hospital and assistant professor of medicine. He provided several practical tips to the Class of 2015, urging them to come prepared every day emotionally and to remember their basic science they’ve learned. He also told them to be prepared for failure.

“I’m wrong every single day,” Dr. Ledford said. “Remember to guard against arrogance. Stay humble, because no one cares that you know until they know that you care,” Dr. Ledford said.

Also honored were six resident physicians, whose teaching earned each of them the Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award. They are Zuheily Closser, MD, emergency medicine; Jaren Troy, MD, general surgery; Sunil Medidi, MD, internal medicine; Soha Patel, MD, obstetrics and gynecology; Martin Myers, MD, neuropsychiatry; and Sara Saporta, MD, pediatrics.

Then all 128 students stood and recited the Oath of Commitment, promising to fulfill the principles of respect, ethics, compassion, professionalism and gratitude, as family and friends looked on proudly.

The ceremony, as well as the Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Awards, were provided through a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

   Dr. Robert Ledford presented the keynote address, as well as gifts, to the students.

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Office of Communications

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications

By Jeff Lowenkron, MD

Over the next few weeks, millions of people driving Interstate 275 northbound by downtown Tampa will see a billboard that re-introduces USF Health to the Tampa Bay community as Doctors of USF Health. 

This billboard signifies the launch of our campaign to inform patients and families throughout the area that Doctors of USF Health provides them access to the most advanced health care available. 

The campaign – sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle – will remind everyone we are this region’s only academic medical center, a competitive advantage that benefits patients and the community.

Here’s how academic medicine matters:

• Better outcomes: National studies show that patients tend to fare better at academic medical centers, which typically treat some of the sickest patients and toughest medical cases. Access to that care is through the many USF Health Centers for Advanced Health Care and hospitals that are linked to the Morsani College of Medicine.
• Newest knowledge: Nearly every medicine, treatment and cure we know can trace its origin to an academic medical center. As part of an academic medical center, Doctors of USF Health provides the most current health care available, an advantage few other physician groups can offer.
• More expertise:  Doctors of USF Health has more than 400 highly specialized healthcare professionals who know today what other doctors will read about in the future. 

What does being an academic medical center mean?

It means our faculty, residents, students and staff are part of a multi-disciplinary engine providing the best care possible to families throughout central Florida. It means we are part of the pioneering advances in medicine, scientific research, and patient care emanating from USF Health. It means USF Health  plays a vital role in educating tomorrow’s physicians, nurses, pharmacists, researchers, physical therapists, and public health professionals.

The billboard is just part of the campaign that is delivering a consistent message that fits our long-term strategy. Why did we focus on Doctors?  To make it more personalized, to provide more of a connection with patients, and to point out our greatest strength, that as an academic medical center, we make unmatched contributions to the health and well-being of the community.

Our brand identity links to the launch of our newly designed patient care website. The pages offer a more robust format and improved patient-centered interface. It even has a great video of our own Dr. Kira Zwygart, interim chair of Family Medicine, describing perfectly the importance of academic medicine and what our type of center means to patients and families in this community.

As the campaign moves forward, there will be other  tangible signs of strategic marketing to reinforce our message around our competitive advantage, and we’ll share the new components with you as they roll out.

But, for the next few weeks, check out the new billboard at the junction of Interstate 4 and Interstate 275. You’ll see we’re not shy about telling the world the best care is right here.

Dr. Lowenkron is the CEO for Doctors of USF Health

The hospital’s new hybrid operating room, allowing interventional and open procedures in the same place, helped reduce high-risk patient’s blood loss

Reyna Miranda didn’t know much about the high-tech, carefully orchestrated rehearsals that preceded the birth of her son last week.  The baby boy she held in her arms was proof enough that all had gone well. “He’s a miracle,” she said.

Miranda, 36, of Ruskin, had a rare but increasingly common complication of pregnancy known as placenta accreta. During normal childbirth the placenta detaches from the uterus. In women with placenta accreta, the placenta — fed by an extensive network of delicate blood vessels — grows too deeply into the uterine wall.

Last Wednesday, teams led by three USF Health physicians – Dr.  Mitchel Hoffman, Dr. Valerie Whiteman and Dr. Bruce Zwiebel — performed a four-stage procedure in Tampa General Hospital’s new hybrid operating room that allowed Miranda to safely deliver a healthy baby while significantly reducing the primary risk of placenta accreta: life-threatening bleeding.   

L to R: Dr. Bruce Zwiebel, Dr. Mitchel Hoffman and Dr. Valerie Whiteman with Reyna Miranda and baby Jordan Roldan Miranda.

When severe placenta accreta is detected by ultrasound during pregnancy, the standard treatment is a cesarean section delivery followed by hysterectomy, or surgical removal of the uterus. Before delivery, arterial catheters may be placed by an interventional radiologist to partially shut down, or embolize, blood flow to the uterus immediately after delivery, reducing the risk of massive blood loss. This involves moving the patient, hooked up to the precisely-placed catheters, to a labor and delivery operating room.  Massive hemorrhage often still occurs before, during or after the hysterectomy. Sometimes the patient must be rushed back to interventional radiology to further embolize the bleeding vessels. Valuable time slips away during the transfers.

The spacious hybrid OR is equipped with all the technology needed to efficiently perform interventional and open surgical procedures in one place.   Tampa General has primarily used it for cardiovascular cases since opening the suite in January.   Miranda was the first obstetric patient to be treated there.

“The patient benefitted from having all the expertise in the same room… without the added risk of moving,” said Dr. Whiteman, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

On average, a woman may lose three to five liters of blood during such a complex delivery and hysterectomy, but Miranda lost only a fifth of that during the five-hour case.

“This was the most ‘bloodless’ cesarean hysterectomy for an accreta I have ever seen,” Dr. Whiteman said.

Miranda snuggles with her baby boy. A team of skilled USF-TGH physicians and new specially-equipped hybrid OR helped to significantly reduce Miranda’s blood loss for a complication of pregnancy known as placenta accreta.

Here, briefly, is how the multi-part procedure worked:

-          First, Dr. Zwiebel, an interventional radiologist, threaded catheters from Miranda’s groin into the uterine arteries so he could later block the blood supply to the pelvis and uterus.

-          Dr. Whiteman, a perinatologist, performed the C-section to deliver the 5-pound, 1-ounce baby boy. The placenta was left attached to the uterus and the incision was closed.

-          Then, Dr. Zwiebel injected tiny particles, or embolization agents, through the previously placed catheters to close off blood supply to the extensive network of blood vessels within and around Miranda’s uterus.  This highly-specialized process, aided by state-of-the art high-resolution imaging, helped reduce the risk of hemorrhage during the hysterectomy.

-          Finally, Dr. Hoffman performed the hysterectomy, made even more challenging by the blood vessel-laden placental “mass” that had replaced the lower uterus much like a tumor.  Dr. Hoffman, a specialist in gynecological cancers, has worked on many pelvic tumor cases with Dr. Zwiebel, who embolizes the tumor and adjacent tissue to help Dr. Hoffman operate more safely and effectively.

Tampa General Hospital’s new high-tech hybrid operating room, open in January, allows open and interventional procedures to be performed in the same place, enhancing efficiency and patient safety. It is similar to the state-of-the-art hybrid OR at the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, the first of its kind for training in the world.

A team of 20 doctors and other healthcare professionals practiced for Miranda’s multidisciplinary surgical care plan several days before her arrival. 

“This case was a great example of how technology and a team approach can be used to markedly improve a patient’s surgical outcome,” said Dr. Hoffman, professor and director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

“It was a great team effort across the specialties of interventional radiology, neonatology, obstetrics and gynecology, and anesthesiology,” said Dr. Zwiebel, associate professor and vice chair of clinical affairs at USF Health Radiology and chief of staff at Tampa General. “It was well rehearsed before the procedure and went off without a hitch.”

L to R: Dr. Hoffman, Dr. Zwiebel and Dr. Whiteman led teams that performed a complex multi-part procedure involving a C-section followed by a hysterectomy.

Placenta accreta has been associated with abnormalities in the lining of the uterus caused by C-sections or other uterine surgery leaving a scar.  Miranda fit the high-risk profile; she had two previous C-sections and the condition was detected by ultrasound at four months. 

The increasing incidence of placenta accreta has paralleled the rise in C-section rates, researchers say. As many as 90 percent of patients with the condition require blood transfusions.  The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reports maternal mortality rates as high as 7 percent. 

Drs. Hoffman, Whiteman and Zwiebel, and other USF physicians, authored a 2010 paper in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology reporting on the significant hemorrhage and urinary tract problems associated with non-emergency hysterectomy for placenta accreta.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications
Susan Shulins, Tampa General Hospital, contributed to this story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=looB94dUvBg

THE VILLAGES, FL (March 11, 2013) – Construction began Monday morning on the new USF Health Specialty Care Center in The Villages, setting the stage for a new era and range of health care available for residents in “America’s Healthiest Hometown.”

Once the center opens in October, residents of The Villages, the nation’s largest community of people over 55, will be able to receive high-level care from faculty physicians who operate at the forefront of medical knowledge. USF Health doctors who represent several specialties will be providing care at the 25,000 square foot facility.

The center is designed as a collaborative complement to The Villages Health primary care network, which is now expanding and will soon operate seven different offices in The Villages for residents to choose from, allowing them to receive the best health care without leaving their neighborhood.

USF President Judy Genshaft visited the center for groundbreaking ceremonies Monday morning, along with Trustees Hal Mullis and Debbie Sembler.

“Today marks a great step on our journey to creating a whole new model of health care here in ‘America’s Healthiest Hometown,’ The Villages,” said President Genshaft.

The unique partnership provides a model for comprehensive care that is truly centered around the patient, said Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and CEO of USF Health.

“Working together, we will be able to provide better health for The Villagers over the entire spectrum of care,” Dr. Klasko said. “Villagers will have a medical home with a patient-centered primary network, access to the best academic specialists, and technology services that include shared electronic records and telehealth opportunities. The mission of USF Health is “making life better” and this partnership will be an embodiment of that mission.”

The partnership between The Villages and USF Health is a great model for how academic medicine can improve health, said Elliot Sussman, MD, MBA, chair of The Villages Health.

Monday’s groundbreaking: Dr. Steve Klasko, USF President Judy Genshaft, Dr. Elliot Sussman, Trustee Debbie Sembler, Trustee Hal Mullis

“We are delighted to have our great primary care doctors working with the specialty physicians of USF Health,” Dr. Sussman said. “This partnership will give Villagers access to seamless care that starts with having a Villages Health doctor who knows them and their medical history and can provide top-notch regular care. When they need a specialist, that doctor can connect them to a network of specialists offering the most cutting-edge treatments right here in The Villages.”

Work on the Specialty Care Center project began after USF’s College of Public Health conducted a record-setting survey of the Villagers, asking about their health needs and goals. More than 37,000 Villagers responded, making this the largest such survey of an aging population.

“We found what was working and what wasn’t and what you need to be at your best and healthiest,” Dr. Klasko told the crowd Monday morning.

The survey, which won the Erickson Award for Excellence in Research, will yield national recommendations for healthy aging. It is already being used in planning the Specialty Care Center. Villagers surveyed showed a high level of interest in a model that provides coordinated care and gives them a medical home.

“We’re bringing back the days of Marcus Welby, when physicians work together with one goal — making you healthier,” Dr. Klasko said.

After Monday’s groundbreaking, President Genshaft, the Trustees, and Dr. Klasko joined Dr. Sussman, Dr. Joseph Hildner, chief medical officer of The Villages Health on a tour of the new primary care center run by The Villages Health.

The center features rocking chairs out front, “visit rooms” instead of exam rooms and special space dedicated to patient education. Everything is designed with patients in mind, Dr. Hildner said.

Dr. Sussman and Dr. Hildner talk about their vision for primary care with patients at the center.

“It’s a welcoming, friendly place to go to,” he said. “It’s not the usual experience of going to your doctor…and you’re never more than a 10-minute golf cart ride away.”

Dr. Jeff Lowenkron, CEO of the USF Physicians Group, talks about the new USF Health Specialty Care Center in The Villages.

The patient experience is designed to do more than be more pleasant. By engaging patients to take charge of their health, allowing doctors to spend more time with each patient, and setting up a coordinated network, Dr. Hildner believes Villagers will lead healthier lives, with fewer crisis events, such as heart attacks.

“We’re excited about working with USF and being able to do outcomes research to prove that,” he said.

-- Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications
– Video by Allyn DiVito, USF Health Information Systems

University of South Florida medical student William Pearce has been selected to fill the American Medical Association’s 2013-14 Government Relations Advocacy Fellowship (GRAF). 

Only one student is chosen from applicants nationwide each year for this prestigious medical advocacy position – and Pearce is the first from USF’s medical school.  He will be the tenth of a select group of medical students who have served as GRAF fellows since the program began.

Starting this July, Pearce, a second-year medical student at USF, will work full-time for one year in Washington, DC, as a paid member of the AMA’s federal advocacy team.  He will meet with politicians, AMA leaders and medical students to advance the association’s legislative agenda and policies on behalf of patients, physicians and medical students.

USF second-year medical student William Pearce attended the American Medical Association’s Medical Student Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill last month. Next year, as USF’s first AMA Government Relations Advocacy Fellow he will be organizing the annual event.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to use this fellowship to inspire medical students and give them a stronger voice,” Pearce said, “because, what happens in Washington, DC, and Tallahassee, FL, directly impacts healthcare policies shaping the future of medicine and the best interests of our patients.”

Pearce has been gaining experience in the practical aspects of advocating for medicine since attending his first AMA Medical Student Section Interim Meeting as a new medical student in 2011.  He was the primary author of an AMA resolution aimed at tying further advanced directives to driver’s licenses.

As 2012-13 vice chair of the Florida Medical Association Medical Student Section, he coordinated legislative affairs, served as USF student delegate to the FMA, and led the FMA’s medical student recruiting efforts at USF.  The Hillsborough Medical Association recently awarded him an annual scholarship for outstanding service in organized medicine.

William Pearce, Class of 2015

One issue Pearce feels strongly about is the growing shortage of residency spots where medical students who have completed MD degrees conduct their specialty training, or graduate medical education. This fall, he spoke at a GME Summit, convened at USF Health CAMLS by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan, to address the particularly severe shortage of residency positions in Florida.  Last month, he was among a group of USF students who traveled to Capitol Hill to push for greater funding of graduate medical education.

Because most residents practice where they train, Pearce said, “Florida is investing in the education of medical students, and then exporting much of that intellectual capital out of state to work as physicians.”

A native of Jacksonville, Pearce holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of North Florida, where he won a full athletic scholarship and served as UNF track and cross-country team captain for three years.  He helped build UNF’s track program into a highly competitive team that won conference championship titles, and was recognized by the NCAA as a Student Athlete of the Year in 2011.

Pearce, a four-time NCAA conference champion in track/cross country (1500 meter and 3000 meter) as an undergraduate, is shown here on the winner’s platform at the Atlantic Sun Indoor Track Championship. “I had just gotten into medical school at USF two days before that win, and was on a super high,” he said.

As he looks ahead to a career in surgery and leadership role in medicine, Pearce recalls the words of his former head track coach:  “For me it was a defining moment… He said ‘to be a great leader, you’ll have to make those who follow believe, not just in what we’re doing, but why we’re doing it.’”

As a GRAF fellow, Pearce said, he wants to help the AMA do just that.  “We must convince our team of medical students that the common cause is greater than any individual agenda.”

USF medical students have harnessed their high energy and competitive drive into establishing a newly registered club at the university. The TriDocs at USF club supports graduate-level students at USF Health and USF as they develop the athletic skills needed to compete in triathlons, an endurance race involving swimming, cycling and running in immediate succession.

The fledging club is already 45 members strong – mostly first-and second-year medical students and some physical therapy students, said first-year USF medical student Monique Konstantinovic, founder of TriDocs and a veteran triathlete.

L to R: First year medical students Jonathan Koscso, Monique Konstantinovic and Nick James at a recent triathlon event. Konstantinovic, founder of the USF TriDocs Club, and Koscso will both be competing in Ironman Texas in May.

Students at all levels of training are welcome. The club includes those in training for their first triathlon as well as some more seasoned athletes like Konstantinovic, who was a member of USF’s track and cross country team as an undergraduate and will be competing in the Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon in May.

“It’s a great way to meet compatible training partners. We all encourage each other, whatever level we’re working at,” she said.

The club’s activities also provide a beneficial respite from all the intense studying required in medical school and other graduate programs, said Konstantinovic, who works early morning swims in the USF pool and other training activities around a demanding medical school schedule.

“The physical activity helps reduce the stress level, so you’re better able to focus when you get back to academics,” she said. “It teaches you to be very efficient with your time.”

USF medical students Peggy Bettin, Katie Rodriguez, Elizabeth Rogers and Casey Nagel pose for a group shot after completing their first triathlon.

Konstantinovic and Nick James, are co-presidents of the TriDocs club, and Anthony DeSantis is the vice president.  James and DeSantis are first-year medical students as well.

More than 30 club members plan to compete in the upcoming HITS Triathlon Series in Ocala, FL, the weekend of March 23-24. Some are competing in the sprint-distance event, while others will tackle the half-ironman course – a 1.2 mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run.

“The event has turned into an opportunity not only to achieve athletic goals, but to represent the USF Health community and set an example for physical and mental well-being,” said DeSantis, who will help transport some classmates’ bicycles in his pickup truck.

Monique, right, with her mother Diane Konstantinovic, who is battling ovarian cancer and plans to walk in the upcoming “Race 4 Her Life: Fighting Ovarian Cancer” 5K.

In preparation for the Ocala triathlon series, many members will participate in the second annual “Race 4 Her Life: Fighting Ovarian Cancer” 5K run/walk  this Sunday, March 17, on the USF Tampa campus.

The event was founded by Konstantinovic whose mother Diane Konstantinovic, 52, a Pinellas County deputy sheriff, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer seven years ago and continues to battle the aggressive disease. Sponsored by the Celma Mastry Ovarian Cancer Foundation, proceeds from the run benefit ovarian cancer research and help defray the cost of treatment for Tampa Bay area patients.

Konstantinovic’s mother and father, Andel, plan to walk the route and her sister Alicia, 18, will run on Sunday, while Konstantinovic, a coordinator for the event, will cheer on her family and aspiring triathlete classmates.

For more information on TriDocs at USF, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/110397745792897/?fref=ts

For more on this Sunday’s Race 4 Her Life 5K : http://www.active.com/running/tampa-fl/race-4-her-life-fighting-ovarian-cancer-2013

For more on the March 23-24 HITS Triathlon Series in Ocala: http://www.hitstriathlonseries.com/ocala-fl/register-to-race

Triathlons are a test of endurance involving swimming…..

Cycling….

And running!

USF Health Morsani College of Medicine senior medical students will join fellow students across the country gathering for Match Day ceremonies this Friday, March 15. 

It’s the day when each student opens an envelope to find out where he or she will spend residency training following graduation.

It’s a medical milestone, marking the rigorous progression from student to practicing physician.

Emotions will run high as USF’s  107 senior medical students, joined by family, friends and faculty, pack into Skipper’s Smokehouseto find out where the students will be conducting their residency assignments.   

If you can’t be there in person, you can still watch the celebration LIVE from your computer at http://on.fb.me/XorjDz .  Or follow #USFMatch on Twitter.

Residency, lasting three to 11 years depending upon the specialty, is when a licensed medical graduate begins training in their chosen field.  In the months leading up to Match Day, students have applied and interviewed with medical schools around the country.  On Match Day, they find out which school among their several selections accepted them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQThAWsAKcM

The students are packed into Skippers’ Smokehouse and buzzing with excitement, impatient for Dr. Steve Specter to pick up the microphone  and call out the first name.

“Maxwell Daniel Miller!”

And with that, Miller heads toward the stage, and toward his future.

This is the moment that Miller – and 106 other students — have been waiting for.

One by one, the members of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2013 will hear their name called. They’ll go up front, and open an envelope that will chart the course of their careers.

What kind of doctor will they be? Where will they practice? Will they stay with family or move far away? Will their dreams come true – or be crushed?

It’s Match Day, an annual ritual unique to graduating medical students. Students across the country rank their specialties and the programs where they would like to study. The programs rank the students. At noon today, USF’s medical students start learning the results.

***

Daniel Matta came to America when he was 13.

By then, he already dreamed of becoming a doctor. When he was six, his new baby brother came down with meningitis.

“If I’m a doctor, I can fix my little brother,” was his six-year-old thought. “So I want to be a doctor.”

His brother’s lingering medical problems – including a misdiagnosis of epilepsy – prompted the family’s move to Tampa from Colombia.  Matta’s brother got better. In Tampa, he and other family members got medical care at the Judeo-Christian Clinic. Matta began volunteering there as an interpreter.

Matta saw two things up close: his own family’s challenges getting access to care with no insurance; and the difference that the clinic’s doctors made in their patients’ lives.

“I liked the interaction between primary care doctors and their patients,” Matta said. “I enjoyed working with the underserved population. I felt like I was helping people.”

Matta went on to college at USF, where he started volunteering at the BRIDGE Clinic. He started as an interpreter, and eventually became the clinic’s manager.  Once he started medical school, he continued his work with BRIDGE, serving this year as co-director.

Matta has also been active in Project World Health, going on annual medical mission trips to the Dominican Republic.

Through it all, he has never swerved from his commitment to primary care. He plans to match in family medicine, hopefully at Bayfront Medical Center, so he could stay close to his family and continue his volunteer work.

“Everybody has said that – ‘You’ll change your mind,’ ‘’ he said. “But this is what I love.”

***

Miller comes up front with his classmates shouting encouragement.

“I’ve never been first at anything before,” he jokes.

He opens the envelope and smiles: emergency medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School.

It’s on: students are matching at Emory and at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

Wake Forest, Boston University. USF, USF, USF.

Some students bring their spouses up to the stage.

Josh Robertson brings his wife, their baby, and his six-year-old niece.

He pumps his fist when he sees his match: Carolinas Medical Center, his first choice.

“This is our adventure,” he says.

***

Amber Pepper has already heard the jokes.

“My whole class has just been waiting for me to be Dr. Pepper,” she said.

But Pepper, who married her college sweetheart a year ago, is okay with having an unusual name. She grew up in Ocala as Amber Nardandrea, and the town was small enough that she always got asked the same question:

Is your father Dr. Nardandrea?

“I would run into his patients, and they would say how grateful they were, how he had taken good care of them and really made a difference in their lives,” she said.

When she was an undergraduate student at the University of Florida, Pepper’s father never pushed her towards medicine. “He wanted me to find my own path,” she said.

But his patients did that job for him.

“I realized following in my father’s footsteps would be…awesome,” she said.

So Pepper set her sights on medical school. Then, just a few months before she was to start at USF, she started having terrible headaches. Her vision blurred. Her parents took her to the emergency room.

Her father came up with the possible diagnosis: idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

Pepper didn’t fit the typical patterns for having sudden high pressure inside her skull. But she had had her wisdom teeth removed just a week before.

The condition threatened to cause permanent damage to her vision. She was sick for weeks, undergoing repeated spinal taps to lower the pressure of cerebrospinal fluid in her head.

During Pepper’s hospital stay, a family friend recited a bit of career wisdom for her: “Patients don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” It was advice that Pepper would hold close. After recovering from the ordeal, she started medical school with a deep sense of purpose.

Her dedication has paid off in stellar grades. Now Pepper, 25, plans to match in internal medicine; she hopes eventually to do a fellowship in allergy and immunology.

The only question is where. Pepper’s husband, Dan, loves his current job in commercial real estate – and only one place in the state has the fellowship program that Pepper wants to do.

That’s why her top choice is to stay right where she is: at USF.

***

For many of the students here, Match Day is one of the biggest days of their lives.

For Kenzo Koike, it’s not even the biggest day of his week.

But then, yesterday Koike and his wife, Janie, welcomed their first child into the world. Janie and their new baby – son James Kazunari Koike – are watching Match Day from USF Health’s live stream on Facebook.

“It’s great to be here and enjoy the celebration,” says Koike.

***

Halfway through medical school, Jessica Goldonowicz’ life turned upside down.

Until then, her life seemed charmed. She had grown up in Brandon, the oldest of two girls. Her parents, both teachers, were devoted to the girls, eventually homeschooling them to make sure they got the best possible education. Goldonowicz even took a human anatomy class her senior year in high school, cementing her interest in medicine.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I’m learning about myself,’ ‘’  she said. “It was an incredible realization of the potential for lifelong learning.”

Goldonowicz went on to the University of Central Florida, majoring in molecular biology and microbiology, before coming to USF for medical school.

There was just one cloud on the family’s horizon. When Goldonowicz was 6, her father was diagnosed with hepatitis C, the result of a long-ago blood transfusion.

“That was when I first became aware of medicine,” she said. “I knew there was something wrong with my dad. I knew he was sick. I didn’t understand, but I wanted to know more.”

Still, Goldonowicz’ father was careful of his health, devoted to healthy living and being there for his family.

Until halfway through her second year of medical school, when he developed a serious blood infection and was hospitalized at Tampa General.

Goldonowicz would go to class each day, then head to Tampa General to spend the evening with her father. She would get home at midnight, get some sleep, repeat. Days blurred together, but she kept going. Her father’s infection puzzled his doctors and resisted treatment even to vancomycin, even though antibiotic sensitivities showed that it was an appropriate medication.

More drugs finally cleared the infection, but their side effects damaged his liver and kidneys. Goldonowicz was juggling classes learning about hepato-renal syndrome and watching her father struggle as his organs began to fail.

As her father became sicker, Goldonowicz called Dr. Steve Specter, associate dean for Student Affairs. She took a leave of absence to stay by her father’s side. Six days later, he died.

“It was tough, but I have received so many blessings,” she said. “The support from Dr. Specter, and my classmates, and our faculty has been unreal.”

Classmates brought her family dinner at the hospital and came to her father’s funeral. Their kindness and empathy has stayed with her.

“We are a family,” she said. “My classmates have been an incredible source of support to me and took care of me when I needed them the most. I will never forget the love I’ve been shown.”

She plans to go into emergency medicine, and give back the kindness she received.

“I’m so much more aware now,” she said. “As a doctor, you can walk into work in the morning and say this is just another day for you – but for your patients, it’s could be the worst day of their lives. Nobody comes to the emergency room for fun. My job is to help make their day a little bit better.”

***

Alexander Wang has been waiting for today for a long time. He knows where he wants to match: New York Methodist Hospital. It has the perfect emergency medicine program that he wants and New York to boot.

So when he opens his envelope, he screams “New York!” And then he rips open his Match Day t-shirt to reveal the emblem on the T-shirt he’s wearing underneath. His classmates roar.

Today, he is Superman.

 “I’m just really, really excited for all of us,” Wang says. “We’ve been waiting for several months and it’s great to have that burden lifted off our shoulders.”

***

When Dr. Specter calls Goldonowicz to the stage, she opens her envelope and then covers her mouth in delight.

Her voice breaks as she reads out her first choice: Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.

Pepper brings her husband Dan up front, so they can see the envelope together: USF, just what she wanted.

“I knew she was going to get it, absolutely,” Dan Pepper says. “She’s a star.”

Matta matches at Bayfront, and then it gets even better: several of his friends have matched their as well. As Match Day comes to a close, there are hugs all around.

Goldonowicz poses for a picture with her mother, Janice, and her little sister, Joanna. Her mother talks about Jessica’s father, and how proud he would be today.

“He used to tell her, ‘I’ll give you a lot of practice. I’ll be your first patient,’ “ she said. “And in many ways, he was.”

Class of 2013: Staying at USF, 24; Staying in Florida, 45; Number in primary care: 51

- Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications; video by Allyn DiVito, USF Health Information Systems

Follow @LisaGwrites
//

Studies of the investigational treatments, authored by a University of South Florida neurologist, will be presented at the 2013 Academy of Neurology  Meeting in San Diego

SAN DIEGO, CA (March 14, 2013) – Three studies released today present possible positive news for people with Parkinson’s disease. The studies, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013, report on investigational treatments for blood pressure problems, the wearing-off that can occur when people have taken the main drug for Parkinson’s for a long time, and for people early in the disease whose symptoms are not well-controlled by their main drugs.

“All of these treatments are promising news for people with Parkinson’s disease, which is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease,” said Robert A. Hauser, MD, MBA, professor of neurology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL,  and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, who was an author of all three studies.  Dr. Hauser directs the USF Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders.

The first study dealt with the rapid drop in blood pressure that people with Parkinson’s can experience when standing up, which can lead to dizziness, fainting and falls. The problem, which affects about 18 percent of people with the disease, occurs because the autonomic nervous system fails to respond to changes in posture by releasing enough of the chemical norepinephrine.

 In the study, 225 people were randomized to receive either eight weeks of stable dose treatment with a placebo or the drug droxidopa, which converts to norepinephrine. After one week of stable treatment, those who received the drug had a clinically meaningful, two-fold decrease in the symptoms of dizziness and lightheadedness, when compared to placebo. They also had fewer falls, or 0.38 falls per patient per week, compared to 1.73 for those receiving a placebo on average over the entire 10-week study duration.

The second study looked at treatment with a new drug for “wearing-off” that occurs with people who have been taking levodopa for several years. As each dose wears off, people experience longer periods of time where the motor symptoms do not respond to levodopa. For the study, 420 people who were experiencing an average of six hours of “off” time per day received a placebo or one of four dosages of the drug tozadenant in addition to their levodopa for 12 weeks. People receiving two of the dosages of the drug had slightly more than an hour less off time per day at the end of 12 weeks than they had at the start of the study. They also did not have more troublesome involuntary movements during their “on” time, called dyskinesia, that can occur.

The third study looked at 321 people with early Parkinson’s disease whose symptoms were not well-controlled by a dopamine agonist drug. For the 18-week study, the participants took either the drug rasagiline or a placebo in addition to their dopamine agonist. At the end of the study, those taking rasagiline had improved by 2.4 points on a Parkinson’s disease rating scale. In addition, rasagiline was well tolerated with adverse events similar to placebo. 

The blood pressure study was supported by Chelsea Therapeutics. The “wearing-off” study was supported by Biotie Therapies, Inc. The early Parkinson’s disease study was supported by Teva Pharmaceuticals.

# # # 

Learn more about Parkinson’s disease at http://www.aan.com/patients.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 25,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. 

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit http://www.aan.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.

Media contacts:
Rachel Seroka, American Academy of Neurology, rseroka@aan.com, (612) 928-6129
Angela Babb, APR, ababb@aan.com, (612) 928-6102

The USF Board of Trustees approved plans March 21 to establish a new master’s degree program in Physician Assistant Studies at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.  USF hopes to launch the two-year program in 2015, with an accreditation site visit in early 2014.

The approval is an important step forward in helping address the state’s increasing shortage of primary care practitioners.  The USF program expects to eventually enroll up to 50 to 60 PA students a year.

The University of Florida currently offers the only public university master’s-level physician assistant (PA) program in Florida.

“The state of Florida already recognizes the critical need for more PAs in the workforce” said Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, dean of the Morsani College of Medicine and CEO of USF Health. “We already have strong interest from our own USF undergraduate students in physician assistant programs, but in the past we’ve had to send these highly qualified students to other programs in Florida.”

USF Health physician assistant Larry Collins, PA-C, ATC, assistant professor of orthopaedics and sports medicine.

That’s about to change.

 “We’ve developed a plan for a program that we feel will rapidly become recognized as a national leader for its innovative approach,” Dr. Klasko said. “This program will be a great addition to our health offerings and is a natural philosophic fit for our commitment to interprofessional education and interdisciplinary cooperation.”

USF two-year program will be a few months shorter than some other PA programs in the state, focusing the first year on didactic learning and the second on clinical education.  The program will feature elective courses in mental health management and technical and procedural-based interventions. It will build upon USF Health’s already strong foundations in medicine, pharmacy, physical education, nursing and public health curriculums.

Alicia Monroe, MD, vice dean for Educational Affairs at the Morsani College of Medicine; Gretchen Koehler, PhD, assistant dean for academic administration; and Larry Collins, PA-C, ATC, an assistant professor of orthopaedics and sports medicine, were instrumental in helping to develop the new program. Collins will be one of the PA faculty members.

David Kotun, PA-C, EdD, administrative director of clinical education for physician assistant programs at Nova Southeastern University and a former faculty member at USF’s medical school, has been selected as the program director for the USF PA program.

Physician assistants are trained to practice medicine as part of a team with physicians. They provide a wide range of healthcare services, including diagnosing and treating illnesses and injuries, ordering and interpreting tests, assisting in surgery, and providing preventive care.

Photo by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications
Anne DeLotto Baier contributed to this article

Here’s a friendly reminder: USF state employees can take classes at USF for free.

Once a benefit for all State of Florida employees the tuition program was cut from the State budget a few years ago. The USF System decided to continue this perk for its employees and even changed it to be a tuition payment program, rather than a simply reimbursement.

It’s a bonus that translates into real dollars for USF employees, said Joann Strobbe, CFO and AVP of Finance, Administration & Technology for USF Health.

“By committing to fund the program, USF provides a true cash commitment to its employees,” Strobbe said.

“This past fall, USF Health provided nearly $200,000 in tuition for USF Health staff. This is a great benefit and program for our staff and USF Health is committed to continuing to support the higher education of our team.”

Kristen Steffen, who works in the Office of General Counsel for USF Health, is just one of many USF Health employees benefitting from this program.

“This is one of the best perks this university offers its staff and I’d be foolish not to use it,” she said. Steffen is currently taking courses in the College of Public Health and plans to pursue a master’s degree there.

“I couldn’t afford to get this degree without this program.”

And classes and degrees don’t have to relate to the employee’s current job. More than half of those currently taking classes are seeking degrees unrelated to their jobs, said Le’Danjeanette Frazier, benefits administrator for USF Human Resources.

Frazier said that a lot of employees are taking advantage of the program, but she’s still surprised that so many don’t know about it.

The Employee Tuition Program is available for full-time USF employees (excluding temporary employees) to take up to six credit hours each semester, taking classes toward a degree (undergraduate and graduate) or just to expand interests and knowledge. Employees must apply to and be accepted by USF and are responsible for certain fees and books.

Here’s a great overview of the program. More information and forms are available to you here. If you have questions, contact Le’Danjeanette Frazier in USF Human Resources (813-974-5387 or lfrazier@usf.edu).

The Thai delegates toured the ambulatory surgery center at Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare as part of the intensive, three-week LEAD hospital administrator training program hosted by USF and Tampa General Hospital.

Senior-level administrators from hospitals and academic medical centers across Thailand visited USF Health in February and early March to participate in USF Health International’s three-week Leadership Enhancement and Development (LEAD) Hospital Administrator Training.

Representing 16 hospitals and medical colleges, the two Thai delegations were comprised of deans as well as CEOs and vice presidents of hospitals across Thailand, a nation of 69 million people. They attended the intensive health care leadership and management training as part of  USF Health’s educational and research partnership with Srinakharinwirot University (SWU), a public university in Bangkok, Thailand, with branch campuses throughout the country.

The tailored training program, hosted by USF and Tampa General Hospital, immersed the Thai doctors in topics ranging from U.S. health care reform and the future of medicine to leading change effectively in health care management. 

The delegates toured some of the most innovative centers at USF Health, including CAMLS, the Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare, the Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute, and the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair. They visited USF Health-affiliated teaching facilities, including Tampa General, Moffitt Cancer Center, Shriner’s Hospital and the Hillsborough County Health Department.  They observed first-hand the work flow at the USF South Tampa campus and Tampa General.  They were taught new strategies, skills and techniques for better managing employees and hospital systems to deliver high-quality patient care.

“By building the capacity of health care providers to better manage their hospitals, the ultimate goal of the LEAD program is to improve patient outcomes and the health of the communities that their hospitals serve,” said Lynette Menezes, PhD, assistant vice president of USF Health International and assistant dean for USF Medicine International at the Morsani College of Medicine.

Dr. Wuttichai Thanapongsathorn, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at SWU, worked with USF Health’s Dr. John Sinnott, Dr. Douglas Holt, Dr. Robert Brooks, and Dr. Menezes; Ron Hytoff, former CEO of Tampa General; and Mo Kasti, executive director of the USF Center for Transformation and Innovation, to customize the LEAD program’s curriculum to meet the needs of the Thai trainees.

The USF Diabetes Center was one stop on the in-depth tour of the Morsani Center.

Within the last decade, Thailand has attained universal healthcare coverage for virtually its entire population, primarily through three health insurance models — a civil servant medical benefit program for government employees and their families and government retirees, a social security health insurance program for private sector employees, and a universal coverage program with capitated health care, which covers most of the rest of the population.   

While Thailand has made impressive progress in improving access to affordable health care, big challenges remain, said Dr. Tanarat Boonriong, chair of the Department of  Orthopaedic Surgery at Prince of Songkla University.   These include some of the same challenges faced by the U.S. health care system, such as how to ensure sufficient health resources to meet current shortages, addressing the chronic care needs of an aging population, and mitigating socio-economic inequities.

“Health care resources are diminishing everywhere, so we need to find innovative ways to survive and move forward,” Dr. Boonriong said.  “The biggest challenge is organizing the system of care so that it works effectively” to optimize health and reduce costs.

Dr. Susarak Leelaudomlimpi, director of the Vascular Surgery Department at Ramathibodi Hospital, and Dr. Tanarat Boonriong, chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Prince of Songkla University, said they enjoyed the opportunity to exchange ideas with U.S. physicians and hospital administrators.

Dr. Surasak Leelaudomlipi, director of the Vascular Surgery Department at Ramathibodi Hospital, said that the delegation appreciated the opportunity to gain some practical insight about the business operation of USF’s academic health center and some of its major affiliates. 

“USF’s hospitality has been wonderful,” Dr. Leelaudomlipi said. “The exchange of experiences and ideas facilitated by this training program will help improve our leadership ability back home.”

 The inaugural LEAD hospital administrator training program was held in January 2010 for a group of hospital vice presidents from Gansu, China.  Since then, USF Medicine International has trained more than 60 Chinese administrators from 17 hospitals in the Gansu province.

Through its LEAD programs, USF Medicine International has forged global partnerships with hospitals, governments and universities, strengthening the leadership and management skills of healthcare personnel in China and Thailand, Dr. Menezes said.

The delegation shows its USF Bulls spirit.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

Neil Fenske, MD, professor and chair of Dermatology at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, is honorary medical chair for the 3rd annual Tampa Bay Area Walk to Cure Psoriasis this Saturday, April 13.   USF Health is a local sponsor for the event, which will include  a Docs vs. Jocks softball game at Steinbrenner Field.

The 1K and 5K walks raise funds for the National Psoriasis Foundation, benefitting research and better access to treatment for people who suffer from the disease.

Michael Scannon, MD, of Florida West Coast Skin and Cancer Center is the Tampa Division Chair for the Walk to Cure Psoriasis.

Psoriasis is a chronic, autoimmune disease that appears on the skin. It occurs when the immune system sends out faulty signals that speed up the growth cycle of skin cells. Psoriasis is not contagious. People affected by psoriasis are at an increased  risk for cardiovascular disease, Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory diseases.

People with psoriasis often face discrimination and embarrassment because others mistakenly fear the condition is contagious. As many as 7.5 million Americans have psoriasis,  for which there is no cure.

For more information, please click here.

Sadie, a rescue dog from Project PUP, makes friends with Matt June, a patient of the USF ALS Center.

Patients visiting the USF ALS Center on April 5 were greeted with a wagging tail and soulful eyes begging for attention.

Sadie, a senior rescue dog from PROJECT PUP (Pets Uplifting People), was on hand to spend some time with patients while they waited and even during their clinical time with doctors and staff at the multidisciplinary clinic.

The Center plans to make Sadie, and possibly other canine friends, part of a pet therapy program at its monthly clinic housed within the USF Health Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare, said Brittany Harvey, staff assistant and research support specialist for the ALS Center.

Sadie’s owner Christine Hamacher, a volunteer with Project PUP, said research has shown that interaction with good-tempered pets like Sadie can help calm the anxiety of patients and their families, who spend quite a bit of time being assessed by healthcare team members during their clinic appointments. “Just having her (Sadie) in the same room helps them to speak more comfortably and freely with doctors and staff,” Hamacher said.

Sadie may not know she’s doing all that.  Waiting in an exam room with patient Matt June and his wife Jackie, she appeared more than content to solicit hugs, get scratched behind her silky ears and dole out doggie kisses.

Matt and wife Jackie June with Sadie

The USF ALS Center, directed by Dr. Tuan Vu, opened in October 2010 as the first multidisciplinary university clinic of its kind in Tampa Bay and all of Central and West Florida.

About 200 patients a year visit the clinic, which is dedicated to developing new and effective therapies for ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Also, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, the neurodegenerative disease progressively paralyzes the individual, attacking nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord.  The USF ALS Center belongs to the world’s largest ALS research network, the Northeastern ALS Alliance.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications