Florida State University College of Medicine - Electronic Medical Review (EMR)

Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006

Three new sites proposed for third- and fourth-year training
	The FSU College of Medicine is exploring the development of three new sites for third- and fourth-year clinical training, including one in Southwest Florida and two on the East Coast. NCH Healthcare System in Naples signed a letter of intent Jan. 25 to transfer to FSU the 28,000-square-foot Isabel Collier Read medical building in Immokalee, a rural farming town east of Naples and Ft. Myers, for the development of a rural medicine training program for third- and fourth-year medical students. (MORE) » The Isabel Collier Read medical building in Immokalee.

DANCING TO RAISE MONEY FOR CHILDREN
	FSU students will literally dance the weekend away starting Saturday at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center in the largest student-run philanthropic event on campus. The FSU Dance Marathon will keep hundreds of students on their feet for 32 consecutive hours with hopes of topping last year’s total of more than $224,000 raised for seriously ill and underserved children. (MORE)

BRUMMEL-SMITH NAMED TO NIH ADVISORY COUNCIL ON AGING
	Department of geriatrics chairman Dr. Ken Brummel-Smith has accepted an invitation to serve a three-year term on the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Council on Aging. NIH advisory councils consult with and provide advice to the director of the NIH. Brummel-Smith will lend his expertise to the National Institute on Aging. One of the council’s most important responsibilities is to review and make recommendations regarding grant applications to support biomedical research and research training activities in aging. The council also surveys the total research effort in geriatrics and makes recommendations to stimulate additional work.

FSU GERIATRICS GETS INVOLVED AT WESTMINISTER OAKS
	The department of geriatrics is starting a weekly Geriatric Assessment Clinic at Westminister Oaks, the largest retirement community in the Tallahassee area. The department will provide a geriatrician, a nurse and a social worker to interview and examine interested residents and provide an assessment that goes beyond single ailments. Fourth-year students in the College of Medicine also are participating as part of their required fourth-year geriatrics clerkship. Older adults having difficulty coping with day-to-day activities, showing increasing dependence on a caregiver and with questions about their best choice of living arrangements are among the candidates for a geriatric assessment. Members of the assessment team will contact the patient’s primary care provider with results, working with the physician and Westminister Oaks staff to create a plan intended to help patients remain as functional and independent as possible.

KING AWARD WINNER MAKES A DIFFERENCE TO THE COLLEGE
	Retha Bowman’s recognition as winner of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award had humble beginnings, including a chance meeting one day when she was cleaning the kitchen on the third floor of the College of Medicine. Lee Williams, a senior program assistant in the department of clinical sciences, said she was feeling down when she encountered Bowman, who looked at Williams and said, “I see God all over you.’’ So began one of the many friendships Bowman has formed with College of Medicine employees. After Robert Glueckauf, professor of medical humanities and social sciences, nominated Bowman for the King award, Lee added a letter of recommendation in which she wrote, “When you meet Retha, you will truly feel as though your soul has been hugged.’’ (MORE)

HEALTH AFFAIRS STUDY DRAWS ATTENTION TO TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS IN HOSPITALS
	A recent study led by Nir Menachemi, director of the Center on Patient Safety, is drawing interest for being the first to show an overall financial benefit for hospitals that invest in IT. The paper was co-authored by Dr. Robert Brooks, associate dean for health affairs, as well as Darrell Burke, assistant professor of medical informatics in the FSU College of Information. The study is especially significant as hospital CEOs look for ways to control spiraling health-care costs while still improving patient safety. Menachemi looked at 82 Florida hospitals and found that those willing and able to invest more in IT also performed better financially. The study appears in the January-February issue of the Journal of Healthcare Management. In an accompanying review of the study, health-care industry analyst Perry T. White called it “a clanging bell to those organizations that have lagged behind the standards of our industry.’’ The study also is drawing interest from a variety of trade publications geared toward hospital CEOs, who sometimes are reluctant to commit to costly IT investments in spite of the benefit to patient safety.

NEUROSCIENCE LECTURE SERIES TO BRING TOP SCIENTISTS
	Several prominent scientists will visit the FSU College of Medicine March 24-26 to participate in the Rushton Lecture Series, involving the departments of psychology, biological science, nutrition and biomedical science. Leading neuroscientists from Tufts, Louisiana State University, the Medical University of South Carolina, Washington State University and the University of Michigan will present their research in a series of lectures. The event, which will take place in the atrium and auditorium, is themed, “Brain, Reward and Addiction.’’ Organizing committee chairman Mohammed Kabbaj, assistant professor in the department of biomedical sciences, expects 100-150 participants.

MEDICAL STUDENTS GET WELCOME TO RURAL HEALTH
	Five first-year students in the College of Medicine joined Dr. Jerry Boland, director of rural health, in an introduction to the college’s rural track in Marianna on Jan. 28. Charles Ibie, Chelsea Boston, Elving Colon, Stephanie Chase, and Vanessa Escobar all have expressed interest in the program and were given an up-close opportunity to learn more about it. Jackson Hospital CEO Dave Hample, along with several physicians who work there, hosted the students for a breakfast and tour of the facility, then provided a look at the community, including a social visit to nearby Florida Caverns. (MORE) » Third-year student Josef Plum is the first to pursue the college's rural track in Marianna.