FLORIDA STATE WELL-REPRESENTED AMONG FAFP LEADERS

• George Smith, M.D., Pensacola clerkship faculty, was re-elected vice president.
• George Bernardo, M.D., Daytona Beach family-medicine clerkship director, received the Part-time Educator Award.
• Christie Sain, M.D., Class of 2005, now practicing family medicine in Tallahassee, was elected to the board of directors.
• Dennis Saver, M.D., Fort Pierce clerkship faculty, was re-elected as a delegate to AAFP and received the Distinguished Service Award.
• Neil Oslos, M.D., Daytona Beach geriatrics clerkship director, was elected alternate delegate to AAFP.
• Alyson Lewis, Class of 2012, was installed as the College of Medicine student director on the board of directors.

These doctors with College of Medicine connections are already on the board of directors: Alma Littles, M.D., senior associate dean for medical education and academic affairs, past president of FAFP and delegate to AAFP; Daniel Van Durme, M.D., past president of FAFP and FSU family-medicine department chair; Coy Irvin, M.D., Pensacola Community Board; Jennifer Keehbauch, M.D., Orlando clerkship faculty; Greg Sloan, M.D., Chipley, summer clinical practicum faculty; and Ira Pearlstine, M.D., Fort Pierce clerkship faculty.

And these College of Medicine people are leaving the board: Cyneetha Strong, M.D., Year 1/2 preceptor, outgoing board chair; and Kim Plumitallo Maguire, Class of 2011, outgoing student director.

TELLING TALLAHASSEE’S STORY IN WASHINGTON

The communities were chosen by examining per capita Medicare costs and federal data on hospital performance and patient satisfaction. Littles was a guest of Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, which President Obama praised in a recent speech.

“I was honored to be a part of the Tallahassee team as the work being done by Capital Health Plan and TMH, both of whom are our educational partners, fit well with our mission,” she said. “They have proven that having a strong primary care base; using information technology; and gathering, analyzing and utilizing data can lead to improved, patient-centered, efficient and cost-effective patient care. These are the models of medical practice we want our students to see and emulate.”

According to a Kaiser Health News account of the session, these themes emerged:

1. Strong leadership, particularly from physicians, is needed to improve and standardize health care.
2. Having a strong base of primary-care doctors is important – but coordinating care among all providers is even more important.
3. To improve accountability, health-care data are needed to measure the performance of providers and to share with purchasers of care and the public.

“The fact that IHI sought out areas of the country where health care is being provided in a quality, yet cost-effective manner was actually a breath of fresh air amidst all the political posturing going on with health-care reform discussions elsewhere," Littles said. "I felt that I was attending a meeting where worthwhile conversation was taking place that might actually lead to a process where more patients would be able to obtain needed health care, as opposed to a conversation dominated by who would get the money for providing those services.

“I know that there are significant costs to providing health care. And as a family physician, I also know that providing necessary primary and preventive services in a setting of trust can delay or avoid morbidity and the need for more advanced and expensive procedures and services. I hope we as a nation can come together and ‘do the right thing.’”

Read the full Kaiser Health News article.

FL CURED NOW BASED IN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

“The Florida Department of Health is demonstrating its confidence in FSU’s ability to champion collaboration among the public and private research enterprises of the state to prevent, treat and cure deadly and debilitating diseases,” said Michael Smith, director of the college’s Network for Clinical Research and now also principal investigator in charge of FL CURED.

The College of Medicine is a perfect fit for that mission, said Myra Hurt, Ph.D., senior associate dean for research and graduate programs, because of its six regional campuses and network of physicians who serve as faculty for third- and fourth-year students.

“Those 1,500 faculty-clinicians are treating upwards of 3 million Floridians,” Smith said. “In our Network for Clinical Research, we already are beginning to link them to the research enterprise of the university and College of Medicine to better translate basic research into medical care. Now, with FL CURED, we will continue to build on the innovative, community-based model of the college to encourage partnerships between researchers, treating physicians and community hospitals.”

Get more information about FL CURED.

MAGGIE BLACKBURN TAKES NEW STATEWIDE ROLE

The Florida Coalition was originally formed in 1999 as a state organization of the National Association for School Based Health Centers. Its mission is to promote access to quality physical and mental health services that meet the unique needs of Florida’s children, youth and families. The Florida Coalition obtained a small grant for reactivation in January 2009 and held its state meeting in June. Dr. Blackburn was elected then. Goals include updating grassroots advocacy efforts and developing long-term strategies to sustain funding.

GUNJAN’S PAPER PUBLISHED ON NATURE CELL BIOLOGY’S SITE

DUTTON INVITED TO HELP DEVELOP USMLE TEST MATERIALS

The board produces examinations across all health-related fields, each of which evaluates candidates for medical licensure. The tests provide a national standard to compare and assess medical professionals’ expertise and abilities. Serving on a test committee is an honor. Dutton said he thinks the college’s curriculum and approach to health education played a sizable role in his appointment.

“If you look at the kind of work that the college has allowed me to do in the behavioral-sciences educational domain,” he said, “I think that probably strengthened my credibility in the board’s eyes.”

RWJF GRANT TARGETS OBESITY IN LATINO CHILDREN

Childhood obesity has become increasingly worrisome for many American families, and Latino children in particular are more likely to gain dangerous extra pounds. The study will be based in Immokalee, where the college’s clinical training site serves a predominantly Latino population of migrant workers, as well as in Quincy.

RWJF created the “Salud America!” program in late 2007 to provide support for researchers studying the obesity epidemic in Latino children. Last month, the foundation notified Rosado that his proposed project had gotten the green light.

Latino kids’ heightened susceptibility to obesity has been increasingly noted and analyzed over the past decade. According to a 2006 study by the Mathematica Policy Research Group, 25 percent of Latino children end up obese by age 3, compared with 16 percent of black children and 14 percent of whites. Rosado and his colleagues will interview parents after children’s routine medical checkups.

“The long-term goal is to change the policies of these clinics,” he said. “We think BMI [body-mass index] will be the most helpful tool to explain children’s weight to families. Hopefully we’ll be able to show the clinics how they can use BMI information to improve their patients’ care.”

Said Myra Hurt, Ph.D., the college’s senior associate dean for research and graduate programs, “Dr. Rosado’s findings will directly translate to helping other communities throughout our country.”

FACULTY COUNCIL AWARDS

Outstanding Junior Faculty Educator – Mary Gerend

Outstanding Senior Faculty Educators – Ken Brummel-Smith, M.D., Charlotte Edwards Maguire chair and professor in the department of geriatrics, and Charles Ouimet, professor of biomedical sciences. This is an excerpt from Brummel-Smith’s nomination: “He has introduced tremendous innovation in [the Medicine and Behavior course]. He is recording his lectures using Camtasia, and students review those before coming to class. Classes have been very interactive, using real patients with conditions that are covered in the lectures. He is not using multiple-choice test questions, but instead has the students doing multiple reflective papers and PDA exercises that demonstrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes at an application level rather than knowledge level, thus raising the bar on assessment of students’ accomplishment of objectives.” Now, an excerpt from Ouimet’s nomination: “His unique skill set in the classroom combined with his wit and humor make him a treat to work with. I believe I speak for all the junior faculty here at the FSU College of Medicine when I say that Charlie has been a light leading us in the right direction.”

Outstanding Junior Faculty Investigator – Choogon Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical sciences. His nominator wrote, in part: “Since arriving at [the College of Medicine], Choogon has obtained 3 grants: an FSU First Year Assistant Professor grant, an FSU Planning Grant, and, most importantly, an NIH/NINDS, R01award with an astonishing priority score of 125 (3.4%) and a total cost of $1,619,678. This demonstrates that he is emerging as a leader in his field. In addition, since arriving at FSU, Choogon has authored or co-authored 9 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and 3 book chapters. A paper from his lab was published as a featured article in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience last year.  Further, Choogon has co-authored 2 Science papers, 1 Cell paper and 1 PNAS paper. All of these journals are at the very top in terms of prestige and citations.

Outstanding Senior Faculty Investigator – Mohamed Kabbaj, Ph.D., associate professor, associate chair and director of graduate studies in biomedical sciences. Here is a small part of a long nomination: “Dr. Kabbaj has recently been awarded (2009-2011) $400,000 for a two-year study to answer the following critical question: What are the molecular mechanisms implicated in chronic stress-induced depression? In a collaborative work with Dr. Zuoxin Wang in Psychology, Dr. Kabbaj was awarded a 5-year RO1 grant -2005-2010-(~1 million dollars) to study the interaction between social bonding and drug addiction in a neat animal model, the prairie voles. This study tests the hypothesis that increased social behaviors will reduce interest in drugs of abuse. Dr. Kabbaj also has two grants pending at the National Institute of Mental Health and will submit another at the end of this summer…. I recommend him with the highest level of enthusiasm.”

Guardian of the Mission – Suzanne Harrison, assistant professor and Tallahassee campus clerkship director in family medicine. This is an excerpt from her nomination: “Dr Harrison has been an active member of the Admissions Committee, working hard to admit students with a mission fit. She also serves as Clerkship Director for Family Medicine at the Tallahassee Regional Campus as well as Course Director for the Doctoring 3 course. She is very active in the community, and started the free health clinic at The Refuge House – where she precepts medical students, exposing them to a population of underserved, abused women and children.”

Outstanding Faculty Service – Mollie Hill, director of clinical community relations. Her nominator wrote: “Mollie Hill has been absolutely instrumental in the creation of all of our regional campuses and is THE liaison to communities large and small across the state. There is no doubt that our distributed model and community-based school could not exist without her dedication, passion, intelligence and insight. She builds and maintains this bedrock of our entire school. With the new Dean she has stepped up into helping direct our strategic planning and increasing our clinical service opportunities. Much of her work is behind the scenes, and this sort of recognition is overdue.”

Group Staff Service Award – Security team. Here’s a sampling of one of the nominations for Tony Cooper, senior security officer with the FSU Police Department, and the rest of his security staff: “Tony has shown us through his example how effective and powerful one person can be in creating a positive and safe community. Tony’s staff members have followed his lead and provide very professional service to the college and all of our visitors.” Another nominator wrote: “He handles special events with a calm that pacifies those of us who live on the verge of panic.”

Individual Staff Service Award – John Beidler, director of research and institutional resources. This memorable passage came from John’s nomination: “Our building is a marvel, one that we are all so proud of and makes us feel good just to enter, let alone work in and show off to all of our colleagues and friends. John played a major role in making this happen. This building has John’s mark on it.”

MORE AWARDS & HONORS

Ray Bellamy, M.D., surgery clerkship director at the Tallahassee campus since 2004 and an active member of Tallahassee’s medical community for 35 years, has received the Capital Medical Society's 2009 Outstanding Physician Award. The award recognized his leadership “through volunteer work in the community, involvement in organized medicine and political activities, clinical excellence and contributions to education, particularly concerning medical students.” Besides his teaching, the award saluted Bellamy for:

• Specializing in orthopedic surgery and treatment for arthritis since moving to Tallahassee in 1974. In 2003 he joined Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic, where he currently practices alongside his son, David, also a well-known orthopedic surgeon.
• Being current chairman of the Capital City Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.
• Volunteering for the We Care Network since its inception in 1992, providing specialty medical care to low-income, uninsured patients.
• Effectively opposing a controversial proposal to open a chiropractic college at FSU during the College of Medicine’s accreditation process. In 2005, the FSU Board of Governors voted down the proposal.
• Serving as president of the Capital Medical Society in 1992; as president of the Florida Orthopedic Society in 1994 and 1995; and as a current member of the Board of Governors for the CMS Foundation.

Randall Bertolette, M.D., dean of the Fort Pierce Regional Campus, is receiving a Certificate of Appreciation from the Florida Medical Association. According to the FMA, Bertolette was chosen from a number of excellent nominees not only for his extraordinary professional achievements but also for his clear dedication to the practice of medicine in the broadest sense. He'll receive the award in Key Largo on Oct. 18.

Shannon Boudreaux, M.D., clinical assistant professor of pediatrics (on the left in this photo), received the Golden Apple Award as the outstanding pediatric faculty member during the College of Medicine’s June pediatric residency graduation ceremony at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. The program is affiliated with Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital. Each year, the graduating pediatric residents choose an instructor who has gone above and beyond the call of duty. In presenting the award, Dr. Chante Ruffin, incoming chief pediatric resident, recognized Boudreaux as a role model, specifically noting his “availability” and “eagerness to teach.”

Karen Geletko, MPH, assistant in medicine (pictured at left), and Andrée Aubrey, MSW, LCSW, director of the Area Health Education Center Program, recently attended the National Conference on Tobacco and Health, and the AHEC Tobacco Program had four posters presented there. One, on the Quit Smoking NOW curriculum development for community-based cessation classes, was created by the program's Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist, Mary Dailey, who was unable to attend the conference.
 
Dennis Saver, M.D., Vero Beach family physician and member of the Fort Pierce regional campus clerkship faculty, was named the Class of 2009’s Gold Humanism Honor Society inductee. Class member Kimberley Thornton explained: “The Gold Humanism Honor Society seeks out members that demonstrate excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service. Dr. Saver fulfills all these qualities and is an excellent example of humanism in medicine.”

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