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NEW WEBSITE FOR Network for Clinical Research
The College of Medicine’s Network for Clinical Research, created to improve Floridians’ health through high-quality research in community-based settings, now has its own website. Among other news, visitors to the site learn about the CRN’s inaugural pilot studies in collaboration with the University of Florida’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

In a letter to the faculty and staff, Senior Associate Dean for Research Myra Hurt, Ph.D., and Associate Dean for Clinical Research Michael Muszynski, M.D., noted that more than 70 Tallahassee and Orlando physicians affiliated with the College of Medicine had agreed to participate in the pilot studies. They also said the medical school’s community-based educational model is ideal for the CRN’s development and growth.


JOHNSON IS NEW APA PRESIDENT

On Jan. 1 Suzanne Bennett Johnson, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences, became president of the American Psychological Association. With 150,000 members, it’s the world’s largest association of psychologists.

Johnson has had a 30-year career contributing psychological expertise to medical research and practice. She’s been a principal investigator on 15 National Institutes of Health grants, conducting groundbreaking studies on diabetes management, childhood obesity, family therapy, genetic testing and more. She has improved the lives of countless children who struggled to control chronic illness while helping pioneer the field of health psychology, said Larry Deeb, M.D., former president of the American Diabetes Association and a member of the medical school’s clerkship faculty in Tallahassee.

Johnson said the APA should emphasize what psychologists add as members of primary health-care teams: “We have so much to contribute as scientists and health-care professionals. It’s incumbent upon us to make that known.”

Read more about Johnson’s background and her plans for the APA.

SYMPOSIUM FOCUSES ON TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH
FSU’s second annual Life Sciences Symposium zeroed in on translational research, in which basic research discoveries are translated into technologies and therapies that benefit the patient. In other words, taking research “from the bench to the bedside.”

“A number of invited speakers from companies explained key issues of such research,” said Michael Blaber, chair of the organizing committee and professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, which sponsored the symposium. “Internal speakers included researchers directly working to achieve successful translational research, and helped to shed light on local resources to achieve their research aims. We also had professional development seminars again for grad students, postdocs and staff.”

In addition to hearing highlights of translational science at FSU, participants learned about translational opportunities that are available and how to implement them. The Grand Rounds speaker was Nicholas Di Prospero, director of translational medicine at Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development.

Speakers and roundtable participants from the College of Medicine were Professor Pradeep Bhide, Ph.D.; Clinical Research Projects Director Jessica De Leon, Ph.D.; Senior Associate Dean for Research Myra Hurt, Ph.D.; Associate Professor Tim Megraw, Ph.D. (also on the organizing committee), Associate Dean for Clinical Research Michael Muszynski, M.D.; Biomedical Sciences Chair Richard Nowakowski, Ph.D.; Associate Professor James Olcese, Ph.D.; Associate Professor Branko Stefanovic, Ph.D.; and Assistant in Medicine Jacob VanLandingham, Ph.D.

Among the participants from elsewhere at FSU were Debra Ann Fadool (Biological Science), Richard Hyson (Psychology and Program in Neuroscience) and Scott Stagg (Chemistry and Biochemistry/Institute of Molecular Biophysics), all members of the organizing committee. Also from FSU were Igor Alabugin (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Walter Boot (Psychology), Wu-Min Deng (Biological Science), Greg Dudley (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Ross Ellington (associate vice president for research), John Fraser (Office of IP Development and Commercialization), Pamela Keel (Psychology), Teng Ma (Chemical and Biomedical Engineering), Amy Sang (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and Hengli Tang (Biological Science).

Participants from outside FSU included Tiffany Ardley (Florida A&M University), Elizabeth Mazzio (Florida A&M University), Christine Beeton (Baylor College of Medicine), Thomas Parks (University of Utah) and Clint Potter (Scripps/NanoImaging Services).

CONFERENCE WILL EXPLORE ‘MAKING HEALTH LAW’

As lawmakers try to whittle another $1.5 billion from the state’s budget, to what extent is Floridians’ health included in the conversation? A series of speakers will address that and related medical-ethics questions in a Florida State University conference that promises to be thought-provoking.

“Making Health Law in the Sunshine State: Do (and Should) Ethics Influence Policy Making?” is scheduled for Feb. 10 at the Alumni Center. It’s sponsored by the Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine & Law and the Florida Bioethics Network.

“To what extent do legislators and regulators actually think about the public good other than as it’ll translate into votes?” asked center Director Marshall Kapp, J.D., MPH.

Among the presenters is Doug Wojcieszak, who proposes that physicians admit medical errors and apologize for them. He founded the Sorry Works! Coalition after medical errors resulted in the death of his brother. (He’ll give a similar talk during Grand Rounds at noon Feb. 9 in the College of Medicine auditorium.)

The all-day conference will feature a variety of Florida State faculty members. From the College of Medicine will be Ken Brummel-Smith, M.D.; Les Beitsch, M.D., J.D.; Michael Nair-Collins, Ph.D.; and Jerry Williamson, M.D. Also presenting will be former state Sen. Durell Peaden, M.D., J.D., who was instrumental in the College of Medicine’s creation.

Find out more about the conference.
Learn more about the Sorry Works! Coalition.

 

THIS IS WHY THEY DANCE
A $232,000 check made possible by student dancers was presented to the College of Medicine in November for the benefit of children in Gadsden and Leon counties. The donation was the latest – and largest – from Dance Marathon at Florida State and Children’s Miracle Network at Shands Children’s Hospital at the University of Florida

The proceeds are part of the record $487,000 raised in 2011 by Dance Marathon, the largest student-run philanthropy at FSU. Children’s Miracle Network at Shands annually distributes part of the money to the FSU College of Medicine for use in pediatric outreach programs. The medical school uses part of the proceeds to pay for a school-based health program in Gadsden County designed to address health-care disparities among area children. In November (see photo), a group of Dance Marathon organizers drove to Quincy to tour the school clinic that their generosity helps to fund and to meet some of the children.

The College of Medicine also shared some of the Dance Marathon proceeds with Tallahassee Memorial Hospital for the purchase of equipment for its pediatrics unit.


THE NEW DR. HARTSFIELD
The new dean at the Tallahassee Regional Campus has a Tallahassee background, the same patient-centered focus as the medical school – and, by coincidence, the same last name as the former dean. On Jan. 3, Ron Hartsfield, M.D., assumed the role that Mel Hartsfield, M.D., filled for the past five years.

Ron Hartsfield (pictured here) is a Tallahassee native. (The Hartsfields say they are distant relatives.) Ron graduated from Florida State with a degree in psychology. In 1981 he graduated from FSU’s Program in Medical Sciences, the predecessor of the College of Medicine, before earning his M.D. at the University of Florida. He did his training at the University of Alabama, Birmingham and is board-certified in internal medicine and hospice and palliative medicine. He spent the past four years as medical director at Big Bend Hospice in Tallahassee.

“He is highly patient-focused and has lived the mission of the College of Medicine during his career,” Dean John Fogarty said in a note to medical school students, faculty and staff. “I believe he is a great fit for the College of Medicine and the Tallahassee community.”

Mel Hartsfield, meanwhile, has returned to his previous employer, Archbold Health System, which has become one of the medical school’s valued partners in Thomasville, Ga. There he is vice president of medical affairs.

“This will allow him to continue to work with our students and remain connected to the College of Medicine,” Fogarty said. “I appreciate all the great work that Mel has done over these past five years as we expanded our class, supporting the development of our partnership with Thomasville.”


ANOTHER GE/NMF FELLOWSHIP
Kenisha Pemberton (Class of 2012, Daytona Beach campus) has become the third FSU student to win a prestigious GE/NMF fellowship to work and study during an all-expenses-paid externship in Ghana. “GE” stands for General Electric, “NMF” for National Medical Fellowships.

The GE/NMF Medical Scholars Program is an international fellowship offered annually to eligible fourth-year minority medical students. They complete a two-month elective in Ghana or Uganda that focuses on critical regional health-care needs. Pemberton is among 14 scholars chosen for 2012, from 11 states and 13 medical schools. They were chosen based on the strength of their medical school recommendations, personal statements, academic achievements and interviews.

“Not only will I have the opportunity to assist those who are in dire need of medical services but also visit the land from where my forefathers came,” said Pemberton, who expects to arrive in Ghana on March 22.

Last year, College of Medicine student Natasha Spencer (now a resident in OB-GYN at the University of Alabama Medical Center-Birmingham) traveled to Uganda as a GE/NMF Medical Scholar.