//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUoZUWfff5k

To work together effectively as practitioners in a 21^st Century health system students must learn together.  And, equally important, the coordinated, team approach to patient care that today’s students aspire to must be modeled across clinical settings where they will practice after graduation.

That was the overarching message of USF Health’s inaugural Interprofessional Education Day held Nov. 16 in the USF Marshall Student Center.

The event brought together more than 250 graduate students, faculty and deans from all USF Health colleges, along with alumni and Tampa Bay community partners, to discuss the advantages and challenges of preparing students for a future that includes greater use of interprofessional health services.

The inaugural IPE day was attended by students, faculty and deans from all four USF Health colleges, along with alumni and community partners.

Interprofessional education, or IPE, is the essence of the USF Health brand. As the region’s only academic medical center, USF Health is uniquely positioned to organize, integrate and focus the capabilities of many health disciplines on behalf of the Tampa Bay community.

“This day highlights the power of USF Health – with its colleges of medicine, nursing, public health, and pharmacy, school of physical therapy and rehabilitation sciences, as well as athletic training and physician assistant programs – to take the lead in how interprofessional health education can be implemented,” said Victoria L. Rich, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior associate vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF College of Nursing.

Dr. Rich co-chaired IPE Day with Jay Wolfson, DrPH, JD, associate vice president of health law, policy and safety at USF Health and distinguished service professor of public health, medicine and pharmacy. They planned the inaugural event with a committee comprised of faculty members from all four health colleges and a student representative.

USF College of Nursing Dean Victoria L. Rich, PhD, welcomes speaker Chad Epps, MD, executive director of healthcare simulation at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences, to the Oval Theater stage.

“By sharing knowledge and training together, we create an environment ready for creativity and innovation,” USF System President Judy Genshaft said in her welcoming remarks. “In patient care, as we better understand each other, we provide more thoughtful care when we work as one team. Many times a patient’s life depends on it, as there is no single person or specialization that can ever address all the complexities of a patient’s needs… Truly the team-based approach embraced here at USF represents the future of health care.”

Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, has championed improved patient care and outcomes through stronger interdisciplinary collaboration. In his introduction, he painted a picture of the national health care challenges creating an impetus for IPE – including mounting pressure to reduce unprecedented health care costs.

The U.S. spends more on health care – nearly 18 percent of its GDP – than any other developed country, and with largely worse health outcomes, Dr. Lockwood said. This has led to a health care system transitioning from fee-for-service (care based on volume of services provided) to a focus on reducing cost while improving quality of care, known as value-based care.

From left: Kevin Sneed, PharmD, dean of the USF College of Pharmacy; Jay Wolfson, DrPH, IPE Day co-chair; Scott Newell, MAS, IPE Day speaker; Charles Lockwood, MD, USF Health senior vice president and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine; Victoria Rich, PhD, dean of the College of Nursing and IPE Day co-chair; Donna Petersen, ScD, dean of the College of Public Health; and Chad Epps, MD, IPE Day speaker.

“The only way we can provide that type of care is together. It can’t possibly be accomplished by the doctor alone, or the nurse alone, or the pharmacist alone,” Dr. Lockwood said. “In order to have that very efficient, tightly knit health care delivery system, we must train together, practice together, and do research together.”

Medical errors are the third leading cause of deaths in the U.S. after heart disease and cancer, according to a Johns Hopkins patient safety analysis. “Not only is there an economic imperative for IPE, but also a moral and ethical imperative to ensure we maximize patient safety,” he added.

The morning program featured two national speakers. Both emphasized the important role that simulation-based interprofessional activities can play in reducing medical errors by teaching health professionals at all levels how to think and act as a mutually supportive, problem-solving team.

IPE Day speaker Scott Newell, standing, interacts with Frederick Slone, MD, (blue shirt), who has a teaching appointment with the MCOM Department of Medical Education.

In the first presentation, Scott Newell, a commercial pilot and paramedic turned health-care simulation educator, drew parallels and distinctions between aviation and health care teams and explained how team training with simulation and crew (crisis) resource management techniques are critical to more effective communication, improved safety and quality outcomes.  All human beings, no matter how well trained and competent, make mistakes – but many medical errors result from a chain of events that can usually be averted at several points, preventing the medical error from causing severe patient harm, Newell said.

The second presentation by Chad Epps, MD, executive director of health care simulation at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and past president of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, provided examples of how other academic institutions across the country are structuring their simulation-enhanced IPE.   Dr. Epps said IPE is not students from different health disciplines sitting alongside each another in the same classroom and learning in parallel, but rather “students in two or more professions learning about each other’s professional roles, learning how to communicate with one another, and learning to provide mutual support to other members of the team.”

An interprofessional team looks over their mission during the collaborative escape room exercise. From left:  Amy Schwartz, faculty member, College of Pharmacy, Zemelia Miller, student, Physician Assistant Program; Anne Marie Buford, student, School of Physical Therapy; Chris Chrosniak, student, College of Nursing; Andrew Armstrong, student, College of Nursing; Anna Torrens Armstrong, faculty member, College of Public Health; and Kanisha Jenkins, student, Athletic Training Program.

At the morning session wrap-up, Dr. Lockwood challenged faculty to develop an IPE curriculum that takes full advantage of USF Health’s state-of-the-art simulation resources as well as clinical opportunities with primary teaching hospital Tampa General Hospital and other community partners.

A lunchtime panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Wolfson, featured the deans of all four USF Heath colleges and other key leaders, and the IPE Day guest speakers.

The afternoon culminated with a fun, interactive escape room exercise – a spy game designed to build camaraderie and teamwork within the 15 interdisciplinary student groups participating.

From left, top row: USF System President Judy Genshaft and Dr. Rich with the winning USF Health student team Michael Woolard, College of Nursing; Tyler Mauzy, School of Physical Therapy; Daniel Segarra, Morsani College of Medicine, Dr. Emily Hall, a faculty member for the Athletic Training Program; Matt Allman, College of Public Health; and Dr. Lockwood. Bottom row with the winning trophy: students German Herrera Alzate (left), Physician Assistant Program, and Jennifer Willms, School of Physical Therapy. Not pictured: Lucinda Shaw, adjunct faculty member, College of Nursing.

What They Said: 

We’ve known that poor communication and system errors are major causes of preventable death in 1999 and here we are in 2018, and we still haven’t made a whole lot of advancements…  We have a tremendous opportunity to impact patient safety and change the way we deliver health care.

Speaker Chad Epps, MD, referring to the Institute of Medicine’s landmark report “To Err is Human” published in 1999

Dr. Epps: IPE activities created with shared, linked outcomes and objectives can improve patient safety and care. Interprofessional faculty development also has to be a priority for IPE to work.

One difference between the airline industry and health care is that when a pilot screws up, the first place he ends up is a smoking hole in the ground… In health care we still tend to bury our mistakes… How many of you have filed an incident report and never found out what happened with it?

Speaker Scott Newell, MAS, NREMTP, CHSE, talking about the motivating factors for the safety culture in aviation driving crew members to speak up when they see a potential error

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Today’s IPE Day helps us think about how we can take our current IPE offerings to the next level. There is little doubt that if we use the energy and momentum generated at events like this, USF Health can become a model of IPE across the education continuum, and our patients and the community will be the better for it.

Bryan A. Bognar, MD, MPH, FACP, vice dean for educational affairs, USF Health, Morsani College of Medicine

The lunchtime panel discussion included deans and other key leaders from USF Health, and the two featured IPE Day speakers.

I am committed to working with the deans and their respective IPE experts to build the best interprofessional education experience possible for our students so they will graduate to become IPE champions in their future practice environment.

Haru Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH , USF Health’s first executive director of interprofessional education simulation programming and CAMLS executive director

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Part of the reason to engage the practice community is to push the environment toward IPE. We hear from our graduates who are well trained (in interprofessionalism) that when they get out in the workforce sometimes they are told “We don’t do that here.”

Donna Petersen, ScD, USF Health senior associate vice president and dean of the USF College of Public Health, on the gap between enthusiasm for interprofessional learning and interprofessional practice

***

Today begins to define the culture of what USF Health will be moving forward. Every program will begin to define how they are part of massive health care-related changes… We’re asking for buy-in for IPE from everybody.

Kevin Sneed, PharmD, USF Health senior associate vice president and dean of the USF College of Pharmacy

Dr. Kevin Sneed comments during the panel discussion.

Research indicates that the effects of IPE for graduates do not not typically persist in the practice area. Partnering with employers and patients has the potential to address this “missing link,” with the goal of improving the quality and effectiveness of health care. We are committed to developing and sustaining these vital collaborative partnerships.

Laura Lee (Dolly) Swisher, PT, MDiv, PhD, FNAP, FAPTA, associate dean, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and director of the School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences

***

It was great to see the diversity of health disciplines represented within USF Health… This day helped broaden our ability to collaborate, be problem solvers, lean on people’s strengths to do the best we could to succeed in our mission.

Michael Woolard, third-year nurse anesthesia student and member of the winning team for the IPE Day escape room exercise

Alyssa Radel, (center) an athletic training student in the MCOM, reacts to an IPE Day speaker.

Students pick up the dossiers and burner phones their teams need to begin the IPE Day escape room exercise, which involved a mission to rescue their “kidnapped” leader (played by Dr. Charles Lockwood) from an evil robot (played by USF Health’s Joe Ford). The “mission” promoted collaboration and problem solving while encouraging the students to have fun.

Team leader Rohit Iyer (far right), a second-year medical student, works on a clue with fellow team members.

For one of the escape room activities, teams were asked to create a “spy tool.” Here, one team uses an Apple watch and the team leader’s bow tie to make a “bow-tie spy cam.”

-Video by Torie M. Doll and photos by Eric Younghans and Freddie Coleman, USF Health Communications and Marketing.  Jessica Samaniego, USF College of Nursing, also contributed photos to this story.

Before, during and after the storm, many offered helping hands and shelter

As Hurricane Irma churned toward Florida’s west coast area last week, USF Bulls did not just hunker down or evacuate in preparation for the monster storm.  They rallied big time.

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USF employees spent countless hours planning for and responding to the storm during the week, some returning home only to shower and others working remotely.

USF volunteers helped the community fill in the gaps for a wide variety of emergency response needs, including staffing EOC call centers.

The USF community also reached out to the wider Tampa Bay community — caring for evacuees at area hurricane shelters, including the USF Sun Dome, the county’s largest shelter for people with special health care needs; fielding phone calls at emergency operations centers; and volunteering around the clock in partnership with local agencies to respond to a myriad disaster needs.

Here are just some of the stories about ways the USF family helped each other and the members of the public before, during and after Hurricane Irma:

Following the storm, USF public health students volunteering on a Disaster Survivor Assistance Team worked with code enforcement officers to assess flood and wind damage across Hillsborough County, including along the Alafia River.

Public health coordinates community disaster response

USF College of Public Health’s Elizabeth Dunn began working with emergency management undergraduate students to start disaster relief efforts last Wednesday when Tampa expected to be hit by a category 4 or 5 hurricane. County and city officials realized then they would need to rely on USF to help fill in the gaps in areas of need.

So, Dunn, director of the USF Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), collaborated with her CERT leaders, reaching out to organizations and colleges across USF to mobilize and, if needed, to train volunteers.

“With such a large storm coming and because of what was happening in Texas during Harvey, many resources were spread thin,” she said, “so we were trying to make sure there was nothing missed within our community.”

USF volunteers (including a couple of children of USF Bulls) delivered food and water to hurricane survivors at a distribution point in Dover on the weekend after Hurricane Irma. The USF Community Emergency Response Team worked with Hillsborough County Aging Services and other local CERTs to help manage the event.

The response to CERT’s call to action was gratifying.

“Our USF family definitely came forward when there was a need,” said Dunn, instructor and assistant to the Director of the Global Disaster Management, Humanitarian Relief, and Homeland Security program at COPH. “It was our chance to be part of something bigger than us.”

Read full article, including more stories shared by Medicine, Nursing, Public Health and Pharmacy…

USF CERT Director Elizabeth Dunn works on disaster preparedness and response in the College of Public Health.

The USF Physicians Group has a new governance structure, called USF Health Care, to better reflect a faculty practice group incorporating professionals from across health care disciplines, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, public health professionals, physical therapists and physician assistants.

“USF Health Care recognizes the value added when all USF Health practitioners work together as one to improve the health and quality of life of our patients and the greater community,” said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine. “It is another important step in the coordination of effort among all our health science colleges and schools.”

Dr. Lockwood recently approved the creation of the new clinical leadership board for the practice plan, which includes the deans of USF Health’s four colleges and the director of its School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences.  This board will help advise Dr. Lockwood on issues related to USF Health’s clinical service mission.

From left, Donna Petersen, ScD, dean of the USF College of Public Health; Victoria Rich, PhD, dean of the College of Nursing, Kevin Sneed, PharmD, dean of the College of Public Health; and Laura Lee (Dolly) Swisher, PT, PhD, interim director of the USF School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences. 

The recent change in clinical governance structure is a testament to USF Health’s dedication to creating the best team-based care available, said Kevin Sneed, PharmD, dean of the USF College of Pharmacy.

“We are delighted and prepared to contribute to outstanding quality of care and health outcomes for USF Health patients,” Dr. Sneed said. “The evolution to USF Health Care confirms our collective commitment to train the most advanced health care workforce for the future, ultimately resulting in optimal health for people in our communities.”

Health care today is a team profession, with no single health professional or specialization able to meet all the complex needs of patients, said Victoria Rich, PhD, dean of the USF College of Nursing.

“USF Health Care brings together exceptional teams of clinical experts skilled at collaborating and contributing their expertise,” Dr. Rich said. “Our teams of nurses, physicians, pharmacists, physical  therapists and community and family health faculty are at the forefront of 21^st century health care.”

“The evolution of what had been an outstanding physician group to what will be an outstanding integrated health care group reflects our continued commitment to interprofessional approaches to care delivery and the promotion of health for patients and their families,” said Donna Petersen, ScD, dean of the USF College of Public Health.

“It is about being relevant, but also forward thinking.  We want all our clinical faculty to be up to date on the latest in clinical practice, so that they can share the latest advancements with our students and inform and translate their research studies for more rapid adoption.”

The new governance structure demonstrates that USF Health is serious about taking interprofessional practice to a higher level, said Laura Lee (Dolly) Swisher, PT, PhD, interim director of the USF School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences.

“Transforming interprofessional education into collaborative practice can be organizationally challenging,” Dr. Swisher said. “The new structure for USF Health creates an environment to foster interprofessional teaching, research and clinical care, and a framework to facilitate interprofessional planning to promote health.”

Construction is underway for the new WELL Student Center, a one-stop student services location for all USF Health students. While student fees have covered 75 percent of construction costs, urgent philanthropic support is needed to complete the current phase of construction in 2016.

The WELL (Wellness, Engagement, Leadership and Learning) Student Center fosters an interprofessional, collaborative learning environment for students in medicine, nursing, public health, pharmacy, physical therapy and the biomedical sciences.

Artist’s rendering of the WELL Student Center exterior.

The new student center will be located in the heart of the USF Health section of the main University of South Florida campus at the site of a former medical clinic. The renovated building will feature an expansive dining facility, a fitness center, a performing arts and aerobics studio, a meditation room, a lactation room for nursing mothers, multipurpose and study space, and a convenience store.

“The WELL is a great investment for USF Health students because it provides a private, quiet, central location to study, work on group projects together, or meet other students on a similar track,” said Chereka Singh, president of USF’s Undergraduate Public Health Student Association.

“Immediately as a student at USF Health I realized the need for interprofessional teams to maximize patient care.  The WELL Student Center offers aspiring health professionals an environment like nowhere else to communicate and develop together,” said USF College of Pharmacy student Matt Schneller,

For more information or make a gift, visit the WELL Student Center website today.

Rendering of the WELL’s dining facility.

Article by Davina Gould, USF Health Development

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHCoE7oyckA

Approximately 1,000 USF Health faculty, staff and students — many sporting their USF green and gold — gathered beneath the oaks near Lake Behnke today to celebrate the 10^th Anniversary of USF Health.

The event featured a barbecue served up by USF Health senior leaders, including Dr. Charles Lockwood, senior vice president, USF Health, and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine; Dr. Donna Petersen, dean of the College of Public Health; Dr. Kevin Sneed, dean of the College of Pharmacy; Dr. William S. Quillen, director of the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences; and Richard Sobieray, CEO of the USF Physicians Group.

The festive atmosphere was stoked by entertainment from members of the USF Herd of Thunder, Rocky the Bull, the USF cheerleaders, and a D.J. spinning music from the 60s to contemporary.

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Today recognized the 10^th anniversary of USF Health – a brand launched Sept. 27, 2005 to reflect the unique collaboration and teamwork across all our colleges and the physician group practice and embodied in the anniversary theme: “10 Together As One.”

A decade ago, USF Health was created around a mission of envisioning and implementing the future of health.  A commitment, which continues today, was made to improve the full spectrum of health, from the environment to the community, to the individual.

USF Health is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, and the USF Physicians Group. It is an integral part of the University of South Florida, a high-impact, global research university dedicated to student success.

Watch Flickr slide show

Video by Sandra Roa and photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications and Marketing

Six weeks of intensive study recently culminated June 19 with a poster presentation by 12 undergraduate pre-health students at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM).  The students — 11 from USF and one Tampa native currently enrolled at Smith College — participated in the 2015 Pre-Health Scholars Program (PSP) offered by the MCOM Office of Student Diversity and Enrichment (OSDE) and the USF Area Health Education Center (AHEC).

PSP is a multi-year academic enrichment and career exploration program for pre-health students that provides support and services to students as they move through their undergraduate experience. Each year new academic enrichment and experiential learning opportunities are added.

Incoming undergraduate students in the Pre-Health Scholars Program 2015, pictured here, will receive academic enrichment, experiential opportunities and ongoing mentoring as they continue to pursue health career paths.

“Recent participants have earned paid research positions, internships and work experiences while still undergraduates.” said OSDE Director Shirley Smith. “This year alone, some of our previous students got accepted to medical school as well as podiatry, DPT, and MPH programs.  Another recent graduate is serving areas of need with AmeriCorps.”

Neil Manimala, a fourth-year medical student helped judge the scholarly posters.

“As a current student, this gives me great confidence in the next generation of health professionals. The presentations were fantastic, and really got to the heart of some of the issues at the core of our practice,” Manimala said.  “These types of (pre-health) programs are critical.”

Now in its 12th year, PSP four years ago began an early intervention model providing intensive support and resources to freshmen, sophmore and junior undergraduates interested in a health career path, rather than waiting until the senior or post-undergraduate years.

“These students put in a lot of work, and we love seeing what they are able to accomplish,” said Program Coordinator Kevin Casey.

Paul Al Francois is a rising USF junior pursuing a biomedical sciences degree with minors in public health and biomedical physics. His poster addressed the ethical dilemma of keeping a patient alive despite the patient’s own intentions suggesting otherwise.

This summer, the 12 new PSP students were mentored by rising second-year medical students Ricardo Rendel, Chris Kaul, and Peeraya Sawangkum.  They worked eight hours a day, five days a week, becoming acquainted with the diverse fields within the health sciences, learning basic science concepts, and shadowing health science professionals in academic and clinical settings.  They also worked on developing critical reasoning skills in a class on the biomedical ethics of death and dying taught by MCOM staff member Jamie Cooper.

The capstone experience of the class was the poster presentation – with topics ranging from end-of-life treatment and quality of life to medical aspects of persistent vegetative state to advance directives.

The atmosphere at the Friday event was electric as the students enthusiastically presented their posters to a diverse audience including medical students, other undergraduates, PSP alumni, USF Health staff, parents, guests, and even Dr. Bryan Bognar, vice dean of Educational Affairs at MCOM.

“Overall, I was incredibly impressed, not only with the presentation skills of these young men and women, but also with their deep understanding of the content,” Dr. Bognar said. “The topic areas that they chose to address would be challenging for an experienced clinician.”

Barbara Sanchez, a rising USF Honors College sophmore majoring in exercise science, explains her poster entitled “Does Having a DNR Order Mean You Would Not Be Treated?”

Photos by Rebekah Wright, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine photographer

The partnership will increase access to specialty care for uninsured residents served by the USF Health student-run program and significantly increase the number of patients seen.

By Saundra Amrhein

Further strengthening ties between the two institutions, Florida Hospital Tampa has committed $1.2 million in donated goods and services to the University of South Florida to help expand community-centered medical care through the USF Health BRIDGE Clinic.

The BRIDGE clinic – a nationally recognized, student-run free community clinic now in its eighth year – provides primary medical care for more than 800 underserved patients a year from the University Community Area one night a week inside the USF Health Morsani Center for Advanced Health Care.

Leadership of USF Health and Florida Hospital Tampa as well as medical faculty and student volunteers pose for a photo on opening night of the BRIDGE Clinic at Florida Hospital.

Now, Florida Hospital Tampa’s donation of goods, services, office space and personnel will help significantly increase the number of uninsured patients seen through the BRIDGE clinic, expand specialty care and procedures, and cut weeks off the appointment waiting times for new and established patients, said Dr. Lucy Guerra, a volunteer co-medical director and one of several attending USF Health physicians at BRIDGE.

The additional resources for the BRIDGE clinic extension at the hospital – set up inside Florida Hospital Tampa’s renowned Pepin Heart Institute, located on Fletcher Avenue across the street from the university – will also help mitigate the plight of working families who cannot afford or qualify for insurance in the new federal health insurance marketplace but who also don’t qualify for Medicaid, Dr. Guerra said.

Officials from both institutions said they are thrilled about the partnership, which adds to their ongoing research and patient care collaborations across the Tampa Bay region.

“We’re incredibly grateful,” said Dr. Charles Lockwood, senior vice president of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine. “This is a clear indication that our missions are completely aligned. We are here for the patients.”

Dr. Peter Bath, vice president of mission for Florida Hospital West Florida Region, echoed Dr. Lockwood’s sentiments and said partnering with the hospital’s next-door neighbor to provide health care for struggling families was a continuation of the hospital’s mission.

“This is a natural extension of what our mission is all about, caring for people and giving back to our community,” Dr. Bath said. “We know needs are significant for the underserved and we will continue to look for ways to help the community throughout all of our nine Florida Hospitals in the West Florida Region.”

USF medical student volunteer Jordant Vanzant checks the blood pressure of BRIDGE Clinic patient Sandra Avilez.

The donation and partnership stem from more than a year of meetings spurred by both university medical students seeking more resources for their high-demand clinic, and the encouragement of one of the hospital’s doctors.

Dr. Marian Menezes, a physician on staff at Florida Hospital Tampa, remembers how his wife – Dr. Lynette Menezes, the assistant dean for international affairs at the USF Morsani College of Medicine – convinced him to attend the BRIDGE clinic’s annual fundraising talent show more than a year ago.

“I fell in love with what they were doing,” Dr. Menezes said. He immediately sought out ways to help.

The medical students relayed their concerns about space, patients’ waiting times and the need for more specialty care for patients with serious medical problems. Currently USF doctors waive their fees for BRIDGE patients for certain surgeries and specialty procedures, but there are still facility fees and other types of expenses that add up to thousands of dollars. Dr. Menezes brought the issue to the attention of his colleagues at the hospital.

Expanding services offered by the BRIDGE clinic at Florida Hospital Tampa will significantly cut down patients’ wait times for appointments, which can run from three to four months, said Michelle Blanco, a USF fourth-year medical student and executive student director at the clinic.

“Now being able to tell your patients we can see you in the next few weeks – it’s very exciting,” Blanco said.

The patients will also have increased access to surgeries and specialty tests and procedures in areas like radiology, gynecology, orthopedics and surgery. “Both efficiency and quality of care are going to increase at BRIDGE,” Blanco said.

L to R: Dr. Theron Ebel, a critical care physician at Florida Hospital Tampa, with USF Health Morsani College of Medicine faculty members Dr. Eduardo Gonzalez and Dr. Lucy Guerra, co-medical directors of the BRIDGE Clinic, and USF medical student Kathryn Dean.

The expanded BRIDGE clinic, like the current one, will continue to pair medical students with supervising physicians. In addition to the USF Health doctors who volunteer at the Morsani site, the new site will bring in volunteering physicians from Florida Hospital Tampa. As the numbers of participating hospital physicians grow, the clinic at the hospital may increase its capacity from one Thursday night each month to opening as many as four nights monthly.

Dr. Krishna Tewari, a hospitalist physician at Florida Hospital Tampa, will be among the first. He said he plans to volunteer at least two nights a month.

“I’m excited to see the work here,” Dr. Tewari said.

The expansion also creates more volunteer opportunities for USF students from the colleges and schools of pharmacy, physical therapy, public health and social work – as well as student interpreters. They currently rotate through the current BRIDGE clinic and its 13 exam rooms at the Morsani Center.

Ali Antar, 22, nearing the end of his second year of medical school at USF, said with the expansion of BRIDGE, he would love to volunteer even more time at both sites. After a year at the original BRIDGE clinic location, the experience has deepened his understanding of the practice of medicine beyond what he’s learning in the classroom.

“When you’re a lower classman, any real clinical experience changes your perspective,” Antar said.

Meanwhile, patients are grateful for faster access to needed care.

“I went to get this appointment in October,” said Sandra Avilez, 51, sitting in one of the four BRIDGE clinic exam rooms inside the Pepin Heart Institute at Florida Hospital Tampa on the night of the expansion’s opening.

Avilez, formerly a customer service representative, lost her health insurance coverage with her job when her company moved her department and positions to another state. She hoped to get a check-up with a doctor at BRIDGE, because she was recently experiencing hot flashes. While waiting for an appointment these last few months, she did her best to keep herself informed about her health condition by reading articles and taking vitamins.

She was relieved to see the new BRIDGE clinic office space open at Florida Hospital Tampa in late February. It enabled the staff to bump up an appointment for both Avilez and her 77-year-old father.

“We were luck they could move up our appointment,” Avilez said. “Our date was for the end of March.”

Sandra Avilez, who lost her health insurance coverage with her job when her company moved her department to another state, was relieved to get an appointment sooner than expected at the BRIDGE Clinic.

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Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications and Marketing

By Saundra Amrhein

The fourth annual BANDaids for BRIDGE talent show and fundraiser for the USF BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic will be held on Friday, Jan. 9, from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at T. Pepin’s Hospitality Centre, 4121 N. 50^th St. in Tampa.

All profits will go to the student-run clinic, which provides free health care to residents of the University Area Community. The 18 talent acts by USF Health students, staff and faculty include a standup comic, a Bollywood dance troupe, the USF Health Orchestra & Choir, an a cappella group, solo singers and other performers. Tickets are $20 for USF students and $45 for faculty, staff and guests. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.usf.edu/ua/md/BRIDGE.

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Since its inception, the talent show and fundraiser – begun by fourth-year medical student Madeline Snyder – has raised more than $30,000 for the clinic. While science, biochemistry and physics were Snyder’s principal loves as she grew up, the multi-talented medical student had also starred in plays and musical productions all through elementary and high school.

As it has been for Snyder, the BANDaids for Bridge talent show is a great way for the doctors, students and faculty to bring together their professional calling with a companion passion for music, dance and entertainment, says current talent show director and second-year medical student Michael Carr.

Carr, a piano player since the age of 3 and a volunteer at the BRIDGE clinic, says he almost majored in music before deciding to keep it as a beloved hobby and devote his career to medicine. The talent show allows him to combine the two while helping the clinic – something to which he felt a strong connection, as a Tampa native. The clinic, he says, plays a crucial role in helping provide health care for struggling families in the community while also giving medical students like him a unique chance to practice skills they’re learning in the classroom.

“It’s a huge learning opportunity for us,” Carr says. “These are real patients with real problems.”

Michael Carr, talent show director and second-year medical student

Tampa, FL – It is a Tuesday evening, shortly before 6 p.m., and as patients start to trickle in, Jennifer Lee calls about a dozen students – clad in short, white jackets – to their feet.

“Team four!” says Lee, a second-year medical student at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, working her way down a dry erase board that outlines assignments for five teams of medical students and doctors. “Alex, you’re going to be with Dr. Slone. You know the drill.”

One night a week for the last seven years, medical students have been paired with physicians from USF Health at the student-run USF BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic. Together with students from colleges and schools of pharmacy, physical therapy, public health and social work – as well as student interpreters – they donate their time as volunteers to provide free medical care and services to University Area Community residents.

“This is really a collaborative effort,” Lee says as the students make their way to assignments through the corridors of the clinic on the fourth floor of the Morsani Center.

Now for the fourth year in a row, USF Health doctors, students and faculty will tap another set of skills to help keep the clinic running smoothly. At the annual BANDaids for Bridge talent show and fundraiser on Jan. 9, doctors and students will dispense with white coats or jackets and stethoscopes to don dancing shoes, stilettos, ties and sequins – all to ensure that this beacon of care stays lit for struggling families.

“I think in medical school, there is a tendency to get tunnel vision,” second-year medical student Ajay Koti, a student operations coordinator at the clinic, says over paperwork before a large computer screen, showing the ropes to two first-year med students.

“But here you are part of a bigger process, something bigger than yourself,” Koti adds. “We’re talking about patients who without a free clinic would have no health care.”

* * *

Jose Martinez waits patiently in a chair as Dr. Fred Slone, sitting across from him on a round, wheeled stool, pulls bottles and packets of his medications out of a large envelope.

“Oh, good, you’ve got the Omega 3,” says Dr. Slone, a faculty medical advisor to BRIDGE, as well as an assistant medical professor of medicine and medical director of the USF Health Center for Advanced Clinical Learning.

“Thank you for bringing in the medicines. That’s a big help.”

Over the next hour, Dr. Slone will carefully go over the half-dozen medications that Martinez takes as well as life-style changes and stressors as he charts the best treatment path – and affordable prescriptions – for Martinez, whose conditions include diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

The sheer amount of time and comprehensive care provided to each patient is both a welcome relief to community residents and a teaching tool on clinical care. Not only do patients visit with doctors and medical students, but when needed, a student social worker will help refer them to area services. Some are also seen by physical therapy students.

“I’m very happy here, how they attend to me,” Martinez says after medical students have finished recording his vital signs and Dr. Slone steps momentarily out of the examination room.

Martinez, a 47-year-old construction worker, says he tried to get private health care insurance for himself, wife and their three children. But even on the new federal Health Insurance Marketplace, he couldn’t afford it.

“It’s so much,” he says, listing off his expenses for his household, including food, rent, clothes and utilities. He’s just trying to survive, he adds.

Back in the examination room, Dr. Slone gently chides him about some changes since his last recent visit.

“I put on some weight?” Martinez asks sheepishly in English, while a student interpreter is sitting at his side to help the native Spanish-speaker when needed. “That’s not good.”

“That’s not good,” Dr. Slone agrees in a friendly but concerned tone about the 10-pound weight gain. “That’s going to make the diabetes harder to control.”

The vital signs and laboratory results aid Dr. Slone’s decisions and guidance, which include adding baby Aspirin to the regimen. He also explains how and when Martinez should check his blood sugar levels at home and call in the results to help Dr. Slone adjust his insulin treatments.

But it’s the time Dr. Slone takes to talk with Martinez that illustrates a big point students say they glean from their experience at the clinic: with personal clinical care, the aspiring doctors obtain more information from patients about how their socioeconomic circumstances interact with their health.

In their conversation, Martinez reveals he has developed a voracious appetite and he doesn’t know why. Also, his hours have been cut back at work.

Dr. Slone, using his own health conditions as examples throughout the appointment to empathize, prods Martinez to exercise more.

“Can you give me about 15 minutes a day walking?” Dr. Slone asks. “If you can promise me 15 minutes, I’ll do 15 minutes.”

Martinez smiles and nods. “I can promise,” he says.

Before they finish, Dr. Slone writes a referral for him to get an upper endoscopy through the USF’s GI Program – procedures made possible for BRIDGE patients by grant money from the Colon Cancer Alliance. The funds also help BRIDGE patients gain access to another greatly needed area of care: colonoscopies to screen for colon cancer.

The patients who qualify for care at the BRIDGE clinic are uninsured residents from the University Area Community who earn up to 200 percent of the poverty line, says Michelle Rosario, a fourth-year medical student and a student director at the BRIDGE clinic.

When applying to medical school, Rosario sought out USF in part because of the BRIDGE free clinic.

“I knew I wanted to participate in that,” says Rosario, who started volunteering here first as an interpreter before working her way up through other positions like patient coordinator and finally to student director. “I just love helping others,” she adds. “It’s an amazing experience providing services to those who otherwise might not get the care they need.”

* * *

In addition to receiving care and service referrals, eligible BRIDGE patients can obtain counseling and assistance to help shop for health care insurance on the federal Marketplace through the USF Navigator program. The assistance comes as part of a $5.38 million second-year Navigator grant – the largest in the country – that USF won this fall to help enroll eligible Floridians and small employers into the Marketplace.

The BRIDGE clinic is no stranger to broader university and health issues. For instance, graduate students throughout USF, including from the College of Arts and Sciences, have in the past anchored research projects at the clinic. Also, students in the College of Public Health work in conjunction with the Hillsborough County Health Department to provide free and confidential HIV testing and counseling at the clinic.

“As an undergraduate, it’s almost impossible to get any hands-on experience,” Lauren Aziz, studying for her bachelor’s degree in public health, says in a clinic corridor between patient visits.

Working alongside her is Melina Santos, a public health graduate student and the student supervisor of the public health HIV program in the clinic. She agrees – not only did the clinic give her real-world experience early in her academic career, but it also helped lead to her current job at Tampa’s DACCO – the Drug Abuse Comprehensive Coordinating Office.

“I absolutely loved that I had that patient interaction,” Santos says, adding how much it means to her to provide HIV education to underserved populations, particularly Spanish-speakers.

“One of the most important things for me is that they feel comfortable talking about it,” Santos says.

* * *

Down the corridor and around the corner, a treatment plan is unfolding. Third-year medical student Jared Gopman consults with attending physician Dr. Phuong D. Nguyen about a patient, while first-year medical student Seth Vanzant hovers nearby, observing. The tiered system is part of the clinic’s “conveyor belt” method of progressively increasing responsibilities for students under professional guidance. (The medical students wear short white jackets while Dr. Nguyen and the other physicians wear the doctor’s signature long, white coats.)

Gopman has already done an initial check-up and assessment of the patient in question – a man suffering from several ailments, including cancer. Now Dr. Nguyen is going to follow through to make the final call on his medications and determine his needed follow-up care. The man is eligible for disability insurance, but it hasn’t started yet, and he remains without insurance in the interim.

The three slip inside the examination room, and Dr. Nguyen takes the lead.

“How long have you been on this regimen?” she asks, regarding his medications. A few moments later she tells him about another medication they would like him to try to help him with his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“I may have an ulcer, too, and I don’t know it,” the man says. Gopman takes the man’s chart from Dr. Nguyen and makes notes about setting up a GI endoscopy and also a colonoscopy.

“Trying to keep my costs down, stretching my money as much as I can to pay my bills,” the man says.

They discuss his jaw pain and some other needed tests and exams – with Gopman speaking loudly and sitting on a rolling stool close to the man, who is hard of hearing. Gopman writes everything down for him. All the while, he and Dr. Nguyen try to align care the man needs with the services he can get at the BRIDGE clinic or other low-cost area providers as well as reasonably priced medication.

“Hopefully this will help you before disability kicks in, because we know you can’t afford all these medicines,” Gopman tells him.

At the end of the day, says Koti, the second-year operations coordinator, though members of the community receive free medical attention, the students are just as grateful to the patients for the education they get in return.

“That’s an incredible social gift,” Koti says. “It tremendously outweighs whatever we’re doing for them.”

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

They arrive after a day studying anatomy, lecturing on genetics or working in offices and laboratories:

There is the neuropathologist on oboe. The College of Medicine associate dean for student affairs on flute. The industrial psychologist from Moffitt Cancer Center on cello.

Shortly after 6:30 p.m. on a Monday evening, about two dozen of them chatter, place their chairs in rows of a semi-circle, and fill a small classroom in the Morsani Center with tentative, discordant noise.

“Tuning!” calls their leader, Dr. Frazier Stevenson, tapping his white conductor’s wand on his music stand at the front of the group. Just moments earlier Stevenson had whisked into the room carrying a still-hot burger in a fast-food white paper bag. “Strings!”

Every Monday night for the past three years, members of the USF Health Orchestra and Choir have gathered here, a reprieve from the pressure of their day jobs, research and studies, to bask in the warmth of a task and a beauty of a different realm. They are students, faculty and staff members from USF Health, as well as other university departments and members of the larger community, who for years have nurtured a separate passion for music alongside their careers.

“It’s completely different than the way we use our brain the rest of the day,” says Chelsea Schmitt, 23, a long-time violin player who is studying for a master’s degree in medical sciences.

On this evening, they are rehearsing for the upcoming holiday concert to be held Dec. 9 and Dec. 11 in the USF Health Rotunda (see information above). It is one of three sets of concerts performed by the orchestra and chorus throughout the year.

As the members settle into their seats, Stevenson focuses their energies on the first of the pieces for the holiday concert: “El Cristo de Palacaguina.” It is a Nicaraguan revolutionary Christmas song and will be accompanied by the chorus, a guitar and castanets. The violins are sweeping and majestic, the rhythms intricate and the flute melody sonorous.

Some members tap out the rhythms with a foot clad in sneakers or sandals; most have come here in jeans and sweatshirts, shorts and T-shirts; a few are still in medical scrubs.

After several run-throughs, they move onto “A Musicological Journey through the Twelve Days of Christmas.” Stevenson has orchestrated the clever piece, originally for piano and chorus, himself– as he does with much of the music, re-writing horn parts, for example, for the saxophones in the group. On this piece, each day of Christmas enjoys its own genre of music – from the baroque, to a Mozart-like arrangement, to a romantic, breathtaking take on the Dying Swan, to a thundering Wagner-esque piece, a Johann Strauss waltz and a John Philip Sousa march.

“That’s it! That’s Tchaikovsky!” Stevenson yells happily after a flawless run-through of a part that carries echoes of The Nutcracker.

His exuberance and energy are a hallmark of the rehearsals and keep them moving steadily along for the full two hours. Stevenson, a nephrologist and associate dean for undergraduate medical education at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, has also performed as a conductor, pianist and singer with the Tampa Bay Master Chorale as well as choruses in San Francisco and Sacramento.

The USF Health orchestra members are fully accustomed to his jocular prodding and witty asides.

“The idea is if you don’t play, you have to dance,” he jokes, asking more of an alto saxophone player.

“It’s a little chatter boxy,” he says at another point, asking the violins for a less assertive, rounder tone in a pastoral piece. “It’s not shepherds in New York City.”

Clarinet player Hannah Rutherford says Stevenson’s additional fun stories – such as the time he outlined the health conditions of the late, great composers, from bipolar disorder to syphilis– are among the highlights of participating in the orchestra.

Rutherford, 23, who is studying for a master’s degree in medical sciences, played clarinet in bands through her undergraduate years at Duke University and through graduate school at Boston University. She is applying to medical school at USF among other schools, and says the existence of this orchestra played an important role in attracting her to the university.

“I’ll do this if I go to med school,” says Rutherford, who plays an exquisite solo in one of the movements of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

“My goal for our group is to bring great music to the performers and audience while making the learning process fun,” Stevenson says. “We cover a lot of musical ground (from medieval music to Beethoven and Bach, to an Arvo Pärt piece from the 1970s), and have a lot of fun doing so, building interprofessional collaboration at USF Health. I like to challenge the players to produce their best possible outcome, while at the same time respecting that these are busy professionals. Perhaps the most rewarding thing is watching players who have not played in years gradually get their technique back and produce collective beautiful music.”

Many in the orchestra feel that they get as much out of it as they give back in playing.

“This is a stress relief,” says Stefany Martinez, a tenor saxophone player and a clinician in outpatient processing in the bone marrow transplant clinic at the Moffitt Cancer Center. “I’m dealing with blood and sutures all day.”

For Martinez, one of her favorite moments is on the day of performance, when she sees some of the patients from the clinic in the audience, a look of peace and enjoyment on their faces.

“This is a form of medicine, too,” she says.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications

A team of USF Health researchers is celebrating World Immunization Week by kicking off a campaign that focuses on the connection between vaccines and prevention of infectious diseases.  The researchers join health advocates in 180 countries around the globe who unite to mark this occasion during the last week of April.

Sponsored by the World Health Organization, World Immunization Week promotes the message that vaccinations are one of the most effective public health interventions in modern history.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vaccines will prevent 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations, and 732,000 deaths in the United States.  Recent outbreaks across the United States and Europe of measles and whooping cough, which are vaccine-preventable, have been attributed to non-vaccination or under-vaccination.

The USF multidisciplinary research group, comprised of infectious diseases, health disparities, biology, and public health specialists, is partnering with local communities to bring high-quality vaccination information and services to adults in Hillsborough and Polk counties.  The project, called VaccineLink-Conexión de Salud, has three goals:

• Create long-lasting partnerships with low-income and minority communities,
• Provide  high-quality, accurate and sustainable information about vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases, and
• Increase access to vaccines

 
Dawood Sultan, PhD, and Jamie Morano, MD, MPH, are among the project leaders.

USF Health investigators leading the project include Jamie Morano, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Infectious Disease & International Medicine; Dawood Sultan, PhD, assistant professor of public health, Department of Health Policy and Management (HPM); Meghan Borysova, PhD, Health Equity Leadership Institute Scholar and research associate in HPM, and April Schenck, MBA, grant coordinator.The team is joined by trained public health professionals and Spanish language experts/translators Arturo Rebollon, MD, MPH, Viviana Delgado, and Veronica Estrella, MS.  Community member health liaisons and web-platform skilled technology experts are expected to join the project to help extend its outreach.

Those in Hillsborough and Polk counties interested in learning more about VaccineLink-Conexión de Salud can contact April Schenck at aschenck@health.usf.edu.

Campaign video:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs1ePbkuND4

Story by Drs. Meghan Borysova and Arturo Rebollon, USF College of Public Health 

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Pfizer awards $475,000 grant to Drs. David Sultan, Jamie Morano, and Meghan Borysova for vaccine uptake