The USF Physicians Group is the only academic medical center on the west coast of Florida. So when the opportunity to lead USF’s practice plan came up, Jeff Lowenkron, MD, jumped at it. After working for the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group of 1,000 physicians, he considered it a wonderful challenge to help the USF group of more than 400 physicians to function more like an integrated multi-specialty group. Dr. Jeff Lowenkron is the new CEO of the USF Physicians Group. What intrigued him more was the chance to help drive […]

With strategic leadership, the college attained its ambitious five-year goal in two Tampa, FL (Feb. 27, 2012) — The University of South Florida College of Nursing has joined the ranks of the top 25 nursing schools nationwide receiving National Institutes of Health research funding. There are more than 600 colleges of nursing nationwide. The college attracted a record $1.99 million from NIH in 2011* — a 16-percent jump from the $1.71 million received in 2010. That increase propelled USF to a 25th place ranking on the NIH nursing school list, […]

Research Day speaker Dr. Stephen Liggett says understanding genomic variation in human rhinoviruses could lead to personalized treatments The keynote speaker for this year’s USF Health Research Day led a team that for the first time mapped out the entire genome of nearly 100 different strains of the common cold virus. The work may provide a powerful tool leading to the first effective treatments for the common cold. “It had never been done,” said Stephen Liggett, MD, professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director […]

The Marshall Center Ballroom wasn’t big enough to hold the record number of poster presentations, which also lined adjacent rooms. USF Health Research Day 2012 began even earlier than expected, as organizers let presenters set up their posters in the Marshall Center the night before the Feb. 24 event. The reason: to accommodate the record-number of researchers participating this year. A record 340 presenters participated in the 22nd Annual USF Health Research Day, an event that showcases the work of graduate and postgraduate students and residents, and even faculty and staff, from […]

For the week of February 20, 2012 – a snapshot of our colleagues making news across the country and around the world TELEVISION NEWS You can access recent television news stories about USF Health here: Media Clips Gallery   Dr. Jamie Winderbaum Fernandez discusses post-partum depression on Fox 13 http://hscvideo2.hsc.usf.edu/asxroot/HSC/Public_Affairs/20120222_Fox13_PostPartum_Fernandez.asx   PRINT & ONLINE NEWS Click through the headline to access the story   Senate approves split Tampa Bay Times Instead of losing $78 million in funding, USF’s Tampa campus budget would be cut $45 million, with its other campuses […]

USF public health leader involved in the FDOH investigation comments Florida’s rate of ectopic pregnancy deaths jumped in 2009-10 – an increase that may be associated with delays in obtaining care and illicit drug use, according to a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The state’s rise in ectopic pregnancy deaths, published in the CDC’s Feb. 17 issue of Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, runs counter to the national trend of steadily declining deaths. “It was surprising,” said one of the report’s co-authors Dr. William Sappenfield, […]

A nicotinic drug approved for smoking cessation significantly improved the walking ability of patients suffering from an inherited form of ataxia, reports a new clinical study led by University of South Florida researchers. The randomized controlled clinical trial investigated the effectiveness of varenicline (Chantix®) in treating spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, or SCA3. The findings were published online earlier this month in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neuroscience. Lead author Dr. Theresa Zesiewicz and colleagues at the USF Ataxia Research Center collaborated with researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess […]

Reminder: USF Health Research Day is Feb. 24. This event just keeps on growing.  While last year’s event set new records, this year’s breaks them again.  More details follow, but highlights include: • The venue was a huge hit last year, so the location remains at the Marshall Center. • A dedicated shuttle running between USF Health and the Marshall Center. • A record-number of poster presentations (340 vs. 260 last year). • A record-number of undergraduates presenting (29 vs. 22). • First year for presentations from the new College of Pharmacy students. • Ten selected […]

Tampa Bay area media got their first look Wednesday at USF Health’s new Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS), a first-of-its-kind center on a fast track to become a national model for transforming the education, training and assessment of health professionals based on competence. The $38-million three-story facility, which covers a full city block in downtown Tampa, opened for business last week and already has hundreds of bookings for courses and events by learners and stakeholders.  The grand opening ceremony will be held next month. Journalists were greeted […]

For the week of February 6, 2012 – a snapshot of our colleagues making news across the country and around the world TELEVISION NEWS You can access recent television news stories about USF Health here: Media Clips Gallery   Teaching compassion in medicine WCSH6 “We want to make sure that these students exhibit not only the qualities that will make them outstanding physicians, outstanding clinicians, but also leaders,” explains Dr. Alicia Monroe, Vice Dean of Educational Affairs at USF’s College of Medicine.   Managing weight with medication WTVT – Fox […]