Students, staff and faculty from across the various University of South Florida and USF Health colleges gathered at the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) for the USF Health 6th Annual Interprofessional Education Day. 

In the wake of a global pandemic, burnout and a variety of other mental health problems are contributing factors to hospitals being understaffed. This year’s theme “Caring for Caregivers: Fostering Mental Health and Wellness in Interprofessional Teams” focused on solutions to help combat those issues and improve the quality of patient care across the profession.   

“Our USF IPE Day working group felt it was critical to focus on this topic given the current challenges that our health care system is facing with health care professionals leaving their professions, increased provider burnout and high rates of mental health issues, including depression and suicide,” said Haru Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, executive director of CAMLS and associate vice president of the USF Health Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice.

Approximately 700 people (500 virtually, 200 in person) attended the morning presentations by industry experts.  Jennifer Bickel, MD, FAAN, FAHS, chief wellness officer at Moffitt Cancer Center and professor of oncologic sciences in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, was the first featured speaker of the morning. Her presentation “Organizational Wellness: Expanding the Horizon of Well-being” highlighted key statistical data on the volume of patients seen by a provider experiencing burnout and steps the National Academy of Medicine is taking to increase wellness across the workforce.  

Richard Westphal, PhD, RN, FAAN, PMHCNS/NP-BC, followed Dr. Bickel.  Dr. Westphal is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing and co-director of the Wisdom and Wellbeing Program at UVA Health.  His presentation “Stress First Aid: Nurturing Resilience in Health Care Professionals” focused on sources of mental stress, how the mind reacts to the stress and team-based solutions centered around well-being. 

Judy Davidson, DNP, RN, MCCM, a nurse scientist at the University of California-San Diego, was the final featured speaker of the morning. Her presentation “Saving Lives: Suicide Prevention and Health Care Interventions” focused on the suicide rates of health care professionals, re-imagining some of the available interventional tools and changing the mental health-related questions on licensing boards. 
 
The morning sessions ended after Donna Petersen, ScD, MHS, CPH, dean of the USF Health College of Public Health, senior associate vice president of USF Health and chief health officer of USF, led an interprofessional panel discussion themed “Unlocking Wellness: Exploring a Toolkit for Inner Balance and Resilience.”  Panelists gave their perspectives on the importance of health care professionals working with a healthy work-life balance and how a better work-life balance will lead to better work environments and more positive patient outcomes. 
 
Panelists: 
–        Kelly Allegro, PT, DPT, board-certified clinical specialist in neurologic physical therapy, co-director of clinical education at the USF Health School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences
–        Kristin Kosyluk, PhD, assistant professor of Mental Health Law and Policy in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, director of the STigma Action Research (STAR) Lab
–        Abraham A. Salinas-Miranda, MD, PhD, MACE, CDVS, assistant professor, director of the Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence, associate director of the USF Health College of Public Health Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Education Science and Practice
–        Chris Simmons, PhD, LCSW, associate director and associate professor, USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences School of Social Work

Anthony Masys, CD, PhD, associate professor at the USF Health College of Public Health.

Kicking off the afternoon was Anthony Masys, CD, PhD, associate professor at the USF Health College of Public Health and an international expert in applied systems thinking, design thinking and futures thinking. He gave his presentation titled “Strength-Based Approach: Appreciative Inquiry.” Appreciative inquiry is more commonly known as a strength-based approach to systems change as it emphasizes generating positive ideas instead of identifying negative problems.  

Part of the appreciative inquiry model is using rich pictures to help diagram a way of relating personal experiences and perceptions to situations by linking a series of concepts.  
 
Dr. Masys’ presentation provided the foundation of the group activity and team competition for the event. 

Students split into interprofessional teams of nine to put the concept of appreciative inquiry into practice. Students shared good and bad examples of well-being in their workspaces and colleges and offered solutions on how to enhance the good examples and improve the bad examples.  
 
With the guidance of their faculty preceptors, teams used rich pictures to generate mind maps that illustrated how they plan to improve the overall provider well-being of an organization. Using a “Shark Tank” format, the teams presented their concepts to the sharks in hopes they will buy their concept. 

Sharks (judges):
–        Karen Aul, PhD, RN, CNE, CHSE, USF Health College of Nursing
–        Jennifer Bickel, MD, FAAN, FAHS, Moffitt Cancer Center
–        Somer Burke, EdD, MPH, CPH, USF Health College of Public Health
–        Joe Ford, JD, USF Health Shared Student Services
–        Vickie Lynn, PhD, MSW, MPH, USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
 
The IPE Day group activity was designed to encourage interprofessional collaboration among learners through hands-on activity. Teams worked together to conceptualize a strategic vision for how wellness can be operationalized to support organizational and personal wellness. The goals of the activity were to:
–        Understand the application of appreciative inquiry as a strength-based approach to navigating various solutions in the health care domain.
–        Apply a system-thinking approach via rich pictures to support ideation in exploring the problem space from an interdisciplinary perspective.
–        Translate insights from the rich pictures into a mind map to develop a strategic implementation strategy supporting wellness. 
 
One by one, teams presented their concept to the sharks. Teams had three minutes to make compelling arguments about why their concept is the best. 

The sharks narrowed down the field to three teams who then had to prepare a one-minute elevator pitch of their concept to give to the audience. Audience members voted for the winner electronically at the end of the pitches. When the votes were counted, Team Five emerged as the winner. The team’s approach focused on a solution that centered around employees finding balance within their work environment. 

Winning team:
Erini Serag-Bolos, PharmD, associate professor at the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy (Preceptor)
Camilla Cardona, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Physician Assistant Program
Hayden Euper, USF Health School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences
Christopher Guskie, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
Rebekah Minter, USF Health Athletic Training Program
Madison Moua, USF Health College of Public Health
Paul Munoz, School of Social Work, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Amiah Price, USF Health College of Nursing
Jenna Sabbagh, USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy

The names of the winning team will the engraved on the IPE Day trophy.  As the team preceptor, Dr. Serag-Bolos will keep the trophy in her office until the USF Health 7th Annual IPE Day. 

Story reposted from USF Health

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The USF College of Public Health (COPH) announced it has received a $100,000 gift from Florida Healthy Kids to establish an endowed fund in honor of the late Samuel P. “Sam” Bell, the college’s founder.

The gift will fund scholarships for doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows at the college studying child health policy.

Bell, who died in March, was a former Florida state legislator who tirelessly championed many public health causes, especially those that benefitted children.

Among some of his many initiatives, he advocated for the regulation of tap water temperature to prevent scalding injuries and death; rallied for subsidized adoptions for special needs children; and fought for the passage of a bill requiring child restraints in cars.

One of Bell’s enduring legacies is the establishment of Florida Healthy Kids, a government-subsidized insurance plan that has become the model for the national Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

At a ceremony held Oct. 10 naming the building housing the college after Bell, Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, chair of Florida Healthy Kids, announced the $100,000 gift.

“To compound his good work and innovative ideas for the CHIP program for years to come, we, as a board, decided to create for the COPH the Sam Bell Memorial Endowment Fund in the amount of $100,000,” Haridopolos said to the crowd of roughly 200, which included USF President Rhea Law and former USF President Betty Castor, the wife of the late Bell.

After the gift’s announcement, Dr. Donna Petersen, senior associate vice president of USF Health and dean of the college, spoke to the crowd and made note of Bell’s passion for both students and the welfare of children.

“For the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation to create this endowment with a $100,000 gift to the College of Public Health brings Sam’s legacy full circle,” Petersen said. “It is extraordinary because it reflects Sam’s enduring legacy in promoting the health of children, and his unwavering trust in us, the College of Public Health, to develop the next generation of scholars and leaders to ensure we continue to advocate for the best policies for children.”

Dr. Steve Freedman, a COPH professor of health policy and pediatrics and Florida Healthy Kids ad hoc board member, said earmarking the funds for doctoral students studying child health policy made sense, given Bell’s ability to use policy to bring public health initiatives to fruition.

“Focusing the doctoral fellowship on child health policy was a reflection of Sam’s commitment to the health of Florida’s children and his success using the policy process to achieve those ends,” Freedman said. “Advanced work in connecting public health to public policy is so clearly manifest in Sam’s public and private history.”

Chinyere Reid, a COPH doctoral student and a recipient of one of several scholarships endowed by Bell and Castor, told gatherers that scholarships such as hers not only lighten the financial load of a student, but they also act as an inspiration.

“Sam Bell’s generosity has touched the lives of countless individuals, including mine and many public health students here at USF,” Reid said. “As I’m about to graduate and transition into a public health career, I aspire to follow in his footsteps promoting the well-being of families and the community at large, just as he did. Sam Bell’s legacy will continue to shine brightly through the lives of scholarship recipients like myself, who are committed to making a positive impact on the world one small step at a time.”

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health

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The USF College of Public Health’s (COPH) master of health administration (MHA) program held its inaugural MHA Pinning Ceremony and Reception to honor and celebrate the commitment of its students on Sept. 22. Sponsored by Tampa General Hospital and MHA Advisory Board members, the ceremony, brought together faculty, staff, alumni and health care industry leaders to recognize the dedication and promise of these future health care professionals.

The ceremony commenced with an address from Dr. Donna Petersen, COPH dean and senior associate vice president of USF Health, emphasizing the importance of preparing professionals not only with the right knowledge and skills, but also the right attitudes and character.

“Accepting this pin is a promise. We’re going to do everything in our power to prepare you to be highly effective, ethical and successful professionals,” Petersen said, “And in return, you promise us that you will honor what you learn here as you go forward and remain a part of our community.”

Next, Dr. Victor Weeden, assistant professor and director of the MHA program, spoke of the vision behind the pinning ceremony.

 “The MHA faculty wanted to do something special for the students to acknowledge an important milestone in their career,” he said. “We believe these future leaders should be publicly recognized for committing themselves to the health care profession and being competitively selected for MHA admission. We hope the ceremony will foster a heightened sense of pride and belonging for this special group of students.”

Alumni representatives played a crucial role in the ceremony, presenting the pins to second-year students. Their involvement highlighted the strong alumni engagement in the MHA program and its continued growth. First-year students were then given their pins from the newly pinned second-year students, a tradition that the program hopes to continue.

After the pinning of the students, two MHA alumni and advisory board members Seena Salyani and Steven Chew gave their remarks.

Salyani, CEO of Gastro Florida, praised the students for their commitment to a health care career and emphasized the importance of professionalism.

“Take pride in what you are doing as you enter a challenging field. It will have its ups and downs, but you will have an impact on people’s lives and making life better. Even after going through COVID-19 here, you are coming back even stronger,” Salyani said.

Sharing valuable insights about the health care field’s challenges and the need for creative problem-solving, Chew, vice president of service lines at Tampa General Hospital, urged the students to see the applicability of their knowledge and embrace the spirit of innovation.

“There are headwinds within health care that are real. You have payers wanting to pay less, patient experience, consumers and the rising cost of health care—and all of those problems need to be solved by thinking outside the box,” Chew said. “You’re going to have to apply and see what makes a difference.”

In closing, Dr. Mark Moseley, president of USF Tampa General Physician, emphasized the need for a collective effort to fix a broken health care system. He encouraged the students to consider their careers as contributing to an infinite game of improving health care, where fulfillment comes from a sense of purpose and giving back to society.

“What we need is a coalition of the willing who are committed to the infinite game of improving health care. We don’t declare a winner and a loser in health care, but you can join us in this just cause,” Moseley said. “Through your hard work and effort, you can contribute to the welfare and benefit of others. It will be all-consuming. It will be joyful. It will be challenging. But at the end of the day, when you’re done with your career, you will look back and you will be fulfilled. And if you’re lucky, you’ll get a chance to bring others along with you.”

View all photos of the ceremony here.

Story by Caitlin Keough, USF College of Public Health

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USF Health’s international and interprofessional collaborations continue through a recent trip to Gifu University in Japan and Seoul National University in Korea.

USF has active collaborations with students visiting both universities, and USF faculty and a graduate student recently visited the universities as part of long-standing collaborative affiliations.

The affiliation with Gifu University, which is based in the USF Health College of Public Health, is an example of several connections USF and USF Health have around the world that offer research, education and study-abroad opportunities. In addition, it is an example of the cross-college collaboration and interprofessional education and practice taking place at USF.

Included on this recent trip was Dr. Haru Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, professor in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, associate vice president of USF Health Interprofessional Education Program and executive director and CEO of the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS); Atsuko Sakai, professor in USF Judy Genshaft Honors College; and Emma Underwood, a PhD student in the USF Health College of Public Health, who is spending a summer conducting research at Gifu University.

The visit to Gifu University included lectures given by the USF team, tours of the university and hospital, meetings with faculty, clinical staff and leadership, including the president of Gifu University, and cultural immersive events.

The Gifu collaboration has extended to an additional USF partner in Thailand, with Gifu now sending a medical student next year for research with USF affiliate faculty at Mahidol University.

Story reposted from USF Health

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The Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative (FPQC), housed within USF’s College of Public Health (COPH), has one mission: to give Florida’s mothers, infants and families the best health outcomes possible via perinatal care that’s respectful, equitable, high quality and evidence based.

The FPQC partners with perinatal-related organizations, individuals, health professionals, advocates, policymakers, hospitals and payers (FPQC stakeholders) from around the state. The collaborative aims to develop health care quality improvement initiatives and data-driven best practices that ultimately promote the health and health care of mothers, infants and families.

A collaborative takes off

The FPQC was born in 2010.

“The need to focus on maternal and infant quality improvement issues was identified as a major issue in Florida when I worked for the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) as the state maternal and child health epidemiologist,” explained Dr. William Sappenfield, the FPQC’s current executive director. “As part of the multi-state envisioning and implementation process, we had to put together our Florida leadership team. I recruited Dr. John Curran [a now-retired neonatologist and former associate vice president for USF Health] to lead the Florida group of state partners.  As a group, we quickly recognized the need to create the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative, and the FPQC was established at the USF Chiles Center in 2010.”

The Chiles Center, also part of the COPH, is a multidisciplinary, community-engaged collective that promotes optimal health and health care for mothers and babies around the time of birth.

Curran was named the founding director while Sappenfield lent a supportive leadership role from his position with the FDOH. Upon arrival at USF as a COPH professor, Sappenfield became co-director. When Curran retired in 2017, Sappenfield took over at the helm of the FPQC.

“It takes more than a leader, it takes a team”

Over the last 13 years, the FPQC has developed a number of initiatives, resources and training modules to help ensure moms and their babies have the best shot at a healthy life. Some of them include:

• Postpartum Access & Continuity of Care (PACC) Initiative. Noting that as many as 40 percent of moms do not see a health care provider for postpartum care, the PACC Initiative works with women, health care providers and hospitals to provide a continuum of after-delivery care to prevent pregnancy-related deaths.

• PAIRED. This initiative works to better how families with babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) engage and communicate with staff about the care of their infant.

• Levels of Maternal Care. This program is designed to promote Florida maternity hospitals’ participation in a verification program that aims to ensure mothers are cared for at hospitals that have the expertise, equipment and resources to appropriately treat their maternal needs, thereby reducing maternal morbidity and mortality.

“The FPQC has created a strong collaborative organization that works with all major state agencies and organizations,” Sappenfield noted. “Other organizations and individuals want to work with us because of our success. In 13 years, the FPQC has gone from working with six hospitals to all 105 Florida maternity hospitals. It takes more than a leader,” he added, “it takes a great team to do this quality of work, and the FPQC has been blessed with a highly capable one. Moreover, the FPQC has provided a great learning experience for many students as graduate assistants and volunteers who have helped develop data measures, reporting systems and quality initiatives, conduct surveys, evaluate initiatives and more.”

What’s next?

While Sappenfield will be retiring later this year, the FPQC will continue to trailblaze on behalf of moms and their babies.

“It is the improvement in maternal and infant health outcomes that I am most proud of,” Sappenfield said. “The FPQC is well positioned, resourced, led and staffed to continue to make a measurable difference in the health and health care of moms and babies for years to come.”

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health

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Matthew Strohhacker had an early introduction to public health.

“When I was 16, “ Strohhacker said, “I was an intern at University Hospital in Cleveland working closely with their head of colorectal surgery.”

While midway through his undergraduate degree at the University of Cincinnati, Strohhacker reconnected with a mentor through his time at University Hospital who pointed him in the direction of public health.

“I was at a crossroads since the Affordable Care Act had just passed and I had some concerns about what that would mean if I pursued my original goal of becoming a medical doctor. I was given great advice that I pursue public health because the ACA would undoubtedly shift the focus of the American healthcare system from an individualistic approach to a population health approach. This advice has proven to be incredibly insightful over the years as population health has certainly grown leaps and bounds over the past decade.” 

During his final year of undergrad, Strohhacker worked on research projects in adolescent bariatric surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.  

“The epidemiologist I was working with recommended the USF College of Public Health (COPH) program, so I flew to Tampa to check out the school and city. I fell in love with both and never looked back. I knew as soon as I stepped foot on campus that I wanted to get my degree at the COPH.” 

In 2014, Strohhacker earned his MPH with a concentration in epidemiology from the COPH and a graduate certificate in applied biostatistics. 

“I am honored to have been a part of the USF Health in The Villages study. It was a great challenge for me as I got to work on mixed methods research, which was a new approach for me at the time.”

USF Health, in partnership with The Villages, a 55 and older active adult retirement community, completed a formative health assessment to understand barriers and facilitators to successful, healthy aging to achieve longer, healthier and more productive lives.

“I learned so much from my mentors and my peers throughout that project and ultimately wrote my master’s thesis from the research I conducted as a part of that work.”

After graduating, Strohhacker held many roles, but it was his time at a health insurance company that he said was most eye-opening.

“My role was a senior clinical strategy specialist at Medical Mutual, a large payer in Cleveland, where I grew up,” he explained. “It was during this time I learned something life-changing that drastically changed my view of the health care system. In the traditional fee-for-service health care system in the U.S., the health insurer is incented to keep the population healthy and out of the hospital, while the hospital is incented to keep people chronically ill and seeking services since the hospital is getting paid off of volume. This felt so incredibly backward to me. Since that time, I knew that being a part of tangible change in the healthcare system was something I wanted to be a part of.”

In December of 2022, Strohhacker started his current role as vice president of systems of CareNu, located in Tampa.

“In my current role, I oversee population health analytics, health care finance analytics and information systems,” Strohhacker said. “We are cutting through the traditional finance systems and creating an innovative model of care delivery focused on delivering the right care to the right patient at the right time in a way that is equitable and affordable.”

In doing so, Strohhacker has had a part in changing the way health care is delivered in our community.

“I get to use a combination of all my degrees [Strohhacker also has an MBA], but, admittedly, my COPH degree is the most valuable. I can genuinely say that I use my COPH degree every single day in my job.”

It was a fellow COPH graduate who attracted him to his current role.

 “I was truly impressed by Paola Delp, our president at CareNu. She is a pioneer in the health care space, particularly with innovative models of care. She has immense knowledge of the health care industry.”

And those aren’t the only Bulls at CareNu.

“Earlier this year I hired Tiantian Pang, who just received her PhD with a concentration in epidemiology from the COPH, to join my health analytics team—and she has been AMAZING! I knew the second I saw her resume that she was going to knock it out of the park, and she has.”

Strohhacker said that what he’s always loved about the COPH is its sense of family.

“When I would periodically travel back to Tampa, I would stop by the COPH to walk around and reminisce,” he said. “I observe students collaborating and professors interacting with students and I can tell that family feel is still strong. Throughout the years, I’ve kept in touch with some of my mentors and peers during my time at the COPH and it feels like I’m reconnecting with family when we have a chance to meet or chat again.”

Fast Five: 

What did you dream of becoming when you were young? 

The first thing I remember wanting to be was an architect, but I also played baseball at the time and decided my dream was to become the first baseball player to play a game in a stadium I designed.

Where would we find you on the weekend? 

My wife, Karena, and I are big foodies and love wine. You’d find us at a restaurant or wine bar around Tampa trying new and exciting food and sipping on a glass of wine (my research while on the USF Health in The Villages study showed that four drinks a week was protective for dementia). I’m also fully enjoying living in Florida again and taking advantage of the pool and beach, especially with my 3-year- old daughter, Elle, and 2-year-old son, Carter. 

What is the last book you read? 

The most recent was “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” by Marshall Goldsmith. Which lends itself well to some of my biggest beliefs in our healthcare system. If we keep approaching healthcare in the same way we always have, it can never reach its full potential. We have to think differently, challenge ourselves to be innovators, to take risks in order to be a part of the change we want to see. 

What superpower would you like to have? 

It would be so nice to be able to fly or teleport anywhere in the world instantly. 

What’s your all-time favorite movie?

I love most any comedy from the late ‘80s to late ‘90s. Movies like “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “Uncle Buck” and “Weekend at Bernie’s.”

Story by: Liz Bannon, USF College of Public Health

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What first comes to your mind when thinking about occupational heat hazards? Many will think about outdoor work in the summertime. The 2023 summer season has greeted us with extreme heat advisories, watches, and warnings. By late June, more than a third, or 36% of the U.S. population, was covered by one of these heat alerts on a single day! You don’t need to wait until June or be outside to consider heat when developing your job hazard analysis (JHA). 

OSHA fatality reports from 2017 to 2022 show 118 heat-related occupational fatalities nationwide. Although July has the highest average, cases span from April to October, including indoor and outdoor workers totaling anywhere from nine (9) to thirty (30) heat-related workplace fatalities nationwide each year. The annual average in Florida is two (2) workplace fatalities per year, about eight and a half (8.5) percent of the heat-related workplace fatalities in the U.S. for the same timeframe. Florida is the only state with cases in both April and October.

You are right to think that outdoor workers fall in a high-risk category for heat hazard exposure. I encourage you to broaden your scope further. Many processes across all industries can expose employees to heat hazards indoors. Keep in mind that outdoor weather conditions can worsen indoor environmental heat. Do you have heat-generating equipment in a non-air-conditioned space? How about employees working in areas where there is limited ventilation? Perhaps workers who enter confined spaces?

What to consider when developing your JHA?

Develop your JHA considering indoor and outdoor workers and all potential heat sources. Continue identifying at-risk workers who perform tasks that require increased physical exertion, personal protective equipment, and heavy clothing that can trap heat. Consider special groups that are at higher risk for serious heat illness. Pregnant people, older adults, athletes, individuals with pre-existing heart conditions, those taking certain medications, history of previous heat illness, higher weights, and additional socio-economic factors have an increased risk of heat illness. Uncontrolled exposure to environmental heat can cause mild to severe health issues that can lead to death. Heat-related illnesses and deaths are preventable. Now that you have defined your at-risk workers identify effective controls for heat hazards and implement a Heat Illness Prevention Plan. A plan should always be tailored to the specific needs of your site.

At a minimum, your plan should address the following areas:

• Who will provide oversight daily?
• How will new workers gradually develop heat tolerance? Temporary workers may be more susceptible to heat and require closer supervision. Workers returning from extended leave (typically defined as more than two weeks) may also be at increased risk.
• How will the employer ensure that first aid is adequate and that the protocol for summoning medical assistance in situations beyond first aid is effective?
• What engineering controls and work practices will be used to reduce heat stress?
• How will heat stress be measured? How will we determine if the total heat stress is hazardous?
• How to respond when the National Weather Service issues a heat advisory or heat warning?
• What training will be provided to workers and supervisors?

Applicable standards

Heat-illness prevention continues to be an enforcement focus topic for OSHA. The rulemaking process is still underway for heat-related hazards; thus, the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, is applied for citation purposes. In April 2022, OSHA implemented a National Emphasis Program for Outdoor and Indoor Heat-Related Hazards. This program provides guidance for OSHA inspectors to investigate any hazardous heat conditions:

• During ongoing inspections when cases are observed in the OSHA 300 logs or 301 Incident Reports, when an employee brings a heat-related hazard(s) to their attention, or during heat priority days. A heat priority day occurs when the heat index for the day is expected to be 80°F or more.
• When complaint, referral, or fatality/catastrophe reports regarding heat hazards are made to the agency.
• Form a list of targeted establishments likely to have heat-related hazards on days that the National Weather Service (NWS) has announced a heat warning or advisory for the local area.

How USF SafetyFlorida can help!

Keep your eye on the heat! Take action against preventable injuries and illnesses due to heat hazards. The USF SafetyFlorida Consultation Program provides your small business with free and confidential assistance in navigating this and other safety and health topics, performing program evaluations, and identifying needs for controls and corrective actions. If you would like more information, you can use the hyperlinks in this article and the list of references below.

References:

1. National Integrated Heat Health Information System. https://www.heat.gov/

2. OSHA Fatality reports, https://www.osha.gov/fatalities

3. Who Is Most At Risk To Extreme Heat? https://www.heat.gov/pages/who-is-at-risk-to-extreme-heat

4. Heat and Health Tracker, https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/Applications/heatTracker/

5. Workplace heat alert programs, https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/docs/HeatResponsePlans_508.pdf

6. Heat Illness Prevention Campaign, https://www.osha.gov/heat

7. Safety and Health Topics: Heat, https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure

8. USF SafetyFlorida Consultation Program, www.usfsafetyflorida.com

Linette Pruna Padilla, MSIH
Safety & Health Consultant, USF SafetyFlorida

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On April 15, a USF Health interprofessional team of students, comprised of two USF College of Public Health (COPH) and two Taneja College of Pharmacy students, placed second in the national CLARION Case Competition.

The CLARION Case Competition, originally founded by health professional students at the University of Minnesota, is an annual competition that brings together interdisciplinary teams of health profession students from around the country, including students from nursing, medicine, pharmacy and health administration.

The aim of the competition is to give students hands-on experience working in a collaborative environment to better health care and patient outcomes.

Each team is given a hypothetical case scenario and, with the help of a faculty advisor, works together to devise ways to improve patient health care.

The USF Health team consisted of COPH MHA students Stephanie Hersman and John Whelan as well as pharmacy students Gerardo Gutierrez and Nathalie Rodriguez. The students, whose faculty advisor was Dr. Rebecca Ditwiler from the School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences, were sent to the national competition at the University of Minnesota after winning the first-ever local competition held among USF Health students.

“The competition was a great opportunity for interprofessional collaboration and to put into practice what I have learned thus far in my career and master’s program,” Hersman commented. “It was an opportunity to challenge myself and to learn more about certain health care topics I didn’t know much about. I learned that in order to propose a new idea, it takes a lot of research. Also, working as an interdisciplinary team brings in new ideas and different perspectives that can build upon each other.”

All teams were given the same case scenario—rethinking shared visits to transform healthcare.

The students shared their ideas on how to enhance the shared visit model at Community-University Health Care Center in Minnesota. Their idea focused largely on incorporating artificial intelligence into the check-in, transcription and check-out processes and staggering patient visits with multiple providers to maximize time, efficiency and spending, all while improving the patient experience. 

According to Whelan, each student brought their individual experience and knowledge to the case.

“Our approach was to divide up the challenge into subject expertise,” Whelan explained. “Stephanie came with a strong understanding of public health as well as medical assistant work experience, so she handled our analysis of community needs and patient experience. Gerardo is especially creative and technology oriented, so he created our idea to incorporate artificial intelligence into the patient experience. Nathalie’s experience as a pharmacist at BRIDGE Clinic gave her insight into the roles of different providers and how they could match the needs of patients. And I used my background in healthcare administration and management to research our program design, cost of implementation, financing strategies and how to create economic returns by improving primary care.”

In an effort to promote inclusivity and address cultural differences during those visits, the students proposed the idea of using personalized avatars as a tool for patients.

“Each personalized avatar represents the culture and language of each patient,” Hersman said. “When a patient is given a tablet, their avatar will explain exactly what they can expect at their shared visit. Then, after the visit, the patient has access to their avatar at any time through the patient’s portal MyChart where the avatar can verbally communicate their after-visit summary in a manner that meets the health literacy level of the patient. The hope of incorporating personalized avatars into healthcare clinics is to promote health literacy, patient education and patient engagement across all cultural backgrounds.”

The team also developed a new way to score social determinants of health, which they labeled the ATLLASD Score System. ATTLLASD stands for age, transportation, lifestyle, language, alcohol intake, smoking and diet—all things that, Hersman said, can impact risk of disease and undiagnosed conditions. If a patient falls into a certain category (for example, if they’re older than 65 or smoke more than one cigarette a day) they are assigned a certain score.

The team’s work earned them not only second place, for which they received a $5,000 scholarship, but also the Most Innovative Award. The COPH’s Whelan also won “Best Presenter.”

“I am always proud to represent USF,” Whelan said, “and I’m immensely grateful that USF Health covered our travel expenses and arranged the local competition. I would recommend CLARION in a heartbeat as a great way to meet new friends across disciplines. I was also able to tie my coursework into the case, which helped me engage with the materials that I was learning in class. And all of my professors gave great input as we were studying the case.”

This was the sixth year USF Health has participated in the competition and the first time they have placed in the top three.

“I felt humbled and beyond excited to represent USF Health,” Hersman said. “It’s an honor to represent a university that has provided so much to me, through education, support, motivation, personal growth, connection and career guidance. The encouragement from faculty and staff, as well as the support from my team, made all the hard work well worth it.”

To view the students’ presentation, click here.

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health

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Samuel “Sam” P. Bell, III, father of the USF College of Public Health (COPH) and overall champion of USF, died March 14 at the age of 83.

Bell, the husband of former USF president Betty Castor, served in the Florida Legislature for 14 years. He dedicated himself to improving health policies throughout the state, particularly those policies that affected children.

When USF recognized his contributions to the university and the community several years ago with the prestigious Class of ’56 Award, he commented that by honoring him, he hoped the university was really honoring the COPH.

“It’s my main claim to fame,” he told a reporter at the time. “I had no particular connection to the college when we embarked on bringing a school of public health to Florida,” he added. “But the decision to bring it to USF turned out to be a great choice in every way. At USF, the COPH is seen as an equal partner in the health system.”

Bell’s contributions to public health are long and illustrious.

He helped bring about Florida Healthy Kids, a government-subsidized insurance plan that became the model for the national Children’s Health Insurance Program. His efforts also led to the state’s regulation of tap water temperatures to prevent scalding injuries, the subsidization of adoptions of special needs children and the establishment of a network of neonatal intensive care units.

“Sam’s contributions to children and public health truly helped shape our state,” said Laura Kolkman, a USF COPH Advisory Council member, a council that Bell once chaired. “I’m honored to have known him and call him a friend.” “His work will live on through USF and the many children’s causes he championed,” added Dana Nafe, another advisory council member.

Bell worked tirelessly on behalf of the university and college.

According to Kara Steiner, senior director of development USF Health, Bell established three funds in the college, one for graduate students to study public health disparities in Africa, one for the general needs of the college when he was chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council, and most recently, a scholarship for students studying public health policy. He also supported the Salud Latina program, jump-started numerous other scholarships in honor of retired faculty members for programs like health management, tropical medicine and maternal and fetal health and initiated the Global Health Symposium, which took place in 2019.

“Sam was the first one to contribute to get things moving,” said Steiner, who worked with Bell on many initiatives and scholarships. “In our last meeting, his goal was to get the directorship of the Chiles Center endowed to ensure that the health of women and babies remains a priority for our college and the state of Florida in perpetuity. No one loved the USF College of Public Health more than Sam Bell and his impression on the college, its faculty, research, students and programs will be felt for decades to come.”

According to COPH Dean Donna Petersen, it’s Bell’s commitment to service that will be his lasting legacy.

“I don’t know what drove him to be so dedicated to service and improving the human condition. But he was and he did, in everything he touched,” Petersen said. “He was strong and persuasive, but always gracious and kind. He was someone who just seemed to deeply understand people at both the individual and collective level. He understood that people need to be cherished and that communities need to be supported. Whether it was his role as a lawmaker, philanthropist, advocate or volunteer, he was inspired by the things that would make a difference in people’s lives. And in so doing, he inspired us to want to keep doing everything we can to make a difference, too.”

Visitation will be held on March 30, 2023. A memorial service will be Friday, March 31, 2023. For more information on the funeral arrangements and to read more about Bell’s life and service, click here.

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health

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This year’s USF Health Research Day set new records as more participants than ever filled the USF Tampa campus Marshall Student Center on March 3 to showcase the best of their scientific work.

The 33^rd USF Health Research Day included 457 research poster presentations by students, postdocs, residents, faculty and staff across all health disciplines.

Research Day is the largest research-oriented event of its kind at USF and remains the largest celebration of health sciences research collaboration across all four USF Health  (medicine, nursing, public health and pharmacy) as well as with colleagues in other USF colleges, including social work and engineering.

The event kicked off with the Annual Roy H. Behnke, MD, Distinguished Lectureship featuring speaker Kim Orth, PhD, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Following Dr. Orth’s presentation on bacterial effectors, judges reviewed the posters that lined the Marshall Center Ballroom. They asked students for more detail and clarifications about their research projects. Presentations ranged from pilot, preliminary, empirical and case studies to system reviews and reviews of literature or charts.

Research Day culminated with an awards ceremony in the Oval Theatre announcing the winners in 29 competitive categories – including 18 monetary awards totaling $8,600.

research award. (Photo by Sara Stubben)

The USF College of Public Health had a total of six students with winning posters and another three who were invited to be oral presenters. Those students and their awards are:

• Best Poster the field of Other Research: Brooke Broxterman (COPH master’s student)
• The Basic Science, Clinical & Translational Research Award COPH: Doctoral Student Research – Rafaella Stein Elger
• The Basic Science, Clinical & Translational Research Award COPH: Master’s Student Research – Paula Hernandez
• The Community Research Award COPH: Doctoral Student Research – Suman Chowdhury
• The Community Research Award COPH: Master’s Student Research – Bence Nagy
• The USF Health Dean’s Interprofessional Research Award: Romina Beltran (COPH master’s student)
• Invited Oral COPH Presenters: Anthony Nguyen (COPH doctoral student), Marshara Fross (COPH doctoral student), Pradeep Annamalai Subramani (COPH postdoctoral scholar)

For the full USF Health Research Day story, click here.

Excerpts from USF Health Communications and Research. Written by Sarah Worth. 

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