April 2015                                                                                                                    Volume 3 | Issue 2

        
            
Patient Centered...
Teaching | Research | Care
From the Desk of Dr. Sinnott...

 

Our Department of Internal Medicine continues to thrive as we attain the ambitious goals we set for ourselves and continue to pursue Dean Lockwood's vision of expansion and quality care. In research, Dr. Richard Lockey, our Chief of Allergy & Immunology, is starting a new venture with an online journal.  The online journal will enable faculty and trainees to experience as well as enhance their publishing and help advance our national reputation as a department. This journal will be edited by select members of each division and should be online soon. Secondly, we are developing a new model of clinical research under the supervision of Dr. Jason Wilson, Emergency Medicine Division and Dr. Stephanie Taylor, Hospital Medicine Division. Through this program, Acute Care patients will be able to enroll in studies through the Division of Emergency Medicine, be admitted to an appropriate Internal Medicine service and discharged to our clinic for patient follow up. Dr. Wilson and Dr. Taylor will be assisting with proposals and examining budgets.

 

In academics, we had another outstanding year.  We reached our best resident match to date with our expansion of 12 spots. We currently have 100 residents, one of the larger residencies in the US. Our team should be congratulated for renewing their efforts to yield a high quality match. The Medical Student Award clearly recognized the teaching skills and leadership of the Department of Internal Medicine (DOIM).  We were voted the Best Clerkship by the class of 2015.  Our attendings swept a number of awards as well. Dr. Dennis Ledford was recognized with the Tow Humanism Award; his son, Dr. Robert Ledford received the John T Sinnott Outstanding Professor Award. One of our residents, Aly Strauss, finished the streak by being selected as Outstanding Intern Instructor. USF Medicine International has sent more than 634 students abroad since 2006 and received 208 international students since 2007. We currently received 38 exchange students for observerships since July 2014. These efforts clearly reflect the Department's commitment to outstanding teaching.

 

For Patient Centered Care, we are responding to the mandate to expand. This July, we are adding eight Hospitalists, two Digestive Disease and Nutrition attendings, three Pulmonary and Critical Care attendings, five Primary Care attendings and two Palliative Care attendings. These 20 new faculty members will be detailed in the next edition. We are finally starting to reach critical mass within the department where we can sharpen our focus on faculty development and research.

 

   

Warmly,

 

John

  
John T Sinnott MD FACP
Chairman
Department of Internal Medicine
top
Inside This Issue...

Patient Centered Teaching
Faculty receive awards from graduating medical students.
Patient Centered Research
New initiative to get patient participation in clinical trials at TGH underway.
Click here to read more. 
Patient Centered Care
Faculty, fellows, residents and students conduct medical service trips abroad.
 

ACHIEVEMENTS AND RECOGNITION

  

NewsIn the News
 
Mark Glaum MD PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Allergy and Immunology, published in the Health and Fitness section of the Tampa Tribune, I'm always congested! Are my allergies changing as I age? on March 28th.
 
 
pubsPublications/Presentations

 


Richard Lockey MD
, Director, and   Narasaiah Kolliputi PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Allergy & Immunology, and researchers in Dr. Kolliputi's lab recently published:

Kinases: a remote control in inflammasome activity.  Czachor A, Cho Y, Lockey RF, Kolliputi N. J Cell Commun Signal. 2015 Apr 1. [Epub ahead of print] No abstract available.  PMID: 25829284

  

Putting the brakes on age-related idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: Can Nox4 inhibitors suppress IPF? Turn CS, Lockey RF, Kolliputi N. Exp Gerontol. 2015 Mar;63:81-2. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2015.02.002. Epub 2015 Feb 8. PMID: 25668226

 

Aspirin-Triggered Resolvin D1 Treatment Enhances Resolution of Hyperoxic Acute Lung Injury.

Cox Jr R, Phillips O, Fukumoto J, Fuku moto I, Tamarapu Parthasarathy P, Arias S, Cho Y, Lockey RF, 
Kolliputi N. Am J Respir Cell Mol  Biol. 2015 Feb 3.

 

Richard Lockey MD, Director, Narasaiah Kolliputi PhD, Associate Professor, and Seong Cho MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Allergy & Immunology, published Adenovirus-mediated transfer of the SOCS-1 gene to mouse lung Confers protection against hyperoxic acute lung injury. Galam L, Parthasarathy PT, Cho Y, Cho SH, Lee YC, Lockey RF, Kolliputi N. Free Radic Biol Med. 2015 Apr 4.

 

 

   

Richard Lockey MD FACP FAAAAI, Director, and Emma Westermann-Clark MD, Division of Allergy and Immunology, recently published Debunking myths about "allergy" to radiocontrast media in an academic institution. Clark, E, Pepper, A, Talreja, N, Lockey, R. Postgraduate Medicine 2015 Apr.

   

 

For the first time the Morsani College of Medicine and the College of Public Health have co-published an article with the Beijing CDC.  Jamie Morano MD MPH, Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine, was a co-author of "Bridging the Epidemic: A Comprehensive Analysis of Prevalence and Correlates of HIV, Hepatitis C and Syphilis and Infection among Female Sex Workers in Guangxi Province, China." Chen, Y, Shen, Z, Morano, JP, Khoshnood, K, Wu, Z, Lan G, Zhu, Q, Zhou, Y, Tang, S, Liu, W, Chen, J and Tang, Z. PLos One. 2015 Feb 27.  This article was published through a collaboration with the Yale School of Medicine Fogarty Grant for Excellence in Scientific Writing under Principal Investigator Dr. Kaveh Khosnood PhD MPH, Associate Professor, Yale School of Public Health, Program Director, Global Health Studies and Program Director, Bachelors and Masters of Public Health Program.

 

 

Jia-Wang Wang PhD, Assistant Professor, Division of Allergy and Immunology, published CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease cleavage combined with Gibson assembly for seamless cloning. Wang, J, Wang A, Li K, Wang, B, Jin, S, Reiser, M, Lockey, RF. BioTechniques. 2015 April.

  

   

 awardsAwards and Accolades  

 

Undergraduate and medical students from the research lab of Narasaiah Kolliputi PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Allergy & Immunology, won Best Poster at the 2015 USF Research Day, as well as the Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award at the 2015 Undegraduate Research and Arts Colloquium.  Congratulations to Nima Hosseinian, Alexander Czachor, Joseph Leung and Priyanshi Patel for your achievements:

 

Joseph Leung, Jutaro Fukumoto, Avery Johnson, Young Cho, Itsuko Fukumoto, Ruan Cox Jr, Richard F. Lockey and Narasaiah Kolliputi Atp8b1, Advancement toward Therapeutic Treatment of Acute Lung Injury

 

Nima Hossenian, Jutaro Fukumoto, Priyanshi Patel, Ramani Soundararajan, Ruan R Cox Jr., Young Cho, Richard F. Lockey and Narasaiah Kolliputi

Atp8b1 Plays a Novel Role in Pulmonary Fibrosis through Impairment of Surfactant Synthesis

 

Alexander Czachor, Ramani Soundararajan, Jutaro Fukumoto, Richard F. Lockey and Narasaiah Kolliputi

Novel Role For Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) Signaling In Pulmonary Fibrosis

 

Priyanshi Patel, Jutaro Fukumoto, Nima Hossenian, Ramani Soundararajan, Ruan R Cox Jr., Young Cho, Richard F. Lockey and Narasaiah Kolliputi

Potential Role of Atp8b1 in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis through Dysregulation of Club-Clara cells

    

Dennis Ledford MD, Professor, Division of Allergy and Immunology, was the recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award as voted on by the graduating USF medical students class of 2015. He also delivered the Charge to the Class at the medical student graduation ceremony.

 

Robert Ledford MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Hospital Medicine, was awarded the John T Sinnott Outstanding Clinical Teacher as voted on by the graduating USF medical students class of 2015. This is the 12th time in the past 13 years that an Internal Medicine Department faculty has been the recipient of this award.

 

Kevin O'Brien MD, Associate Professor, Division of General Internal Medicine, was the recipient of the Outstanding Junior Clerkship Award for the Adult Medicine Clerkship as voted on by the graduating USF medical student class of 2015. This is the 7th time out of the past 11 years that his clerkship has been selected for this award.

 

Return to top 

appointmentsAppointments and Promotions
 
Drs. Anh Ngyuen, Viraj Modi, Shiv Kalan and Austin Follet from the Division of Hospital Medicine, were recently appointed to the position of Associate Director for the MAIN Hospitalist group. The MAIN service will approach 30 faculty members. Dr. Jose Rodriguez-Castillo helped establish and guide MAIN as the Associate Director.
 
Michael Teng PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Allergy and Immunology, was recently elected Vice President of the USF Tampa Faculty Senate. 
 
Kristy Andre MSM, Communications Director, graduated with her MPH from USF Friday May 1st. 
 
 
(left to righ) Dr. Ingrid Bahner, PhD SCP, Dr. Michael Flannery, Travis Dailey, Dr. Susan Pross PhD SCP, and Associate Director Bobby Collins. 
Travis Dailey MS4 won the 4th Annual Flannery Tibbels Award for his work in his Scholarly Concentration.  Travis will join the USF Neurosurgery residency in July.
 

 

 

  
  
  
  
  
  

 

hiresWELCOME ABOARD! - New Faculty Appointments & New Hires

   

Minal Ahson MD MSPH joined the Division of Hospital Medicine as an Assistant Professor in March.   She graduated with honors from the University of Miami with a BS in Microbiology and BA in Religious Studies. She received her medical degree from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in 2010. Having had international volunteer experiences throughout undergraduate and medical school, she was inspired to pursue a Masters in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She completed her internship in Internal Medicine-Pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and her residency the University of South Florida.  As a hospitalist on the USF MAIN Service, Dr. Ahson will manage the care of patients on all floors at Tampa General Hospital, as well as providing medical consultative services.

 

 

Seong Cho MD joined the Division of Allergy and Immunology as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in February 2015. Dr. Cho has extensive clinical and research training and received postdoctoral research training at UCLA, Los Angeles, California. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Allergy and Immunology, and Otolaryngology (Korea).  Dr. Cho is involved in patient care at James A Haley VA Hospital, Tampa General Hospital and the USF affiliated Allergy-Immunology clinic.   He is involved in patient care at the USF affiliated Allergy-Immunology clinic, the James A Haley VA Hospital, and Tampa General Hospital. In connection with his research, he is clinically interested in severe asthma. As a board certified allergist and otolaryngologist, his other clinical interest is in CRS and nasal polyps.  However, he is also seeing a variety of patients with allergic and immunologic disorders such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, food allergy, drug allergy, hives, atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, and various immune disorders.

 

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND INTERNAL NEWS

GrandRoundsSchedule of Upcoming Lectures for Grand Rounds:

   

Thursday, May 7th
Click here to view his lecture.

The Campaign to Zero - Sierra Leone's Fight with Ebola 

By: Asa Oxner MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Department of Internal Medicine

Division of General Internal Medicine

Morsani College of Medicine

  

 

Thursday, May 14th

Coagulation and the Role of Newer Oral Anticoagulants

By: Nathan Visweshwar MD FRCPC

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Director, Saba Program for Blood Disorders

Department of Internal Medicine

Morsani College of Medicine

 

 

Thursday, May 21st

Conservative Management of Low Back Pain: The Why, the When and the What

By: Rebecca Edgeworth PT DPT OC

Assistant Clinical Professor

Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences

School of Physical Therapy

Morsani College of Medicine

  

 

Thursday, June 4th

Vaccine Update for the Internist 

By: John Cmar MD FIDSA

Assistant Director of Medicine

Division of Infectious Diseases 

Mount Sinai Hospital of Baltimore 

 

 

Thursday, June 11th 

Adult Vaccinations - When, Who, Risk and Emerging Technologies 

By: Michael Teng PhD

Associate Professor

Department of  Internal Medicine

Division of Allergy and Immunology

Morsani College of Medicine

 

 

** Beginning Thursday, May 7, 2015, Grand Round Lectures will be held in Group Learning Room 5. Click here for a map to the room.** 

 

*All DOIM Grand Rounds lectures are held from noon - 1:00pm in MDL 1003, lunch is provided. They are televised at TGH B107 and FOB 1304

 

Podcasts of all Internal Medicine Grand Rounds can be viewed on our homepage www.usfinternalmedicine.com or by clicking here.


FSCFaculty & Staff Campaign: Have you given?

  

The USF Faculty & Staff campaign is an important way to be actively engaged and involved with USF by giving to any area you choose, whether its research, general operating, or a special fund.  Any dollar amount counts as participation!  The focus is giving to support our departments!

  

Dean Lockwood is the Chairman of this year's campaign and he has challenged our department with reaching 100% this year. We reached 88% last year, a nearly 300% increase! Let's do it again:

  

§  To support one of the Department's funds, click here.

§  To give to funds outside of our department and divisions, click here.

 

*If you would rather give by cash or check - please click here to email Carolyn Dawson (or cdawson@health.usf.edu) to receive the necessary forms.

 

 

Let's help Dean Lockwood reach his goal! Show your support for your Division/Center and ensure our Department reaches 100% this year!

 

Our current standings:

 

 


  

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed.  You make the DOIM outstanding!

 
 

GR IM Cares Health Screenings Update

Two USF medical students Danielle Grams MS2 and Shawna Foley MS2 completed health screenings for our faculty and staff. In February they conducted blood pressure and BMI checks, and last week they screened for cholesterol and glucose levels.

 

 

They screened 26 employees for blood pressure, of which:

 2 employees 140/90 and above 

10 employees between 120/80 and 140/90 

14 employees 120/80 and below 

 

They screened 21 IM employees for BMI, of which:

9 employees with BMI above 24.9 

10 employees with BMI 18.5-24.9 

 2 employees with BMI below 18.5 

 

Glucose and Cholesterol Screening24 employees were checked for total cholesterol, of which: 

10  had  total cholesterol over 200.

 

17 of these employees elected to have blood glucose measured (most were non-fasting). 

Glucose ranged from 59 to 103.

 

 

 

  
 
 
PATIENT CENTERED FOCUS
Patient-Centered Teaching: Preparing Tomorrow's Leaders
  
  PCteaching  
Internal Medicine Faculty and Residents Voted as Some of the Best Teachers by Medical Students
 

This year's graduating medical students voted on many of our faculty for their contributions to patient centered teaching.

 

         

 

Father and son duo Dennis Ledford MD, the Mabel and Ellsworth Simmons Professor of Allergy and Immunology, and Robert Ledford MD, Assistant Professor in Hospital Medicine, were both recipients of awards for their dedication to quality teaching and instruction.

 

Robert Ledford was awarded the John T. Sinnott Outstanding Clinical Teacher. This is the 12th time in the past 13 years that an Internal Medicine Department faculty has been the recipient of this award.

   

Dennis Ledford was the recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award and led the charge to the class of graduating medical students. This award is presented to the faculty member whom the senior class felt: 

  • consistently demonstrated compassion and empathy in the delivery of care to patients; 
  • illustrated professional behavior by example; was approachable and accessible to students; 
  • welcomed opportunities for teaching and one-on-one mentorships with students; 
  • exhibited enthusiasm and skill in professional and personal interactions with students;
  • showed respect for everyone with whom they came in contact; 
  • demonstrated cultural sensitivity in working with patients and family members; 
  • understood the patients' needs for interpretation of complex medical diagnoses and treatments; 
  • made an effort to ensure patient comprehension, showed respect for the patient's viewpoint; 
  • was personally committed to reflection and objective self-evaluation of their own skills; and 
  • displayed competence in scientific endeavors.

 

Kevin O'Brien MD,  Associate Professor in our Division of General Internal Medicine accepted the Outstanding Junior Clerkship Award for the Adult Medicine Clerkship. This is the 7th time out of the past 11 years that his clerkship has been selected for this award. Special thank you to Matel Galloway who coordinates the clerkship and assists Dr. O'Brien.
 
                       

Congratulations to our faculty who always strive to help our future physicians!
 

 

Patient-Centered Research: Innovative Ideas
  

Specifically, we have created a team that is present 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Overall, every study that we bring into the hospital will always have one investigator or sub-investigator in house. In addition, we are moving to a shift approach to scheduling our study coordinators to match the ebb and flow of emergency department care and the hospital setting. In addition, we have worked with our study sponsors to have research assistants in the department 24 hours a day. The responsibility of the research assistants is to pre-screen patients for inclusion and exclusion criteria and then coordinate enrollment with the study coordinator and the on-site investigator. We also utilize a call pool of very experienced nurses that are able to complete clinical tasks under the guidance of the study coordinator.

 

                                                                                                                                                                          Return to top  
 
Patient-Centered Care: Putting Compassion into Practice
  

   

PCCareDepartment Residents and Faculty Assist USF Health Students with Improving Health Outcomes Internationally

  

Each year during spring break USF Health students travel internationally to conduct medical service trips in rural communities. This past March a few of our faculty and residents assisted during these trips. Below are highlights from the medical service they provided in Nicaragua with Manna International. Future issues we will highlight a successful trip to Haiti.

 

Interdisciplinary Student Group Provides Health Education and Medical Services in Panama 

 

 

The International Health Service Collaborative is the first interdisciplinary student organization within USF Health where medical, pharmacy, public health, nursing, and physical therapy students work together to develop and implement sustainable health projects in rural communities throughout Latin America during their spring break. Founded in 2005, the IHSC has conducted health clinics in 9 cities throughout the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Panama.

 

This year marked the group's 3rd year visiting Chica, a rural community in Panama. Accompanied by Dr. Jose Montero, Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease & International Medicine, the students treated more than 150 patients in two days through a clinic they set up. The clinic consisted of a patient intake area, triage, three medical stations, a pharmacy, and a health education section where health materials and toiletries were provided. The students also provided health education in the local school to pre-k through 9th grade students on the topics of oral hygiene, healthy lifestyles, physical fitness and nutrition. The group also conducted a focus group and a community needs assessment by visiting 52 homes.

 

 

 

With the information provided by the needs assessment, focus group, and health clinic intake forms, the IHSC has plans to partner with other colleges within USF as well as with organizations in Panama to develop research projects and long-term health care improvement plans for the community. This year the IHSC worked with the regional health center that governs Chica, the local community leader, and medical students from Panama to implement their health care clinic and education. New this year, a group of 11 USF Honor College students joined the IHSC in Chica for two days to assist with the health clinic and in-school health education.

  

The International Health Service Collaborative celebrated its 10th year of service at their annual dinner on Tuesday April 21st. In attendances to hear about the IHSC's latest service trip outcomes and future goals were SR VP of USF Health and Dean of Morsani College of Medicine Dr. Charles Lockwood; Vice Provost and Associate VP of USF World Dr. Roger Brindley; Dean of the College of Pharmacy Dr. Kevin Sneed; Director of the School of Physical Therapy Dr. William Quillen; and Dean of the USF Honor College Dr. Charles Adams. At the dinner, the IHSC announced a partnership with the Honor College, and plans to do joint service trips moving forward. Additionally, the IHSC has reached out to Peace Corps so they can deliver some of the services requested by the community members through the needs assessments.

 

 

 

Forward Health and Manna International Project traveled to Nicaragua to provide clinical care in Cedro Galan.

The first week in March (March 1-8), Internal Medicine and Pediatric attendings, Dr. Candice Mateja and Dr. Brian Knox traveled with Medicine and Public Health students to Managua, Nicaragua.  Leaders Nicole Teal (3rd Year Medical Student) and Aly Strauss (IM Resident), partnered with Manna International Project to serve Cedro Galan's clinic and assist with patient volume, their Generation program and sustainability through medical education and equipment.

 

forwardHealth Group Picture

 

forwardHealth Clinic   forwardHealth Meeting

   

For more information on the Forward Health project, please visit: http://forwardhealthnicaragua.org/ 

   

 Return to top 

  

  
We Wish Our Communications Director Much Success in her New Career!
  

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you all that our Communications Director, Kristy Andre, resigned from her position with our Department. Her last day with us was April 30th.

 

While I am sad to see Kristy go, I am delighted to inform you that she will still be in the USF Health family. She will join USF Health Information Systems as a Relationship Manager to the Morsani College of Medicine. 

 

Kristy began working with me to coordinate our international training programs for the USF College of Medicine in October 2009. She was instrumental in building up the 3-week hospital management training program, international medicine scholarly concentration, student exchanges and medical graduate observerships, and the marketing of USF Medicine International. When I became Chair of Internal Medicine, I asked her to take on the newly established role of Communications Director for the Department to assist with strategic planning, branding and to help build a culture of trust, cohesion and transparency.

 

There are not enough words and phrases to describe Kristy and the tremendous support she has provided our department. She has built up our infrastructure, improved branding, and developed platforms and processes that make our department more robust and proactive. She hit the ground running, continually taking initiative to bring us to a new level, while finding the time to ensure everyone else is recognized and celebrated through days of recognition, employee engagement initiatives and through the creation of our annual Celebration of Success. She did this all while pursuing her Masters in Public Heath degree, quite an accomplishment.

 

Kristy has a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from the University of Florida and a Master of Science in Management: Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership from USF. She will graduate May 1 with her MPH (Master of Science in Public Health) from USF as well. Kristy's proficiency in organization and leadership assisted with a multitude of tasks and duties at the Chair's office.  For those of you who know Kristy, you understand the multiple demands and responsibilities that she managed effectively from communications and public relations, websites, newsletter, Health Information Systems liaison and assistance, Facebook, Youtube, IM teaches podcasts, employee engagement activities, social networking events, graduation and our Celebration of Success, just to name a few! We have benefited greatly from Kristy's expertise and talents and she will surely be missed.

 

I have been working closely with Kristy and the Chairman's office on distributing Kristy's duties, and we will keep you informed of the changes and key contacts.

 

I hope you join me in wishing her continued success in her future endeavors and thank her for all her contributions.  

 

  
- John
  
  
SHARE YOUR SUCCESSES! 
  
Have newsworthy content? Have questions about the DOIM? Help us get it acknowledged!
  
The DOIM has many ways of sharing our successes. Content to consider:
  • Nominations for those who go above and beyond
  • Faculty, Research, Resident or Fellow feature (including patient-centered focus)
  • Accomplishments, Awards and Accolades
  • Publications
  • International Activities
  • Socializing/Networking Opportunities 
  • Interesting articles you think the DOIM would benefit from
  • Questions on policies, procedures or general inquiries
Please email submissions for consideration in all our marketing materials to usfimnews@gmail.com.
  
  
Thank you!
Stay Connected
12901 Bruce B Downs Blvd MDC19, Tampa, FL 33612 · 813.974.4067