From the Desk of Dr. Sinnott...

I recently reported to Dean Lockwood on the dramatic changes that have been happening in the Department of Internal Medicine. In looking at the most recent data, in the last three years we have added 50 new faculty, thus increasing faculty from 90 to 140. We have added 42 clinical staff and increased our budget from $80.5 million to $92.8 million-a $12.3 million dollar increase from FY14 to FY16-in a period where many Internal Medicine departments are seeing budget decreases. We have promoted 22 faculty from Assistant to Associate or full Professor. This past fiscal year we added five new contracts. In Undergraduate Medical Education we again received the Outstanding Department Award. In Graduate Medical Education our residency recruiting is continuing to move ahead with average board scores increasing from 223 to 231 to 243 of USMLE Part II over the last three years. We have also increased the number of residents from 87 to 100. We have greatly expanded the number of resident projects; in 2013 we presented 7 posters, 14 in 2014, and in 2015 22 abstracts or posters were submitted or presented. These metrics reflect well on everyone's efforts; as a team united we can plan on substantial progress.

Research is likewise moving ahead. The division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine is recruiting an R01 funded team to join Dr. Liggett in investigating airway disease. Infectious Disease and International Medicine is recruiting a research team to join Dr. The future holds a lot for us, which I will address at our State of the Department Address on November 17 ^th. Please save this date and look for email reminders in the weeks to come. This blending of teaching, academics, and patient care makes for a thriving academic enterprise and is the envy of many medical schools nationally. These achievements are due to you, the faculty and staff, individuals who have sacrificed weekends and nights to further the goals of the Department of Internal Medicine. I want to express my appreciation and admiration to a group who is not just surviving at this time of intense change in medicine, but prevailing.

The next issue of Insights will feature our quality assurance and improvement efforts. Stay tuned to find out what the Department of Internal Medicine is doing in the areas of mammography, vaccination, health maintenance, and community education.

The annual list of Best Doctors in America is compiled using information collected from surveys asking physicians who they would go to for treatment in their specialty. The result is a nation-wide list of 40,000 physicians. The Department of Internal Medicine is proud to have thirty-eight physicians included on this list. Congratulations everyone!

Allergy and Immunology  Thomas B. Casale  Roger Williams Fox  Mark Glaum  Dennis K. Ledford  Richard F. Lockey  Mandel Reid Sher	Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine W. McDowell Anderson  David Solomon  Frank W. Walsh	Gastroenterology    Patrick G. Brady  Soojong H. Chae  Jay J. Mamel  Haim Pinkas  Joel E. Richter
Infectious Disease  Sally F. Alrabaa  Beata C. Casanas  Sandra Gompf  Daniel Haight  Douglas Allen Holt  Jose Montero  Richard Oehler  Charurut Somboonwit  John Toney  Ana Paula Velez   Todd S. Wills	Internal Medicine   Erika Abel  Bryan Bognar  Charles M. Edwards  Denise K. Edwards  Deborah A. Humphrey  John D. McCormick  Cuc Mai  Hugo J. Narvarte  Kevin O'Brien	Rheumatology    John D. Carter  Dennis K. Ledford  Joanne Valeriano-Marcet

Read more about the list here. 

 

Dr. Ulyee Choe Honored as he Transitions From Polk Health Department Director to Pinellas Health Department Director.

Dr. Djulbegovic's team also had their article on Health Care as a Game Theory Problem featured by the Washington Post. Read the Washington Post article here.

Dr. John Sinnott and Dr. Chris Cooper recently made an exploratory visit to the University of Cartagena in Colombia. The University is one of Colombia's premier government medical schools, but they have limited affiliations internationally; there are 31 Caribbean Community (CARICOM)countries but only a few offer Internal Medicine sub specialty training. The purpose of this visit was to discuss possible areas of collaboration with USF, ranging from administrator training programs, student exchanges, and developing an Infectious Disease fellowship program.

Dr. Lynette Menezes and Cristienn Joudaane MS, MBA are in the process of planning out line-specific goals. One goal is to begin placing international patients at Shriner's Hospital for Children in Tampa.

"Overall the level of medical education in Colombia is outstanding" said Dr Sinnott when interviewed by the local media, " Rector Chacon has a wonderful vision for the school".

American College of Physicians 2015 Annual Scientific Meeting

Dr. Frederick Slone, with the help of former student Bridge director Dr. Michelle Rosario, and Masters student Felicia Ourn, received a $10,500 grant from the Colon Cancer Alliance to support Colon Cancer screening for the Bridge Healthcare Clinic. This is the third year in a row that Dr. Slone has applied for and received a grant from the Colon Cancer Alliance.

Dr. Slone also had two abstracts accepted for presentation at international conferences. He will present at the IPRED conference on Disaster Medicine in Tel Aviv, Israel and the IMSH 2016 conference on simulation in healthcare in San Diego . At IMSH Dr. Slone will present in conjunction with Dr. Art Cooper from Columbia University. The abstract pertains to the development of a simulation based examination for the Board of Disaster Medicine, the first simulation examination created for a high-stakes Board certification.

 

Dr. Slone was also recently named a Fellow of the American Academy of Disaster Medicine (FAADM). Congratulations Dr. Slone!

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The Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine recently received a grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Fellows Research Program to support their study on cardiovascular outcomes and HIV/AIDS in Latinos. Dr. Joseph Paruolo will lead the team with Dr. Jamie Morano serving as VA statistical/investigational lead. Additional team members include Dr. Minh Ho, Dr. Kelly Kaynston, Dr. Flor Vargas-Sanchez, and Dr. Manuel Castro. Faculty advisors include Dr. Sadaf Aslam, Dr. Charurut Somboonwit, Dr. Todd Wills, and Dr. John Toney.

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Evidence-based Medicine and Comparative Effectiveness Research's paper, When are Clinical Trials Ethical for Both Future and Study Patients, was selected as one of the nine best projects funded by the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program of the Florida Department of Health and was presented at the FDOH Cancer Research Symposium on September 18, 2015 at UCF. Dr. Djulbegovic was the Principal Investigator on this project. Congratulations team! 

Congratulations to Dr. Ramon Lopez Del valle on celebrating 20 years with the Department. Dr. Lopez has been a Professor with USF, Internal Medicine since July 1994, and is currently the PI for the USF Health SPRINT Study clinical trial. He is married with 2 children, and likes Italian food. 

Congratulations to Dr. Morrison on 20 years with the Department. Dr. Morrison has been a Faculty Member since the early 80's and a Professor with USF, Internal Medicine since February, 1995 where he served as Endocrinology Division Director.  He was also the Co-Director of the USF Diabetes Center, and the Site of care Medical Director of the USF Physicians Group.  He served as PI for the NIH EDIC Grant for many years, as well as Co-Investigator of the DCCT.  Dr. Morrison has two children and a grandson, and enjoys traveling. There are few places in the world he has not been.

Global Virology I: Identifying and Investigating Viral Diseases

Dr. Paul Shapshak, Dr. John Sinnott, Dr. Charurut Somboonwit and Dr. Jens Kuhn recently had their book, Global Virology I: Identifying and Investigating Viral Diseases, published by Springer-Verlag New York.

"This book provides trajectories and illustrations of viruses that have catapulted into the global arena (linked to humans, animals, and vectors) due to human behaviors in recent years, as well as viruses that have already shown expansion among humans, animals, and vectors just a few decades ago." -Springer

Find more information about this book here.

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Twelve Residents and Fellows form the Internal Medicine Residency Program had abstracts accepted for presentation at the upcoming American College of Gastroenterology meeting in Hawaii . Way to go Residents!

Dr. Robert Ledford, Dr. Cuc Mai, Dr. Kellee Oller, and Dr. Kevin O'Brien presented on

at the Alliance of Academic Internal Medicine Conference in Atlanta, GA in October.

Getting the most out of the faculty evaluation process: Pearls, pitfalls, and situated feedback in a group setting    

 

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Dr. Todd Wills was recently named Program Director for the Masters of Physician Assistant Studies and Assistant Dean for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. Congratulations Dr. Wills!

"We are delighted that Dr. Wills will bring his extensive background as a recognized and caring leader to the PA program. Under his direct leadership and with the helpof Brenda Diaz, former Interim director...we are looking forward to a successful provisional accreditation outcome and bringing new PA students to our campus in late spring of 2017." - Dr. Bryan Bognar, Vice Dean for Educational Affairs, USF Health, Morsani College of Medicine.

Dr. Restrepo was born and raised in Medellin Colombia. He came to the U.S. 10 years ago after completing medical school at Pontifical Bolivarian University in Medellin, Colombia in June of 2000.

He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at Abington Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania, where he was named the "Resident of t he Year" in 2010.

He completed three years of Fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA where he also earned a Masters degree in Basic Sciences, Pharmacology, and Human Investigation.

Dr. Restrepo later finished his training at the University of Pennsylvania where he spent a year working as a research and clinical fellow in the Pulmonary Vascular Diseases Program with an emphasis in Pulmonary Hypertension.

Dr. Restrepo is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

 

Dori re cently joined the Department of Internal Medicine as a Fiscal & Business Specialist. For the past 20 plus years, Dori worked in the USF College of Behavioral & Community Sciences and provided administrative support to the AIDS Education and Training Center grant. She recently completed her Certified Research Administrator/Advanced (CRA-USF/Advanced) training. She will be providing support to both the State and Practice Plan employees, including purchasing, accounts payable, disbursements, pcard transactions, travel, leave and other general administrative and fiscal support.

Located in Northwest China, the Gansu Provincial Health Department (GHD) encompasses 11,201 health institutions, which include 1,861 hospitals, 103 disease prevention centers and 97 maternal and childcare organizations. One of its most renowned hospitals, the Gansu Provincial Hospital, contains 95 departments and is nationally known for services provided in Endocrinology, General Surgery, and Gastroenterology.

Recently, a delegation from Gansu came to visit USF Medicine International, with whom they have been working  for over 8 years. During that time Medicine International has trained  more than 95 Gansu hospital administrators and 15 physicians. In 2016, Medicine International will host the 6th Gansu hospital administrators training program and are expecting an additional 10 physicians to participate in various USF Health specialty training programs. 

 

The USF Health team, headed by USF site Principal Investigator Dr.  Ramon Lopez Del valle from the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, studied 54 of the 9,361 participants. The USF team earned honorary awards for their performance and compliance in the study.

 
BAYADA Home Health Care is a private, family-owned home health provider with headquarters in Moorestown, New Jersey. They have 290 loca l offices that provide nurses, home health aides, therapists, and social workers to over 100,000 clients per year. BAYADA's mission is to provide clients and their families access to high-quality health care delivered with compassion, excellence, and reliability.

BAYADA has partnered with USF Health to provide primary healthcare services to patients living in Assisted or Independent Living Facilities or their own homes. With USF Health Internal Medicine's Dr. Lucy Guerra and BAYADA Housecalls Director Lee Levanduski leading the way, USF Internal Medicine physicians provide quality care for home-bound patients using a care delivery model that relies on an interdisciplinary workforce of BAYADA staff including: nurses, PTs, social workers, ARNPs and RNs. The goal is to eventually incorporate medical students and residents into this experience as a teaching model of home based care.