Message of Gratitude from Interim Dean, Sarah Wood |
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It has been an honor and pleasure to serve as Interim Dean of the College of Medicine for the last 10 months. I could not have done it without the support and dedication of our extraordinary faculty, staff, students, residents and fellows as well as our university and community partners. I wish to express my deepest gratitude and heartfelt thanks to everyone for their resilience, partnership and encouragement during this past year. You have all created a truly inspiring culture of fellowship, hard work and collaboration. I have learned and grown a tremendous amount, and look forward to returning in the weeks ahead to my work focusing on undergraduate and graduate medical education at FAU.
I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the College’s many accomplishments in 2021. Despite ongoing challenges with the pandemic, we pivoted and responded in thoughtful and creative ways to continue to deliver exceptional educational programs, research initiatives and clinical care. We successfully launched the Strategic Plan Refresh and Equity, Inclusion and Diversity (EID) action plan. As part of our dedication to equity, we welcomed Anita Fernander, Ph.D., our inaugural Chief Officer for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and are proud to have ranked number 24 for 'Most Diverse Medical Schools' in 2022 by the U.S. News & World Report. Additionally, the college received an eight-year LCME re-accreditation and national recognition for innovation.
Continuing our commitment to excellence, we launched several programs in 2021 including the MD/Research Distinction Track, the Post-Baccalaureate Program with inaugural graduates in 2021, and the Genomics & Predictive Health Graduate Certificate. The graduating class of 2021 medical students boasted a 100% placement into residencies and during this past year, we received more than 6,000 applications to our medical school for only 66 spots. More than we have ever received before! Recognizing the continued need to support talented medical students in their journey to become physicians, generous gifts from Ann & John Wood and Anita & Norton Waltuch in 2021, provided much needed scholarship funds for our medical students.
To reflect on the ongoing evolution of our college, this year we restructured the Integrated Medical Sciences Department (IMSD) into five clinical departments including Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Clinical Neurosciences, Population Health & Social Medicine, and Women’s & Children’s Health. The restructure enriches peer to peer interaction and facilitates a clearer understanding of our structure by external stakeholders. We have also recruited new clinical faculty, who will fill an important need in the community for high-value, personalized patient care. The recruitment of Dr. Richard Isaacson, an internationally-renowned neurologist and researcher, was accomplished with the continuing generous support of the Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. Foundation. Specializing in Alzheimer’s Disease prevention, Dr. Isaacson is now heading our FAU Medicine Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic and has received a major donation from the Altman family to further his efforts. Dr. Tatiana Pestana, specializing in culinary medicine at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at FAU Medicine, provides culinary medicine consultations, an emerging area of healthcare that compliments a patient’s primary care treatment. As a College we continue to prioritize service to our community and our patients.
I am so proud of all our accomplishments at the Schmidt College of Medicine and am excited for the bright future we have ahead. We are delighted to welcome Dr. Julie Pilitsis as our new Dean on February 14 and I know the next chapter will be an impactful and successful one as we continue to build on our achievements and remain steadfastly committed to our mission of training future generations of humanistic clinicians and scientists, and translating discovery to patient-centered care.
With sincere thanks and appreciation,
Sarah
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Emergency Medicine Resident Selected for NASA Aerospace Medicine Program |
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Congratulations to Chief Resident for Emergency Medicine, Rebecca Mendelsohn, M.D., who was accepted to the prestigious NASA/University of Texas Medical Branch’s Aerospace Medicine Program. This highly competitive, two-year program is the only civilian aerospace medicine training program in the country. Completion serves as the entry point to a career as a flight surgeon at NASA, a medical officer for the FAA, a medical director for commercial airline companies, or, as a medical team member of a commercial Space company, among many other roles. Only three trainees were selected from a large pool of highly qualified applicants, representing a variety of primary residency training backgrounds. In order to complete the program, Dr. Mendelsohn must obtain an MPH degree, become board-certified in occupational and preventative medicine, and aerospace medicine. Training is prevention‐based and acquaints physicians with the unique aspects of space medicine applications including medical standards and certification, crew health issues, biomedical protective equipment, acceleration, microgravity, hyper and hypobaric conditions, radiation, remote monitoring, and lifetime surveillance of astronaut health.
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FAU Study Reveals Gaps in Florida’s COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout |
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Early distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in Florida reached the intended senior population, but it failed to ensure equal access for lower-income and minority communities, according to a study from researchers at Florida Atlantic University. The study, published in the Health Affairs journal, explored the vaccine rollout at Publix Super Markets across Florida during January. At the time, state officials cited the Lakeland-based grocery giant’s large Florida footprint and said the chain was better prepared for the assignment than other retailers.
“The goal is to provide equal vaccine access to all,” said Jennifer Attonito, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and instructor of health administration in FAU’s College of Business. Attonito worked on the study with George Luck, M.D., and Mario Jacomino, M.D., both associate professors in the College of Medicine; FAU medical students Keren Fishman and Maral Darya; and Whitney Van Arsdale, a biological scientist for the Florida Department of Health in West Palm Beach. “Although there were sociodemographic disparities during the initial vaccine rollout, our study shows that Florida’s most vulnerable population, adults 65 and older, had a head start on getting immunized against COVID-19 because mounting evidence at that time showed that they were at greatest risk of experiencing severe illness, hospitalization or potentially dying from the disease,” said Dr. Luck, director of professional education at FAU’s Simulation Center in the Schmidt College of Medicine.
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Genomic Surveillance in the United States |
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Massimo Caputi, Ph.D., and Janet Robishaw, PhD., professors in the Biomedical Science Department, were interviewed by the New York Times last month regarding the current state of genomic surveillance in the U.S. The December 2 article, "Why Hasn’t the U.S. Found More Omicron Cases?", touched on recent improvements of genomic surveillance in the U.S., overcoming blind spots and delays to detecting variants and the December 14 article, "Omicron is a Dress Rehearsal for the Next Pandemic", notes the emergence of omicron being an opportunity to take stock in the progress we have made and the areas in which we are still falling short.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, scientists have been sequencing the genetic material from samples of the virus, a process that allows them to spot new mutations and identify specific variants. When done routinely and on a large scale, sequencing also allows researchers and officials to keep tabs on how the virus is evolving and spreading. The problem is that the sequencing process takes time, especially when done in volume. According to the CDC, approximately 80,000 virus samples are being sequenced each week and approximately 14% of all positive PCR tests. Despite improvements in surveillance, gaps remain that could slow detection of more cases in the United States. “Some states are lagging behind,” said Massimo Caputi, a molecular virologist at the Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine. There are other, more optimistic reasons that scientists have not detected more cases, although they remain theoretical. “Perhaps infected patients have mild symptoms, and hence are not getting tested and are not subject to genomic surveillance,” said Janet Robishaw, senior associate dean for research at the Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine.
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FAU Researchers Urge: ‘Prescribe Aspirin Based on Benefit-to-Risk Not Age’ |
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Recent guidelines have restricted aspirin use in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease to patients under 70, and more recent guidance to patients under 60. Yet, the risks of heart attacks and strokes increase markedly with age. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine and collaborators provide guidance to primary care providers and their patients in their perspective, “Primary Care Providers Should Prescribe Aspirin to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease Based on Benefit to Risk not Age,” published online ahead of print in the journal Family Medicine and Community Health, British Medical Journal. “Any judgments about prescribing long-term aspirin therapy for apparently healthy individuals should be based on individual clinical judgments between the health care provider and each of his or her patients that weighs the absolute benefit on clotting against the absolute risk of bleeding,” said Sarah K. Wood, M.D., senior author and interim dean, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine. “Primary care providers also should be aware that all patients suffering from an acute heart attack should receive 325 milligrams of regular aspirin promptly, and daily thereafter, to reduce their death rate as well as subsequent risks of heart attacks and strokes,” said Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.P.H., co-author and the first Sir Richard Doll Professor and senior academic advisor, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine. “While patient preference is always important to decision making, when the absolute benefits and risks are similar, patient preferences assume increasing importance,” said Lisa C. Martinez, M.D., co-author and an assistant professor, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine.
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FAU Lands $1.3 Million NIH Grant for Rapid, Automated HIV Self-test |
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Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, in collaboration with FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine, has received a three-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for an automated HIV self-testing assay. Another $1.3 million will potentially be awarded after a programmatic review of the progress made in phase I.
Waseem Asghar, Ph.D., is principal investigator and an associate professor in FAU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science within the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Massimo Caputi, Ph.D., co-investigator and professor of biomedical science in FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine, who has expertise in the molecular biology of HIV-1 and the mechanisms of regulating cellular and viral splicing.
With this grant, researchers are developing an affordable, disposable self-testing HIV-1 chip that can selectively detect HIV from whole blood samples, be highly sensitive to detect HIV during the acute infection, treatment and viral rebound; be rapid within 40 minutes; highly stable without requiring refrigeration; and fully automated providing true sample-in-answer-out ability.
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College of Medicine Grand Challenge Initiative |
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The Schmidt College of Medicine proudly announces that the inaugural cycle of the “Grand Challenge Initiative” has funded its first two projects. The purpose of this initiative is to address today’s complex health challenges with transdisciplinary approaches that demonstrate a commitment to excellence through collaborative team science. Projects are supported for 1 year with the expectation that the researchers will apply for external funding by project completion.
Congratulations to the following research teams as we look forward to a second cycle in 2023.
Project Title: Artificial Intelligence in UME Curriculum, Principal Investigators: Adam Wyatt, Ph.D., associate professor of Integrated Medical Science and Oge Marques, Ph.D., professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and professor, Biomedical Science.
Project Title: The Impact of Genetic Variation on the “Druggable Genome”, Principal Investigators: Janet Robishaw, Ph.D., professor, Biomedical Science, Gerda Breitwieser, Ph.D., affiliate professor for the College of Medicine. Additional collaborators include researchers from Geisinger Health System, Scripps Research Institute, USF and Rutgers University.
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Faculty Emeritus Awarded to Biomedical Faculty Member |
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Congratulations to Zhongwei Li, Ph.D. for recently being awarded Faculty Emeritus in the Schmidt College of Medicine. Dr. Li joined Florida Atlantic University in 2002 as an assistant professor, and was promoted to associate professor in 2007 and professor in 2013. During his tenure, Dr. Li has examined RNA oxidation damage, which is strongly implicated in numerous human diseases including neurodegeneration. His group has identified genes and proteins that reduce RNA oxidation levels in E. coli and human cells, and demonstrated that RNA degradation can be a major mechanism for eliminating oxidized RNA and for protecting cells under oxidative stress. Dr. Li also focused on RNA metabolism in bacteria. His laboratory has carried out studies of RNA processing and degradation in Escherichia coli, Mycoplasma genitalium and Yersinia pestis, and discovered new ribonucleases and novel pathways for RNA processing. Using a genomics approach, Dr. Li and his collaborators have identified numerous genes of Y. pestis that play roles in surviving infection of mammalian cells. In his role as faculty emeritus, Dr. Li will continue writing scholarly articles and collaborate intellectually to fulfill the goals of the college.
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