By Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications

In a recent blog comment, a reader wrote: "This is so cool! I never knew this existed. I wonder how long it takes for the (heat) pill to come out?"

Funny, we wondered the same thing!

Dr. Eric Coris, director of Primary Care Sports Medicine at USF, said USF Bulls football players participating in the study are given the heat pill to swallow at bedtime the night before practice. To get an accurate reading of a player's internal temperature, this ingestible thermometer (a pill the size of a large multivitamin) needs to work its way down through the esophagus to the gut by the next morning's practice, which begins at 8 a.m. Dr. Coris explained that the pill needs to be deep enough into the digestive system so that breathing heavily and drinking water doesn't cool it down.

Of course, ideally it's not so far enough along that it comes out the other end! Depending on what they've eaten the night before, Dr. Coris told us, occasionally the high-tech pill is excreted too soon to get a core temperature reading. "One thing we've learned in the three years we've doing this is that people's bathroom habits are highly variable!" he said, laughing.

The 115 students of the MD Program graduating Class of 2008 have achieved the highest average to date of any USF College of Medicine (COM) class on the Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) examination of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Physicians in the U.S. must pass 4 licensing exams before they may practice medicine. They are: Step 1, 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK), Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) and Step 3. Here at USF, COM students are required to take and pass Step 1 after year 2 of their MD studies. COM students must pass Step 2 Clinical Knowledge and Clinical Skills prior to graduation. Students take Step 3 during their year of residency training.

All 115 students in the USF COM, Class of '08, passed the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) on their first attempt in contrast to the national performance, which has a 96% pass rate on the first attempt.

The mean score for USF COM students in the Class of '08 was 237.5 compared to a national mean of 226.

"This achievement is a reflection of both the outstanding students we have at the College of Medicine and the excellence of our educational program and faculty," said Steven Specter, PhD, Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the USF College of Medicine.

The outstanding results on this national medical licensing exams are part of a trend at the USF medical school in its efforts to increase Step 2 Clinical Knowledge scores. Test results have been consistently on the rise since its new curriculum was put in place for the Class of 2004.

The outstanding contributions and internationally-recognized scholarly accomplishments of four USF Health professors have earned them the university’s highest honor -- recognition as 2008 distinguished professors. One faculty member -- Laurence Branch, PhD, College of Public Health -- was awarded the title Distinguished University Professor. Three have been named Distinguished University Health Professor – C. Hendricks Brown PhD, College of Public Health, Susan McMillan, PhD, College of Nursing; and David Sheehan, MD, MBA, College of Medicine.

Originally established in 1998, the Distinguished University Professor (DUP) award recognizes USF senior faculty across all disciplines who have distinguished themselves among their peers both within and outside the university through their research, scholarship and creative activity. Selection is based on a process of nomination to the provost and external peer review. The recipients will have their titles formally bestowed at the university’s Fall 2008 Honors and Awards Ceremony.

The Distinguished University Health Professor (DUHP) award was established and presented for the first time in 2007. The award recognizes USF Health faculty members for their highly distinctive achievements in research, teaching and service. Like the DUP award, the DUHP is selected through a rigorous process of internal recommending review and external peer review. DUHP recommendations are forwarded to the senior associate vice president for USF Health. Each awardee will receive a commemorative medallion and be invited to present at the 2008-09 USF Health Lecture Series scheduled to begin this fall.

As leading experts in their fields, these distinguished professors attract millions of federal research dollars to USF, publish in prestigious journals, teach and mentor students who have earned top spots as health leaders in their disciplines, and share their time and talent with the community.

Distinguished University Professor

Laurence Branch, PhD
Department of Health Policy and Management
College of Public Health

Dr. Branch shares the Distinguished University Professor award with Authur Bocher of the Department of Communication, College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Branch is an internationally-recognized researcher in the field of gerontology -- one of only four scholars at USF to make the coveted Institute for Scientific Information list of “highly cited researchers.” He has been credited with conceptualizing the widely-used term “active life expectancy” to describe the time period during which the elderly are fully functional and independent. He has received external funding of more than $12 million to support his various research programs. His research interests include successful aging, life expectancy, quality of life, functional status of the elderly, long-term care needs and use, alternatives to institutional care, gerontologic epidemiology and intervention trials.

In recognition of his excellent teaching at the doctoral level, Dr. Branch had an award named in his honor -- the “Laurence G. Branch Doctoral Student Research Award” -- by the American Public Health Association’s Gerontological Health Section. The award is presented at the APA’s annual meeting. In addition to his exemplary scholarship and teaching contributions, Dr. Branch has served with distinction in several roles in professional organizations and is President-Elect of the USF Faculty Senate. He is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Distinguished University Health Professors

C. Hendricks Brown, PhD
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
College of Public Health

Dr. Brown is an international leader in prevention science methodologies and statistics -- routinely consulted by other top faculty in his field at other universities. His landmark work has been a major influence in the development of prevention science, which uses statistical theory to evaluate prevention strategies in community settings and requires close collaboration with research teams conducting field trials. The Prevention Science and Methodology Group he directs is testing several different approaches to reducing suicides in youth, evaluating the long-term impact of school-based prevention programs on mental disorders and substance use disorders, and testing new implementation strategies for widescale evidence-based programs, particularly in the foster care system. The PSMG has received continuous funding from NIH for 20 years, and over the past several years, he has been the principal or co-principal investigator on 10 NIH-funded grants. Dr. Brown is a member of and presenter on Institute of Medicine committees on prevention, and an advisor to CDC’s Injury Prevention Center.

Dr. Brown’s collaborative research showed the dramatic, long-lasting effects of a first-grade behavioral intervention, known as the Good Behavior Game, through young adulthood. This work, recently published in a special issue of the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, found that diagnosable disorders of alcohol and drug dependence or abuse, antisocial personality disorder, and suicidal behavior were reduced 13 years after the first-grade intervention. This randomized trial is one of the few studies that have demonstrated such long-lasting effects of a prevention program.

Dr. Brown and colleagues across the country are also examining the role that antidepressants may play in youth and young adult suicides. They found that the Food and Drug Administration’s urgent warning about increased suicide risk among youth taking newer antidepressants was soon followed by a marked reduction in both antidepressant use and diagnoses of depression, along with a 13-percent increase in youth suicides. These findings suggest that the FDA warning may have had the unintended consequence of reducing treatment for depression among the most severely affected children and adolescents.

Dr. Brown has been instrumental in helping develop the Biostatistics Master’s and PhD programs in the College of Public Health, playing a particularly important role in mentoring students, fellows, and junior faculty members. He gets outstanding student reviews for his teaching of biostatistics, a very difficult subject that he succeeds in making interesting and informative.

Susan McMillan, PhD
College of Nursing

Internationally known for her contributions to oncology nursing and quality of life at the end of life, Dr. McMillan is the Lyall & Beatrice Thomson Professor of Oncology Quality of Life Nursing at USF. She was inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Nursing in 1993 in recognition of her national and international stature as a nursing leader – making her one of only 1,500 nurses out of nearly 3 million nationally who have received this honor. Dr. McMillan was named American Cancer Society Professor of Oncology Nursing from 1990 to 2000, the maximum time allowed for any professor to hold the award. At USF, she has garnered many honors, including the Jerome Krivanek Distinguished Teacher Award, the Theodore and Venette Askounes-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award, and the College of Nursing’s Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award. Currently the principal investigator for two large NIH grants, Dr. McMillan is recognized worldwide for her research and development of tools to measure symptom management and quality of life in patients with cancer.

Dr. McMillan founded and continues to direct the Oncology Nursing Program that prepares advanced practice nurses in oncology – a field of nursing in great demand. Her NIH training grant in cancer care was among the first to provide interdisciplinary education for nurses and physicians. She founded and played a key role in successfully transforming an interdisciplinary research group into the USF’s Center for Hospice, Palliative Care and End of Life Studies, which partners with hospices across West Central Florida.

Dr. McMillan has been active in research at Moffitt Cancer Center since its inception and is affiliated with the hospital’s Psychosocial Oncology Program, where she mentors post-doctoral fellows.

David Sheehan, MD, MBA
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine
College of Medicine

One of the world’s leading authorities on anxiety disorders, Dr. Sheehan came to USF from Harvard Medical School where he contributed to the conceptualization and classification of panic disorder as a biological illness and conducted the first controlled trial of Xanax for panic disorder. He was a pioneer of psychopharmacology research evaluating several classes of antidepressants (including SSRIs) in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Dr. Sheehan’s structured diagnostic interview, The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), has been translated into 48 languages and has become the most widely used diagnostic interview in psychopharmacology research and clinical settings. Modules of the MINI have been adopted by the U.S. government to screen and track the mental health of American troops, and the child and adolescent version of the MINI is being used in the largest epidemiological study on the mental health of China’s youth. Several of his psychiatric rating scales are widely used in international studies.

Director of the COM’s Depression and Anxiety Research Institute, Dr. Sheehan has been awarded more than $16 million in grants for psychopharmacology, pharmaco-economics and epidemiology studies. His bestselling book The Anxiety Disease (which has sold more than a half-million copies) draws upon his research and his own pioneering breakthroughs in treating panic disorder. Dr. Sheehan is widely sought as a lecturer internationally and has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry, the International Academy for Biomedical and Drug Research, the U.S. Congress, the U.S.Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institute of Mental Health, to name a few.

He was elected as a member of the American College of Psychiatrists and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Story by Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications
Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Media Center

Members of the USF athletic training team help to record players' core temperatures throughout the practice sessions. Each player's pill transmits a signal to the hand held data recorders.

The silicone coated 'heat pill' was developed using NASA technology.

The data collected by Dr. Eric Coris, Director of Primary Care Sports Medicine, University of South Florida, is used to prevent potentially life-threatening heat illness in student athletes.

Part of the technology involves a host of portable electronic devices that Dr. Coris and athletic staff members wear. The pill, ingested by players the night prior to practice, sends out a signal to the recording devices like the ones shown here.

The three year research study has confirmed that hydration and adequate fluid intake is a significant part of heat illness prevention.

This device is what Dr. Coris refers to as his "little weather station". The device helps record ambient heat and humidity.

From L to R: USF Health Media Center videographer Jean Rene Rinvil and Anne DeLotto Baier of the USF Health Communications Office.

At left, Doug Woolard, USF Athletic Director, joins Coris and the team for a morning of practice. Woolard noting that the university is proud to be part of a research study that can benefit the entire community.

At left, Dr. Eric Coris is the Director of Primary Care Sports Medicine for USF and Associate Professor in the USF College of Medicine - Family Medicine and Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. See Heat Pill Study Video Below.

USF Study to Prevent Heat Illness in Student Athletes May Have Applications Beyond the Playing Field

It’s another hot and humid August morning of preseason practice for the USF Bulls football team. With the sun beating down on the field, the temperature is already 90 degrees Fahrenheit at 9 a.m., and the “feels like” temperature is a sweltering 105 degrees.

Sweat pours off the players wearing heavy pads and helmets as they run, tackle, jump, throw and catch, eager to start a new season of Big East football. On the sidelines, Dr. Eric Coris and the team’s athletic trainers move quickly among some players who have briefly left the field, touching a small data recorder to their lower backs or abdomens. The device reads the internal temperature of players who swallowed a silicone-coated pill the night before. The pill, an ingestible thermometer the size of a large multivitamin, transmits low-frequency magnetic signals from deep within the gut to the data recorder held outside the body.

For the last three years, Dr. Coris, director of Primary Care Sports Medicine at USF Health, has led a cutting-edge research study to help prevent heat illness in athletes. Besides working with football players on the practice field, he has also tested the electronic pill with athletes in the laboratory, where heat and humidity can be carefully controlled.

“Since we began using the pill, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the number of players we’ve had to cart off the field to treat with an IV for heat exhaustion and severe body cramps,” said Dr. Coris, a USF Bulls team physician who has received funding from the National Football League, the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health, and from USF Health’s Sports Medicine and Athletic-Related Trauma Institute.

The player’s core temperature can be continuously monitored from a personal digital assistant (PDA) on the sidelines. If it creeps up to 103 degrees, the player is pulled from the field, soaked in ice water and given fluids to prevent the progression to potentially life-threatening heat stroke, the most severe form of heat illness. “They usually cool down fairly quickly – within 5 or 10 minutes,” Dr. Coris said. “We don’t want them staying at higher temperatures for long periods.”

Dr. Coris and colleagues have verified some things since starting the heat pill study. They know which types of players are more prone to heat illness – those massive defensive and offensive linemen who pack on the pounds and shoulder a heavy workload are at the top of the list. And despite some earlier debate in the literature, the USF researchers have shown that dehydration is a major risk factor for rising core temperatures and replenishing fluids and electrolytes goes a long way in protecting players from heat illness.

There is more to learn. For instance, why do some high-risk players with elevated core temperatures show no typical heat illness symptoms like headaches, lightheadness, nausea or cramps? Once a higher than normal core temperature is detected, how much time does the athletic training and medical staffs have to intervene before heat illness escalates to the onset of heat stroke? That’s the point at which the body’s organs start shutting down, usually around 105 degrees.

“We’re not sure, and that’s why this research is so important… There’s likely some individual variability in risk based on differences in heat shock protein, Interleukin 6, Interleukin 10, and other factors regulating your ability to tolerate heat,” Dr. Coris said. “We’re continuing to evaluate how typical it is for athletes to get to these high core temperatures, how long they can stay there before showing symptoms, and trying to define the danger point where they go from just being very hot to getting really sick.”

With data collected from the heat pill study this preseason, Dr. Coris is working on fine-tuning a new questionnaire intended to assess heat illness in athletes. The checklist correlates symptoms of heat illness with measures of internal core temperatures. Since the heat pill costs about $40 a pop, the goal is to create a more cost-effective tool that will help identify players who might be most vulnerable.

“A lot of recreational youth sports leagues can’t afford the heat pills, so we have to come up with something to protect the teams without access to the technology,” Dr. Coris said. “We want to help youth football or Little League coaches – using some targeted questions -- to predict which kids would be at greatest risk for heat illness problems the next day and intervene before they get into trouble.”

“Over the last two years in Hillsborough County, we lost two teen athletes to heat stroke, so if we could prevent some of those deaths that would be huge.”

Dr. Coris presented the latest USF data incorporated into the heat illness symptom index at the American College of Sports Medicine 2008 Meeting this spring. Once validated, Dr. Coris said, such a checklist would have applications beyond protecting athletes on the practice and playing fields. It could benefit outdoor laborers in Florida or workers in industrial environments where heat is a concern.

USF Athletic Director Doug Woolard said the type of cutting-edge research conducted by Dr. Coris, is a critical part of the partnership bridging USF Health and Athletics as well as the university’s commitment to the well-being of its student athletes. “At first, I don’t think our players knew what to think (about the heat pill),” he said. “Now that they’ve seen their teammates from a preventative standpoint get treated and taken care, they consider it a real benefit.”

Story by Anne Baier, Photography by Eric Younghans/ USF Health Communications

HEAT PILL STUDY VIDEO

Other Links:
Photo Gallery 2008
Reporter's Notebook

Click here for Dr. Klasko's presentation to the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute Board of Directors.

Tampa, FL (Aug. 22, 2008) -- The Johnnie B. Byrd Alzheimer's Center & Research Institute’s Board of Directors today unanimously approved a new CEO -- Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, dean of the University of South Florida College of Medicine and senior vice president for USF Health.

Dr. Klasko’s was named CEO immediately following the Board’s approval of the affiliation agreement intended to help the Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute and USF move together in advancing Alzheimer’s research and treatment. The day before, Aug. 21, the same affiliation agreement was signed by USF President Judy Genshaft and affirmed by the USF Board of Trustees executive committee.

“Collaboration has been the key for the Byrd Institute and we will continue to move forward under that model. Synergy is a remarkable force, and I am eager for us to accelerate that process,” Dr. Klasko said.

Huntington Potter, PhD, the center’s first CEO, has signed an offer from USF to remain as a senior scientist at the Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute and tenured professor in the USF Department of Molecular Medicine. Dr. Potter is also the Pfeiffer Endowed Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research at USF and principal investigator for the prestigious Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) grant obtained from the National Institute on Aging. “Dr. Potter is definitely very important to continuing the great work begun by the Byrd Institute,” Dr. Klasko said.

Dr. Stephen Klasko

Dr. Klasko will meet with all Byrd Institute staff on Aug. 25 and introduce the team that will provide transition support for the Institute. At a combined meeting of the Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute Board of Directors and its Joint Affiliation Board in October, Dr. Klasko will present a blueprint for strategic action intended to consolidate resources and services and leverage the talent of both institutions.

“We will look at every opportunity to generate revenue by attracting more NIH research support and tapping into entrepreneurial funding,” Dr. Klakso said. “At the same time, we’ll work to reduce administrative expenses, because every expense takes dollars way from what we can spend on Alzheimer’s research, patient care and education.”

“My role as CEO is to assess our joint potential, address the realities and lead so we can achieve our goals,” Dr. Klasko said. “I am truly committed to helping the Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute become one of the best in the world for outstanding research with the goal of discovering a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. I believe we can successfully do that together.”

- About the Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute -

The mission of the Johnnie B. Byrd, Sr. Byrd Alzheimer's Center & Research Institute is to collaborate with researchers throughout the State of Florida and the wider global research community to develop treatments to cure and prevent Alzheimer's disease. The Institute provides a physical location—the world's largest freestanding research center dedicated to Alzheimer's research—that conducts state-of-the-art research, in addition to serving as the site for coordinating and facilitating Florida's various efforts to diagnose, treat and prevent the disease.

- About USF Health -

USF Health is dedicated to creating a model of health care based on understanding the full spectrum of health. It includes the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of biomedical sciences as well as physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. With $308 million in research funding last year, USF is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of Florida’s top three research universities.

Melissa Matson, USF Doctor of Physical Therapy student.

This summer Melissa Matson, a member of the USF School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences DPT 2010 class, had a valuable opportunity to share the rewarding aspects of becoming a physical therapist. High school students from around the country gathered for a 10-day conference to learn about careers in the medical and healthcare fields. Matson had the privilege of being on staff for the conferences organized by LeadAmerica and held at DePaul University in Chicago and San Francisco State University. Many students arrived at the conference convinced that they were destined to be anesthesiologists or pediatric neurosurgeons, however, others expressed a desire to investigate the entire healthcare spectrum. After several of the “future physicians” discovered the extensive educational commitment for their career choice, they began exploring other options as well.

Throughout each of the conferences, Matson had a group of 18-20 students that she was responsible to lead and mentor in small group discussions and prepare the students for a history-taking opportunity with standardized patients. While other small group leaders were pursuing professions such as nursing, psychology, and pharmacy, Matson's group has the opportunity to get an inside perspective on what it is like to be a physical therapy student. They learned about the high demand for physical therapists, the benefits of a shorter educational commitment than an MD, and the wide scope of practice available to a physical therapist.

"It was an honor to be the sole representative of the physical therapy profession," said Matson. " I was thoroughly excited about recruiting future physical therapists, and I am thankful for the USF School of Physical Therapy for preparing me for this opportunity."

She also had the opportunity to give a hands-on lecture to more than 240 students on how to conduct the basic head-to-toe physical assessment. The 1st year classes she took with her fellow MD students at the USF College of Medicine gave her the knowledge and confidence to conduct this with ease.

"Melissa's involvement with Lead America reflects the type of young professional leaders we hope to educate here in the School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation sciences, COM and USF Health," said William S. Quillen, PT, PhD, Associate Dean, College of Medicine and Director, USF School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences.

The USF student also represented physical therapy in a panel discussion. Fielding questions, she and fellow panelists were able to open the eyes of the students to careers they had not previously considered.

Throughout the week following the panel discussion, Matson was encouraged by the number of students who pursued her with additional questions regarding physical therapy. Many were excited about PT as a career option. Several participants expressed a desire to remain in contact with this USF physical therapy student in the future as they are in the process of making their college and career plans. It has been an intense, yet very rewarding summer for Matson. Hopefully, we will now have a few more up and coming additions to the physical therapy profession.

"I answered questions from enthusiastic students wondering how they could work with athletes through physical therapy. It was a joy to share my passion with students eager to listen," said this proud USF Doctor of Physical therapy student, Class of 2010. Go Bulls!!

Other links:

LeadAmerica Medicine & Healthcare program

USF School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences

USF public health researcher Dr. Hamisu Salihu directs the Center for Research and Evaluation, Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies.

Black infants are more than twice as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday, and the racial disparity gap in infant mortality is widening.

This disproportionate burden is a major problem in Florida, where the death rates for black infants climbed between 2000 and 2004, defying an overall national decline. In some counties in Florida, including Hillsborough, the black infant mortality rate is more than four times the white infant mortality rate.

“We won’t solve this problem overnight,” said Hamisu Salihu, MD, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. “But we have a growing understanding of some of the major medical and social factors causing these high infant mortality rates, including prematurity and very low birth weights. Now, we have to transform the research findings into effective, innovative strategies to identify women at high risk for poor birth outcomes and intervene early to reduce the horrible impact of infant mortality among blacks.”

A leading researcher in the field of infant mortality, Dr. Salihu is a key player in the Black Infant Health Practice Initiative, which was approved last year by the Florida Legislature.

The legislation established a statewide collaborative -- the Black Infant Health Practice Collaborative (the Collaborative) -- to address the racial gap in infant deaths in Florida and to recommend policy changes at the local and state levels.

The black-white disparity in infant mortality rates rose from 1.9 in 1970 to 2.3 in 2006, according to the Florida Department of Health. Researchers have consistently shown that higher rates of premature births among black women, regardless of their class or income, help drive this persistent gap.

Recent studies by Dr. Salihu have also shed new light on the role of maternal obesity in the black-white gap in infant mortality. Those studies showed that infants of obese black mothers not only had a higher risk of stillbirth than infants born to white women, but also were more likely to die within the first 27 days after birth.

To continue the work of the Collaborative, Dr. Salihu was recently awarded a one-year, $254,000 W.K Kellogg Foundation grant to help community coalitions develop evidence-based action plans to reduce high black infant mortality rates in eight Florida counties -- Broward, Dade, Duval, Gadsden, Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach and Putnam. He is working with a team of diverse multidisciplinary faculty and staff at the USF College of Public Health, the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies, Florida A&M University, and Florida Healthy Start. The Kellogg project is training community coalitions how to effectively collect, analyze and interpret data so that it can be most effectively used in shaping culturally-relevant strategies for reducing black infant mortality.

The goal is to arm communities with the tools needed to prevent and combat diabetes, hypertension, obesity, stress or other factors that may increase the risk of low birth weight or premature births.

The Collaborative, supported by the Kellogg grant, gathered at the statewide Minority Health Disparities Summit in Tampa Aug. 12 and 13 to discuss research findings and each team’s plan to impact infant mortality in their communities. The Collaborative also met with 30 black community leaders who will take an active role in championing ways to improve birth outcomes among women who are pregnant and help serve as advocates for needed policy changes. In addition, members shared integrated strategies to improve maternal health before conception, which was identified as the single most important factor compromising fetal-infant health.

“Three maternal health factors were repeatedly mentioned as being critical -- single motherhood and lack of the father’s involvement, maternal obesity, and absent or poor breastfeeding practices,” Dr. Salihu said.

High infant death rates are not just a threat to the black community, but to society as a whole, Dr. Salihu emphasized. “Poor infant health impacts the overall societal goal of achieving quality health – an ingredient that is capital for the social, political and economic development of our nation.”

Dr. Salihu is the principal investigator for the Kellogg grant. Other team members include Dr. Charles Mahan, Dr. Deanna Wathington, Dr. Amina Alio, Dee Jeffers, Estrellita Berry, Dr. Deborah Austin, Dr. Alfred Mbah, Dr. Lakshminarayan Rajaram, Christina Bernadotte and Alice Richman.

- Story by Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications
- Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Media Center

Storm Update/ 7.30am / Tuesday, August 19

To: All USF
From: Michael Hoad
Vice President, Communications

The USF Tampa campus remains open for Tuesday, August 19.
All of USF's regional campuses are closed on Aug 19: USF-St. Petersburg; USF Sarasota-Manatee; and USF Polytechnic.

USF's emergency management team will monitor conditions during the day and will update any changes on the website: www.usf.edu.

Although no further warnings exist for TS Fay, please do be sensitive to the wind gusts and potential flooding that may occur with the remaining system. Employees who normally need to be outdoors should go about their duties with care or, if conditions warrant have duties reassigned during any rough period. Especially stay safe driving.

USF Emergency Preparedness

---------------------------------------------------------
Tropical Storm Fay Update, 3.30pm, Monday Aug 18.

THE USF TAMPA CAMPUS WILL REMAIN OPEN ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 19.

USF HEALTH WILL REMAIN OPEN.

ALL USF REGIONAL CAMPUSES WILL CLOSE -
USF-ST. PETERSBURG, USF-SARASOTA-MANATEE, USF POLYTECHNIC (LAKELAND)

To: All USF
From: Michael Hoad
Vice President, Communications

The USF Tampa campus will remain open for business on Tuesday, August 19, unless conditions change. The emergency management team will monitor the storm during Monday night to watch for any movement of the storm toward Tampa Bay.

Next update: Tuesday, Aug 19, at 9am.

Please note that although the Tampa campus is open, many events are canceled. Tampa's student orientation has been rescheduled, www.usf.edu/orientation. All USF Continuing Education classes are cancelled.

The USF regional campuses will all close on Tuesday, Aug 19: USF St. Petersburg, USF Sarasota-Manatee, and USF Polytechnic in Lakeland (and FIPR, the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research).

For more information, please monitor www.usf.edu.
Toll free information line: 800-992-4231.

Employees: Your first duty is to stay safe. If you live in an area with difficult storm conditions that makes it hard to get to work, please consult with your supervisor.

Although we send information to radio and television news stations, the best source of information is www.usf.edu and the hotline.

Lastly, for students and employees, the fastest way to get emergency information is by subscribing to MoBull on your cell phone. Register here

Important Telephones:

USF Health patients can check on their appointments by calling 813-974-2201.

For MSSC/UMSA Employees: Call 813-974-0010 for updates

USF Hotline: 800-992-4231.

Other Links:
National Hurricane Center

Prior Update:
August 18 Noon Advisory