Kevin Sneed (center), PharmD, clinical director and assistant dean of the Division of Clinical Pharmacy, heads the USF Doctor of Pharmacy Program.
Tampa, FL (Jan. 29, 2009) -- The Florida Board of Governors today unanimously approved a proposal to establish a four-year Doctor of Pharmacy Degree (PharmD) Program at the University of South Florida.
The approval means that USF Health can begin planning the four-year professional degree program, housed under the auspices of the USF College of Medicine. The university expects to apply to the Florida Legislature for program funding by 2011, so that its first PharmD class could be admitted later that year.
“The Board was insightful in recognizing the long-term, critical healthcare need for more pharmacists to serve the citizens of Florida,” said Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, CEO for USF Health and dean of the College of Medicine. “As with everything we do at USF Health, this program will be designed as a critical hub in the future of health care, especially for the citizens of our region.”
Florida is positioned at the high end of the 20-percent national shortage of pharmacists, said Kevin Sneed, PharmD, clinical director and assistant dean of the USF Division of Clinical Pharmacy.
“Beginning in 2011, the first wave of baby boomers will begin enrolling in Medicare. Many will require medication therapy as part of their health care, and the state’s demand for pharmacists is expected to grow substantially,” said Dr. Sneed, an associate professor in the USF Department of Family Medicine. “We are building a rigorous, patient-centered program that will focus on the needs of this aging population while preparing pharmacists to be innovative healthcare leaders.”
Since pharmaceuticals touch on virtually all aspects of health care, the full-service pharmacy program will emphasize interdisciplinary collaborations that will draw on faculty and other resources from USF Health’s colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health and provide opportunities for collaborative teaching and research. Pharmacy students will receive their clinical training at USF-affiliated teaching hospitals across the Tampa Bay region, most of which have pharmacy residency programs, and at outpatient sites, including the Centers for Advanced Healthcare on USF Health’s north and south campuses.
The program will emphasize clinical research between the PharmD program and other USF doctoral and master’s programs.
Dr. Sneed said he expects the USF Doctor of Pharmacy Program to enroll as many as 50 students in its first class if funding is approved. The accreditation application process would begin in summer 2010, he said.
- 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 more than $360 million in research grants and contracts last year, USF is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of 39 community-engaged, four-year public universities designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu
Laura Moody, the anchor of Fox-13 News Good Day, Tampa Bay, broadcast two live spots from the USF College of Nursing Simulation Center Wednesday morning, Jan. 28.
The live shots led into a taped feature exploring why the nursing shortage continues despite no slack in demand for nurses in today's tough economic climate. The segment included interviews with USF College of Nursing student Jamie Simpson, who will graduate in May, and CON Associate Dean Sandra Cadena. While many companies are laying off employees, the nursing profession appears recession-proof. Ninety percent of all USF nursing students have jobs lined up before they graduate, and Dr. Cadena said she doesn't expect that to change.
The program was shown on the big screen in the USF College of Nursing gathering space.
Fox-13 News anchor Laura Moody checks out one of the patient simulators before her live broadcast from the USF College of Nursing's simulation center.
- Newsbrief by Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications - Photo by Ashlea Hudak, USF College of Nursing Communications
Tampa, FL (January 26, 2008) – USF Health and Radiology Associates of Tampa announced today the two organizations have formalized a relationship in which Radiology Associates will support the USF Academic Mission and their physicians will receive core part-time faculty appointments. As members of the USF Health faculty, Radiology Associates physicians will participate in the education of radiology residents in all nine sub-specialties as well as pursuing scholarly activity. The Radiology Department will be lead by Todd Hazelton, MD.
“For four years we’ve envisioned a successful entrepreneurial practice of academic medicine, and this is the perfect example of that vision in action,” said Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, CEO of USF Health and Dean of the College of Medicine. “It will raise the bar for health care in this community by creating an academic base for advanced health care. Our patients deserve the best, and they’ll get the best.”
In addition, the new academic affiliation will strengthen the existing clinical agreement, where Radiology Associates will continue as the radiologists for the USF physicians practicing at Tampa General Hospital and USF’s outpatient Centers for Advanced Healthcare.
“We’ve had a very strong and long standing relationship with USF and we’re happy to solidify our partnership now and for many years to come,” said Raul R. Otero, MD, USF Clinical Associate Professor in Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiolgy.
The result is an entrepreneurial, but academic, model of learning and patient care, which breaks down the town-gown wall between university and private physicians.
- 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 more than $360 million in research grants and contracts last year, USF is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of 39 community-engaged, four-year public universities designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
USF cardiologist Anne Curtis, MD, was recently elected a member of the Association of University Cardiologists, a professional organization that limits membership to only 125 academic cardiologists in the United States.
Dr. Curtis, professor of medicine, chief of the USF Division of Cardiology and director of USF Cardiovascular Services, was one of only seven physicians in the country chosen by the AUC at the group’s annual scientific and business meeting in January in California. She will be inducted during the AUC meeting held January 2010 in St. Petersburg, FL.
Dr. Curtis graduated medical school from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and completed her residency training at Presbyterian Hospital in New York. She conducted fellowships in cardiovascular diseases and clinical cardiac electrophysiology at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Curtis established the electrophysiology program at the University of Florida in 1986 and was director of Clinical Electrophysiology there until 2005, when she joined USF.
The AUC (www.aucard.org) was founded in 1961. The organization is limited to 125 members deemed leaders and among the best investigators in cardiology in the United States. The group meets once a year for a two-day session of scientific interchange.
- Long-term study suggests drug may slow progression of the movement disorder -
Tampa, FL (Jan. 26, 2009) – There is hope that the drug rasagiline can do what no other medication for Parkinson’s disease now does -- slow the progression of a devastating degenerative brain disease that eventually robs people of their ability to move and function.
Now a new study looking at the long-term effects of rasagiline (Azilect) on newly diagnosed patients indicates that people who began the drug earlier continued to do better than those for whom treatment was delayed six months. The study “Long-term Outcome of Early Versus Delayed Rasagiline Treatment in Early Parkinson’s Disease” was recently published in the early online version of the journal Movement Disorders.
“Patients who received rasagiline right from the beginning rather than after a six-month delay experienced less progression of the clinical signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease that interfere with activities of daily living such as eating, walking and dressing,” said the study’s lead author Robert A. Hauser, MD, director of the University of South Florida Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center. “This is potentially consistent with a slowing of underlying disease progression, although other possible mechanisms also need to be considered.”
The study, sponsored by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel), Teva Neuroscience, Inc. (USA) and H. Lundbeck A/S (Denmark), was a long-term open label extension of the multisite trial “TVP-1012 (rasagiline) in Early Monotherapy for Parkinson’s Disease Outpatients” study, known as TEMPO. In TEMPO, more than 400 untreated patients with early Parkinson’s disease were randomly assigned to rasagiline for a year (1 mg daily or 2 mg daily) or to placebo for six months followed by rasagiline for six months (2 mg daily). At the end of a year, patients receiving rasagiline from the start fared better as measured by the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. They experienced less worsening of motor symptoms, such as rigidity and tremor, and had fewer problems with activities of daily living than patients who began rasagiline six months later.
The open-label extension study followed more than 300 patients from the TEMPO study for up to 6.5 years. In this extension study, all patients continued on rasagiline (1 mg. daily) and could take other Parkinson’s disease medications as needed. The researchers found those who started rasagiline right from the beginning of the TEMPO study continued to fare better than patients in the delayed-start group. Over the course of the entire study, the early-start group had 16 percent less progression of the signs and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and this greater clinical benefit was observed even as patients received conventional Parkinson’s disease medications in addition to rasagiline. Rasagiline appeared to be well tolerated in this long-term study.
If the clinical outcomes from the TEMPO and extension study hold up under further scrutiny, it may indicate that early initiation of rasagiline confers a protective effect against disease progression, Dr. Hauser said. “If this is the case, it reinforces the importance of individuals being diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.”
The study authors point out that early initiation of any drug to relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease may lead to a better clinical outcome compared to delayed administration -- something that will be elucidated as more delayed-start studies are performed with other Parkinson’s medications.
- 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 more than $360 million in research grants and contracts last year, USF is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of 39 community-engaged, four-year public universities designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu
USF Health has earned the Award of Excellence from the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) for its podcast "Straight Talk with Dr. D."
Featuring Deanna Wathington, MD, MPH, director of the Public Health Practice Program and interim associate dean for COPH Academic and Student Affairs, the podcast was created by USF Health Communications as part of an iTunes U experiment with Apple, Inc., in targeted marketing. The primary goal of the project was to encourage young African Americans to enter health careers, even those who may not follow the traditional science route. In addition, the project helped test the use of iTunes U in health education (that effort resulted in USF Health hosting the Digital Media in Health Care conference with Apple, Inc., last November).
In the podcast, Dr. Wathington (who practices boxing for exercise and stress relief) wears boxing gloves, taking jabs and punches to help make her point that promising physicians do not always take the same route to get to medical school. Sharp angles and quick cutaways give the podcast a modern look, while testimonials from "Dr. D." help drive home the point that various interests and talents bring people to study medicine.
AAMC considered the entry exemplary and its judges noted it to be a "Very novel idea; good result, great message to students, kudos for thinking creatively."
USF Health will be acknowledged for the award March 26 at AAMC's Group on Institutional Advancement National Professional Development Conference in New Orleans.
In addition to Dr. Wathington, the creative team included Michael Hoad, vice president for Communications and Marketing; Klaus Herdocia, Art Director for USF Health; Lissette Campos, former director for Strategic Communications at USF Health and now community affairs director at ABC Action News; and Elizabeth Peacock, branding education specialist for USF Health. Videography and editing for the podcast was done in collaboration with Ren Scott Productions.
What motivates you? Aids... diabetes... or a sick family member... Deanna Wathington, MD, MPH, reflects on the forces in her own life that lead her to pursue medicine - first as a doctor and now as an academic in public health too! By asking the basic question - what motivates you - "Dr. D" shows you how picking your future career can also make a difference in the world.
What do you want to be when you grow up? How do you answer that question? Do you even have a clue as to what direction you might take, where your journey might begin. "Dr. D" takes you beyond the obvious roles of doctor & nurse - which have become the proverbial "tip of the iceberg" in today's health world. Today's career options in health offer a variety of dynamic and exciting options for you to pick from.
Click here to link to Straight Talk with Dr. D. and USF Health's other podcasts.
The following is what was submitted to AAMC by Michael Hoad and helps explain the project further.
Narrative:
"Straight Talk with Dr. D" an iTunes U experiment in targeted marketing.
Project:
Primary goal: Encouraging young African Americans to enter health careers, especially reaching out to individuals who may not be following the traditional biochemistry major pathways. These podcasts were designed after focus groups with the target market. They used camera techniques intended to be engaging and modern, used a script and "star" to portray key emotional messages about life decisions, and were broadcast not only through the new medium of iTunes U, but also through the tours and lectures given by our Area Health Education Program.
Secondary goal: To test the use of iTunes U for both formal and informal education in health, including medical learning, leading to our hosting the "Digital Media in Health Care" conference with Apple, Inc., in Nov 2008.
Problem:
The project took its inspiration from the AAMC's "aspiringdocs.org," which uses the non-traditional media of webpage supported blog with traditional advertising to drive potential physician applicants to that blogging site. The aspiringdocs.org project provided the statistical basis for the project for potential medical students - specifically the decline of traditional biology and chemistry majors as a source for African American applicants to medical school.
In this case, we elected to test the utility of using iTunes U, and specifically podcasting, to reach out in new ways - designed to appeal to a researched and targeted audience.
iTunes U is an untested way to reach millions of people. Repeatedly, our contacts at Apple Inc. told us they wished every university on iTunes U would take the time to research and target audiences for their audio or video casts.
Description:
All planning was done by our in-house public and media relations staff, working closely with the "star," Deanna Wathington - physician, public health educator, faculty member in both our colleges of public health and medicine, ballerina, boxer and recently Florida's officer for minority health. We conducted focus groups with help from members of the Area Health Education Staff, who conduct "access days" on campus with high and middle school students.
It became clear that many of these students are "traditional" in many of the psychographics of an audience. And their greatest motivation for entering health careers is clearly experience with illness in their own families. Caring for family is powerful, and the script reflects that. In addition, they have heard messages that they "can't" achieve those goals, but they are not drop-outs - they're tough and they want to keep going. Cultural assumptions are dangerous in terms of designing video - these are often people who play classical music in the high school orchestra.
We decided to use a very "YouTube" style of photography: Close up, lots of movement, hand held. But unlike YouTube, we elected to hire a videographer who owned and could provide high definition video and editing equipment. He shot and edited under direction of our team.
The resulting videos were formatted for iTunes (they play perfectly on an iPod) as well as the web and for public display to groups.
Evaluation:
During editing, we did a focus group with African American young women in our athletic training degree program. I have to report my initial reaction: I was so intent on watching the videography decisions we'd made, I wasn't looking at the focus group. When I realized no one was saying anything I looked around: They were all crying. In our subsequent showings of the video, that's been a repeated reaction.
A second lesson is that the video itself doesn't complete the behavior needed. The next step will be adapting or duplicating the aspiringdocs.org site to work with this series.
On balance, however, the project captured the core value of USF Health: To see health as a spectrum that crosses all our colleges and disciplines, from the environment, to government policy, to community and family health, to wellness, to emergency, acute, chronic and end of life care. The messages contained within the podcast reflect that core value.
Bottom line: This was a total blast for everyone involved, and to see its effect on people is powerful. It makes us all the more determined to surround it with a recruiting package for all of our health disciplines in USF Health.
Story by Sarah Worth, USF Health Communications
Photo by Eric Younghans, USF Health Media Center
Younger brains better than old in clearing Alzheimer’s-related protein, USF/Byrd Institute study finds
USF/Byrd neuroscientist Chad Dickey
Younger brains are more effective than older brains at getting rid of abnormal amounts of tau protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease – a mechanism that may be partly explained by a better stress response in the young, a mouse-model study led by researchers at the University of South Florida found.
The study, published this month in the American Journal of Pathology, also suggests that once some abnormal tau is produced in the brain it may interfere with the normal turnover of tau protein and lead to its destructive buildup. While normal tau helps maintain the structure of neurons, the excessive accumulation of tau leads to fibrous Alzheimer’s tangles that choke the brain’s memory center.
“We need to nail down the specifics of why the young brain can cope with high levels of tau, while the older brain cannot. This could be something like finding the fountain of youth,” said the study’s lead author Chad Dickey, PhD, a neuroscientist at the Byrd Alzheimer’s Center and Research Institute at USF. “Our results from this and previous studies suggest that targeting proteins related to stress (heat shock proteins) could benefit the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.”
The study was done using a mice genetically engineered to develop tau protein tangles like those found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Even though mice as young as 1 month old already had large amounts of tau in their brains, they were able to clear the protein before its abnormal accumulation took over. However, as the mice aged (6 months and 9 months), this efficient clearing of tau was somehow impaired or slowed -- a change in tau metabolism that leads to the formation of the Alzheimer’s tangles.
Heat shock proteins – proteins produced in response to fever, a toxin, heart attack or other stresses -- were absent in the youngest mice, but gradually increased with age in normal control mice. In the mice engineered to make Alzheimer’s tangles, the age-related increase in these stress proteins was accelerated, the researchers found.
“We think that stress proteins may be a double-edged sword in the brain,” said Dr. Dickey, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine. “They might help initially by fixing abnormal tau or getting rid of it, but the long-term upregulation of these proteins is likely harmful, perhaps facilitating the abnormal accumulation of tau we see in older mice.”
If further studies prove stress proteins play a role in helping younger brains effectively clear excessive tau, researchers may be able to develop a new treatment by harnessing that early mechanism for older brains, said study co-author David Morgan, PhD, professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology at USF.
Tau is one of two types of proteins considered hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. For decades scientists have focused on the other Alzheimer’s-related protein, amyloid beta, which forms destructive clumps outside the nerve cells before the balance of tau is disrupted inside the nerve cells. The two are likely inextricably connected, so that a workable treatment for Alzheimer’s will require battling the disease on both fronts.
Dr. Morgan says a closer examination of tau pathology is the next wave in Alzheimer’s research. “By the time someone shows symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the neurofibrillary tau tangles could already be taking root in the brain. If that’s the case, it may be too late for a treatment targeting amyloid alone to work,” he said. “Tau therapy is an alternative approach likely to be more effective later in the disease.”
USF collaborated with researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, the University of London Institute of Neurology, and Northwestern University in Chicago. The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s Association, CurePSP, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Reta Lila Weston Trust for Medical Research.
- Story by Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications
- Photo by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications/Media Center
Dr. Bryan Bognar talks with medical students about his interest in public health.
Dr. Bryan Bognar has been a key member of USF’s faculty since 1992, taking on jobs ranging from helping revamp the medical school curriculum to developing a national smoking cessation program.
But last fall Dr. Bognar played a new role: USF student.
Ten years after he started, Dr. Bognar received a master’s degree in public health.
“I promised my family I was going to finish my MPH,” joked Dr. Bognar, an associate professor of internal medicine. “My wife rolled her eyes and said, ‘Sure you are.’ ”
Not only did Dr. Bognar finish, but he could have been a case study for his own thesis. Dr. Bognar looked at the value that a public health perspective brings to medicine. He studied how national medical school accreditation standards allow incorporating public health education in a medical curriculum. His conclusion: the standards allow public health education in the door, but they could be more explicit to encourage more interaction.
“I don’t think we do a good enough job helping the students see the big picture, and what role they are playing in the health system,” he said.
Dr. Bognar thinks U.S. medical students could benefit from learning more about everything from social marketing to population health and patient safety. He first became drawn to public health when, as an internist, he became interested in evidence-based medicine.
“I became intrigued with the population-based perspective and the translation of population studies to the care of individual patients,” said Dr. Bognar, 45.
That interest has only deepened over the years. In addition to seeing patients, Dr. Bognar worked in the dean’s office for several years, serving as associate dean for undergraduate medical education and the interim vice dean for educational affairs.
In Dr. Bognar’s experience, his move has been unusual. He knows many public health students who have gone on to medical school, but rarely has he seen the reverse. Yet Dr. Bognar thinks he values public health even more now than when he started. It’s a perspective that’s well-suited to USF Health, where medicine and public health are under the same umbrella.
Donna Petersen, ScD, dean of the College of Public Health, hopes that Bognar will be among the first in a wave of doctors and medical students turning to public health.
“That’s the ultimate example of what we’re about,” she said. “The integration of science and the [] clinical professions into public health.”
While Dr. Petersen thinks educators have “improved dramatically” in introducing medical schools to public health, she agrees with Dr. Bognar’s take on medical school standards. She pointed to a report by the Institutes of Medicine, which called for increased public health training for medical students and said more doctors need MPH degrees.
At USF, students can pursue a combined MD/PhD program. Two years ago, USF also began offering a concentration in public health for MD students, a program that already has attracted more than two dozen students.
Meanwhile, to finish his degree, Dr. Bognar also completed two other tasks during the fall semester: his last class, on Human Error and Patient Safety, and a field experience project. Dr. Bognar set up a plan to help medical students who run the Bridge Healthcare Clinic, a student-led program for uninsured patients. Dr. Bognar’s work there involved designing a system so that women who needed follow-up care after a screening mammogram could receive it.
- Story by Lisa Greene, USF Health Communications
- Photo by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications/Media Center
New IRB System Is First Phase of Planned Rollout between Now and 2011
Beaverton, OR (Jan. 16, 2009) -- Click Commerce, an ITW company (NYSE: ITW), announced today that the University of South Florida (USF) will use Click Commerce’s eResearch Portal to fully automate Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes for human participant research. As a research-extensive university with an academic health science center, USF will streamline and strengthen IRB processes across the institution’s multiple research communities in the first of a series of research automation initiatives to be rolled out over the next two and a half years. The goal is to deliver a seamless e-research administration environment encompassing a wide range of research funding and compliance processes by 2011. USF’s human research protection program was recently fully accredited by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Program (AAHRPP) – the only university in Florida to have achieved this distinction.
IRBs monitor the safe and ethical conduct of medical and behavioral research involving human participants. Click Commerce eResearch Portal allows USF to automate all IRB workflow processes, shorten turnaround times, eliminate routine errors and omissions, ensure secure collaboration, and alert researchers of approaching deadlines — all while using USF’s own forms and pre-review steps. Click’s configurable, web-based submissions system for IRB applications distributes data instantly among research teams throughout the institution regardless of location.
“Our primary goal is to better serve our researchers by helping expedite the valuable work they do. This automated system not only meets our immediate need to streamline and enhance our IRB processes, but would also be capable of expansion over time,” said Karen Holbrook, PhD, vice president for Research and Innovation at USF.
“We envision a comprehensive e-research environment enabling secure collaboration, compliance readiness, and administrative visibility across the research enterprise, including areas such as clinical trials participant tracking, bio- and radiation safety oversight, and animal studies. Strategically integrating USF’s processes in all these areas with a centralized automation platform and a common interface will simplify the business of research and give us the flexibility of adding new functions going forward.”
“Click Commerce will provide us with the tools and practices necessary to grow and enhance our processes continuously while bridging seamlessly to administrative business systems,” said Abdul Rao, MD, MA, DPhil, senior associate vice president for USF Health and vice dean for research and graduate studies for College of Medicine. “Having a solution that can match the speed with which we want to change as an organization is vital and Click Commerce provides us the partner necessary for this goal. This is important not only for USF but also for investigators at many of our affiliate sites who rely on our state-of-the-art, compliance-related services.”
“We are pleased to see the commitment from a leader in social and biomedical research such as the University of South Florida to pursue the full potential of our eResearch Portal platform,” said Nick Stier, senior vice president in charge of Click Commerce’s Research and Healthcare division. “We look forward to this deepened collaboration with USF that will provide the research community another successful example of a comprehensive strategy addressing long-term institutional needs.”
The University of South Florida and many other leading healthcare research institutions use Click Commerce’s browser-based, secure eResearch Portal to automate a wide range of administrative processes, including those associated with Grants, IRBs, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC), Conflict of Interest (COI), and Clinical Trials Participant Tracking and Billing, among others.
About Click Commerce Research and Healthcare Click Commerce Research and Healthcare is a leading provider of automated research administration and compliance systems to leading academic medical centers and research institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh. More information can be found at research.clickcommerce.com.
About the University of South Florida The University of South Florida is among the nation's top 63 public research universities and one of 39 community engaged public universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It is one of Florida's top three research universities. USF was awarded more than $360 million in research contracts and grants last year. The university offers 219 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialist and doctoral levels, including the doctor of medicine. The university has a $1.8 billion annual budget, an annual economic impact of $3.2 billion, and serves more than 45,000 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference.
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Click Commerce is a registered trademark of Click Commerce, Inc., and its subsidiaries. All other company and product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Since 2006, Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, dean of the College of Medicine and CEO for USF Health, has challenged COM students to a yearly basketball game with USF Health faculty and staff.
This year was no different –- the students won... again! The team from the Class of 2011 pulled it out at the end by a score of 45 to 33.
The game was played this fall in the USF Sundome, and the winners took home Klasko’s Cup and bragging rights.
Members of the faculty-staff team, in addition to Dr. Klasko, were Kevin Sneed, Jose Abisambra, Tracy Womble, Eric Coris, Javier Cuevas, Ronnie Britt, Craig Bobik, Seena Salyani, Ben Glover and Toni Rajic.
Members of the student team were Matt Assing, Danny Roura, Byron Moran, Chad Rudnick, John Emerson, Jason Perry, Andy Myers, Courtney Smiley, Sumeet Thareja, Matt Scott, and Kyle James.
This podcast is available on iTunes U 
