The Esophageal String Test is a brand-new option, and USF Health is one of only three sites in the country offering it.

Racha Khalaf, MD, assistant professor and chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, is using a less invasive method to monitor a condition known as Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE). The chronic disease is characterized by white blood cells called eosinophils infiltrating the esophagus and causing inflammation, which can lead to difficulty swallowing or food getting caught in the swallowing tube known as the esophagus.

“EoE patients have a migration of eosinophils to the esophagus, causing symptoms like vomiting and difficulty eating,” Dr. Khalaf said. “In children, it can even lead to difficulty with growth.”

Dr. Racha Khalaf.

Traditionally, after diagnosing the condition, physicians monitor EoE using a sedated procedure known as an endoscopy, in which the doctor snakes a tube containing a tiny camera down the patient’s throat to view the esophageal lining. The procedure requires anesthesia in children and can have risks including pain and discomfort. But Dr. Khalaf said she uses the Esophageal String Test, which provides her the information she needs to determine a treatment plan without the same level of discomfort and an improved risk profile.

The Esophageal String Test is a brand-new option, and USF Health is one of only three sites in the country offering it.

During the test, the patient swallows a small pill containing a flexible string. The end of the string is taped to the cheek and the string remains in place for one hour and collects esophageal secretions that are then examined for the presence of inflammation caused by eosinophils.

Esophageal String Test with capsule.

For 9-year-old Shark Smith, who has been diagnosed with EoE, the Esophageal String Test is a welcome alternative to regular endoscopies. “It’s better because I don’t have to get put under with anesthesia,” he said. “And it doesn’t take that long. It only takes an hour.”

Shark’s mother, Jennifer Smith, shared his sentiment. She said, “He’s been scoped, I think, seven times since he was two years old.” The diagnosis of EoE came accidentally when Shark swallowed a penny, leading to his first endoscopy. “We never had any symptoms,” she said.

The Esophageal String Test proved beneficial when Shark’s treatment was not yielding the desired results. “It told us that we’re pretty much taking this medication for no reason now,” Jennifer Smith said. “So, we have to change our treatment plan.” They came to Dr. Khalaf, seeking other options apart from scoping every six to 12 months.

“It’s easier on him; it’s easier on the mom,” Jennifer Smith noted. Shark recommends patients bring something to keep themselves entertained during the procedure, such as a book or an electronic device. Both mother and son praise Dr. Khalaf and the string test. “Dr. Khalaf is amazing,” Shark said. “And if anybody has the chance to do this, I would definitely recommend it over scoping.”

“We’re just really happy,” Jennifer Smith said. “We’re happy with Dr. Khalaf. We’re happy with the test.”

Story, video and images by Allison Long, USF Health Office of Communications.

Graduate programs at USF Health had promising gains in this year’s rankings from U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News), with some programs breaking into the top 50 of their rankings.

In the U.S. News 2024 Best Graduate Schools list released on April 25, USF Health’s physician assistant, nursing and public health programs ranked among the best in the country.

The rankings released April 25 did not include medical schools or law schools; those rankings were released by U.S. News May 11.

Among the notable advancements this year are the two graduate programs from the USF Health College of Nursing, each of which had major gains, and the Physician Assistant Program in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, which made the ranking list for the first time in its young history after receiving its inaugural full accreditation needed to qualify.

“Our nursing school is clearly garnering attention on the national stage as both its master’s and doctoral programs are making incredible gains in the rankings, and proving to be the best in Florida,” said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, executive vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “And the first-time ranking for our physician assistant program marks a significant milestone. While this USF Health program is still young, its inaugural ranking is among the top third of PA programs across the country. We anticipate further rankings gains as our program continues to develop.”

According to U.S. News, its methodology uses data from expert opinions and statistical indicators when measuring a program’s ranking, examining qualities students and faculty bring to the educational experience and graduates’ achievements linked to their degrees, such as job placement and research impact.

The posted results for USF Health this year include:

• #46 in Medical Schools for Primary Care: The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine improved significantly for U.S. medical schools for primary care, going from #56 last year to #46 this year, and breaking into the top 50 for the first time.
• #50 in Medical Schools for Research: The Morsani College of Medicine continues to rank well among U.S. medical schools for research, ranking at #50 this year.
• #65 in Health Doctoral Programs – Physician Assistant: The Morsani College of Medicine’s Physician Assistant program ranked for the first time, ranked at #65 this year, placing it in the top third of the more than 200 PA programs in the rankings.
• #31 in Nursing for Master’s: The USF Health College of Nursing jumped 11 spots, going from #42 last year to #31 this year, making it the top-ranked public nursing master’s program in Florida.
• #33 in Nursing for DNP: The College of Nursing also continues to improve in its DNP program ranking and skyrocketed into the top 50 for doctoral programs in the country with its 34-spot jump from #67 last year to #33 this year, making it the top-ranked public or private DNP program in Florida.
• #22 in Public Health: The USF Health College of Public Health remains the top-ranked public health program in Florida, with its rank at #22 this year.

U.S. News does not provide new rankings for all graduate programs each year, so the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy maintains its rank of #68, and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences maintains its rank of #49.

More on rankings for other USF graduate programs…

This year’s USF Health Research Day set new records as more participants than ever filled the USF Tampa campus Marshall Student Center on March 3 to showcase the best of their scientific work.

The 33^rd USF Health Research Day included 457 research poster presentations by students, postdocs, residents, faculty, and staff across all health disciplines. Research Day is the largest research-oriented event of its kind at USF and remains the largest celebration of health sciences research collaboration across all four USF Health colleges (medicine, nursing, public health and pharmacy) as well as with colleagues in other USF colleges, including social work and engineering.

From left, Dr. Charles Lockwood, Dr. Kim Orth, Rhea Law, and Dr. Steve Liggett.

Research Day kicked off with the Annual Roy H. Behnke, MD, Distinguished Lectureship featuring speaker Kim Orth, PhD, professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Dr. Orth’s presentation was titled “Black Spot, Black Death, Black Pearl: Tales of Bacterial Effectors” – click here for more about Dr. Orth and her work.

Dr. Kim Orth.

* * *

Tampa General Hospital, the primary teaching hospital for USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, was the presenting sponsor for USF Health Research Day 2023.

Following Dr. Orth’s presentation was the judging of work. Judges reviewed the posters that lined the Marshall Center Ballroom, asking the students for more detail and clarifications about their research projects. Presentations ranged from pilot, preliminary, empirical and case studies to system reviews and reviews of literature or charts.

Following the 13^th Annual Joseph Krzanowski Invited Oral Presenters by select students representing medicine, nursing, public health, and pharmacy, Research Day culminated with an Awards Ceremony in the Oval Theatre announcing the winners in 29 competitive categories – including 18 monetary awards totaling $8,600.

* * *

For the list of Research Day 2023 award winners, click here.

For the list of Research Day judges and sponsors, click here.

More photos

Photos by Freddie Coleman, video by Allison Long, USF Health Communications

What started as a simple fall led to a diagnosis the Weiler family wasn’t expecting – 8-year-old Patricia Weiler has Crohn’s Disease.

After the fall, Patricia’s mother, Annette, immediately took her to their dentist, who prescribed antibiotics but the swelling persisted. Patricia then saw her pediatrician who referred them to a maxillofacial surgeon who noticed abnormal tissue architecture. She performed a biopsy, which confirmed granulomatous inflammation consistent with Crohn’s disease.

She was then referred to Racha Khalaf, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and a pediatric gastroenterologist.  Dr. Khalaf and her team performed several tests, including a biopsy of Patricia’s wounds.  When the test revealed several key indicators, Dr. Khalaf confirmed that Patricia has Crohn’s Disease.

Racha Khalaf, MD, USF Health assistant professor and pediatric gastroenterologist.

Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.  It’s a progressive condition, meaning it can get worse over time if untreated, and an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks the lining of the digestive tract often causing pain, diarrhea, weight loss and fever.   Treatment goals for Crohn’s include symptom mitigation, endoscopic improvement, and remission.

Patricia goes to the Tampa General Hospital Pediatric Day Hospital every six weeks to receive an intravenous treatment of Infliximab, commonly prescribed for a variety of autoimmune disorders.  Patricia said her favorite part of her visits are being able to play with TGH Valor Service Dogs, who are there to provide a comforting presence to children in the hospital setting, and helped young Patricia quell her fear of needles.

Dr. Khalaf and other physicians who have met Patricia commonly describe her a “wise beyond her years” in the wake of her diagnosis.  She understands this will be something that will be with her for the rest of her life and understands that she needs to make certain lifestyle changes including limiting her sun exposure, the amount of processed foods, and reducing the amount of dairy she consumes.  Patricia still participates in her favorite activities including soccer, ballet, and playing with her dog Mitch and sister Annabelle.

Patricia Weiler (right) and her sister Annabelle with their dog Mitch.

Patricia has been in remission for more than nine months and mother Annette is very thankful for all of the doctors who helped get her pointed in the right direction for care and getting her questions answered.  She is especially thankful to Dr. Khalaf and her team for finally bringing an end to the mystery of Patricia’s health.

“From the first moment I met the team, they were very assuring.  They said they would become ‘best friends’ throughout this process and that’s exactly how it has been,” Annette said.  “It was scary at first, but the reassurance is what really helped us through this.”

“It’s not a disability, it’s just something with my body that I have to keep an eye on,” Patricia said.  “I’m very thankful that we found a team that helps me and my family with my problems, and we did it before it got worse.”

Video and photos by Freddie Coleman

This year’s top stories highlight USF Health as an academic medical center.  Stories of patient gratitude, innovative research and development, and affirmation that the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine is truly the fastest rising medical school in the country.

Take a look at the top USF Health stories of 2022.

1. USF Health and Weill Cornell Medicine earn funding to further develop artificial intelligence that uses voice to diagnose disease. 

2. A USF Health patient had very few answers to her condition until she met with Dr. Jolan Walter.

3. Congratulations to our USF Health physicians who made the 2022 list of the country’s top doctors. 

4. The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine is on the rise faster than any medical school in the country. 

5. A USF Health psychiatry expert explains how the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increased number of patients with Social Anxiety Disorder.

6.  No medical school in the country does Match Day like the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. 

7. USF Health and Tampa General Hospital neurosurgeons are the first in Tampa Bay to offer game-changing ultrasound. 

8. USF Health was awarded $3.2 million to develop blood tests designed to detect Alzheimer’s Disease. 

9. Researchers begin to unlock how gut and oral microbiomes are linked to brain health in older adults. 

Hariom Yadav, PhD, (standing) and Shalini Jain, PhD, were recently recruited to research on the gut-brain connection (gut-brain axis) in relation to cognitive function.

10. Take a look at all of the USF Health physicians who made the Tampa Magazine list of Top Doctors in 2022. 

Faculty across several disciplines at USF Health earned National Institutes of Health funding to streamline prenatal, obstetric, pediatric, treatment, behavioral and community health care for patients with opioid use disorder.

Called CADENCE (Continuous and Data-Driven Care), the new program will better serve pregnant patients and new parents, as well as their infants, as they navigate the care they need for managing opioid dependence.

Co-principal investigators for the HD2A R61/R33 grant are Kimberly Fryer, MD, MSCR, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and Jennifer Marshall, PhD, CPH, associate professor in the USF Health College of Public Health, and fellow in the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center.

The primary aim of the new program is to streamline the integration of four “clinics” – or areas that patients might typically access separately. By streamlining these disciplines, care and scheduling will be more coordinated and holistic, and health outcomes of the parent and baby could greatly improve.

The four USF Health clinics being streamlined include office based opioid treatment (OBOT), the maternal family medicine prenatal/obstetric clinic, the PEDI pediatrics clinic, and behavioral health/mental health service.

A “secret shopper” study led by Dr. Marshall a year ago found that only about 20 percent of over 1000 attempts for pregnant women with Medicaid experiencing opioid use disorder were able to set appointments for prenatal care, indicating that many providers may hesitate to take these patients because they do not have the capacity or know how to connect their patients to the addiction treatment critical to helping these patients succeed in caring for themselves and their babies.

By bringing the four primary disciplines together, patients will have access to integrated, continuous, care that will improve maternal engagement in recovery or treatment for maternal opioid use disorder at delivery, neonatal outcomes, and timely referral to early intervention.

The new CADENCE includes two components: a data stage that will create in the first two years an interactive data dashboard that tracks maternal, neonatal, and infant outcomes for pregnancies affected by opioid use disorder and pilot the CADENCE program within USF Health and Hillsborough County; and an implementation stage in the third, fourth and fifth years that will focus on measuring improvement in clinical outcomes at the program level using the data from the dashboard and assessing the implementation and costs of the CADENCE program.

This program of integrated, continuous, care will be rapidly refined using a data-driven approach towards improving maternal engagement in recovery or treatment for maternal opioid use disorder at delivery, neonatal outcomes, and timely referral to early intervention.

A long-term aim of the project is to develop a model that can be shared throughout Florida and at other academic medical programs to help pregnant women in their communities.

Faculty and clinical staff from both USF Health and Tampa General Hospital learned the nuances and best practices of ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) at a special course held on the TGH campus last month.

The recent ECMO course provided the newest information associated with the life-saving procedure and was led by Kapil Patel, MD, associate professor and director of the USF Health Center for Advanced Lung Disease in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and director of the TGH Lung Transplant Program, and M Raheel Qureshi, MD, assistant professor and associate medical director of the ECMO program in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and associate director of the Lung Transplant Program at Tampa General Hospital.

ECMO is used in critical care situations, when the heart and lungs need help as the patient heals. In ECMO, blood is pumped outside of the body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body. Blood flows from the right side of the heart to the membrane oxygenator in the heart-lung machine, and then is rewarmed and sent back to the body.

This method allows the blood to “bypass” the heart and lungs, allowing these organs to rest and heal.

Many providers and hospitals around the world saw an uptick in patients needing ECMO as part of the COVID-19 care they received in intensive care units. Now, as COVID continues to subside, expanding training on ECMO better prepares health care teams and hospitals if another surge of COVID – or other related viruses – take hold.

Published studies show that hospitals and facilities with more ECMO experience have better outcomes. ECMO is complex in its execution, requiring trained staff and specialist equipment, making the USF Health/TGH training course a critical part of preparation for another COVID surge or pandemic.

Health care providers across the country learned very quickly during the pandemic that ECMO could save lives and it was used largely in patients with COVID-19 with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Published studies show importance of carefully selecting patients for a critical care treatment requiring intense staffing, specialized equipment and advanced expertise.

The USF Health/TGH training sessions mean that more providers are prepared to treat patients sooner with ECMO and improve outcomes.

Photos by Freddie Coleman and Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications

USF research teams led by Dr. Yu Chen and Dr. Xingmin Sun describe ways to control the No. 1 hospital-acquired bacterial infection in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

The ironic joke goes that if you want to get sick, stay in a hospital. That’s because hospitals can harbor germs that take advantage of a patient’s weakened state, complicating the illness that brought them there in the first place.

But health officials have an arsenal to keep people safe, including cephalosporins, strong antibiotics that fight bacteria such as staphylococcus and streptococcus. Cephalosporins are often used against skin, soft tissue and surgery related infections.

Dr. Yu Chen

However, treatment with β-lactam antibiotics – particularly cephalosporins – is a major risk factor for the virulent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), which attacks the large intestine and can cause diarrhea and life-threatening colitis.

These complications are explained in a recent paper published in the journal Nature Communications by teams that includes senior author Dr. Yu Chen, professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and co-corresponding author Dr. Xingmin Sun, associate professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine in the Morsani College of Medicine. Several other USF research teams, led by Rays Jiang, PhD, Prahathees Eswara, PhD, and Ioannis Gelis, PhD, also contributed to the study.

“When you give a person an antibiotic to treat a disease, one of the consequences is the antibiotic can wipe out a lot of the good bacteria in the gut,’’ Dr. Chen said. “But in this case, C. difficile is resistant to cephalosporins, so it creates a high-risk factor. And if people are under prolonged antibiotic treatment, they are at an even higher risk for CDI.’’

Cephalosporin resistance in CDI is well documented, but the underlying mechanism has, until this point, remained unclear. The USF Health team used a combination of experimental techniques to characterize the molecular basis of cephalosporin resistance in CDI, which is the No. 1 hospital-acquired bacterial infection in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Initially, antibiotics are administered for an unrelated infection or prophylaxis, causing the gut flora diversity to diminish. Without competition from the good bacteria in the large intestine, CDI can easily proliferate, secreting toxins that cause cell death.

“The primary risk factor for CDI are broad-spectrum antibiotics, specifically those with weak activity against C. difficile and strong activity against other gut bacteria,’’ the authors state.

These broad-spectrum antibiotics irreversibly inhibit a bacterium’s penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs), which are enzymes that assemble in the bacterial cell wall. These proteins are critical not only for the growth of C. difficile, but also to produce its spores, which are resistant to harsh environmental conditions and contribute to the high recurrent rates of CDI. The challenge for researchers is that, prior to the Nature Communications report, there was little information about the PBPs of C. difficile.

As a common hospital-acquired infection, the pathogenesis of CDI is well-understood. It causes about 500,000 infections each year in the United States, and one in about 10 people over 65 with the infection die within a month, according to the CDC.

“We want to know more about C. difficile resistance so it (data) can be used to create new therapies for the future,’’ Chen said. “This research will help us understand more about certain drugs that are risks factors for infection.’’

The researchers emphasized two key findings in the journal report. First, by elucidating the three-dimensional structures of key PBPs from C. difficile and how they interact with beta-lactam antibiotics, the USF Health teams showed that cephalosporins do not have strong inhibitory activity against the PBPs essential for C. difficile growth and are thus unable to kill the bacterium.

Second, they also found that many of these proteins require zinc to be functional, partly explaining why dietary zinc is also a risk factor for CDI. Furthermore, the results can be used to develop new inhibitors of these PBPs to kill C. difficile and eliminate its spores. Such compounds can be developed into new antibiotics to treat CDI.

CDI can affect anyone, and symptoms often are painful and life threatening. Risk factors include:

• Being 65 or older
• Recent stay at a hospital or nursing home
• A weakened immune system, such as people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, or organ transplant patients taking immunosuppressive drugs
• Previous infection with CDI or known exposure to the germs

For more information, visit https://www.cdc.gov/cdiff/risk.html

The journal Nature Communications is an open access, multidisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research in all areas of the biological, health, physical, chemical and Earth sciences. Papers published by the journal aim to represent important advances of significance to specialists within each field.

Story by Kurt Loft

The Department of Internal Medicine room at the Gallery of Specialties.

Expert physicians, professors, department chairs and division chiefs from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine came to the downtown campus Sept. 14 to speak to students about their specialties during the first ever Gallery of Specialties.

The round-robin style event, organized by the Department of Medical Education, was the first full-student event held in the downtown campus since it opened in 2019.  Students had the option to visit three of the specialties, sit in on their information sessions and participate in a question and answer session.

Haywood Brown, MD, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and vice dean of Faculty Affairs, speaking with second-year medical student Janae Cornwall.

“This event represents everything we wanted to do with this building,” said Bryan Bognar, MD, MPH, FACP, vice dean and chair of the MCOM Department of Medical Education. “The ability to flex the space, create intimate settings for the doctors to speak to students, and have all the students be here at one time is truly beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.”

Across the four-year medical school journey, each student will narrow down what they plan to specialize in, and eventually apply for residencies in that specialty.   The event offered students an inside look at what it takes to be competitive in certain specialties, what it takes to be successful in their specialties, and with whom they will likely be working if they decide to pursue residencies at USF Health.

Summer Decker, PhD, Morsani College of Medicine professor and director of 3D Clinical Applications for the USF Health Department of Radiology speaking with two medical students interested in pursuing radiology as a specialty.

Some USF Health leaders, experts, and world-renowned doctors took time out of their schedules to pass on their knowledge and passion for their specialties, including Charles Lockwood, MD, MHCM, USF Health executive vice president, MCOM dean and international expert in obstetrics and gynecology..

“This is a great event.  They are getting to meet the experts, ask questions they wouldn’t normally get to ask, and truly get an in-depth understanding of how to navigate applying for residencies in the specialties,” Dr. Lockwood said.

One student described the event as “It was an opportunity to reaffirm or reconsider the specialty I want to pursue. I know what I want to do and this was an opportunity to address some misconceptions and ask more in-depth questions so I have a clearer picture of what it takes to be a successful doctor in this specialty.”

Patricia Emmanuel, MD, chair of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics explainsher specialty to students during the Gallery of Specialties event.

“It’s great that so many leaders, division chiefs and chairs showed up to this,” said Haywood Brown, MD,  USF Health Faculty and Academic Affairs senior associate vice president,  Morsani College of Medicine associate dean of diversity, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology professor.  “This is the true testament to how invested they are in helping our medical students succeed.  Additionally, it’s great to figuratively ‘take off the executive leader hat’ and just speak to students about our specialties.  Before I became an executive, I was, and still am, a passionate OBGYN.”

Full list of specialties and representatives from the event:

Anesthesiology: Jason Hall, Stephanie Lewis, Nan Schwann, Jeffrey Weiss, Peter Wu

Dermatology: Cynthia Bartus, Basil Cherpelis, James Grichnick, Joshua Levin

Diagnostic Radiology: Summer Decker, Krishna Nallamshetty

Emergency Medicine: David Burmeister, Mama Greenberg, Enola Okonkwo, Shawn Quinn, Andrew Thomas

Family Medicine: Eric Coris, Eduardo Gonzalez, Drew Keister, Elizabeth Lawrence, Oliver Oyama, Sassnk Peramsetty, Kira Zwygart

General Surgery: Swaroop Bommareddi, Lucian Lozonchi, Michael Pasquale, Daniel Relles, Adham Saad, Murray Shames, Jason Weinberger

Internal Medicine: Brian Costello, Aryanna Jordan, Vandin Lalldass, Jose Lezama, Michelle Ouelette, Asa Oxner, Harold Paul

Interventional Radiology: Cliff Davis, Glenn Hoots, Jamil Shaikh

Med Peds:  Erika Abel, Patricia Emmanuel

Neurosurgery:  Walter Jean

Neurology: Alfred Frontera, Clifton Gooch, Milind Kothari, Megan Leary

OB/GYN: Christina Black, Amy Brown, Haywood Brown, Charles Lockwood, Catherine Lynch, Bri Anne McKeon, Stephanie Lynch

Ophthalmology: Swetangi Bhaleeya, Mitchell Drucker, John Jarstad, Masayuki Kazahaya, Mamta Patel

Otolaryngology/ENT: Kestutis Boyev, Mathew Mifsud, Tapan Padhya, Arjun Parasher, Abhay Sharma

Pathology: Anne Champeaux, Nicole Riddle

Pediatrics: Stephen Ford, Nathan Hagstrom, Kristen Pendergast, Meridith Plant, Kris Rooney

Plastic Surgery: Michael Harrington, Robert Murphy, Randolph Wojcik

PM&R: Clifton Gooch, Kristopher Kaleibe, Marissa McCarthy, Jeffrey Radecki

Psychiatry: Glenn Catalano, Daniel Fallon, Zeeshad Javid, Edward Norris, Deborah Sanchez

Radiation-Oncology: Jessica Frakes, Dennis Sopka

Radiology: Devang Gor, Errin Hoffman

Urology: Rafael Carrion, Justin Parker, Trushar Patel

Vascular Surgery: Mila Ju, Desiree Picone

More photos from the event: 

Story and Photos by Freddie Coleman, USF Health Communications and Marketing

This year’s Top Doctors list is out, and many USF Health physicians earned spots on the list.

Tampa Magazine surveyed nearly 11,260 physicians across the Tampa Bay area, asking them to nominate peers they consider the best in their specialty.

The final 2022 Top Doctors list of 300 physicians in 68 specialties includes 55 USF Health physicians in a diverse range of specialties voted on by their peers. They are:

ALLERGY & IMMUNOLOGY

Farnaz Tabatabaian, MD

CARDIAC ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

Bengt Herweg, MD

CARDIOLOGY

Joel Fernandez, MD

Fadi Matar, MD

CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY

Erol Belli, MD

CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY

Kristopher Kaliebe, MD

Saundra Stock, MD

COLON/RECTAL SURGERY

Jorge Marcet, MD

Jaime Sanchez, MD

COSMETIC SURGERY (FACE)

Abraham Marcadis, MD

DERMATOLOGY

Basil Cherpelis, MD

Lilia Correa, MD

Lewis Frank Glass, MD

Nishit Patel, MD

DEVELOPMENTAL PEDIATRICS

Tanuja Kothinti, MD

Carol Lilly, MD

EMERGENCY MEDICINE/URGENT CARE

David Wein, MD

ENDOCRINOLOGY

Yevgeniya Kushchayeva, MD

Dorothy Shulman, MD

FAMILY PRACTICE

Eduardo Gonzalez, MD

Karim Hanna, MD

Kira Zwygart, MD

FERTILITY

Anthony Imudia, MD

GENERAL SURGERY

Michael H. Albrink, MD

Thomas J. Herron, MD

Adham R. Saad, MD

GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY

Amanda G. Smith, MD

GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY

Diana English, MD

Thomas Rutherford, MD, PhD

INFECTIOUS DISEASE

Olga Klinkova, MD

INTERNAL MEDICINE

John McCormick, MD

NEUROLOGY

Alfred Frontera, MD

NEUROSURGERY

Siviero Agazzi, MD

Puya Alikhani, MD

Harry Van Loveren, MD

OBSTETRICS/GYNECOLOGY

Bri Anne McKeon, MD

OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE

Rachel Williams, MD

OTOLARYNGOLOGY

Tapan Padhya, MD

PALLIATIVE CARE

Howard Tuch, MD

PEDIATRIC GASTROENTEROLOGY

Racha Khalaf, MD

PEDIATRIC NEUROLOGY

Maria Gieron-Korthals, MD

PEDIATRIC PULMONOLOGY

Yanerys Colon Cortes, MD

Marisa Couluris, DO

PEDIATRICS

Vinita Kiluk, MD

PLASTIC SURGERY (FACE)

Michael Harrington, MD, MPH

PSYCHIATRY

Kimberly E. Hartney, MD

RADIOLOGY

Ryan D. Murtagh, MD

RHEUMATOLOGY

John Carter, MD

SPORTS MEDICINE

Eric Coris, MD

Byron Moran, MD

UROLOGY

Trushar Patel, MD

Lucas Wiegand, MD

VASCULAR NEUROLOGY/STROKE

David Z. Rose, MD

VASCULAR SURGERY

Konstantinos Dean John Arnaoutakis, MD

Aurelia Calero, MD

Brad Johnson, MD