The COVID-19 pandemic is having a lasting impact on the way we live, work and interact. Watch Dr. Bryan Bognar, vice dean of the Morsani College of Medicine Department of Medical Education, discuss USF Health’s medical education successes and challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is having a lasting impact on the way we live, work and interact. Watch Dr. Terri Ashmeade, chief quality officer at USF Health, discuss patient safety in the clinics.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is having a lasting impact on the way we live, work and interact at USF Health. Watch Jacqueleen Reyes Hull, Ed.D, assistant vice president for administration at USF Health, discuss how daily life has changed for faculty and staff.

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USF Health medical student Tampa Hutchens discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected medical education and what students and USF faculty have done to keep their medical training on track.

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USF Health Dean of the Taneja College of Pharmacy Dr. Kevin Sneed discusses the role pharmacists play in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Sneed stresses how pharmacists are helping find promising treatments, connecting with patients virtually to go over their medication regimens and further strengthening the healthcare sector’s approach to fighting the pandemic.

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USF Health Dean of Public Health, Dr. Donna Petersen, discusses the importance of public health especially during pandemics like COVID-19. Dean Petersen stresses the importance of following CDC guidelines — washing hands thoroughly, wearing a mask and maintaining social distance — to avoid contracting and spreading COVID-19. Dr. Petersen leads the COVID-19 Task Force and lays out plans to reopen USF to students, faculty and staff.

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Nurses protect the health and well-being of patients every day and play an integral role in our nation’s health care system. In the latest USF Health Brief, Dr. Usha Menon, interim dean of the USF Health College of Nursing, discusses the challenges and changes nurses and nurse training face during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Dr. Stephen Liggett, USF Health associate vice president for research, discusses how COVID-19 has changed how research is conducted and the types of conditions researchers work.

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Dr. Deborah DeWaay, USF Health associate dean of undergraduate medical education, discusses the current and long-term changes in medical education due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Dr. Mark Moseley, USF Health’s Chief Clinical Officer, discusses how physicians and other health care providers are using telehealth services and technology to remotely care for patients, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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In the first USF Health Briefs, Dr. Charles Lockwood, Dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, talks about how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our way of life and access to health care, the lessons the virus is teaching the medical community, and how long it may take before we can safely mingle in large groups again.

In the New Normal – physically distant and wearing masks – the Class of 2024 in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine began classes this week, marking the start of their four-year medical school journey.

The MD program in the Morsani College of Medicine is one of first programs at USF to start face-to-face classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, an effort that took careful planning, said Bryan Bognar, MD, vice dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

“We knew we only had one shot at setting this up right,” Dr. Bognar said. “And even with a successful launch, we must be constantly vigilant, all of us, in order to stay ahead of COVID.”

This MCOM Class of 2024, the largest in the college’s history with 190 students, filed into the new building July 27 in set arrival times to pace out screenings. This is the first class to start in the new MCOM facility, which opened in January 2020 in downtown Tampa. Sitting well apart from classmates, the 190 students filled the auditorium, which would typically seat 400 people.

Successfully re-opening for classes was complicated but careful attention to detail is paying off, Dr. Bognar said.

“It’s a marathon, of sorts, and it’s taking an incredible team effort from across USF Health,” he said. “Everyone’s excited about reentry. The key is for us all to stay disciplined to keep it up.”

Some of the main lessons the MCOM program has learned so far include:

• Allow a lot of extra time to stagger arrival times. You’ll be surprised how smooth it goes when entry is paced out.
• Frequently repeat the importance of following guidelines. It’s easy to forget so the reminders help prevent old habits from coming back.
• Lean on student leaders for sharing guidelines and new information to classmates.
• Tap into student creativity for ways to support the effort, offer reminders and provide supplies.
• To serve as reminders of how fast COVID-19 can take hold, share news stories about other schools, programs and businesses that experienced jumps in infections when guidelines weren’t followed.

Auditorium photo courtesy of Bryan Bognar. Other photos by Freddie Coleman

The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine has established a Department of Medical Education – a transition that raises the bar for the college’s educational standards as USF Health rises in national stature.

“Since he arrived, Dr. Lockwood has emphasized a culture of excellence in everything we do,” said Bryan Bognar, MD, who assumes the role as founding chair of the Department of Medical Education and will retain his title as MCOM vice dean for educational affairs.

“We’ve been pursuing excellence in every aspect of our practice plan and in the rigor of our research.  Now, transitioning the Office of Educational Affairs (OEA) to a Department of Medical Education further elevates the visibility of education and underscores the importance of our teaching mission.”

Valerie Parisi, MD, senior associate vice president of academic affairs at USF Health, and Bryan Bognar, MD, founding chair of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s Department of Medical Education, discuss the transition of the Office of Educational Affairs to its new departmental status.

Dr. Bognar and Valerie Parisi, MD, senior associate vice president of academic affairs at USF Health and MCOM vice dean of faculty affairs, worked with Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, to spearhead the creation of the new department.

“This sends a clear message from leadership about the value of education, putting it on a similar plane as our research and clinical care missions,” Dr. Parisi said.

The transition to a Department of Medical Education — endorsed by the MCOM Faculty Council, USF Faculty Senate and USF System Faculty Council — is a natural evolution of OEA’s growth and maturation, Dr. Bognar said.  Many top-tier medical schools, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, have developed successful medical education departments or units in tandem with their rising national recognition.

Institutional support for a medical education department has several advantages, say Dr. Bognar and Dr. Parisi. Such departments can:

• Strengthen evaluation of curriculum content, and better facilitate faculty development in such areas as teaching techniques and interactive training.
• Promote publication of scholarly work and improve the quality of research in areas with an educational focus, including those linking medical education to health outcomes.
• Create a home for a growing number of ranked faculty in OEA, representing various disciplines, whose primary role is teaching rather than research or patient care, and for voluntary faculty in the community whose primary interactions with students are educational.
• Provide secondary appointments for faculty from other USF Health and USF colleges, such as public health, nursing, pharmacy, engineering and the Honors College, who collaborate substantially with colleagues in the Morsani College of Medicine.
• Consolidate and expand programs that help faculty develop new skills corresponding to changes in the medical curriculum and its assessment. Give faculty who want to be part of a community of “master teachers” a clearer path to promotion.

The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine has already initiated many hallmarks of educational quality improvement, such as detailed curriculum mapping of MD courses across all four years to identify any gaps in content and to assess teaching effectiveness, implementing performance metrics, and providing systematic feedback to ensure that what faculty members are teaching dovetails with accreditation and licensing examination standards, Dr. Bognar said. “We continue to bring rigor, discipline and accountability to our program oversight.”

In the final analysis, the new department can benefit USF Health’s entire academic enterprise by attracting the highest-caliber teaching faculty who value new ideas and ask challenging questions about how students are best trained to improve the health of patients and the community. “The quality of the curriculum improves as faculty innovate and evaluate what works,” Dr. Parisi said.

The Office of Curriculum and Medical Education, established in 1997 to oversee all aspects of the curriculum, gave rise in 2004 to OEA.  Over the years the number of coordinators and other staff members has grown to execute an MD curriculum increasingly integrated across all four years.

In 2014, the OEA added an Academic Support Center offering academic advising and coaching for students (MD, DPT and PA) who want to improve their study and examination skills and in 2016 it launched a centralized Research, Innovation & Scholarly Endeavors office, which supports a wide range of faculty-mentored medical student research and other scholarly work. This spring, Eun Mi Park, EdD, was recruited from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where she built a strong track record of learning research, to become MCOM’s new assistant dean of assessment and evaluation.   OEA also supports interprofessional education primarily through its Experiential Learning and Simulation team based at USF Health CAMLS.

The creation of a Department of Medical Education is budget neutral and will not substantially change the organizational structure of existing OEA faculty and staff.

-Photos by Freddie Coleman, USF Health Communications and Marketing

The national opioid epidemic, years in the making, will require more than the effort of government agencies to alleviate.

Deaths from drug overdose last year escalated to an all-time high of more than 63,000 nationwide – killing more Americans than car accidents. These deaths were largely driven by a five-fold increase in deaths involving illicit opioid drugs such as fentanyl and heroin, according to  data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December 2017. Some of the steepest increases have been in Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott last year declared a public health emergency to draw on federal funding for statewide prevention, treatment and recovery services.

This national opioid epidemic has been years in the making and mitigating its effects will take the effort of more than government agencies. The University of South Florida’s academic medical center has joined medical schools across the country in evaluating and strengthening education and prevention measures needed to help derail the devastating toll taken by the opioid crisis.

Boosting pain management education

In Florida, the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) plays a leading role in providing faculty, residents and students with the tools to address the opioid crisis while caring for patients in acute and chronic pain. USF’s medical college is among nine across the state working together to educate the next generation of physicians in pain management best practices, including appropriate opioid prescribing.  MCOM Vice Dean for Education Bryan Bognar, MD, co-chairs the Council of Florida Medical School Deans’ Pain Management Working Group, along with Diane McKay, PsyD, director of behavioral health and assistant professor of psychology at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, which has a branch campus in Bradenton, FL.

The group, including members from the state’s six public and three private medical schools, coordinates with Florida’s Surgeon General, policymakers, the state’s allopathic and osteopathic medical associations, and others. Participants are developing a set of core competencies that can be readily integrated into existing curricula to better prepare Florida’s medical students and residents to manage different types of pain, to recognize the risks for addiction and mental health conditions affecting substance abuse, and to safely prescribe opioids when appropriate while keeping pace with changing practice guidelines for pain management.

MCOM Vice Dean for Education Bryan Bognar, MD, co-chairs the Council of Florida Medical School Deans’ Pain Management Working Group.

“All our medical schools are already addressing substance abuse and pain management to some extent,” Dr. Bognar said. “Our goal is to fill in any gaps that we find, and also assess that students achieve these competencies, whether through test modules or standardized patient simulations.”

The Florida group has built upon initiatives in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, states where medical schools have already gone through the exercise of creating core competencies to strengthen pain management education for undergraduate and graduate medical students, Dr. Bognar said.

“Pain management education is an incredibly important pillar in addressing the opioid epidemic,” Dr. Bognar said. “At USF Health, we are teaching future physicians and other health care professionals to be skilled in best practices, so it is incumbent upon us to be part of the solution to this pervasive public health problem.”

“The misuse and abuse of opioids is a serious public health problem because the numbers of individuals, families and communities affected are staggering and the costs are borne by society,” said Donna Petersen, ScD, dean of the USF Health College of Public Health. “Solutions will require a team-based approach to bring various disciplines around the same table for discussion.”

Within a core course taken by all USF public health master’s degree students, Dr. Petersen teaches a new segment on the opioid epidemic that encompasses surveillance of narcotic-related risks and outcomes, effects of opioids on the brain, prescribing practices, roles of law enforcement and the medical community, and changing the conversation of addiction as weakness toward chronic illness.

Donna Petersen, ScD, dean of the USF College of Public Health, says addressing opioid misuse and abuse will require a team approach.

With a focus on interprofessional collaboration among its colleges of medicine, nursing, public health and pharmacy and school of physical therapy, USF Health faculty members are also looking for ways to bring students together as teams to learn about the complexities of substance abuse and pain management within the context of the opioid epidemic. Led by Tricia Penniecook, MD, MPH, vice dean for education at the College of Public Health, an Interprofessional Education Workgroup on Opioids was recently formed at USF Health to develop and implement common teaching modules to address the issue comprehensively.

Taking the lead in opioid prescribing practices

The Morsani College of Medicine is one of the first medical schools in Florida to develop clinical practice guidelines for opioid prescribing, said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

The current opioid crisis emerged following substantial increases in per-capita frequency and dosages of prescription opioids, a trend begun in the late 1990s. Researchers hypothesize that this increase was due in part to palliative care experts seeking to address the burden of chronic pain without sufficient evidence of either the long-term effectiveness or risks of opioid dependence. The Joint Commission’s classification of pain as a “fifth vital sign” contributed to hospitals and physicians seeking to improve patient satisfaction scores through aggressive pain relief – sometimes without managing patient and family expectations of a pain-free experience.

Charles Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, has written editorials on opioid abuse and how obstetrician-gynecologists can help prevent it for February and March 2018 issues of Contemporary OB/GYN.  Dr. Lockwood is editor-in-chief of the publication.  | Photo by Sandra C. Roa

While doctors now prescribe opioids less often, the overall rates remain high and vary substantially across the country, a recent CDC surveillance report indicates. In 2016 prescribers wrote 66.5 prescriptions for every 100 people, down from 72.4 in 2006; however the prescribing rate remains three times as high as in 1999 and the average days of drug supply for each opioid prescription continues to trend upward.  The explosion of opioid prescribing in this decade has contributed not only to rising emergency department and hospital admissions and overdose deaths — but also to far-reaching psychosocial ills. A USF-led study published in the January 2018 issue of Health Affairs found an association between the rate of opioid prescriptions in Florida and the alarming number of children placed into foster care.

“Physicians can play a critical role in curbing the epidemic by returning to our traditionally stringent criteria for opioid prescriptions, using a multimodality, non-opioid approaches to chronic pain management and by better understanding opioid pharmacology,” said Dr. Lockwood, who, as editor-in-chief of Contemporary OB/GYN, has written editorials on opioid abuse and how Ob-Gyns can prevent it for the publication’s February and March 2018 issues.

The USF Health proposed guidelines clearly lay out for all practitioners who “prescribe, administer or dispense” controlled substances — including opioid medications such as OxyContin, morphine and fentanyl, to name a few — evidence-based standards for safely treating pain. Among other provisions, they specify recommended prescribing limits and exceptions, strongly encourage practitioners to complete approved continuing education training on pain management and addiction, and recommend that conservative and non-drug alternatives be considered to control non-cancer pain.

Mark Moseley, MD, chief medical officer for USF Health Care, says the new guidelines are intended to reinforce prescribing and practicing in a safe and thoughtful way.

The executive board of USF Health Care, the university’s multispecialty faculty practice group, is expected to approve the guidelines in February.  Mark Moseley, MD, chief medical officer for USF Health Care, and Kevin Sneed, PharmD, dean of the USF Health College of Pharmacy, led development of the guidelines with input from faculty leaders in neurology, psychiatry, pharmacy, nursing, physical therapy and legal counsel.

Creating a culture of patient safety

“Our intent is to reinforce evidence based prescribing and practicing in a safe and thoughtful way, given that these (opioid) drugs can be highly addictive in some,” Dr. Moseley said.

“At USF Health we are creating a culture of safety and putting the patient first, and these guidelines are important in setting that expectation,” Dr. Sneed said. “Ultimately, we have to be mindful about not creating an unintended problem while trying to treat a (pain-related) problem. Opioids are not a long-term solution for managing chronic pain.”

When prescribed prudently opioids are useful in helping physicians relieve pain, especially extreme pain or the chronic pain suffered by cancer patients at the end of life.  But research on the long-term effectiveness of these agents for chronic pain relief has been inconclusive or suggests ineffectiveness, and some studies indicate misuse and abuse of the prescription painkillers has led to a rise in addiction and overdose deaths from heroin.

Kevin Sneed, PharmD, dean of the USF College of Pharmacy, says opioids are not a long-term solution for managing chronic pain.

“Opioids as a class of medications are an important tool in our full armamentarium of pharmacological agents,” said Dr. Moseley, an emergency physician. “If you come into the emergency room with a broken bone, I need to have that as an option to give some immediate relief… but for a patient with back pain there may be more appropriate and effective options than prescribing three months of highly potent opiate medication.”

Both Dr. Moseley and Dr. Sneed agree that non-medication alternatives like exercise, physical therapy and biobehavioral treatments should be considered and discussed when evaluating an individual’s condition.

“Patients want their physicians to have an open discussion with them about how to best manage their pain,” Dr. Moseley said. “Most are pretty agnostic of the modality used if you can help alleviate the pain.”

CRNA advanced pain management fellowship among nation’s first

A USF Health College of Nursing postgraduate program for practicing certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) was granted accreditation in August by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs.

The distinction makes the nursing school’s Simulation-Based Academic Fellowship in Advanced Pain Management one of four such specialty fellowship programs for nurse anesthetists in the United States and the only one in Florida, said John Maye, PhD, CRNA, the fellowship program’s coordinator. The program, combining online courses with an intensive simulation clinical experience at the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS), will graduate its first class of 25 fellows this spring, including some from rural areas of America hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

John Maye, PhD, right, coordinator of the USF College of Nursing’s Simulation-Based Academic Fellowship in Advanced Pain Management, with Erik Rauch, DNP, center, and Alan Todd, DNP — all members of the college’s nurse anesthesia faculty. In this simulation exercise they are evaluating vertebral column anatomy. | Photo by Ryan Noone

CRNAs work with physicians to provide anesthesia and related care to patients before, during and after diagnostic, surgical or obstetric procedures. They can order and administer controlled substances based on state law and/or facility-specific protocols.

New research reported last year in JAMA Surgery cited an under-recognized complication of perioperative care among certain patients who never used opioids before surgery – whether they undergo minor or major procedures, some prescribed these painkillers for postsurgical relief may face a risk for developing opioid addiction.

Health care practitioners traditionally receive minimal exposure to the science of pain medicine, yet education is a “huge part” of preventing or reducing pain without inadvertently promoting opioid dependence, Dr. Maye said. “Our fellowship program focuses on educating CRNAs to understand the transmission of pain within the central and peripheral nervous systems and how specific drugs other than opioids can be used to help control that pain perioperatively.”

The Robert A. Good Honor Society (RGHS) in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine welcomed its inaugural group of members at an induction ceremony held in April.

Sixteen medical students, six faculty members and one alumnus became the charter class to the RGHS, an honor society created in honor of one of the medical school’s greatest scientists, teachers and mentors.

The Charter Class 2017 for the Robert A. Good Honor Society.

“This honor society was established in Dr. Good’s name because, as a physician scientist and practicing clinician, Dr. Good embodied the very values that we here at the Morsani College of Medicine strive to emulate,” said Bryan A. Bognar, MD, MPH, FACP, vice dean for MCOM Educational Affairs. “We hope Dr. Good’s legacy inspires others to further improve medical attitudes and health outcomes and help advance medicine.”

The Robert Good Honor Society was formed to recognize and honor medical students, faculty and alumni who have demonstrated exemplary commitment to improve health outcomes through research, innovation and scholarly endeavors. The MCOM Office of Research, Innovation and Scholarly Endeavors (RISE) introduced RGHS last academic year.

RGHS competitive membership is open to third-year medical students at who have demonstrated excellence in scholarly projects in all fields of medicine, such as biomedical research, innovation, education, the arts, creative and service oriented projects. Projects should contribute towards improving medical attitudes, health outcomes and the advancement of medicine.

For faculty and alumni, candidates are selected by an Advisory Committee that includes current RGHS members and RISE leadership. Criteria is based on academic excellence, leadership, professionalism, service, teaching, research, and mentorship.

At the group’s induction ceremony in April, each honoree received a medallion with Dr. Good’s image, as well as a specially created emblem – a “Discovery Torch” that has three components representing Dr. Good’s legacy: a double helix to symbolize his role as a father of modern immunology, a torch to symbolize the flame of discovery, and a snake (part of the caduceus image for medicine) to symbolize his work in medicine and science.

The Robert A. Good Honor Society Charter Class 2017 included:

Medical students: Robert Ackerman, Matthew Applebaum, Danielle Carr, Michael Carr, Kelsey Duncan, Shawna Foley, Jessica Glover, Anastasia Groshev, Edward Keshishian, Michael Kongnyuy, Alicia Nassar, Alejandro Rabionet, Samuel Reynolds, Charles DeMello Schutt, Thejal Srikumar, and Bo Zhang.

MCOM Faculty: Eric M. Toloza, MD, PhD, Steven Specter, PhD, Phillip J. Marty, PhD, Sarah Yuan, MD, PhD, Stephen B. Liggett, MD, and Jolan E. Walter, MD, PhD.

Alumnus: Peter J. Embi, MD (’97).

In addition, medical student Michael Kongnyuy was presented with the Steven Specter Award for Outstanding Contributions in Scholarly Achievement and the Advancement of Medicine, which included $1,000. Kongnyuy earned the award as an RGHS member whose work demonstrated exemplary research in a field of medicine that mirrored the mission of USF Health, “to change the way we understand health and how it transforms our quality of life.”

Robert A. Good, MD, PhD, DSc, FACP (1922-2003) is internationally known as a “father of modern immunology for his work documenting the importance of lymphocyte in the immune response, the role of the thymus in immune development, and the action of the tonsils in mucosal immune defense. He also contributed significantly to the scientific understanding of immunodeficiency diseases, cellular engineering, and undernutrition. This foundational work, along with a lifetime of other published and presented work, he earned 12 honorary doctoral degrees from medical institutions around the world and multiple awards from medical and scientific institutions around the world.

Dr. Good joined USF in 1985 as chair of the Department of Pediatrics, Physician-in-Chief for All Children’s Hospital, and director of the Children’s Research Institute at All Children’s Hospital.

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The USF Health Physician Assistant (PA) Program officially started May 8 when 30 students – the inaugural class – gathered in a lecture hall to begin their classes.

The excitement was palpable – faculty and administrators eagerly welcomed each student who arrived at the first-day orientation and students were all smiles as they came in and greeted each other.

The day many had been waiting for and working toward had finally arrived.

“We are more than excited for you all to be here,” said Todd Wills, MD, assistant dean and founding director of USF Health’s PA Program, in his welcoming remarks to the new class. “We have no doubt you’re going to succeed – you’re in a fantastic place where the facilities and faculty are top-notch.”

Dr. Todd Wills welcomes the charter class to the PA Program.

The USF Health PA Program was established to help meet the growing demand for health care providers, especially those in primary care. The program earned provisional accreditation in fall 2016, opening the application process and assuring applicants of a quality program.

The 30 students in the charter class include 21 women and 9 men. They were chosen from more than 1,500 applicants (50 to 1 ratio, or 2 percent). Of the 30 new students 23 are from Florida and seven from out of state.

Being part of a charter class is uncommon, said Bryan A. Bognar, MD, MPH, FACP, vice dean for Educational Affairs for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, at the start of the orientation.

“There is only one charter class,” Dr. Bognar said to the new students. “USF Health has seen phenomenal growth and you, sitting here today, are part of our continued growth.”

Dr. Bryan Bognar kicks off the first day for the USF Health PA Program.

In assuring them of the work ahead in the program, he added “This PA program is unparalleled.”

This first group includes many who saw the quality of USF Health’s program and were eager to be in the inaugural group. That includes first-year student Kelly Powell. Originally from Mississippi, Powel spent the past year in New York City as a medical assistant for a dermatology practice. She said she was confident when applying to the USF Health PA program because of its affiliation with the Morsani College of Medicine, the experience of its faculty, and the facilities that would be part of her training.

“Being part of the first class could be intimidating – they expect a lot out of you – but the big benefit is that they are flexible and want feedback for how to improve the program,” Powell said.

Also in the first class is Jensen Jozil, who saw the impact a PA can have on patient care when his mother needed emergency care at a hospital.

“I was really impressed,” said Jozil, a graduate of USF’s biomedical sciences program. “The PA was managing the entire case with professionalism and was a good source of knowledge for my mom’s condition. That’s when I really knew I wanted to be a PA.”

PA students spend a few minutes meeting each other before first-day orientation.

That kind of impact is just what program administrators were aiming for, said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

“Physician assistants are on the frontline of patient care,” Dr. Lockwood said. “They work more closely with physicians than probably anyone else. They are trained to provide outstanding care for patients, to be able to assist physicians in operating rooms, as well as to provide primary care.”

The demand for PAs is huge, Dr. Lockwood added, and the statistics bear him out. The U.S. Department of Labor projects physician assistant jobs to grow 30 percent by 2024. Upon earning their certification, 63 percent of PAs accepted a clinical position and 75 percent of those received multiple job offers, according to a 2014 report by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.

“There is a significant shortage of physicians, an extraordinary shortage of nurses, so the demand for physician assistants is enormous,” Dr. Lockwood said. “There are lot of programs that are being developed. There are very few, however, that are so well-grounded in academic practice as ours. And we think we’ll be able to provide our PA students with tools that will set them apart from other PA programs and lead to more exciting and interesting careers.”

Dr. Gretchen Koehler (center) welcomes the first-year PA students.

A PA program can offer a straightforward path to the profession, said Gretchen Koehler, PhD, associate vice president for USF Health and senior associate dean for Academics and Institutional Effectiveness for the Morsani College of Medicine.

“We are so pleased to be able to offer students another degree program, particularly one that is a two-year curriculum culminating with a terminal master’s degree, the highest degree awarded in the field,” Dr. Koehler said.

“The students in this program will be supported by the extensive USF Health network of faculty and providers. They will also participate in our intentionally designed team training sessions that bring all USF Health learners together. This model of learning capitalizes on the students’ shared interest in health and health care and allows them to more fully develop their unique areas of expertise.”

That interprofessional approach to learning is what attracted many of the charter students, along with USF Health’s training facilities, Dr. Wills said.

“Faculty and staff at USF Health set out to build a PA program that leveraged all of the strengths that already exist at USF Health and to deliver a dynamic curriculum to our first group of students,” Dr. Wills said.

“Among the strengths that exist here is a focus on interprofessional education. Unlike other PA programs, at USF Health students get to be in close proximity with nursing, public health, medical, and pharmacy students – exactly who they will collaborate with in the health care careers of the future. One thing we’ve noticed as health care has evolved is that no one practices in a silo anymore. Teamwork is especially important. So, from Day One, we are teaching our PA students how to be part of that team, to contribute to it with all of their expertise.”

USF Health PA Larry Collins gives new PA students a tour of the simulation lab.

Working in teams is the reality in today’s health care workplace, said Larry Collins, MPAS, PA-C, ATC, assistant professor of orthopaedics and sports medicine at USF Health and a faculty member for the USF Health PA Program.

“We work with physicians in a team setting along with nurse practitioners, pharmacists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and other health care providers to make sure that our families have the best health care they can get in our communities,” Collins said.

He also sees a PA career as being incredibly flexible.

“We’re trained as generalists, recertify as generalists every 10 years, and in doing so we have the opportunity to change our areas of specialty,” Collins said. “I have several colleagues and classmates from PA school who have switched to positions throughout their careers. They’re in a role they love, say the ER, but feel they need something different and they go work in a family practice setting, or maybe a dermatology setting.”

The new PA students in orientation on their first day at USF Health.

Back in the classroom, at the PA Program orientation, 30 people are sitting together as one inaugural class. Dr. Bognar notes the significance of the moment and reminds them to depend on each other.

“You are going to be a close-knit family,” Dr. Bognar said. “You’re going to pick one another up when you’re down, and you’re going to be together to celebrate your high points.”

The fact that the USF Health PA Program is new is not a problem for these inaugural students.

“It doesn’t feel like a new program – there’s no mad scramble,” Jozil said. “The admissions process has been very smooth.”

“Even in the interview, you could feel the excitement they have for the program,” said first-year PA student Ivana Karaban.

“It’s amazing and I’m really excited to be here,” Karaban said. “It feels incredible to be making history.”

The charter class for the USF Health PA Program.

Story by Sarah Worth, photos by Freddie Coleman, video by Sandra C. Roa, USF Health Communications

MD program fully reaccredited, following approval of $17M to help build new facility downtown

Tampa. FL (June 30, 2015) — The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s MD program has been reaccredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) for the next eight years – the maximum period allowed.

This caps off a month of great news for the University of South Florida medical school. The reaccreditation follows the Governor’s approval last week of a state budget, which includes $17 million for the university to begin building its new Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) facility in downtown Tampa, co-located with the USF Health Heart Institute.

A few of the MCOM faculty, staff and students involved in the LCME reaccreditation process. Clockwise from center: Dr. Bryan Bognar; Dr. Gretchen Koehler; Adriane Smith; Elizabeth Rogers, MS4; Casey Nagel, MS4; Harold Paul, MS4, Neil Manimala, MS4 (Medical Student Council President), Monique Konstantinovic, MS4 (co-president, Class of 2016), and Seema Martinez.

“We will continue to relentlessly pursue excellence in education, research and clinical care,” said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine. “This positive LCME evaluation validates the progress we have made in modernizing our MD curriculum to prepare physicians to lead and practice in a rapidly changing, interdisciplinary health care system.”

The LCME accreditation is additional evidence of a medical school on the move, which is attracting more top prospective medical students to USF. A record number of 5,235 AMCAS applications – up 24 percent from last year – were received for the class of 175 students expected to enter MCOM this August. Additionally, the average Medical College Admission Test score, or MCAT, for the newly admitted students is up 7 percent from last year, which places the incoming class in the top quartile for average MCAT scores among medical schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

The LCME is the nationally-recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to the MD degree in U.S. and Canadian schools. Accreditation shows that a medical school has met very rigorous national standards. Graduating from an LCME-accredited school is a condition for licensure in most states.

The LCME cited USF’s ongoing efforts to minimize medical student debt as a particular strength. Among Dr. Lockwood’s priorities since arriving at USF last year is reducing student debt by freezing tuition, as well as boosting the number of medical student scholarships. Scholarship and grant funding to help defray educational expenses for USF medical students increased 300 percent over the last seven years, and student debt rate remains below the national average for all LCME-accredited medical schools.

To prepare for the LCME’s site visit this past February, a team of more than 100 faculty, students and staff spent nearly two years conducting a self-study to help ensure MCOM met LCME standards and to guide institutional improvement.

Dr. Bryan Bognar is vice dean for Educational Affairs at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

“This successful outcome speaks volumes about our comprehensive and meticulous preparation,” said Bryan Bognar, MD, MPH, vice dean for Educational Affairs at MCOM. “It would not have been possible without the hard work, collaboration and dedication of our administration, faculty, staff and students, including our colleagues at the Lehigh Valley campus in Allentown and our incredible Tampa Bay area hospital and community partners.”

For the first time, the LCME reviewed USF Health’s MD SELECT Program – a new partnership with the nationally-recognized Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). The innovative program, which graduated its first 16 students this spring, admits a group of medical students demonstrating a high level of emotional intelligence and leadership potential. It develops their skills in medical leadership, values-based, patient-centered care and health systems. Students take classes in Tampa for two years, then go to the USF Lehigh Valley campus in Pennsylvania for two years to focus on their clinical education.

“When you embrace the challenges and changes that arise when creating a groundbreaking program like SELECT, you expect to undergo a tough reaccreditation process. We prepared well for the scrutiny and passed,” said Robert Barraco, MD, associate dean for Educational Affairs at MCOM’s Lehigh Valley campus. “This is a huge victory for everyone, both on the USF Tampa campus and the Lehigh Valley campus. Even though we are 1,000 miles apart, there is no distance between us when it comes to working together to improve medical education.”

Dr. Robert Barraco is, associate dean for Educational Affairs at the USF Lehigh Valley campus, where medical students in the MD SELECT program conduct their clinical education.

The move to downtown Tampa is expected to make MCOM even more attractive to top medical student talent in the near future. Bringing together education, translational research and high quality patient care under one roof, it will place students within five minutes of the university’s world-class medical simulation and learning space (CAMLS) and Tampa General Hospital, where they conduct the majority of their clinical rotations.

“It’s a unique opportunity to bring USF Health closer to our primary teaching hospital, into what will be a thriving downtown waterfront district with tremendous appeal to students and faculty,” said Dr. Lockwood. “We look forward to being there well before our next LCME visit in 2023.”

-USF Health-
USF Health’s mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences; and the USF Physician’s Group. The University of South Florida is a global research university ranked 50^th in the nation by the National Science Foundation for both federal and total research expenditures among all U.S. universities. For more information, visit www.health.usf.edu.

Media contact:
Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications
(813) 974-3303 or abaier@health.usf.edu

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

While today’s physician doesn’t carry a bag full of devices for examining and treating patients – like those of a hundred years ago – they do carry a repository of tools based on experiences and challenges that forms who they are as doctors.

Remembering to use those tools will make you a better doctor, said Bryan Bognar, MD, MPH, FACP, vice dean for educational affairs.

Dr. Bryan Bognar.

“Those bags are icons of the medical profession and you, as emerging health care providers, will need a similar collection of tools in your own careers,” he said.

Dr. Bognar was the keynote speaker at this year’s USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Scholarly Concentration Student Symposium, and his analogy helped students see the need for them to pull from their own work, experiences, and challenges within the Scholarly Concentrations Program to help them become better doctors.

Dr. Bognar urged students to make today’s “tool belt” a mix of enduring traits (diagnostic ability, medications, technology, spirit of inquiry, humanism, and professionalism) with emerging traits (inter-professionalism and team building, leadership, information technologies, personalized medicine, globalization, and knowledge of healthcare systems).

Held Oct. 18, the Student Symposium is an opportunity for the mostly second- and third-year medical students to present their preliminary research data. Their projects will likely become their capstone project that culminates their work in their fourth year, so the event is somewhat like a practice run.

This 5th annual symposium featured 28 presentations by medical students participating in the faculty-mentored Scholarly Concentration Program, a college wide program that provides medical students with an elective minor, of sorts, in one of 10 areas, providing them with opportunities for academic endeavors in areas of special interest. The concentrations are:  Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Business in Medicine; Health Disparities; Health Systems Engineering; International Medicine; Law and Medicine; Medical Education; Medical Humanities; Medicine and Gender; Public Health; and Research.

Each concentration includes elements of course work, practical application, and scholarly presentation and allows for self-directed learning, enhances interactions between students and fosters relationships between students and faculty.

Some of this year’s 28 medical student presenters with Dr. Bognar (center).

Following Dr. Bognar’s address, the students presented their work. Topics included the mechanics of disease, community involvement, health issues in poor communities, and medical education. Students and their topics included the following:

Matthew Applebaum: “Does a Wider Margin for a 1.0 -2.0 mm Melanoma Lead to Improvement in Oncologic and Cosmetic Outcomes?”

Jessica Glover: “The Effect of Margin Widths in Recurrence and Survival of Breast Conservation Therapy Patients”

Tess Chase: “A Critical Examination of the Biopsychosocial Implications of Pediatric Epilepsy in Germany and the United States”

Latashia-Lika Lelea: “Physician’s and Traditional Healer’s Perspectives, Use, and Effectiveness of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in American Samoa to Help Raise Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity in Mainstream Medical Practices”

Sayeef Mirza: “Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Coronary Artery Disease among Cardiovascular Patients: A KAP Study in Dhaka, Bangladesh”

Blake Housley: “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Cost and Eligibility Model of Medicaid Expansion”

Spencer Bezalel: “Store-and-Forward Teledermatology Improves Access to Care in a VA Dermatology Clinic”

Danielle Grams: “New Frontiers for Medication Safety in Gansu, China”

Hussain Basrawala and Khalil Nasser: “SONOSTATION: A Modern Approach to Image Guided Surgical Intervention”

Maria Echavarria: “Comparative Study of Segmentectomy versus Lobectomy for Lung Cancer Patients via Robotic-Assisted Video Thoracoscopic (RATS) Surgery”

Ashok Shiani: “Degree of Concordance between Single Balloon Enteroscopy and Capsule Endoscopy for Obscure Gastrointestinal Bleeding after an Initial Positive Capsule”

Meghana Vellanki: “Buried Balloon: A Novel Complication from Percutaneous Radiologic Gastrostomy Tube Placement”

Jennifer Le: “Asymmetric Synthesis of Amitifadine via Metalloradical Catalysis”

Paolina Pantcheva: “Treating Non-Motor Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease with Transplantation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells”

Yumeng Zhang: “TCA Cycle-Enhancing Metabolite Supplementation Improves Mitochondrial Function in a Parkinson’s Disease Cell Model”

Robert Ackerman, Shaara Argo and Jennifer Carrion: “Pre-Health Summer Enrichment Program 2014”

Mariella Disturco: “Development and Implantation of a Multidisciplinary Curriculum for Women whom are Obese During Pregnancy”

Shawna Foley: “Mothers for Mutare: Community-Based RUTF Manufacture and Nutrition Training for Relief of Pediatric Malnutrition in Mutare, Zimbabwe”

Jessica Patel, Sonali Ranjit and Nick Kovacs: “Outcomes of Innovation Education and Training for Heath Care Students”

Alexander Glaser and Shaunn Hussey: “Progression from Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever to Dengue Shock Syndrome: A Predictive Model”

Nicole Teal: “forwardHEALTH: A University-NGO Partnership for Community-Based Global Health”

Holly O’Brien: “forwardHEALTH: Youth Empowerment and Education”

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications

Eight years ago, Bryan Bognar, MPH, MD, was deep in the middle of preparing for reaccreditation for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. Committees, data collection, lengthy reports and in-depth self-study filled his days for nearly a year.

Today, Dr. Bognar is once again deep in the middle accreditation as the medical school prepares for its next site visit by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) early next year.  Although the familiarity makes for a faster learning curve, it won’t slow the pace or reduce the volume of work, said Dr. Bognar, who was recently named vice dean of the Office of Educational Affairs for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM).

“Having gone through the accreditation process is a tremendous advantage, but a lot has changed at MCOM since the last accreditation cycle,” said Dr. Bognar, who started the job March 3. “But the beauty of the LCME visit and associated preparation is that it offers us an opportunity to take a hard look in the mirror and see how we’re doing. What we discover is that there is a long list of strengths so it’s a chance to celebrate the things we are doing well. There also will be opportunities for improvement.”

The LCME reaccredited MCOM for a full eight years in 2007. Its decision for the next accreditation comes in 2015.

USF Health has had a number of new initiatives since Dr. Bognar left the Office of Educational Affairs roughly five years ago, including the College of Pharmacy, an expanded master’s program, shared student services (The Well) and the SELECT MD program. One of USF Health’s strong differentiators, Dr. Bognar said, is the ever-growing inter-professional education efforts across USF Health.

The LCME recognizes the importance of incorporating inter-professional education (IPE) experiences in students’ curriculum, Dr. Bognar said.

“IPE is a very important aspect of what makes USF Health unique,” he said. “Our students have a genuine thirst for knowledge for what other health professionals contribute to patient care. They need to come away with an appreciation of how the pieces fit together.”

His own clinical experiences will likely play into the IPE efforts at USF Health, for both the LCME visit and for the long term.

“I spent three and a half years practicing within a very interdisciplinary environment at Moffitt Cancer Center,” he said. “I’ve seen it affect patient outcomes in a very real way, on a day-to-day basis. It’s like an orchestra, with each health professional bringing their own expertise, experience, and perspective on what the patient needs are. The patient care plan that comes from that interaction is critical; when done well it works seamlessly.”

And with health care continually changing, the need for training in teams has never been greater, he said.

“There is a complexity of modern-day patient care and it requires flexible, interdisciplinary care models. The more and earlier we can expose students to that, the better.”

That attitude helps USF MCOM students see Dr. Bognar as a great asset, for both the impending LCME visit and for continued positive interactions with students.

“Medical students are ecstatic for his return,” said Neil Manimala, president of the MCOM Student Council. “Dr. Bognar’s dedication to the student body is incredible. When we met first met with him to better acquaint him with key student concerns right after he was selected, he was already aware of most of the developments that have happened since he left USF Health. He stayed with us for two and a half hours, making sure to gather details on the direction the students want our institution to be headed.  I have the utmost confidence that under his leadership, we’ll be on that student-centered track, and subsequently we’ll come out of the LCME re-accreditation process a stronger community.”

The confidence in Dr. Bognar to champion MCOM students carries through to the administration, as well. In his letter notifying students of Dr. Bognar taking the vice dean of education position, MCOM Interim Dean Harry van Loveren noted:

“I could not be happier that Dr. Bognar agreed to take on this new role. His teaching abilities are widely recognized and admired by our leadership, our faculty, and by you, our students. In fact, when I first broke the news to a few of your student leaders yesterday, their joy was palpable – as if they had won a prize. And I believe they have. Dr. Bognar knows and appreciates our history and culture. I am confident about his abilities to lead us through the upcoming accreditation process for the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Dr. Bognar, who received an MPH from our own College of Public Health, also has a deep understanding of our cooperative and inter-professional culture across USF Health. Dr. Bognar has said that he’s ‘absolutely thrilled’ to be returning to Educational Affairs. He asked us to let you know that he will put his heart and soul into working with you again and making your educational experience the best that it can be.”

So what’s after LCME accreditation? Dr. Bognar is taking it one step at a time.

“We’re not starting anything new just yet,” he said, smiling. “We’re focusing on the things in front of us. We want ensure that the changes that have already been made have an opportunity to develop deep roots and are sustainable. So they bear fruit for years to come.”

Dr. Bognar earned his MD from the Indiana University of School of Medicine, a BSc from the University of Notre Dame, and an MPH from the USF College of Public Health. He is a former chief resident at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and completed a two-year fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has received several teaching awards from USF and received the American College of Physicians – American Society of Internal Medicine Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in 2002.

In 2009, Dr. Bognar was associate dean for undergraduate medical education and interim vice dean for the MCOM Office of Educational Affairs before transitioning to Moffitt Cancer Center, where he was Chair of Internal Medicine and maintained a faculty appointment with MCOM to continue teaching students and residents.

Reflecting on his path back to the Office of Educational Affairs, Dr. Bognar noted that his road was always on course for teaching.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to come back,” he said. “It is not only an honor to be able to take care of patients, but also to help educate others on how to take care of patients.”

Story by Sarah Worth, photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications.