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.

Trainees will benefit from USF Health’s increase in nationally recognized faculty with research expertise in blood vessel inflammation linked to heart, lung and other diseases

TAMPA, Fla (Feb. 3, 2022) — The University of South Florida recently received a highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutional Training Grant (Award Number T32HL160529), boosting the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s (MCOM) capacity to prepare the next generation of scientists in an emerging area of research applicable to many major diseases.

The NIH’s National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute awarded MCOM total expected funds of $1.35 million over the next five years to support the comprehensive training of pre- and postdoctoral scientists focused on research in vascular inflammation and injury. Trainees will be selected from PhD candidates and graduates, as well as MD graduates in residency or fellowship programs related to cardiovascular sciences. They will receive stipends and financial support for attending scientific conferences.

The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s new NHLBI Institutional Training Grant for research in vascular inflammation and injury is directed by Sarah Yuan, MD, PhD (center), professor and chair of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology (MPP).  Joining Dr. Yuan are core MPP members of the T32 grant team, from left to right: Victoria Mothershed, the program’s administrative manager; Thomas Taylor-Clark, PhD, the program’s associate director; and Jerome Breslin, PhD, who designs and oversees the program’s curriculum. — Photo by Allison Long, USF Health Communications

“This is the first NIH T32 institutional training award obtained by USF’s college of medicine in the last 20 years,” said program director Sarah Yuan, MD, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology. “It represents a critical step in raising our national prominence in training the next generation of translational researchers.”

Translational research is the process of efficiently moving scientific discoveries made in the laboratory into the clinic, hospital, or community to treat patients and improve health.

“Our goal is to prepare these trainees with the strong knowledge, skills and vision for leading independent research that will decipher complex cellular and molecular mechanisms and develop new diagnostic and therapeutic targets for cardiovascular disease and other conditions affected by inflammation,” said Dr. Yuan, who holds the USF Health Deriso Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Research.

Inflammation commonly underlies the onset and progression of various diseases or injuries in multiple organs, including the heart, brain, lung, kidney, gut, and placenta. Recently, Dr. Yuan noted, this includes the discovery that vascular inflammation in response to coronavirus infection is a leading cause of severe illness and death in COVID patients.

A better understanding of the physiological processes contributing to vascular inflammation can lead to more precise and much-needed ways to diagnose, treat, and possibly prevent its harmful effects,

The new training program takes advantage of the substantial number of NIH-funded researchers recruited to MCOM under the leadership of Charles J. Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of MCOM. Many of these nationally preeminent faculty hires are experts in inflammation research and the vascular biology associated with heart, lung, neurodegenerative, or other diseases. Investment in new and renovated laboratories, and research facilities with shared, highly specialized equipment has risen along with the influx of new investigators.

Up to 25 NIH-funded faculty mentors across seven MCOM departments (Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Pathology and Medical Engineering), including those affiliated with the USF Health Heart Institute, the USF Health Neuroscience Institute, and several other research centers, will mentor top students recruited to the T32 program.

“Our commitment to building the research infrastructure, expertise and curriculum needed to attract the highest caliber of faculty and academically talented students will not waver,” Dr. Lockwood said. “This new institutional training award is a tremendous addition to our growing research portfolio, one that helps feed a pipeline of diverse young scientists driven to transform meaningful discoveries into best-practice patient care. They will be well prepared to understand and help solve complex problems beyond the scope of individual disciplines or laboratories.”

The latest scientific equipment and imaging techniques will help trainees investigating the complex cellular and molecular processes contributing to inflammatory changes in and surrounding the tiniest blood vessels.  — Photo by Allison Long, USF Health Communications

The program’s curriculum is composed of rigorous courses and workshops to build competency in critical thinking and communication, an intensive hands-on research experience, and a personalized career development plan. Trainees will have access to the latest technologies, including viable human organ models to study the effects of inflammatory disease and its treatment, and high-resolution imaging techniques to see changes in blood flow, cells, proteins, and other structures within and outside the tiniest vessels.

Program director Dr. Yuan is joined by several core members of MCOM Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, including Thomas Taylor-Clark, PhD, the program’s associate director; Jerome Breslin, PhD, who designs and oversees the program’s curriculum; and Victoria Mothershed, the program’s administrative manager.

“It took the support of leadership, dedicated teamwork, and perseverance to get here,” Dr. Yuan said. “We’re thrilled to receive this institutional award and want it to be catalyst for more such programs cultivating leaders in biomedical and translational science.”

(TAMPA, FL, Oct 1, 2019) – USF Health nursing researcher Constance Visovsky, PhD, RN, ACNP, FAAN, has been awarded a $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute to study whether a home-based exercise regimen to help improve gait and balance and strengthen muscles could lessen adverse neuromuscular effects many breast cancer survivors face after chemotherapy.

In a five-year study titled “Home-Based Physical Activity Intervention for Taxane-Induced CIPN,” Dr. Visovsky, the principal investigator, will examine whether the 16-week exercise program can decrease the severity of nerve and muscle symptoms from chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN).

The research study is significant because it is the first to test the home delivery of an exercise intervention aimed at cancer patients who continue to suffer from CIPN – an irreversible condition characterized by pain, numbness, tingling in the extremities, and impaired gait and balance related to receiving the common class of cancer drugs called taxanes.

“If successful, it will provide the only evidence-based intervention for patients suffering from persistent neuropathy from chemotherapy,” said Dr. Visovsky, associate professor in the University of South Florida College of Nursing. “And it can be delivered in the home, so it’s easily translated to clinical practice.”

Dr. Visovsky and her team will recruit 312 women with breast cancer who have completed their taxane chemotherapy treatments for at least a year, but who still report CIPN.

Half of the women will undergo the home-based resistance strength training plus a gait and balance exercise program while keeping an exercise journal.  The remaining 156 will receive an attention control program of educational materials on cancer survivorship. The study will assess each participant’s lower extremity muscle strength, gait and balance, nerve conduction, neuropathy symptoms and quality of life every four weeks for 16 weeks.

Specifically, participants will undergo a sophisticated gait and motion analysis at the USF Health School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences. Researchers in the USF Health Department of Neurology will perform nerve conduction studies to measure peripheral sensory and motor functions. Researchers will also collect different variables that may confound the results, such as a patients’s age, body mass index, the number of chemotherapy cycles received, and any medications taken to treat neuropathic pain, Dr. Viscovsky said.

Dr. Visovsky has conducted research on the neuromuscular effects of cancer chemotherapy for over 20 years, and is hopeful this intervention could help lessen the painful symptoms, reduce the risk of fall and injury, and ultimately improve a breast cancer survivor’s quality of life.

She will work with a team of USF Health researchers who specialize in biostatistics, neurology, physical therapy and rehabilitation sciences.

The study’s co-investigators include College of Nursing professor Ming Ji, PhD; USF Health Morsani College of Medicine neurology professor Tuan Vu, MD; associate professor Douglas Haladay, DPT; and assistant professor Patricia Teran Wodzinski, PT. Ellen Eckelman, a physical therapist at Tampa General Hospital, will be a study consultant.

Story by Elizabeth L. Brown, USF College of Nursing.

USF Pediatrics is ranked #1 in the nation for NIH funding. USF Ob/Gyn is #10.

The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine colleges and several of its departments improved their rankings in the latest reports from the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR) annual tabulations of total funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

• The Department of Pediatrics ranked #1 in 2015, up from #2 last year.
• The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine ranked #48 among the 139 medical schools with NIH funding in 2015, up from #63 last year.
• The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology ranked #10 in 2015, with no ranking last year.
• The USF Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology ranked #37 in 2015, up from #49 last year.

In addition, the USF College of Nursing ranked #24 among 66 institutions with NIH funding in 2015, up from #43 last year.

Based on the BRIMR methodology, NIH funding to USF Health colleges totaled $87.5 million in 2015. There were increases in funding throughout the College of Medicine. Of particular note are the awards made to Jeffrey Krischer, PhD, Distinguished University Health Professor and his team. Dr. Krischer’s NIH-funded research in the BRIMR report totals more than $64 million, making him the #1 highest funded principal investigator in the world.

Dr. Krischer oversees the Data Coordinating Center of the USF’s Health Informatics Institute. The center coordinates, analyzes and maintains research data from several large clinical networks investigating the causes and outcomes of type 1 diabetes, including TEDDY, TrialNet, TRIGR and DPT-1, and of rare diseases.

“These enhanced rankings show solid progress for USF Health in the past two years and are a direct result of our increasingly laser-like focus on, and ongoing success in,  garnering NIH funding,” said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine. “For our Morsani College of Medicine, this is our best performance on record. We have now increased from #88 in 2013 to #63 in 2014 to #48 among U.S. medical schools in 2015. However, we have much work to do to maintain these gains and advance further.  The opening of the new USF Health Heart Institute in a thriving amenity-rich waterfront location in downtown Tampa proximate to our nationally ranked cardiology and cardiac surgery programs at Tampa General Hospital should accelerate our success in obtaining additional NIH funding.”

“This ranking is a credit to our outstanding scientists, faculty and staff who, together, form an incredible team that is passionate about transforming healthcare through research,” said Dianne Morrison-Beedy, PhD, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, senior associate vice president for USF Health and dean of the USF College of Nursing. “I am so proud of each and every one of them who devote their energies, creativity, and experience to furthering the science of nursing and making the USF College of Nursing one of the premier institutions in the world.”

The BRIMR rankings provide an annual look at how institutions and science departments fared in attaining much-coveted federal funding from the NIH.

Only about a decade old – around the time the NIH stopped tallying and ranking schools and departments by their funding totals – the Blue Ridge rankings were started. Retired professor of biochemistry and molecular biology Robert Roskoski, Jr., began synthesizing the NIH data tables into an annual set of reports ranking colleges who typically garner NIH funding and the basic science and clinical departments typically found in colleges of medicine who get NIH funding.

Like other national rankings, the annual reports have quickly become a much-used data point for NIH funded programs across the country.

A national clinical trial was halted when it became evident that more intensive management of high blood pressure for certain people improved survival and incidence of heart attacks, strokes and heart failure.

The Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial, nicknamed SPRINT study, aimed to see if using multiple targeted medications to reduce the systolic blood pressure in certain patients to less than 120 mmHg would be beneficial.

By the fourth year of the 5-year study, it became clear that aiming for less than 120 mmHg was beneficial and the study was halted, said Ramon Lopez, MD, associate professor in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and SPRINT principal investigator at the USF Health clinical site.

Dr. Ramon Lopez (center) is principal investigator for the USF Health SPRINT study, with co-investigators Dr. Jacques Durr, director of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, and Dr. Juris Janavs, study coordinator.

USF Health was one of the sites participating in this large study that was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The USF Health team, which studied 54 of the 9,361 participants, earned honorary awards for their performance and compliance in the study.

The SPRINT Data and Safety Monitoring Board decided to stop the study at the end of August 2015, Dr. Lopez said.

“The results showed a clear benefit in survival and cardiovascular events for more aggressive management of hypertension,” Dr. Lopez said. “For this group of  patients, reducing the systolic blood pressure to less than 120 mmHg  reduced their likelihood of cardiovascular events by as much as a third and the risk of any cause death by nearly a quarter compared to the targeted systolic pressure of  less than 140 mmHg.”

Although the study ended early, participants will continue to be monitored for the remaining year of the study to obtain further data on cognitive and kidney function, he said.

“For patients, the early information will not likely change how their own hypertension is being treated currently because the final data is being compiled for peer-reviewed publication, a critical step before any wide-spread guidelines can be adjusted.”

All SPRINT study participants were non diabetic and 50 years old or older, with the average being age 67. The 9,361 study participants were divided into two groups, a standard group that was given and average of two medications, which caused a reduction in systolic blood pressure to 134 mmHg, and an intensive group, which was given an average of three medications that resulted in a larger decrease in systolic blood pressure to 118 mmHg.

Study participant Charles Helsene (center) has a follow up visit at the USF Health Morsani Center with Dr. Janavs and Dr. Lopez.

Our blood pressure measurements are given as two numbers, such as 110 over 70 (written as 110/70). The top number is the systolic reading, representing the maximum pressure exerted when your heart contracts. And the bottom number is the diastolic reading, representing the minimum pressure in your arteries when your heart is at rest.

Published data is expected later this fall, Dr. Lopez said.

“While waiting for the study results to be published and guidelines to be revised, we can take steps with our lifestyles that may be beneficial in reducing high blood pressure, including loosing excess weight with diet and exercise and decreasing the amount of salt we consume. Your provider can provide blood pressure screening, diet and exercise advice and monitor changes in your blood pressure,” he said.

At USF Health, 54 patients participated in the national study through the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. In addition to Dr. Lopez as Principal Investigator, USF Health faculty involved in the study include: Elias Doumit, MD, Assistant Professor; Jacques Durr, MD, Professor and Director of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension; Juris Janavs, MD, study coordinator; Christopher McFarren, MD, Associate Professor, Stephen Rifkin, MD, Associate Professor, and Kevin Sneed PharmD, and Dean USF College of Pharmacy.

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

David Morgan plays a leading role in an ambitious national research movement to help stop Alzheimer’s disease by 2025

In a year’s time Alzheimer’s disease affects more Americans than cancer and heart disease, the country’s top two causes of death. And, according to a report by the Rand Corporation, the total economic costs of dementia – from $159 billion to $215 billion yearly — slightly surpass those of heart disease and exceed cancer care costs by 30 percent.  Yet, the federal government spends five times more on heart disease research than on Alzheimer’s research and eight times more on cancer research.

That’s why in addition to his roles as a senior administrator and researcher, David Morgan, PhD, chief executive officer of the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute, dedicates time advocating for more Alzheimer’s research funding at the national and state levels. Dr. Morgan, is a founding member and lead representative of the ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s, a coalition focusing the energies of the research community on the aggressive goal of stopping Alzheimer’s by 2025.

David Morgan, PhD

  Listen to Dr. Morgan audio clip below.

“The major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease is old age,” said Dr. Morgan, distinguished professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology at the Morsani College of Medicine. “As we see gains in longevity, due largely to success in treating other diseases, and as more baby boomers pass age 65, the financial impact of Alzheimer’s and related dementias on Medicare will overwhelm our country’s capacity to maintain the program.”

Dr. Morgan remains optimistic that translational research conducted in the laboratories and clinics at the Institute can contribute to discoveries leading to two things by 2025:  the tools to prevent Alzheimer’s in high-risk older adults not yet showing symptoms, and treatments to effectively slow progression of the memory-robbing neurodegenerative disease in those diagnosed.

“We don’t need breakthroughs to achieve these two goals. We need the public and private resources to do the hard work of proving the science is right,” Dr. Morgan said. “Without the investment, we won’t get there.”

Leading a translational center at forefront of Alzheimer’s research and care

During Dr. Morgan’s tenure, the Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute – combining laboratory research, patient clinics, drug trials, and caregiver/health professional/first responder education under one roof — continues to grow and strengthen.

When he was tapped to lead the Institute in 2009, four doctoral researchers occupied less than 30 percent of the partially shelled, seven-floor facility.  Today, nearly 30 basic science and clinical faculty members, primarily from the Morsani College of Medicine, have appointments at the translational research center, bolstered by another dozen associate members from across USF. The building is nearly fully built out and occupied.

Under Dr. Morgan’s leadership, the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute – a translational research center at the forefront of Alzheimer’s disease research and care — continues to grow and strengthen.

Despite intense competition for reduced research funding, Byrd Institute investigators attracted more than $7.5 million in new research grants and contracts last fiscal year, largely from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and private foundations. New and ongoing research focuses on understanding the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s as well as testing whether treatments targeting amyloid (plaques) or tau (tangles) in the brain can halt or slow progression of the disease itself, not just alleviate some symptoms.

“In the first six months I directed this Institute I learned more about the clinical aspects of Alzheimer’s disease than I had in the 20 preceding years,” Dr. Morgan said. “Having physicians who see patients and conduct clinical studies in the same building helps motivate scientists working in the laboratories.  It greatly facilitates the rate at which the laboratory research findings are tested in the clinic.”

Harnessing the power of advanced brain imaging techniques for clinical research

One of Dr. Morgan’s early strategic decisions was to invest in a state-of-the-art positron emission tomography (PET) scanner.  The addition has begun to pay off with a steady increase in patients referred to the Institute’s PET imaging center for brain and oncology diagnostic services. In addition, more clinical studies funded by the NIH and pharmaceutical companies are using an FDA-approved amyloid imaging agent to detect and measure amyloid, a hallmark feature of Alzheimer’s in the brain.  Scientists now know that amyloid plaques begin building up in the brain years before the first signs of memory loss.

USF is home to one of few Alzheimer’s centers in the country to own a PET scanner, which is used with neuroimaging agents in studies looking to detect signs of Alzheimer’s in the brain before symptoms are displayed. Dr. Morgan, left, with Amanda Smith, MD, the Institute’s medical director, who oversees clinical trials supported by the NIH and pharmaceutical industry.

The Institute expects to be among the 200 sites participating in the recently announced national Imaging Dementia – Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) study to determine the clinical usefulness of amyloid PET scans in helping doctors accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s and other dementias in cases where the cause of cognitive impairment is uncertain. Dr. Morgan is optimistic that the comprehensive study will demonstrate the value of amyloid imaging and advance Medicare and other insurance carriers toward its reimbursement.

“As we run trials evaluating drugs to see if they can reduce amyloid or tau buildup in the brain, we can monitor how much is there before and after and determine if (the investigational therapy) hit the target,” Dr. Morgan said. “It is a very important biomarker for progression of the disease.”

He looks forward to the day when physicians will be able to use advanced brain imaging techniques to screen for Alzheimer’s much like they do now for heart disease, so that intervention can be started early before cell death in the brain becomes irreversible.

Merging interests in memory and age-related brain changes to tackle Alzheimer’s

Dr. Morgan’s 35-year career in neurosciences started at Northwestern University where he did his doctoral research on the neurochemistry of learning and memory. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California School of Gerontology in the early 1980s, he investigated age-related changes in the brains of rodents and humans. During that period momentum began building for federal efforts to combat Alzheimer’s disease and researchers discovered a new cerebrovascular protein, beta amyloid, identified as a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease and prime suspect in triggering nerve cell damage.  Dr. Morgan seized the opportunity to apply his background in aging and brain function on finding drugs to treat Alzheimer’s dementia.

Dr. Morgan worked with colleagues at USF to develop a mouse genetically modified to develop Alzheimer’s symptoms early in life. He is an expert in using transgenic mouse models to test new immune therapies against both amyloid and tau — both considered pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.

Arriving at USF in 1992, he collaborated with colleagues to create a mouse genetically modified to develop Alzheimer’s symptoms early in life (the APP+PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease).  Dr. Morgan’s impressive research portfolio includes studies to help determine how inflammation in the brain affects the Alzheimer’s disease process and to test gene therapy and immune therapy against the amyloid peptide. He currently leads a four-year, $1.75-million R01 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, exploring antibodies to protect against the accumulation of neuron-killing tau tangles in a transgenic mouse model.

Dr. Morgan’s work has been published in many high-impact journals including Science, Nature and the Journal of Neuroscience, and he has consulted with both major pharmaceutical companies and small biotechnology firms on the development of Alzheimer’s therapeutics.

Dr. Morgan shares laboratory space at the Institute with senior scientist Marcia Gordon, PhD, professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology; Daniel Lee, PhD, and Maj-Linda Salenica, PhD, both assistant professors of pharmaceutical sciences; and Kevin Nash, PhD, assistant professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology. While he continues to seek out new research – he and Dr. Nash are teaming up to find ways to enhance anti-inflammatory activity of the protein fractalkine in the brain — lately he spends as much time mentoring junior faculty.

“I’ve reached a point in my career where I feel it’s critically important to help junior faculty improve the grant proposals they write so they can build their own track records as principal investigators,” Dr. Morgan said.

Early in his scientific career, Dr. Morgan seized the opportunity to apply his background in aging and brain function on finding drugs to treat Alzheimer’s dementia.

Building upon scientific discoveries to find effective treatments

The search for answers about the cause of Alzheimer’s has spanned many theories in the last several decades.

“There’s a broad consensus among most researchers today that a combination of amyloid and tau is needed to cause Alzheimer’s disease.  Amyloid alone is not enough,” Dr. Morgan said. “The accumulation of amyloid outside neurons may trigger abnormal inflammation in the brain, which in turn causes tau tangles to build up inside the neurons and that leads to neuron death.”

The exact cascade of events and amount of plaques and tangles resulting in full-blown Alzheimer’s pathology is still unknown, he added, and no doubt complex.

Dr. Morgan, who holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy, is philosophical about what the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute is working toward under his leadership.

“I’m not coming to work because I think we’re going be awarded a patent for a drug that cures Alzheimer’s disease,” he said. “But I am confident that the things we discover at USF, when integrated with the larger community of scientific knowledge, will move us closer to a better understanding of this devastating neurodegenerative disease and result in meaningful treatments to benefit patients and their families.”

In addition to his roles as senior administrator, scientist and mentor, Dr. Morgan advocates for more Alzheimer’s research funding at the national and state levels.

USF Health’s Dr. Rebecca Sutphen will lead the national, collaborative research expected to help personalize and improve cancer care

TAMPA, Fla. and HARTFORD, Conn. (May 9, 2013) – The University of South Florida (USF) and Aetna (NYSE: AET) are launching a ground-breaking study that will examine the influence genetic testing may have on clinical treatment decisions among breast cancer patients and their doctors. Understanding the connection between genetic risk factors, treatment options and results can guide policies and services that can help patients and doctors make more informed, personalized decisions that lead to better health.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded funding to USF for the five-year American BRCA Outcomes Among the Recently Diagnosed (ABOARD) study. The study will follow 5,000 Aetna members from across the country who have been newly diagnosed with breast cancer and who are undergoing genetic testing.

Certified genetic counselors can help assess specific cancer risks in families, recommend appropriate genetic tests, and interpret genetic test results. They can also recommend appropriate personalized options for cancer screening, early detection and prevention. Individuals and their doctors can use this information to optimize care. Current research suggests that only a small percentage of breast cancer patients who have an inherited cancer risk actually receive genetic counseling and testing services. Even fewer receive this information at the time of diagnosis when it might be most useful for making surgical and other treatment decisions. 

USF Health’s Dr. Rebecca Sutphen will lead the national collaborative study.

“Research shows that many women who develop breast cancer have inherited a strong predisposition to cancer. However, many of these women are not aware of their genetic susceptibility. They also do not know that they are at high risk to develop another breast cancer or ovarian cancer in the future and that other blood relatives are at increased risk for cancer,” said Rebecca Sutphen, M.D., professor of genetics at the Epidemiology Center, USF Department of Pediatrics.

“This unique academic-industry collaboration will create a new level of research into the impact of genetic information on American cancer patients and their families. Few topics have greater potential for positive public health impact. We appreciate Aetna’s leadership and collaboration to make this important research possible.”

Dr. Sutphen, an American Board of Medical Genetics-certified clinical and molecular geneticist and expert in inherited cancer risk, will lead the national study. The multidisciplinary team will include:

• Dr. Sutphen’s research team at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, including co-investigators Kristian Lynch, Ph.D., James Andrews, Ph.D. and Claudia Aguado Loi, Ph.D.
• An Aetna team led by Joanne Armstrong, M.D., M.P.H., national medical director for women’s health and lead for genomic medicine
• An advocacy team led by Sue Friedman of the national non-profit advocacy and awareness organization Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE)
• Marc Schwartz, Ph.D., director of cancer control, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University

The project will use patient-reported outcomes as well as medical claims data.  Using information from a variety of clinical settings rather than only academic centers will provide a more “real-world” view of current care. USF and Aetna have developed an extensive research and security infrastructure to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of participant data.

“The research will provide critical information that can help ensure the benefits of advanced genetic testing and genomics can be used to guide safe, effective personalized health care. As more sophisticated tests are developed, we have a responsibility to help patients and doctors understand how to act on the information to improve patients’ health,” Dr. Armstrong says.

The new study builds on an existing research partnership between this multidisciplinary team and researchers from the American Cancer Society. The groups have been working together for the past two years, with support from the Aetna Foundation, to better understand the experiences of individuals who have had genetic tests to determine their inherited risk of cancer. The study also looked at differences in treatment, information and health outcomes among minority patients. Results are expected to be published later this year.

About 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

About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 44 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities, Medicaid health care management services, workers’ compensation administrative services and health information technology services. Aetna’s customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com. 

About FORCE
No one should have to face hereditary breast and ovarian cancer alone. For more than 13 years, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE) has been the voice of the hereditary breast and ovarian cancer community. FORCE provides support, education and awareness to help those facing hereditary breast and ovarian cancer know their healthcare options and make informed decisions. The organization is the de facto leader in guiding critical research and policy issues that impact the hereditary breast cancer and ovarian cancer community. For more information about FORCE and hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, please visit www.facingourrisk.org.