University of Central Florida President John C. Hitt has named Dr. Deborah German, founding dean of the UCF College of Medicine, to the new position of vice president for medical affairs for the university.

 

Dr. German will continue to serve as dean for the College of Medicine and the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. In her new role as vice president, she also will oversee the college's medical practice plan and coordinate other medical initiatives.

 

President Hitt said that by any measure, Dr. German has exceeded expectations in not just building the UCF medical school, but making it a national model for universities around the country.

 

The UCF College of Medicine is the centerpiece of a "medical city" at Lake Nona, which has become the primary driver of economic development in Central Florida. An economic study shows that the College of Medicine and medical city could, by year 10 of the study, have a $7.6 billion regional economic impact and create as many as 30,000 jobs.

 

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona is pleased to announce that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded research grants to two faculty members in recognition of their contribution to advancing scientific understanding of cardiovascular diseases and chronic inflammation.The grants are valued at $4.3 million dollars and were awarded to Dr. Daniel Kelly, professor and scientific director, Sanford-Burnham Institute at Lake Nona and Dr. Timothy Osborne, professor and director of the metabolic signaling and disease program at Lake Nona. The continued funding of current research allows scientists to pursue promising investigations and when indicated, supports the recruitment of additional lab staff.

 

Dr. Kelly's five-year RO1 grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute provides $2.4 million dollars to investigate the metabolic basis of heart failure.This grant approval will initiate the 13th year of NIH support for the Kelly lab's research in this area.

 

The NIH grant will allow scientists to determine if changes in fuel metabolism or alterations in mitochondria, the "power house" of the cell, leads to heart failure. In the long-term, Dr. Kelly seeks to identify novel drug targets aimed at modulating heart metabolism as a new approach to prevent or treat heart failure in its early stages.

 

Dr. Osborne's four year RO1 grant is valued at $1.9 million and represents the latest installment of a project that has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1994. The current project seeks to study key interactions between fat metabolism and inflammation. The complex interactions between these two seemingly unrelated processes play a major role in the body's ability to manage fat overload, which is a major complication of obesity, diabetes and many other chronic diseases.

 

Increasing its emphasis of expanding professional service offerings to health care providers and organizations in Florida, Dixon Hughes PLLC, has named Timothy Richie, CPA, as an audit member in the Healthcare Services Group in Orlando. Dixon Hughes is the largest public accounting firm based in the southern U.S.

 

Richie has 36 years of healthcare advisory experience. Previous to joining Dixon Hughes, he was a partner with a Big Four accounting firm. Richie has worked with hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, rehabilitation agencies and continuing care retirement communities. At Dixon Hughes, he leads audits, provides forecasts and projections and advises on operational issues such as Medicaid and Medicare payment systems and third-party reimbursement policies.

 

Richie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants, fellow of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), past director of Georgia's HFMA chapter and past officer of Kentucky's HFMA chapter.

 

Dixon Hughes focuses on six major industries including healthcare, manufacturing and distribution, financial institutions, insurance, dealerships and construction and real estate.

 

Richie said that the changing nature of healthcare creates a number of financial management, operational, and tax challenges all with which Dixon Hughes is particularly qualified to assist.

 

The new healthcare reform is the most sweeping change since Medicare and those laws will continue to change, he said

 

Health care providers gathered as the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute (FHCI) held the first annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Update in Central Florida. The ASCO Update provided a summary of the information and data presented at the national ASCO 2010 Annual Meeting.

 

Florida Hospital Cancer Institute has one of the largest clinical trials programs in Central Florida, participating in more than 100 clinical trials per year, so it is essential that oncologists have access to the latest research data to enable better care to the community according to Dr. David Decker, executive director at FHCI.

 

The ASCO Update offered hematologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and other clinicians' a discussion of data pertaining to colon, head and neck, urology, thoracic, breast, prevention, genetics and gynecologic oncology. FHCI physicians Sajeel Chowdhary, Vipul Patel, Tarek Mekhail and Robert Holloway discussed the latest management and treatment models for oncology.

 

Presenters at the ASCO Update included physicians from Florida Hospital Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Abramson Cancer Center and Global MA Hematology.

 

NEW SMYRNA BEACH – Officials of Bert Fish Medical Center and Florida Hospital finalized the agreement to officially join Florida Hospital. The agreement is a lease arrangement with an option to buy in five years and projects a 15 percent tax reduction for residents in the first year.

 

Areas of expected focus include the facility's cancer center, various capital improvement projects, and an analysis of specific health care services still needed within the community.

 

The agreement provides several benefits to Bert Fish Medical Center and SE Volusia residents by reducing taxes for residents and infusing the facility with funds for capital and service improvements, as well as loan repayment.

 

Amidst this new venture, Bert Fish Medical Center remains patient-centered when providing its care, a culture that goes hand-in-hand with Florida Hospital's deep commitment to the communities it serves and dedication to both disease education and prevention.

 

Recently, Florida Hospital set a record in Orlando for the number of transplants performed in a 37-hour period. The transplant team at Florida Hospital, consisting of four doctors, performed five kidney transplants, three liver transplants and the organ recoveries of two hearts, four livers, four sets of kidneys and a pancreas. All together, the transplant surgeries and organ recoveries took place over the weekend of Friday, June 25th through Sunday June 27th..

 

The four transplant physicians, Dr. Michael Angelis, Dr. L. Thomas Chin, Dr. Bobby Nibhanupudy and Dr. Dmitriy Nikitin received little sleep in between the transplant surgeries and organ recoveries, and actually slept in their offices in sleeping bags. A tremendous amount of work, coordination and commitment on behalf of about 80 nurses and transplant staff that came in during the weekend period was greatly appreciated by the transplant physicians. A number of people who were not even on call came in to help out during this record setting process.

 

The teamwork and growth of the Florida Hospital Transplant Center is increasing and becoming a continuum of care through the Central Florida community. More than 2,000 patients have received organ transplants at Florida Hospital since the program began more than 35 years ago, making the Florida Hospital Transplant Center one of the busiest transplant centers in the nation.

 

Orange PAC the political arm of the Orange County Medical Society has decided to endorse Bill McCollum for Governor of Florida.

 

According to their statement: "Considering the many problems that both our country and Florida are currently experiencing, including the current recession, as well as the major changes we will be seeing in medicine, the members of Orange PAC feel that Mr. McCollum is the best candidate to lead our state in a positive direction. Mr. McCollum has had a long and distinguised record of service to both our country and to Florida. This has included service in the United States Navy, followed by representing Central Florida in the United States House of Representatives. As Attorney General for Florida, Bill McCollum has been an advocate for children, and he currently is leading the fight to ensure that healthcare reform will be in the best interest of the citizens of our state. Orange PAC feels that Bill McCollum should be our next governor for the State of Florida."

 

Dr. Suvarchala Dara who has recently relocated to Central Florida from Richmond, Virginia opened the The Cardiovascular Institute of Orlando in July.

 

Dr. Dara completed her medical school in India and moved on to finish her residency in Internal Medicine and Cardiology fellowship from Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. She has also worked as a hospitalist in the cardiology department prior to her specialty training in cardiology. Dr. Dara is a member of the American College of Cardiology and the American Medical Association and is board certified in Cardiology and Internal Medicine.