As part of their continuing effort to broaden the healthcare educational opportunities offered to the community, Dade Medical College will begin offering Bachelor of Science degree programs from their four South Florida Campuses as early as the spring of 2012. A fifth campus in West Palm Beach is slated to open around the same time. The first such degrees offered by the college represent the growing needs of the healthcare industry and include Nursing (RN to BSN), Healthcare Management and Psychology.
 
“Part of our mission is to provide quality teaching and preparation for our students and believe these new offerings are in line with those goals,” says Dade Medical College President and CEO, Ernesto Perez. “We feel we can take a positive step in education by offering more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degrees and training students for these careers of the future.”
 
The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) will allow RN graduates to enhance their career path as nurses and transition into the next level of this noble and challenging profession. The program will help develop qualified, well-rounded nurses and perfect students’ skills to communicate effectively, demonstrate cultural diversity, accept accountability and understand changes in the healthcare community. Now enrolling, the program, once launched, will comprise 180 quarter credits and 1600 credit hours over 82 weeks.
 
The Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management program will expand the scope of the college’s Associate of Science degree in the field. Designed to provide the skill sets and industry knowledge required to work effectively in a healthcare setting, graduates of the program will be able to communicate effectively in a healthcare setting, manage personnel and understand the multi-dimensions of running a healthcare practice. Having utilized academic processes such as feedback from faculty, course examinations and self-reflection, graduates will be situated for lifelong learning and administrative positions in healthcare administration.
 
The Bachelor of Science in Psychology program is currently in developmental but will be designed to compete with traditional college and university psychology programs. The goal of the program will be to prepare students for entry level employment in fields such as social work, counseling and healthcare education.
 
 
 


Nova Southeastern University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine recently received a five-year, $1 million federal grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to train medical residents to provide expert care for patients living in rural and underserved communities. The grant will be used to develop training programs for the college’s affiliated family medicine residency program at Larkin Community Hospital in South Miami, Florida, which currently trains 18 family medicine residents.
 
The grant will create curriculum and clinical training in medically underserved communities, which include rural and urban areas where physicians and medical services are scarce. The funding will also be used to develop training in other areas such as all-hazards preparedness, genomics, and medical informatics.
 
One of the grant’s goals is to encourage more primary care residents to become practicing physicians in these underserved areas. Research has shown that medical schools that have received this grant in the past have produced more physicians who end up practicing in such areas.


The South Florida Hospital News’s theme of Education in the Healthcare Industry for this November issue is both near and dear to the Florida Heart Research Institute. Clearly the advances in our understanding of the cardiovascular disease process, diagnosis, treatment and prevention would not have occurred without the vitally important process of education. It is for this reason that education is one of the three pillars of our mission: to stop heart disease through research, education and prevention. Since 1944, FHRI has been an international leader in cardiovascular research and education and today we are committed to building upon that strong foundation by providing the following programs and services:
 
• Medical Education – Every fall, FHRI coordinates the Irwin R. Callen Memorial Lecture at the annual conference of the Florida Chapter of the American College of Cardiology. This event brings world-renowned medical authorities to our state to educate cardiologists on state-of-the-art topics in the field. Dr. Bentley Bobrow, M.D., who is the state Medical Director of the Bureau of EMS and Trauma System at the Arizona Department of Health Services presented an inspiring lecture this year on how Arizona was able to improve sudden cardiac arrest survival through a system of care approach – an effort FHRI hopes to replicate here in Florida.
 
• Public Education – FHRI has developed a series of seven educational pamphlets on various topics of heart health such as Understanding Blood Pressure, Understanding Cholesterol, Women and Heart Disease, etc. All were designed for the lay public written at an elementary reading level and are available in English, Spanish and Creole and can be downloaded and printed for free from our website www.floridaheart.org. Upon invitation from community-based organizations, FHRI will travel to provide free educational workshops as long as classes are open to the public.
 
• Public Awareness Campaigns – using our unique collaboration with state tax collectors and Driver’s License offices, FHRI wages periodic public awareness campaigns to educate the public on heart disease risk factors and prevention strategies – all with a call to action. Most recently, we embarked on an ambitious statewide campaign to save lives and improve survival rates from Sudden Cardiac Arrest by educating the public on the need to take quick action when someone collapses and performing PUSHCPR® which involves compression-only CPR until help arrives. This simple technique can literally be taught in minutes and has been proven to save lives. To learn more, or to request a demonstration at any meeting or public forum, go to www.pushcpr.org.  
 
• Worksite Wellness – FHRI continues to work with local organizations that want to improve their bottom line by facilitating consumer driven and customized corporate wellness strategies. One component of our Working to Health® program services includes educational workshops which are always customized to suit client’s needs. Classes are carefully designed using only nationally recognized sources, are conveniently priced and are available onsite as well as by webinar. Research has shown that every dollar spent on targeted wellness programs can produce a $3.50 return on investment through reduced healthcare costs, absenteeism and turnover and through increased productivity.
 
It is our pleasure and passion to serve our community in these ways. FHRI will not rest until we have succeeded in our mission to stop heart disease!


More than 50 podiatry students from Barry University’ School of Podiatric Medicine practiced delicate incisions and surgical preparations thanks to Stryker Orthopaedics of South Florida. Students received hands-on training using specimens of pig’s feet as well as cutting edge clinical instruction on gowning, gloving, creating a sterile surgical environment and demonstrations of Stryker power instruments.
 
This first clinical lab held at the Stryker South Florida Learning Center provided students from Barry’s Podiatric Medicine class of 2013 with a distinct clinical experience. Two additional labs on hammertoe surgery and bunion surgery are scheduled at the Stryker South Florida Learning Center in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, a deal that amounts to almost $50,000 in donated services.


When implementing Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) projects, providers and organizations have only one goal in mind, and that is to be successful. From day one, administrators take into consideration many factors including cost, resources, and even timelines. Certainly, these factors are the foundations for any HIT project, yet they are not the key elements for success. The reality is that HIT produces an impact on how private practices, healthcare organizations, and particularly their staff, deliver their services. Their ability to quickly adapt and embrace new changes holds the key to any successful implementation.
 
HIT is a process of change that causes different emotions on individuals directly or indirectly involved in the project. From your front desk staff, to your physicians, they all have different reactions as to how integrating this new technology in the office affects their daily routines. John Kotter the author of Leading Change explained that people approach to change based on how they see themselves and how they feel about it. If your staff feels excluded from the project and considers that their opinions are not taken into consideration, no matter how well you execute the project plan, the outcome will not be what is expected.
 
At this point, if you are a physician or administrator considering implementing new technology in the office, you are probably asking yourself what you can do to secure an effective execution of your project. The answer lies on properly evaluating the person who will be responsible for carrying the project. This person must be someone highly educated and passionate, who is also rigorously trained on how to manage every aspect of a project including the planning, execution, and delivery, and who is capable of dealing with the emotions that encompasses this type of transitions.
 
The Masters Degree in Biomedical Informatics (MSBI) at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine offers students a variety of courses such as Managing Organizational Behavior for Medical Informatics, Consumer Health Informatics, Leadership in Health Information Technology, and Human-Computer Interaction in Health Care Settings, that are designed to provide future HIT professionals all the necessary skills to manage any type of project. MSBI students are extensively trained on how to make staff assessments and develop techniques of engagement designed to promote change and turn feelings of disassociation into positive proactive feelings.
 
In 2008, immediately after obtaining my Bachelors Degree in Psychology, I joined the MSBI program. At that time, people asked me what does psychology have to do with information technology. To be honest the answer even surprised me. This is a field of analysis that combines cognition with rationality, much like psychology. Since graduating from the MSBI program in 2010, I have worked as a Clinical Analyst for the University of Central Florida-Regional Extension Center and now as Project Manager for Patient Point. In my current position, my main responsibility is to oversee the implementation of a number of different technology products and services. My clients vary from a single practice doctor, to hospitals from all over the country. The training I received in the NSU-MSBI program undoubtedly gave me the foundation skills necessary for this job. I am very passionate and excited to serve as the funnel between healthcare providers, patients, and technology.