The Florida Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has presented the 2021 Raymond H. Alexander, MD, FACS, award to Steven Wexner, M.D., Ph.D., FACS, of Cleveland Clinic’s Weston Hospital in Weston, FL. The award recognizes a chapter member for outstanding dedication to the medical profession in the field of surgery. It is the highest award given by the organization.

Dr. Wexner is the Chairman of the Department of Colorectal Surgery which is part of Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital’s Digestive Disease and Surgery Center. He is also the former Director of the Digestive Disease Surgery Center and the former Chief of Staff for Cleveland Clinic Florida. He hopes this award inspires young surgeons to continue to demonstrate excellence in innovation, research, education, and a commitment to optimizing patient outcomes.
 
Dr. Wexner is also a past president of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, as well as of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, Vice-Chair of the Board of Regents of the ACS, and Chair of the ACS CoC NAPRC.


Palm Health Foundation, Palm Beach County’s community foundation for health, has provided a grant to the Promise Fund of Florida to increase access to affordable breast and cervical health care services to women in need. The funding will support the hire of a “provider network recruiter” who will identify new and existing community resources to expand Promise Fund of Florida’s Continuum of Care Model throughout Palm Beach County to increase health equity and help reach its goal of ensuring all women, regardless of income, receive affordable, timely, high quality, breast and cervical screenings, diagnostics, treatment, and follow up care. Palm Health Foundation joins Quantum Foundation in jointly funding this new position.

The Promise Fund of Florida was co-founded by Nancy G. Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen, Julie Fisher Cummings, and Laurie Silvers, three women who have spent decades working to improve quality of life for men and women of all socioeconomic backgrounds in many different areas of need. They founded the Promise Fund of Florida to fill the gaps in access to healthcare and help those in need in Palm Beach County to reduce the number of deaths due to late-stage breast and cervical cancer. Florida ranks last in the United States for the number of women under 65 who have insurance, magnifying their vulnerability to death from cancer because the lack of insurance delays diagnosis and treatment with catastrophic results.
 
The provider network recruiter will play a critical role in developing partnerships closest to target populations where multiple barriers to care exist, including transportation, language, finding childcare and taking time off from work. The Promise Fund has mapped imaging and screening facilities in Palm Beach County to identify gaps and serve as a blueprint for where the provider network recruiter will create partnerships for affordable cancer care services with physicians, clinics, hospitals, and other providers for Promise Fund participants. The goal is to identify a minimum of 15 health care providers to serve 300 or more women.
 


Five Nicklaus Children’s Hospital specialty programs are again identified among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2021-22 “Best Children’s Hospitals” rankings. Nicklaus Children’s continues to be the region’s pediatric specialty care leader, with more ranked pediatric programs than any other hospital in South Florida. In addition, this year’s rankings identify Nicklaus Children’s as among the best pediatric hospitals in Florida, as well as in the southeastern region of the U.S.

Nicklaus Children’s 2021-22 rankings are as follows:
– Cardiology and Heart Surgery, #46 (highest ranked program in South Florida)
– Diabetes and Endocrinology, #49
– Neurology and Neurosurgery, #24 (only ranked program in South Florida)
– Orthopedics, #40
– Pulmonology, #36 (only ranked program in South Florida)


Seif Elbualy, M.D., joins Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, part of Baptist Health, as the director of interventional pain management. Dr. Elbualy specializes in interventional pain management, particularly for spine-related pain and failed back surgery syndrome. He has more than 25 years of experience utilizing medication management and interventional pain therapy.

Dr. Elbualy joins Marcus Neuroscience Institute from the Comprehensive Center for Pain Management at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, where he served as director. He is currently an affiliate assistant professor at the Charles A. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University.
 
Dr. Elbualy earned his medical degree from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He completed his anesthesiology residency at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. He then completed a pain management fellowship at Georgetown University.


Florida Atlantic University’s Ruth M. Tappen, Ed.D., RN, FAAN, the Christine E. Lynn Eminent Scholar and professor in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, was recently recognized as the “2021 Alliance World Class Faculty” honoree by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance. Tappen, a member of the FAU Brain Institute and FAU Institute for Human Health and Disease Prevention, received the award during the alliance’s mid-year luncheon.

Tappen is nationally and internationally renowned as an innovative researcher and scholar. Her leadership role, prestigious reputation and cutting-edge research projects benefit the biomedical, high-tech and healthcare industries. She is a leader in the field of Alzheimer’s disease and related memory disorders (ADRD) and long-term care of older adults. Tappen’s research has meaningfully impacted ADRD in the fields of geriatrics and gerontology and populations affected by ADRD. Among her many accomplishments is the development, testing and dissemination of an evidence-based resident and family decision aid titled, “Go to the Hospital or Stay Here?,” which has resulted in a 30 percent drop in unnecessary transfers to acute care for nursing homes upon implementation of the guide.