EQUIPPING A WORKFORCE FOR PATIENT CARE
Florida has seven accredited medical schools – three of which are affiliated with The Corridor universities .
NOTABLE HEALTH CARE TRAINING FACILITIES IN THE REGION :
• Florida Hospital Nicholson Center
• SimLEARN National Simulation Center at the Orlando VA Medical Center in Lake Nona
• Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation
• Johns Hopkins All Children ’ s Hospital Simulation Center
• UF ’ s Center for Safety , Simulation & Advanced Learning Technologies
The University of Central Florida , the University of South Florida and the University of Florida ( UF ) are responsible for educating and training hundreds of medical professionals annually . As an ever-present reminder that health care is evolving , students and faculty are encouraged to take an innovative approach to varied aspects of the industry , including patient care .
One such innovation stemming from UF is the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium .
OneFlorida was designed to ensure participation from community members , clinicians , health systems , state agencies , state associations and universities . Together they identify important research topics for individual and population health , design studies that test interventions and programs under real-world variable conditions , and train medical and graduate students in communitybased research .
Before OneFlorida , academic research could be isolated from diversity , i . e . research limited to a large academic health care center with a restricted patient population and greater financial resources . These circumstances don ’ t accurately portray the experiences of community health care providers who treat patients with varying socioeconomic backgrounds and capabilities , thus limiting the application of academic research .
“ OneFlorida will work with its partners to integrate and expand statewide research infrastructure and collaborations ,” said David Nelson , M . D ., UF ’ s Clinical and Translational Science Institute director . “ We ’ ll develop Florida as a model , partner and destination for studying and addressing the health care needs of a more diverse and older U . S . population .”
half of Florida ’ s population , the collected data is invaluable to the industry .
INDIVIDUAL SOLUTIONS
Similar to OneFlorida , Tampa ’ s M2Gen has a network of more than 185,000 patients who have donated their tissue and clinical data for research to better understand cancer at a molecular level .
M2Gen is a subsidiary of Moffitt Cancer Center . It was founded by William S . Dalton , Ph . D ., M . D ., in 2006 with a purpose to drive individualized medicine , specifically for cancer . He is currently the CEO .
“ I became interested in medicine quite early in life ,” said Dalton . “ I obtained a degree in pharmacology and realized , especially for cancer patients , that we needed new therapies because too often the disease was winning .” M2Gen takes a proactive approach by analyzing data to identify susceptibility to disease and a patient ’ s potential response to treatment . Dalton believes staying one step ahead of cancer is the future .
“ Treating cancer is like a chess game . You treat and the cancer responds and tries to move in a different direction – evade your move . If we can anticipate each move or moves ahead , then we will become proactive to our approach to patients rather than reactive . That ’ s my dream .”
OneFlorida partners include 10 million patients , 4,100 physician providers , 1,240 practices or clinics and 22 hospitals across the state . With access to
Dalton dreams for many as innovation in The Corridor drives the future of health care .
72 florida . HIGH . TECH 2017