26
COM Outlook . Spring 2014
and other illnesses. Last fall, the insti-
tute received a $4.1 million grant from
the U.S. Department of Defense to
fund its research project titled “Under-
standing Gulf War Illness (GWI): An
Integrative Modeling Approach.”
“The scope of our research efforts
has expanded greatly over the years,
which was evidenced last October
when Dr. Raymond Ownby, who
chairs our Department of Psychiatry
and Behavioral Medicine, received
NSU’s Provost’s Research and Schol-
arship Award,” said Dr. Silvagni of
the accolade that recognizes a faculty
member who has demonstrated signif-
icant achievement in support of NSU’s
mission to foster scholarship, intellec-
tual inquiry, and academic excellence.
“We currently have external funding
for projects related to areas includ-
ing health literacy, interprofessional
education, HIV/AIDS, neuro-immune
medicine, geriatrics, electronic health
records, tobacco cessation, and work-
ing with homeless populations.
“To some degree, everyone has as-
sisted in enhancing our research en-
deavors, including our students and
alumni, who are winning numerous
state and national awards for their
research-related projects,” he added.
“In March, recent graduate Dr. Tracy
Romanello, who is currently a third-
year family medicine resident at Lake-
side Hospital, received the first-place
award for her scientific poster at the
national osteopathic family medicine
scientific meeting.”
Progressive Approach Leads
to Multifaceted Success
By focusing on an ambitious agenda
combining growth, innovation, and en-
richment and embracing an interpro-
fessional approach, NSU-COM has truly
evolved into the type of educational
entity its founder, Dr. Terry, imagined
when he established the college, and
later, the Health Professions Division.
“We are not isolationists; we are not
silo makers.” Dr. Silvagni stressed.
“We are a broad-based medical school
that is built on interprofessional con-
cepts that were initiated by Dr. Terry
several decades ago. He wanted this
to be a collaborative team of health
professionals that could better serve
patients. We’re not totally there yet,
but we’re getting closer.”
A valuable byproduct of the col-
lege’s multi-layered approach to
growth and excellence is that it’s
allowed NSU-COM to become a true
leader in various areas. “We have an-
swered needs that have not been met
anywhere else—and we’ve led the way
to show other people how to do it,”
Dr. Silvagni explained. “Our evolution
has projected the depth of knowledge
we have here at this institution and
through impactful projects such as
our Institute for Neuro-Immune Medi-
cine, Institute for Disaster and Emer-
gency Preparedness, Lifelong Learning
Institute, Florida Coastal Geriatric
Resources, Education, and Training
Center, Preventive Medicine Resi-
dency, Correctional Medicine Fellow-
ship, Forensic Pathology Fellowship,
and Area Health Education Centers
(AHEC) Program.”
Because the College of Osteopathic
Medicine has quadrupled in faculty
size since 1998 and incorporated so
many forward-thinking ideas into its
curricular mix, it would be impossible
to summarize all the programmatic ad-
ditions and academic enhancements
that have occurred over the years.
According to Dr. Silvagni, however,
there are numerous points of pride
that deserve special commendation.
“Whether we’re discussing areas
such as scholarly activity and re-
search or the quality of our academ-
ics through the incorporation of our
standardized and simulated patient
programs, we are now leaders in
these areas,” he said. “We’ve also been
quite innovative, which is reflected by
the advanced technology we utilize
and the fellowships we’ve created
that don’t exist anywhere else in the
world. We also maintain the practice
of providing human cadavers for our
students, which is something that ex-
ists less frequently in medical school
curriculums today. Also, all students
get to perform at least one autopsy
during their second year at NSU-COM.
“We also have the only preventive
medicine, correctional medicine, and
forensic pathology residencies/fel-
lowships in the profession and house
cutting-edge master’s degree programs
in Biomedical Informatics and Disas-
A FOCUS ON GLOBAL MEDICINE
