NSU Horizons Spring 2013

The country’s first institute to treat patients with neuro- immune conditions that include chronic fatigue syndrome/ myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and Gulf War illness (GWI), as well as conduct basic and clinical research, is now open at NSU. The College of Osteopathic Medicine’s new $5-million Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine also will study neuro- inflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis using the newest genomic techniques. “The institute will be a place to coordinate cutting- edge thinking and research, train new practitioners, and offer the highest-quality clinical care for a hugely under- served population,” said Nancy Klimas, M.D., institute director and an internationally renowned immunologist. Housed on NSU’s main campus, the institute has research laboratories, a patient clinic, a clinical research unit, offices for faculty members, and conference facilities. It’s designed to put together multiple core medical and scientific disciplines in one place: clinicians, educators, and researchers in the areas of genomics, virology, immu- nology, cellular biology, computational biology, and therapeutic modeling. The Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine partners with the Miami VA Medical Center in the Gulf War illness research program. It will complement an existing NSU clinic that Klimas oversees near Miami, which treats patients suffering from CFS/ME, GWI, and other neuro-immune disorders. Both facilities will accommodate around 1,300 patients annually from South Florida and around the world. To help fund the institute, the Schemel Family Foundation donated $2 million for an endowed professor- ship and the Maroone auto-dealer family contributed to the patient waiting area. n NSU’s New Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine Establishes a Milestone for Health Care NSU Medical School Launches Correctional Medicine Specialty Medical care for men and women behind bars has reached a new standard since NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine has been approved to establish the United States’ first medical specialty in correctional medicine. The College of Osteopathic Medicine became the first medical school in the country to gain such recognition when the American Osteopathic Association approved the standards developed by NSU. NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine now has the only accredited and approved correctional medicine fellowship program in the United States. The new correctional medicine specialty, developed in collaboration with the Florida Department of Corrections, repre- sents a milestone in medical treatment. The two-year, postgraduate correctional medicine fellow- ship offers doctors abroad interdisciplinary experience in oncology, radiation therapy, orthopedic surgery, and hospice care, which leads to both board certification and a Master of Public Health degree. The program includes inpatient/out- patient supervised clinical experience in acute and chronic settings in jails/prisons, medicolegal experiences and responsi- bilities, quality management, and review, as well as mortality review and control. “Correctional health care is a complex field that takes sophisticated doctors with significant training to handle both the illnesses and the unique correctional environment,” said David Thomas, M.D., J.D., professor and chair of the Department of Surgery and Division of Correctional Medicine at NSU. “Adding a medical specialty is very, very rare,” said Thomas. “The last new specialty I can remember was the creation of emergency medicine in 1976.” n AROUND NSU From left: George Hanbury, NSU president; Martin Press, NSU Board of Trustees member; Ron Assaf, NSU Board of Trustees chairman; Nancy Klimas, director of NSU’s Institute for Neuro- Immune Medicine; Samuel Morrison and Silvia Flores, NSU Board of Trustees members; Fred Lippman, NSU Health Professions Division Chancellor; Nell Lewis, NSU Board of Trustees member; and Anthony Silvagni, dean of NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. 3 HORIZONS