Breaking the Mold by Myra Hurt | Page 38

Third-year student Kristen Shepherd during pediatric rotations at the Sarasota Regional Campus in 2006. (Photo by Barbara Banks) DURELL PEADEN ON GETTING HIS BILL PASSED From an oral history recorded by Karen Thomas, Florida Oral History Project, 2007 I was interested in establishing more medical education in Florida. Of course, I was hit with the institutional attitude that there [were] enough physicians in Florida, there was just a problem with distribution; there were no physicians inland, everybody was on the coast and the Gold Coast in Florida, everybody lived within 50 miles of the coast so there was no problem with … the number of physicians. But in [1998], after I pushed one bill only through one committee to establish a medical school at Florida State…, Dan Webster, who was the speaker of the House, authorized a study on medical education in Florida, about the needs, the opportunities. [That study is the MGT report referred to several times in this book.] 36 | Breaking the Mold