WHEN STUDENTS FIRST REPORTED TO REGIONAL CAMPUSES
AND CLINICAL TRAINING SITES (PLUS NAMES OF EARLY AND
LONG-SERVING DEANS)
Orlando 2003 (Michael Muszynski)
Pensacola 2003 (Paul McLeod)
Tallahassee, 2003 (Mel Hartsfield)
Marianna 2005 (Steven Spence)
Sarasota 2005 (Bruce Berg)
Thomasville 2006 (Rudy Hehn)
Daytona Beach 2007 (Luckey Dunn)
Fort Pierce 2007 (Randy Bertolette)
Immokalee 2008 (Elena Reyes)
FREQUENT OBJECTIONS WHEN FSU COLLEGE OF
MEDICINE WAS PROPOSED
• Medical establishment thought U.S. didn’t need more doctors or medical
schools, thanks to flawed studies at the time.
• Existing Florida medical schools feared their budgets would suffer.
• Tallahassee Memorial Hospital initially said it couldn’t commit time or
resources.
• Some traditionalists thought you couldn’t teach students using regular
community doctors.
• Some also doubted whether you could spread your students across six
communities statewide and hope to give them all an effective, equivalent
education.
• Some physicians were skeptical just because this wasn’t the way they were
trained.
• Those same physicians also doubted that the Association of American
Medical Colleges would approve it or that the Liaison Committee on
Medical Education would accredit it.
• Some capital observers thought this was nothing but politics in action.
FSU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE INNOVATIONS
• Establishing interdisciplinary departments
• Providing clinical training in an ambulatory-care setting rather than a teaching
hospital, so students learned directly from attending physicians instead of primarily
from residents
• Focusing on primary care and common ailments, not exotic diseases
• Focusing on teaching rather than on operating an academic medical center
• Offering a fully digital library, accessible 24 hours a day anywhere in the world
• Focusing a mission on rural, underrepresented minorities and elders
• Building one of the most diverse student bodies in the country through ambitious
pipeline programs reaching out to children as early as eighth grade.
• Tracking those pipeline programs to make sure they’re effective.
88 | Breaking the Mold