DEAN ’ S MESSAGE
As we emerged from nearly three years of COVID and welcomed new medical students in May and PA students in August , the energy and enthusiasm among the students was palpable . I was reminded what I have loved most about my time as dean of this medical school .
With a new university president and provost well established by now , and my own time at the College of Medicine ending , this is a good time to reflect .
• 18 M . D . classes have graduated and we now have 1,721 alumni physicians . Sixty percent have completed their post-graduate training and are in practice , the majority of those in Florida . We also reached important milestones this fall : more than 1,000 alumni physicians in practice and more than 500 of them practicing in Florida ( when I arrived in 2008 we had 14 alumni in practice ).
• We graduated our fourth PA class in December and are at full enrollment of 180 – 60 students per class . Our PA alumni are doing well with full-time jobs and contributing to Florida ’ s health-care workforce .
• More than 160 medical residents and 230 faculty participate in the nine residency programs we now sponsor from Tallahassee to Fort Myers . We continue to work with partners identifying needs for additional residency and fellowship programs .
• Based at the College of Medicine , Florida State ’ s undergraduate Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences ( IMS ) program has served more than 2,000 majors since it began in 2016 . Providing mentorship and guidance across four years of study toward careers in health care , IMS is now the second-most popular major at FSU . We ’ re seeing an increase in IMS majors applying to medical school here , where 14 have already enrolled .
• We ’ re living our mission in many ways , including through FSU PrimaryHealth , opened in southwest Tallahassee in 2019 to provide clinical opportunities for our faculty and primary care for a medically underserved community . Along with FSU SeniorHealth and FSU BehavioralHealth ( launched in 2020 ), we are truly responsive to community needs .
• Research funding has accelerated over the past five to eight years among both new recruits and established faculty . Our behavioral health and rural-focused research is playing an important role in our partnership with the University of Florida through the UF-FSU Clinical Translational Science Award . Total grant funding at our medical school exceeded $ 140 million this past fiscal year , and our investigators have had remarkable success with funded grant submissions and large awards , despite a tight NIH budget .
• Our pipeline programs ( SSTRIDE , Medical Honors Scholars , and Bridge ) continue to serve us well as we remain one of the most diverse medical schools in the country for both African-American and Hispanic student percentages .
• I ’ m so proud of our alumni who are working and serving their communities throughout the nation . I continue to meet more and more who are back in their regional campuses and serving as faculty for the next generation of students . We inducted eight PIMS and College of Medicine physicians into the FSU Medical Alumni Hall of Fame at our September alumni reunion in Orlando and plan to grow and develop more events like that one to bring our wonderful graduates together more often .
I ’ ve had an amazing time as dean for 14 years and have been blessed with great help and colleagues who made all of the above possible . On behalf of myself and my wife , Diane , I would like to thank all of you for your support , friendship and encouragement as we accomplished so much together .
It has been a joy to serve this mission-focused institution that will always be close to my heart . I look forward to the next exciting chapter for the FSU College of Medicine and will not be far away as we stay here in Tallahassee . Please enjoy this report that describes how far we ’ ve come in our first 22 years .
With great admiration and respect ,
John P . Fogarty , M . D . Dean