Teaching, research and patient care, or as some call it, the three-legged stool of modern medical education, are the other stars aligning for this partnership. Research is gaining much attention, since that is where new breakthroughs are discovered and shared— and also because it’ s a costly undertaking requiring a clear rationale for its potential impact on patient care in order to attract external funding.
“ This is now on the national agenda at the National Institutes of Health and in other federal agencies,” Safadi said.“ You can do research for whatever you want, but now we need to see how translatable it is to human health. Here, we have the perfect model. We have the research minds and talent at FSU and the clinical expertise at AREF.”
According to Xian Jin Xie, Ph. D., senior associate dean for Research and Graduate Programs at the College of Medicine, this relationship will be a tremendous benefit to researchers at the college, clinicians at AREF and, ultimately, patients, as the plan is to build joint research programs that are funded by the NIH and other external sponsors.
“ We would like to have research span from basic bench science to translational— meaning from basic science to animal models and then to clinical trials,” Xie said, adding clinical trials will not happen immediately, but in the future as the partnership matures. In the meantime, Xie said, the work already being done in labs on campus can help inform the clinicians at AREF as they work with patients.“ So that’ s the scientific collaboration part,” Xie added.“ In parallel, we will provide more training and more mentoring opportunities for residents and medical students. And, by doing this, we will make sure we have better treatments for patients.”
The sky is the limit for this evolving partnership, which will impact patient care, research, medical education, graduate medical education and other areas. It’ s a tall order— but one many believe can be accomplished.
This is a perfect model. You have the research minds and talent at FSU, you have the clinical enterprise here and, when you marry the two, it’ s a win-win for all.
Fayez Safadi, Ph. D. AREF’ s chief scientific and innovation officer
ABOUT ANDREWS RESEARCH & EDUCATION FOUNDATION
James R. Andrews, M. D., an orthopedic surgeon internationally known for his groundbreaking work in knee, elbow and shoulder injuries— as well as for treating the world’ s elite athletes— founded AREF in 2013 as a non-profit sister organization to the Andrews Institute that opened in 2007 at Baptist Health Care in Northwest Florida. Today, AREF continues to work alongside the Andrews Institute as a global hub for sports medicine, surgeon training, research and clinical trials.
According to its website, the mission of AREF“ is to be a leader in the field of musculoskeletal research and education in order to advance the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries and enhance human performance and quality of life for people of all ages.”
24 FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF MEDICINE