Tag: Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine

Professor to be Inducted Into Global Healthcare Hall of Fame

Farzanna Haffizulla

On Nov. 9, 2023, in London, England, Farzanna S. Haffizulla, M.D., MACP FAMWA, will be the first woman inducted into the Global Healthcare Hall of Fame for her work with the Caribbean Diaspora. Haffizulla is a professor with the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine. The ceremony will be a black-tie event in London with a formal presentation to awardees. Years ago, when Haffizulla just started at NSU, she received a Global Award from them as The Most Outstanding Advocate of Integrated Community Care in the World in 2017.

Congratulations, Dr. Haffizulla!

Posted 10/08/23

Interprofessional Education, Simulation to Open Gateway to Future of Health Care at NSU

For years, NSU has been raising the bar on health care in South Florida through interprofessional education and simulation. Our philosophy and practice have focused on training future professionals to interact with patients and collaborate as members of health care teams before practicing in real-life health care environments.

To enhance and expand our current world-class health care facilities, NSU Health is seizing the opportunity to put them under one roof at the future site of a brand new, standalone Interprofessional Simulation Complex, or SimCom.

This facility – spearheaded by EVP and COO Dr. Harry Moon and NSU Health – will serve as the cornerstone of NSU’s health care footprint on the Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus, strategically located near the health care colleges, NSU Health’s clinics, the Center for Collaborative Research, and the HCA University Hospital. The facility’s infrastructure will be used by students on campus as well as all regional campuses virtually. Slated to open in 2025, SimCom will be supported by NSU Health’s new Interprofessional Simulation Institute – led by Executive Director Dawn Wawersik. The Institute – which already oversees the administration and operations of simulation activities for the university.

These cutting-edge endeavors will culminate in a uniquely beneficial asset to NSU students, educators, and researchers across all our regional campuses, as well as the health care community and industry at large. The much smaller former Dolphins training facility building, previously considered to house SimCom, will be repurposed to address much-needed office and classroom space on campus.

Learn more about these exciting endeavors.

Posted 09/26/23

Dr. Haffizulla Launches Season 3 of ‘In the Kitchen with Dr. H’

In 2017, Dr. Farzanna Haffizulla was invited to join NSU as assistant dean for community and global health in the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine. Around this time, she applied for and was awarded an internal NSU Quality of Life grant, which became the M.D. college’s first grant. This grant supported work to understand the Caribbean community’s preferences for health and wellness education and served as a valuable springboard for funded health equity projects and grants she has been engaged in ever since. Since joining NSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine first as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine in 2020, now fully immersed in community health equity under the leadership of Dean Wallace, her team created culturally tailored health education materials on multiple forms of media and launched a cooking show designed to showcase healthy options when making traditional Caribbean and Latin American dishes. Seasons 1 and 2 are pub­lished online at NSUCaribbeanhealth.com and Season 3, with premier sponsorship by Aetna, is set to launch worldwide on Thursday Sept. 28, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. EST on https://www.youtube.com/@IntheKitchenWithDrH

“I am grateful to work with such an in­credible team of supporters. In fact, since joining the KPCOM, Dean Elaine Wallace continues to be a champion supporter of our team’s health equity initiatives. With her support, we are now positioned to be leaders in health equity and inclusive health care that prioritizes diversity, em­pathy, and humanism. We are grateful to serve as a trusted source of health infor­mation for the Caribbean community. I was approached by Aetna and CVS, which embraced our continuously funded Caribbean Diaspora Healthy Nutrition Outreach Project. They are now premier sponsor of Season 3 of our Caribbean health cooking show In the Kitchen with Dr. H. Using this platform, we highlight small ways to make changes in the way we eat and live that can prevent chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and stroke.

Since becoming the KPCOM’s chair of internal medicine in August 2020, I was asked by the City of Lauderhill to cochair the Lauderhill Health and Prosperity Part­nership, working directly with city officials who founded this initiative—Vice Mayor Melissa Dunn and City Manager Giles- Smith. We are also working with city resi­dents, community stakeholders, business owners, and other key city officials like the mayor and the city commissioners through a data-driven approach addressing community needs. This role has allowed NSU to serve as an anchor institution for this city initiative.

The Caribbean Diaspora Healthy Nutrition Outreach Project provided a population health platform to gather social determinants of health data and other relevant health metrics from City of Lauderhill residents. Together, we worked to produce a comprehensive community needs assessment. This is now published on the city’s website, and we are currently working on a publication related to our findings that will include both qualitative focus group and quantitative survey data related to social determinants of health and disease metrics, such as diabetes risk, cancer diagnosis, heart disease, mental health, and COVID-19 challenges, among other health topics. For more information, please visit www.NSUCaribbeanhealth.com or www.InTheKitchenwithDrH.com

Dean Wallace Named 2023 Power Leader in Healthcare

Dean Elaine Wallace

Dean Elaine M. Wallace, D.O., M.S., M.S., M.S., M.S., of NSU’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine has been named a 2023 Power Leader in Healthcare by the South Florida Business Journal. Considered one of the journal’s most popular editorial features, the Healthcare Power Leaders is a top regional resource of the who’s who in the business community. Power Leaders are selected based on their leadership within their organization and their community along with their contributions to the local economy.

Wallace, along with 49 other South Florida area industry executives, will be profiled in an upcoming special section in the Business Journal. The Healthcare Power Leaders will publish in the journal’s November 10 edition.

Posted 09/24/23

Osteopathic Medicine Dives Into Immersive Learning

As the health care profession continues to evolve, immersive virtual learning has become an integral part of the educational experience. In a recent question/answer session, I reached out to Dr. Elizabeth Oviawe, NSU’s Director of Division of Institutional Technology with the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine, to get her insight on NSU’s cutting-edge approaches to training the doctors of the future.

How many osteopathic medicine students received the Meta Quest 2 headsets this semester as part of their educational experience?

More than 400 of our first-year students at both our Davie and Tampa Bay campuses received Meta Quest 2 Virtual Reality (VR) headsets.

Dr. Elizabeth Oviawe, right, works with a student.

Will the students be using them throughout their full educational journey? 

Our students will be using the Meta Quest 2 VR Headset from their first and second year in their preclinical courses and labs and in their third and fourth year for their immersive virtual rotation experience. So, yes, our students will use this immersive technology throughout their educational journey at Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine (KPCOM) for greater academic success.

What are a few of the ways that this technology will be essential in the students’ journeys to become doctors?

Using this innovative immersive technology will transform the way our students learn and help reinforce and enhance their understanding and application of complex clinical concepts and procedures in a risk-free environment that engages all their sensory organs fully immersive to build their competency in pertinent skills until mastery in preparation for real life experience.

How does such technology situate NSU in terms of innovations in healthcare?

Immersive learning technology is the way of the future in teaching and learning, notably in healthcare education and delivery. Leveraging Augmented reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) including 3D visualization, hologram and 3D printing model has placed KPCOM ahead of the curve and thus extending our achievement to the greater good of the NSU as a whole. Part of our effort is also dedicated to “medical technology innovation research and development (MedTECH Innovate R&D)”, an arm of KPCOM-DiTECH which serves as incubator in the exploration of advanced medical technology application and development. To strengthen our efforts in this innovative adventure we have partnered with Meta (formerly Facebook) in the area of research and development. Meta is the manufacturer of the VR headsets that our students are using. We are breaking ground at KPCOM in innovative curriculum transformation, and extending the know-how of these Immersive learning technologies skill to other NSU educators and programs is our passion. I am so thankful to my dean, Dr. Elaine Wallace, and Dr. Phyllis Filker for their support and leadership in this endeavor.

What are some of the other efforts you’re involved in to spread the wealth of immersive technology?

In order to foster this effort, I began a training workshop series titled “Hone your skill in Immersive Learning Experience” to train NSU educators and provide them with the skills to transform their curriculum. A repeat of this first series will happen later this fall. The second series with selected specific programs at NSU who are ready for the next step is currently ongoing. The cumulative efforts of this initiative will place NSU in the frontier of futuristic technology in the immersive learning experience for health care education training advancement. I am very excited to be of service in extending my skill in the cutting-edge immersive learning technology adoption and integration across NSU.

Posted 08/27/23

Faculty, Students Present Research at Public Health Conference

From left, Shannon Parma, MS; Samhita Doranala; Christi M. Navarro, Ph.D.

Faculty and students from the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences recently presented their latest research at the 2023 Florida Public Health Association Annual Educational Conference, July 25 – 26, at The Florida Hotel and Conference Center in Orlando.

Sonia Rao receives the 2023 Florida Public Health Association Undergraduate Scholarship.

Christi M. Navarro, Ph.D.; Samhita Doranala (Department of Public Health); and Shannon Parma, MS (Department of Couple and Family Therapy), gave poster presentations on the social determinants of mental health literacy. Their research presented preliminary findings from a larger mental health literacy study funded by a QOL grant.

Sonia Rao (Department of Biological Sciences) gave a poster presentation on the relationships between suicide and attempts and state-level education policies, preliminary findings from her honors research thesis through Farquhar Honors College. Sonia was also awarded the 2023 Florida Public Health Association Undergraduate Scholarship.

Stacey Pinnock, DHSc., MSW (Department of Public Health), presented outcomes from her program to improve mental health literacy to Spanish-, Creole-, and Portuguese-speaking parents of children attending Broward County schools. Her project was funded by a Florida Blue grant.

From left, Kristi Messer, DHSc, LCSW, MPH; Shannon Parma, M.S.; Christi M. Navarro, Ph.D.; Sonia Rao; Stacey Pinnock, DHSc., MSW

Posted 08/13/23

Applications Open for Provost’s Research & Scholarship Awards

Starting August 7, 2023, nominations will be accepted for the annual Provost’s Research and Scholarship Awards. Last year this program was expanded to increase recognition opportunities for NSU faculty, and to improve accessibility to faculty from all academic disciplines and career stages.

The Provost’s Research and Scholarship Awards (PRSA) program now awards up to four awards. The PRSA program has two disciplinary categories and two awards within each category by career stage (one for early career and one for established faculty). Therefore, the below four awards, given sufficient candidates in each category, will be awarded annually:

  1. Assistant Professor in the Arts, Business, Humanities, Law, and Social Sciences
  2. Associate/Full Professor in the Arts, Business, Humanities, Law, and Social Sciences
  3. Assistant Professor in STEM and Health/Medicine
  4. Associate/Full Professor in STEM and Health/Medicine

The purpose of this program is to recognize demonstrated achievement in research, scholarship, and creative pursuits by NSU faculty members. These annual awards recognize distinguished accomplishments in the pursuit of research, creative, and scholarly activities across disciplines and career stages, as noted above.

More information and the link to the application is available here: http://www.nova.edu/academic-affairs/provost-award/index.html.

The deadline to submit a nomination or to self-nominate is September 6, 2023, 5:00 p.m., EDT. The winners of the Provost’s Research and Scholarship Awards will be announced in November 2023.

Posted 08/04/23

NSU to Hold Free Community Health Fair August 5

Come join us at this fun and educational event and find out how healthy you are! The medical students and faculty of the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine will be providing free health screenings for adults and children, and our NSU Health pediatricians will be providing back-to-school physicals. Backpacks, courtesy of the United Way of Broward County, will be given to those K-12 students who get a physical and/or participate in the health screenings.

  • Date and Time: Saturday, Aug. 5, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  • Where: Sanford L. Ziff Building, 3200 S University Drive Davie, FL
  • Registration: No appointment needed
  • Cost: Health screenings are free. Back-to-school physical is $25 (No Insurance Billing)

Posted 07/21/23

Incoming Med Students Introduced to Immersive Technology

On July 26, the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine distributed Meta Quest Oculus headsets to its incoming medical students.

The distribution marked a significant milestone in the college’s commitment to incorporating immersive educational technology into its medical school curriculum. By leveraging virtual reality, NSU students will be able to explore medical scenarios, gain practical skills, and enhance their learning experiences.

This presents an extraordinary opportunity to showcase our forward-thinking approach to education and highlight the innovative strides we are taking in medical training.

Posted 07/30/23

Summer Camp Delivers Cutting-Edge Health Care Experience

Students work with Lucina, NSU’s Birth Simulator.

Nova Southeastern University’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine opened its doors to high-schoolers through its AIM-High program – a five-day medical school immersive summer camp held from July 17 to July 21 on NSU’s Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus.

Achieve in Medicine (AIM) – High is designed for academically strong freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior high school students who are interested in pursuing a career in the health professions. AIM-High will provide students with hands-on medical experiences, which include the role of technology in the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions.

Camp participants were able to get seven-plus hours of instruction each day and will learn alongside NSU medical students and faculty.

Among the student experiences this summer were the:

  • SIMTIC Simulator, where students practiced intubation skills, obtained vital signs from the medical student volunteers, and listened to heart and lung sounds on our high-fidelity manikins.
  • Sports Medicine-Splinting Skills Lab, where students learned about using a splint for fractures and other injuries.
  • Labor, delivery, and newborn infant care, where students were exposed to the Lucina Birth Simulator.
  • Immersive Learning Technology in Medical Education, where students received interactive immersive hands-on experience with Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) 3D Anatomy and Mixed Reality (MR).

Posted 07/30/23

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