Final Jeopardy 2012

This year's Final Jeopardy by the faculty had a Star Trek theme! It was a great time. And we will truly miss our graduates as they explore new worlds and civilizations... and go where no man has gone before! The graduates also did a GREAT job toasting the faculty! (A little too good...)

Faculty in the FAFP Magazine

Dr. Eddie Needham and Dr. George Guthrie recently published articles in the latest issue of the Florida Family Physician (the official publication of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians). Dr. Needham wrote on "The Family Doctor as Preceptor." And Dr. Guthrie wrote on "Effective Lifestye Change in Patients with Chronic Disease—What does it Take?"

ALUMNI Social at AAFP Scientific Assembly

Please join us for an Alumni Get-Together at the AAFP Scientific Assembly if you happen to be in Orlando! Appetizers will be served! And it will be a great time to catch-up with old friends, check out what's going on at the residency, and to meet Dr. Eddie Needham, our new program director.

WHEN: Thursday, September 15th from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.
WHERE: Hilton Orlando Convention Center Hotel
RSVP: Kendra Presley the Residency Program Coordinator by Friday September 9th if possible. Her phone number is 407-646-7757. Kendra's e-mail is kendra.presley@flhosp.org.

Hope to see you there!

Congrats to Class of 2011!

It is with great joy that we celebrate the graduating class of 2011! We will miss you all! As is our tradition here at Florida Hospital Family Medicine Residency, we had great fun poking fun at each other at "Final Jeopardy." Here is the faculty's attempt to "roast" the residents... Enjoy! (NOTE: Click on the photo below several times to get the zoomed-in view.)

Congratulations Class of 2010!

It gives us great pleasure to announce that all 16 of our residents who sat for the 2010 American Board of Family Medicine’s certification exam were successful! This is spectacular!  When you compare numbers around the state and nationally, having a large program have a 100% pass rate is truly outstanding. GREAT JOB!

Dr. Fishberg Quoted in LA TIMES

Congrats to Dr. Fishberg of our faculty! He was quoted in the LA Times for an article on osteopenia and osteoporosis. Here's the quote in its entirety:

Dr. Alexander Fishberg, medical director at the Center for Family Medicine at Florida Hospital, acknowledges that some physicians have fallen into the trap of treating osteopenia like a disease rather than an increased risk. "I think some women may get treated where the risk of fracture is very low," Fishberg says.

But he says that patients shouldn't shrug off concerns about osteopenia, and he points to evidence that many women in the osteopenia category will get fractures.

Fishberg takes T-scores into consideration but says that the decision about whether to treat osteopenia shouldn't be based on the score alone. Fishberg relies on the WHO calculator called FRAX, which takes into account a woman's age, ethnicity, family health history, lifestyle decisions like smoking and drinking and other risk factors. With all of that information, the FRAX algorithm makes two predictions: the chance that a woman will fracture a hip in the next 10 years, and the chance that she will fracture either her hip, spine, forearm or shoulder in the next 10 years. (Anyone can try FRAX online at http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/FRAX.)

The discussion between a patient and her doctor should involve factors such as lifestyle, exercise, calcium and vitamin D, he says.

"That's how I make my decisions," Fishberg says. "A good old-fashioned discussion with your patient to help form a plan so that both parties agree that the treatment is right for them."

Ultimately, the decision about whether to be treated for osteopenia must be made by the patient and doctor, he says: "In this day and age, our treatment should be individualized. An individual score does not define the woman."

Meet the Program Director

Our residency warmly welcomes Dr. Eddie Needham as Program Director. He and his family moved here from Atlanta, Georgia and they are enjoying the warmer weather, fishing hotspots, and milder rush hour traffic (at least compared to Atlanta).

Originally trained as an industrial engineer at GA TECH, Dr. Needham went on to graduate from medical school at Emory. After finishing a residency in Family Practice at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, he served an additional four years in the US Army at Fort Benning, GA. He returned to Emory as faculty and advanced to Program Director for eight years.  He received the degree of Fellow, American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) while at Emory. He has won numerous teaching awards to include the AAFP's Parke-Davis Teaching Award in 1996 and the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians (GAFP) Teacher of the Year Award in 2007.  He has published in the American Family Physician and continues to practice full service Family Medicine.  He has taught at the AAFP's Annual Scientific Assembly as well as numerous engagements with the GAFP.

It is his joy and passion to teach students of medicine the wonders of the human body and spirit. He loves his wife of 23 years, his five children, the rigors of triathlons, the wonder and surprise of fishing, and mountain top experiences with friends.

A Message from Dr. Bob Quigley

Thank you so much for visiting our new alumni website. For many years, we have looked for an avenue to communicate with our past graduates. With this new blog, we are hoping to keep our alumni in touch with each other and with what's new at our residency.

Currently, we are actively working on making an online directory. We want it to be a place where you can find previous graduates with little fuss. But we also want to make the directory secure (since many of you have unlisted phone numbers). Check back on this blog frequently. We will hopefully have a solution very soon.

Every month we want to have a Featured Alumni article. This will be a great chance for you to see what new and interesting things other alumni are doing. Do you have an interesting story from your practice? Have you traveled to someplace fascinating? Do you have an interesting practice model? Do you have a story to share from your residency days? Don't be surprised if a faculty member calls you up for a personal interview!

So enjoy the blog. And if you have any suggestions for this website that would be helpful, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Robert Quigley, MD

Our NEW Centre for Family Medicine!

Because of a generous support from the Winter Park Health Foundation and other patrons, our family residency has a BRAND SPANKING NEW office! It's beautiful! And we are incredibly thankful for the generosity of the people of Winter Park! We moved in around June of 2010, and the transition has gone GREAT. The patients love the new space and we have been busy, busy, busy.

As you can see, Dr. Dumois and his Disney characters have made a smooth transition too. Buzz is a little disappointed that he didn't get a window seat... But some toys you can never make happy.

Jacque and Christine are enthralled with their new space. They said, "The new facilities bring us unmitigated joy! And with this new space, we can press on with our commitment to excellence in training a new generation of family doctor who will epitomize the values of our illustrious profession." Or, something to that effect... They sit in what we affectionately call "command central" and have an eagle eye's view of all the nefarious activities and pranks of the residents (and faculty).

We have a new conference room which is great for lectures, lunch conferences, and team meetings. The AV system is state-of-the-art and we use it frequently to present slide after slide after slide... Each chair has been equipped with an electric prod which sends 200,000,000 volts into any sleeping resident. More voltage is sent to sleeping faculty since they are harder to wake up.

We have two chiefing rooms! We require all residents to sing Hail To The Chief before presenting a history. In the above photo you see Dr. Santizo actively teaching two eager medical students. He was extremely good at saying things like, "That's a very interesting question! Why don't you look that up and give us a brief presentation tomorrow."

Our new facilities also has artwork! Can you imagine that? ARTWORK!!!! A doctor's office that doesn't look like a monotonous study in post-modern minimalism (like Drs. Lee and Zeini's office)! It took a while for some of us to adjust to this. At first, most of us thought the artwork was some kind of phantasm. But after Dr. Bob Vandervoort chipped his left molar on one of the paintings, we knew they were for real! Bob has an appointment with a dentist next week.

The residents even have their own comfy lounge (with a wii player). Please excuse their mess. They haven't transitioned out of their college years yet. 

Dr. Needham (our new Program Director) has a much tidier office. We call him "Mr. Clean". Personally, his attention to detail and cleanliness makes some (well most) of us faculty who are a little less tidy a little bit nervous. Give us time, we're working on him...

And finally, here is our wall of past graduates! In all seriousness, we are very proud of our alumni who have gone out into the world to help the sick, give hope to the mourning, and comfort those who are dying. God bless all of you! And keep doing what you are doing!