By Karen Dooley

Jerry and Judy Davis have worked hard their entire lives. They have ventured forth with successful businesses, solid investments and even a stint as NASCAR team owners. Through it all, altruistic spirit and philanthropic activities defined them. A lavish lifestyle did not.

“We still live in the same house we bought 25 years ago,” Davis says. “We have a very moderate lifestyle, and we’ve given away 50 times more money than we’ll ever spend ourselves. That’s just the way we are.”

Jay Lynch, MD, professor of hematology/oncology at the College of Medicine, with Jerry and Judy Davis. Photo by Sarah Kiewel

UF, the College of Medicine and the residents of Florida are lucky the Davises are built this way. This year, the Jacksonville couple made a $21 million gift to the UF Shands Cancer Center to advance research efforts and patient-care initiatives. The College of Medicine received $20 million to create the Jerry W. and Judith S. Davis Cancer Endowment, the largest single gift made to the college. It will be used to support teaching, research and programs in cancer. Shands HealthCare also received $1 million for its Raising Hope Campaign to support construction of the $388 million Shands Cancer Hospital at UF slated to open in November.

The Davises know too well the toll cancer can take on an individual and a family. They each have battled the disease. In fact, Jerry Davis has fought not one, but four bouts of cancer, and Judy Davis was treated for breast cancer 20 years ago. Their intimate understanding of the cancer experience may be why they choose to support cancer research, but it isn’t why they give.

“Jerry and Judy are very special people,” said Jay Lynch, MD, a UF professor of hematology/oncology who treated Jerry Davis and has become his good friend. “They have a deep desire to give back, and because both of them have been touched by cancer, they have a first-hand sense of what it means to have access to state-of-the-art care. They want to make sure that kind of care is available to everyone in Florida.”

Life Lessons

From an early age, Jerry Davis learned the value of an honest day’s work. He was born and raised in Jacksonville and was 6 when he got his first paper route. He spent summers at his aunts and uncles’ farms in South Georgia. Just barely big enough to see over the steering wheel of a car, the young Davis would drive the tractors, pick cotton or tobacco, and even string the tobacco out to dry.

“My dad was a taxicab driver, and he was a tough guy,” Davis says. “He made us work and he taught us to tithe to the church and be responsible people.”

Davis’ father may have been his first influence, but he says he learned the power of generosity from his wife, Judy.

“My wife is a giver, and she has taught me and the whole family how to give back to the community and to those who are in need.”

Judy Davis was raised in the hills of northern Tennessee in Oneida, a rural town where the median household income is well below the state average. Her father was a school superintendent who cared for the disadvantaged children in his district as if they were his own, Davis says.

The couple met in 1965 and married two years later. Jerry Davis, a 1968 graduate of the UF College of Journalism and Communications, began an information technology company in Jacksonville, and they raised two sons, Troy and Jerry Jr.

Davis sold his company shortly after being treated for lymphoma for the second time. Not too long after, he purchased a 2,500-acre farm in northwest Florida and “turned from software and services to agriculture and hunting.”

The couple now divides their time between the farm and their home in Jacksonville, where they are able to enjoy watching their grandchildren grow. They also keep close ties to Judy’s home state, where there are approximately 80 students attending Tennessee Tech University thanks to the Davises. The couple supports scholarships for graduates from Judy’s high school in Oneida who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to attend college.

They’ve also purchased equipment for the nursing school at the university because the need for nurses in northern Tennessee is so great, and they funded the construction of a 21st-century classroom to effectively train teachers to use today’s technology.

“Giving of their time and their financial blessings is a way of life for them,” Lynch says. “Through the eyes of their faith, they see themselves as stewards of their success.”

Investing in Hope

The Davises first helped jumpstart UF’s cancer program in 1998 with a $5 million gift that was matched by the state. The $10 million endowment was used to recruit world-class scientists and expand the research programs at the college. The outpatient component of the UFSCC was named the Jerry W. and Judith S. Davis Cancer Pavilion in recognition of their support.

“Hopefully we can turn cancer into a chronic disease rather than the killer that it is,” he says. “Rather than somebody surviving for just four or five years, they can survive 20 to 25 years.

“And we wanted to invest in an institution that is going to reward the people they serve,” Davis continues. “The people we have come to know at the University of Florida are very good people who are committed to the research that they do, and they are committed to their students.

“Those who choose academic medicine are special people,” Davis says. “They want to teach. They want to do research, and they want to treat patients. That combination is powerful and benefits every patient who walks in the door.”

Jerry Davis jokes that he has become the “referral guy” in Jacksonville for many who are newly diagnosed with cancer.

“I get two or three calls a week from people who know me from my church or through business,” he explains. “I tell them Shands and UF are on the leading edge of treatment, and the new cancer hospital is just going to make them stronger.

“Hope is not lost” he tells them. “Just make sure you go the right place.”

By Karen Dooley

The economic recession has cast a shadow over growth in the Sunshine State. The collapse of the housing market and the lingering effects of what has been the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression have taken their toll. This summer, Florida’s unemployment rate entered double digits for the first time in 34 years, hitting 10.6 percent in June.

But not everyone is downsizing.

In Sarasota, Medical Education Technologies Inc. is expanding its business by building a 70,000-square-foot plant along Interstate 75. The maker of patient simulators employs more than 200 people and has enjoyed 25 percent to 30 percent growth since it was founded with five employees in 1996.

In Alachua, Jamie Grooms, CEO, co-founder and chairman of Axogen Inc., stays busy growing his second biomedical startup company in 10 years. Axogen develops products that allow surgeons to repair and regenerate peripheral nerves. It is having another banner year, attracting venture capital funding and providing hundreds of patients around the world with better nerve repair options.

And in Gainesville, Xhale Diagnostics Inc. is moving its corporate headquarters from a small downtown location to a 20,000-square-foot space on Southwest 34th Street. The company is developing a line of breath-based devices to replace or supplement many conventional diagnostic tests. Its technology is expected to lead to new opportunities for diagnostic testing in the medical, home, law enforcement and industrial settings.

What do these companies and several other biotechnology startups throughout the state have in common? They are manufacturing and marketing products invented by current or former faculty members from the UF College of Medicine. These advances are the result of years, sometimes decades, of research from medical scientists who are dedicated to improving people’s lives by finding solutions to some of our biggest health problems.

And the outcome of bringing these inventions to the marketplace is new business. Business that generates biomedical investment, jobs and tax revenue and stimulates commerce.

The Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator is a unique component of UF's successful commercilization efforts. The 40,000-square-foot facility features 22 wet labs, $1 million of shared equipment, an animal facility, pilot fermentation facility and climate-controlled greenhouses. Photo by Allen Cheuvront

Prescription for Recovery

It stands to reason that as Florida works to transform its economy, academic medicine at UF is a growth engine for the state that can help lead the state’s recovery and fuel a knowledge-based economy.

“The College of Medicine has played a significant role in the well-being of the state of Florida for more than 50 years,” said Michael L. Good, MD, interim dean and Folke H. Peterson Dean’s Distinguished Professor. “And the college is poised to play an unprecedented role in helping the state to overcome key challenges, in part by producing research advances that not only help diversify the state economy but also make a difference in the lives of Floridians.”

In addition to spawning business within the biotechnology field, the College of Medicine and its affiliated health system, Shands HealthCare, are an integral part of the state and local economies, employing 10.5 percent of Alachua County’s workforce and almost 4,700 people in Jacksonville. The College of Medicine attracts hundreds of millions of dollars in out-of-state research funding and more National Institutes of Health federal funding than any other public university in Florida.

“The medical school is an undeniable asset to Gainesville and North Central Florida by attracting external funding, whether from federal agencies such as NIH or CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), or from foundations or industry,” said David Guzick, MD, PhD, UF’s newly appointed senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System. “Combined with successful commercialization of intellectual property, the college is a key player in the state’s ability to create jobs and grow its economy.”

In fact, the College of Medicine and Shands HealthCare have contributed an estimated $15 billion to the state’s economy over the last four years, according to projections based on a study by Tripp Umbach, a Pittsburgh consulting firm that provides research, strategy and economic analysis for many of the nation’s academic medical centers. The firm quantified the economic, employment, government revenue and basic research impact of Florida medical schools for the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2005.

“The University of Florida College of Medicine’s flagship status in the state literally puts Gainesville and the entire Heart of Florida region in an elite, global league for breakthrough innovation and technology,” said Brent Christensen, president and CEO of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce. “Whether it concerns the latest discovery in combating human blindness or applying gene therapy methods to thwart cancer, the world is looking at UF.”

“We tend to get distracted, thinking the target is NIH funding. But the target really isn’t funding. The target is the diseases we want to eliminate.”

Stephen Sugrue, PhD, senior associate dean for research affairs

The entrepreneurial spirit

A drive up State Road 441 north of Gainesville to Alachua offers a good example of the market potential of research generated by the College of Medicine, not to mention the rest of the university. Nestled among the green pastures, horse farms and live oaks is the 200-acre Progress Corporate Park, which houses 30 young businesses, the largest physical cluster of biotech/life sciences companies in Florida. More than 80 percent of the 1,200 people working in the corporate park work for startup companies based on technology developed at UF — and more than one-third work for businesses that originated in the College of Medicine, said David Day, director of the Office of Technology Licensing for UF.

“The state of Florida has the 10th-largest research economy in the country,” explained Day, whose office is charged with helping move the university’s discoveries and inventions from the lab to the business community. “More than a third of that research comes from UF, and about half of all the commercialization that is produced by it is in the Gainesville area.

J.S. Gravenstein, MD, founding chair of the department of anesthesiology who passed away in January, was photographed last year observing residents train with the Human Patient Simulator. Gravenstein and colleagues, including Samsun Lampotang, PhD, an associate professor of anesthesiology, and Michael L. Good, MD, interim dean, created the computerized mannequin that displays vital signs and reacts realistically to medical procedures. Photo by Sarah Kiewel

“We are already the innovation hub of Florida, and we are positioned to be even more significant in the recovery,” he said. “If somebody wants to have a stimulus, this is where they should put their money because this is where they’re going to get their biggest and quickest payback.”

It’s not overconfidence that makes Day so certain about UF’s potential in producing successful spinoffs — it’s his team’s track record. Last year the office helped launch 12 new companies and issued 75 licenses and options — more than half the state’s total.

About 10 years ago, the university made a commitment to expand its commercialization efforts and strengthened its programs and services, such as UF Tech Connect — matching entrepreneurs and investors with science — and the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator — providing the infrastructure in the form of space, equipment and support services to UF’s biotechnology startups. As a result, a major study by the prestigious Milken Institute ranked UF the No. 1 performing public institution at transferring its research to the marketplace. UF was fifth overall — behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the universities of the California system.

“When you look at venture capital that’s attracted to startups from state universities, I’ll bet 80 percent of that is right here at UF. And the College of Medicine is the heart and soul of what we do.”

David Day, director of the Office of Technology Licensing for UF

With almost $600 million in research last year, UF accounted for 30 percent of university research funding in Florida, while the College of Medicine claimed 12 percent. And the 299 new disclosures from UF scientists represents 40 percent of Florida’s research disclosures. Half of those, or 20 percent of the total, came out of the Health Science Center.

“When you look at venture capital that’s attracted to startups from state universities, I’ll bet 80 percent of that is right here at UF,” Day said. “And the College of Medicine is the heart and soul of what we do.”

Successful spinoffs usually mean more money coming back to the university’s labs, said Jane Muir, associate director of the OTL. “When we license technology, it needs further development, so the companies quite often sponsor more research at UF, and on occasion, turn around and donate private support to the university.”

Other advantages to creating successful business in the state and the region: It keeps university graduates in the state. It creates an alternative to the state’s traditional reliance on tourism and agriculture for economic growth. A university that fosters a tech-transfer culture attracts young, entrepreneurial-minded faculty and provides more opportunities for trailing spouses.

“But when you talk about the real benefit of doing all of this, it’s that we’re getting these discoveries out of the lab and into the marketplace where they have an impact,” Muir said. “That’s the big motivator: cure for diseases, chips that make computers go faster, delivering drugs for tumors.”

Said Day: “That’s why we pay our taxes; to go to these people who help make it a better world.”

The value of NIH funding

Even before innovative research makes it to the marketplace, a robust research enterprise stimulates the local economy. In June 2008, the health-care advocacy group Families USA released a study titled “In Your Own Backyard: How NIH Funding Helps Your State’s Economy.” The report, which used U.S. Department of Commerce methodology, defined economic impact as the additional state business activities attributed to NIH grants and contracts and concluded that every $1 million invested by the federal agency generated an average of $2.21 million in new state business.

“The federal dollars that NIH sends out into communities provide real, direct economic benefits at the local level, including increased employment; growth opportunities for universities, medical centers, and local companies; and additional economic stimulus for the community,” the report stated.

This is no surprise to Stephen Sugrue, PhD, senior associate dean for research affairs at the College of Medicine, where last year’s NIH awards totaled $80 million.

“A typical RO1 grant (Research Project Grant from the NIH) is worth $200,000 a year for five years,” explained Sugrue, who has received NIH funding since 1983. “Three quarters of that, or $150,000, is for salaries. That, of course, directly affects the local economy.

“Our grants bring people to Gainesville, including faculty, postdocs and lab technicians,” he said. “And usually they come with families.”

According to the Families USA study, the average wage of jobs created by NIH funding nationwide is $52,112, more than 25 percent higher than the average U.S. wage.

“We tend to get distracted, thinking the target is NIH funding,” Sugrue said. “But the target really isn’t funding. The target is our ultimate goal of eradicating disease.”

Good, interim dean since May 2008, said that while the college provides an undeniable benefit to the economic well-being of the region and the state, that is not one of its core missions.

“The most important thing is the significance of the discovery — changing people’s lives,” said Good. “Generating new business and stimulating the economy help fuel the machinery that creates an environment from which great discoveries are made.

“When you think about it, (Dr.) Bob Cade had an idea (Gatorade), but he needed to grow that idea in a place that encouraged the inventive spirit, and he needed first-rate colleagues around him,” Good said.

Gatorade bred a multimillion-dollar sports drink industry and has brought in more than $150 million in royalties to UF since its invention 41 years ago. The money has funded numerous projects and programs in the College of Medicine. Cade also used some of his share of the royalties to fund scholarships and an endowed chair in the department of nephrology.

Good is familiar with the power of translating academic discovery to the marketplace. An inventor himself, he teamed up with colleagues at the department of anesthesiology to develop the Human Patient Simulator, which was licensed to an aerospace company in the early 1990s and is now manufactured by METI Inc. in Sarasota.

“I stayed at UF because I wanted to build something,” Good said. “And UF turned out to be the perfect place to do that.”

With a strong history of tech transfer, a university with a proactive approach toward translating science to the marketplace and recent expansions, the College of Medicine is in position to see its research endeavor soar in the coming year.

“The recent Clinical and Translational Science Award (see page 32) to the university will further enhance research activity and cause a ripple effect in NIH funding,” said Guzick. “Our collaborations with the Moffitt Cancer Center and private institutes such as Burnham and Scripps will enhance our ability to make those discoveries that will have an impact on not just the state but the world.”

Full Circle

At 17, David Gracy nearly lost his life because of an automobile accident on Southwest 34th Street in Gainesville. Thanks to a device invented by UF anesthesiology professor Richard J. Melker, MD, Gracy, now 35, survived the crash and recovered from his injuries. Gracy, his wife, Megan, and their son, Cecil, live in Gainesville with their two dogs and one cat. Photo by Priscilla Santos

College of Medicine researchers make the discoveries. The university helps license and transfer those discoveries to the marketplace. Investors supply the capital to grow the business. Entrepreneurs expand their businesses, hire skilled workers and pay taxes to the government, which funds more research at the College of Medicine. It’s a proven series that is valuable to all parties, especially the patient.

David Gracy is a perfect example of how valuable that full circle is.

In October 1990, Gracy was a senior at Gainesville High School and played strong safety on the football team. He was driving on Southwest 34th Street just south of Archer Road when his car collided with another, and he suffered acute trauma to his head and face and broke his neck.

The 17-year-old’s injuries were so severe, paramedics on the scene could not restore his breathing through the mouth or nose. Within one minute, they used a resuscitation device similar to a tracheotomy tube to open Gracy’s airway, and he began breathing. That device was invented by the father of one of Gracy’s friends at Gainesville High, Richard J. Melker, MD, a critical care physician at UF.

Melker, a professor of anesthesiology and faculty member for 32 years, saw a need and came up with the Melker Emergency Cricothyrotomy Catheter in the 1980s.

“To resuscitate a patient, the first thing we have to do is establish an airway,” said Melker. “Usually that is done with an endotracheal tube, but in some cases, such as with severe facial injuries, that is not possible. That is when this device is useful.”

Melker, who holds 45 U.S. patents and is co-founder of XHale Diagnostics in Gainesville, said the device is used by militaries all over the world. In 1989, shortly after it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Melker said he hoped to learn one day if a patient was saved using his device.

Richard J. Melker, MD, a professor of anesthesiology and inventor at UF for 32 years, displays a sample of the hundreds of response cards he has received over the years from emergency room staff, military medics and other first responders around the world who have used the Melker Emergency Cricothyrotomy Catheter. Melker developed the resuscitation device in the 1980s, which allows medical personnel to establish an airway in patients immediately. Photo by Priscilla Santos

“This is not something that will be used very frequently,” the physician and inventor said in a 1989 interview. “Locally, we may have occasion to use it only once a year.”

Less than a year later, the invention helped save Gracy’s life. And his friend Jeremy Melker’s father was responsible.

“It’s hard to remember much during that time,” said Gracy, now 35 and a financial planner in Gainesville. “I do remember being elated to know that Jeremy’s father had something to do with my being alive.”

Almost 20 years later, Melker is still at it, inventing new ideas, testing new products and growing a business that could soon change the way people with diabetes check their glucose levels.

And while Melker’s work and that of many of his UF College of Medicine colleagues help cultivate the biotechnology and spur growth in the state’s economy, it always starts with the patient.

THE BIOTECH BOOM

Jamie Grooms, co-founder and CEO of AxoGen Inc., knows what it takes to launch and grow a biotechnology company. He is co-founder and former CEO of Regeneration Technologies, which he led through venture capital fundraising and an initial public offering, raising $75 million in proceeds. Both companies were established through technology transferred from the UF College of Medicine.

Biotechnology uses living organisms to solve the world’s problems in agriculture, food science and medicine. What it’s producing in North Central Florida is real live jobs. Thirty companies housed in Alachua’s Progress Corporate Park employ 1,200 people, most of whom work for UF spinoff companies.

RTI Biologics

The cornerstone company and one of UF’s most successful offshoots is Regeneration Technologies Inc., the leading provider of sterile biological implants for surgeries around the world. It expects revenues to reach more than $166 million in 2009.

RTI, co-founded by Jamie Grooms, prepares human-donated tissue and bovine tissue for transplantation in spinal, sports medicine, orthopaedic, dental and other specialty surgeries. The company’s origins can be traced back to a fledgling university tissue bank at UF’s department of orthopaedics and rehabilitation and Grooms’ idea that bone could be machined into screws and dowels to take the place of metal tools. RTI went public in 2000 and UF sold its share of the company’s stock, worth about $60 million. The department used its share to build the Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute on Southwest 34th Street, and the College of Medicine contributed almost $35 million to help construct the 280,000-square-foot Cancer and Genetics Research Complex on Gale Lemerand Drive.

“RTI is the best example of transferring science to the marketplace is,” said David Day, director of the Office of Technology Licensing for UF. “Profit is invested back into the university, having an impact all over the campus.”

AxoGen Inc.

Grooms left RTI to form another business based on medical research from UF, Axogen Inc., which began operation at UF’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator. The company is the leader in the advancement of peripheral nerve repair, and its technology was invented by David Muir, MD, a professor in the division of pediatric neurology and the department of neuroscience.

“I believe we have the best product in the world,” Grooms said. “And it has come full circle. We got our license from the University of Florida, and our product is used by physicians at Shands at UF.”

Grooms’ latest venture into the business of regenerative medicine, and his second experience with capitalizing on UF medical research, has strengthened his commitment to making such gambles and his drive to help improve people’s lives through regenerative medicine.

“You have to zero in on your passion, otherwise it’s just too hard to do,” he said. “Fortunately, the research is never-ending — it’s fuel for the engine. But it’s of no use until somebody deploys it.”

AGTC

Applied Genetic Technologies is a biotechnology company developing gene therapy treatments using the adeno-associated virus, or AAV, as a gene therapy vector, a technology developed by current and former physicians and geneticists from the College of Medicine. In August, AGTC and its founders from the College of Medicine and the University of Massachusetts reported safely giving new, functional genes to patients with a hereditary defect that can lead to fatal lung and liver disease.

Banyan Biomarkers Inc.

Ronald Hayes, PhD, a former professor of neuroscience at the College of Medicine, spent more than a quarter of a century trying to better understand the physiological changes that occur after a head injury. The company he formed based on his decades of research, Banyan Biomarkers Inc., is focused on confirming the relationship between certain brain injury biomarkers and injury severity. Detecting biomarkers present in the patient’s blood after brain injury will provide early indications of trauma essential for rapid treatment.

A Destination for Healing

By April Frawley Birdwell

The disease was worse than doctors originally thought. Six-year-old Christian McGrath sailed through the surgery to remove a salivary gland tumor from his neck. But the first-grader still needed radiation to keep the cancer from spreading.

His doctor, a radiation oncologist at Emory University near his family’s home in Atlanta, gave his parents a choice: standard radiation, which could be performed there, or proton therapy, a precise form of radiation that blasts hard-to-treat tumors while sparing healthy tissue.

Christian McGrath, center, and his family called Jacksonville home for two months while the 7-year-old from Atlanta underwent daily therapy at the UF Proton Therapy Institute at the beginning of the year. Christian's father, Chris, remained in Atlanta to work, while his mother, Tammy, and his sister, Caitlyn, 4, stayed with him in Jacksonville. Photo by Priscilla Santos

“It wasn’t even a contest,” says Tammy McGrath, Christian’s mother. “Proton saves a lot of healthy tissue and regular radiation does not.”

So in January, McGrath packed for a two-month trip and brought Christian and her 4-year-old daughter, Caitlyn, to the UF Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville, one of only six centers in the country to offer this targeted therapy.

Not knowing what to expect, she worried about what lay ahead for her son.

“My fear was my son dreading coming here. I cry even saying it. But God answered my prayers. He loved it,” McGrath says, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. “They do everything they can to make sure the children have a good time. My son named it the ‘Proton Fun Center’ instead of the hospital.”

The McGrath’s story of an extended stay in an unfamiliar city for first-rate health care is not unique. Although UF and the Shands HealthCare system don’t explicitly market to patients in distant cities and states, certain highly specialized programs in Gainesville and Jacksonville have become hot spots for patients from across the country and globe, feeding dollars into the local economies in the form of lodging, dining, shopping and entertainment. Shands at UF and Shands Jacksonville medical centers admitted 2,300 patients from 44 other states as well as several countries last year.

UF specialists like David Weinstein, MD, MMSc, and David Kays, MD, have built strong reputations in their fields, drawing patients and their families to UF from throughout the world for treatment. Weinstein is an endocrinologist who leads the world’s largest glycogen storage disease program and whose patients travel to Gainesville once a year for check-ups. Kays, chief of pediatric surgery, has a 92 percent success rate treating newborns with congenital diaphragmatic hernias compared with a national survival rate of approximately 55 percent, prompting many expectant parents to come to Gainesville to have their babies.

“The technologically advanced care provided by UF faculty physicians makes it worthwhile for patients to travel great distances, and often at great expense, to benefit from the expertise of our faculty,” said Michael L. Good, MD, College of Medicine interim dean and Folke H. Peterson Dean’s Distinguished Professor. “As the Internet and other technologies such as electronic record and advanced communication systems continue to be implemented, we expect UF to become a central hub for destination medicine.”

“It was winter, the weather was beautiful. We sampled all the delights of Jacksonville, and my son thinks of it as a great experience.”

Rosalie Barnes, of Leicester, England, whose son, Alex, received treatment at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville.

The Fun Center

Dealing with a devastating disease and having to travel to another state or country on top of it — as more than three-fourths of the patients at the UF Proton Therapy Institute do — can be a prescription for depression, says Gerry Troy, MSW, director of patient services for the institute. That’s why the center is cultivating a community atmosphere for patients, making it not only a destination for treatment, but also a destination for healing … and fun.

So how does the institute inspire people to get out, enjoy themselves and bond with other patients? Well, food is a good start. There’s lunch on Tuesday, held at different restaurants across town. Then there are the group dinners at nearby restaurants and the weekly concert series (and wine) in the lobby, not to mention the breaks patients get at other upscale eateries and clubs.

“The ‘community’ of patients shares information, supports each other and enormously contributes to a patient’s confidence and sense of well-being, which means they have a positive treatment experience and are less likely to develop anxiety and depression,” says Nancy Mendenhall, MD ’80, medical director of the UF Proton Therapy Institute. “This may or may not also help in increasing the effectiveness of the treatment.”

For children, there are weekly pizza parties, holiday parties and even graduations to celebrate when kids finish treatment. Most families trek to the zoo or the beach and slip away to Disney World during their stays, too.

“(My son) came away from that treatment thinking he had a giant vacation,” says Rosalie Barnes, who brought her son, Alex, to Jacksonville for treatment last September from their home in Leicester, England. “It was winter, the weather was beautiful. We sampled all the delights of Jacksonville, and my son thinks of it as a great experience.”

Welcome to Florida

Of course, for out-of-state patients, Florida’s sunshine and palm trees are just a bonus. The real draw is the expertise.

“We feel we have world-class facilities located right here, and we have a great place for people to heal,” says Lyndsay Rossman, communications director for VisitJacksonville, the city’s de facto tourism bureau. “We have over 30 significant medical facilities in just Jacksonville alone.”

The number of “medical tourists” visiting Jacksonville each year actually has increased since the UF Proton Therapy Institute opened in 2006. The center sees 100 to 120 patients a day and, on average, about 80 are from out of the area, Troy says.

Back in Jacksonville for his three-month check-up, Christian McGrath scampered across the waiting area with his little sister. He’s still a ball of energy, his mother says.

To Christian, now 7, the institute, with its softly lit gantries and glass-walled lobby, will always be the place where his sister rode on a stretcher to his room, where he got to help give himself his “sleepy medicine” before treatment and where the “Proton Fun Center” sign he and Caitlyn made still hangs in the children’s room.

For his mother, the visit brings different memories.

“Jacksonville is our second home now. This is an extended family here, you feel that from the get-go,” she says. “To have this available for my child to not suffer, and he didn’t one bit, that is why this place is so special. They saved my son.”

By Jennifer Brindise

The UF Medical Guild’s first charitable donation was a modest gift of $25, and it helped provide emergency meals and lodging for indigent patients. Fifty years and more than $1 million later, that seed of inspiration has grown into a garden of generosity, creating a $50,000 gift to the Shands Cancer Hospital’s Garden of Hope.

In 1959, as the fledgling UF College of Medicine was planting its roots, new faculty were coming from across the country to Gainesville. University Avenue was just a single-lane road, and the massive, arching oaks met in the middle.

“People came in to talk and tell their story, and you listened, and maybe that’s the only time they could speak to somebody.”

Alix Gravenstein, charter member of the UF Medical Guild and wife of the late Joachim Gravenstein, MD, founder of the UF department of anesthesiology

“We had to have some core to work around so people would get to know each other,” said charter member Margaret Enneking, wife of UF’s first orthopedic surgery Chair William F. Enneking, MD, and mother of current anesthesiology Chair Kayser Enneking, MD ’86.

As the story goes, a group of women gathered and created the UF Medical Guild to “promote fellowship among the members and to render service to the UF Health Science Center.” The first meeting was held at the University Women’s Club on May 8, 1959. Dorothy Woodward, wife of UF’s first surgery chairman Edward R. Woodward, MD, served as the group’s first president.

Providing a Strong Stem

The Gift Stop, co-owned by the UF Medical Guild, is a volunteer-run shop for patients and staff and is the Guild's primary fundraiser.

Spouses of incoming faculty are immediately welcomed into the Guild, which maintains an open-door policy and allows members to volunteer as much time as their schedules permit. Michelle Donnelly, who joined in 1971, said the Guild provides a source of friendship, and not many other medical schools have such a group.

“It is unique, but I think living in a smaller area has a lot to do with it,” said Donnelly, who is married to retired UF pathologist William Donnelly, MD.

Current Guild president Janice Nelson, who moved to Gainesville in 2004 when her husband Peter joined the division of vascular surgery, reflected on her first Guild meeting, saying that while walking in and trying to figure out how it would fit for her, a member came up and gave her a big hug.

“I remember thinking, someone who hugs like that has to be a good person,” she said, adding that everyone was so nice, welcoming and willing to help her adjust to living in Gainesville.

The Guild currently has more than 140 members and is open to every spouse of the UF Health Science Center’s faculty.

Spreading its branches of giving

THen medical student Terry Bloom, MD '68, with his wife Vera, left, and Mrs. Myron W. Wheat, president of the Medical Guild, look over the award plaque on which Bloom's name was inscribed in 1967.

The initial $25 gift was generated by a rummage sale. Since that first initiative, the group has raised money through efforts such as antique fairs, letter-writing campaigns and its current primary fundraiser, the Gift Stop, a shop for patients and staff located in Shands at UF and the Shands Medical Plaza. With the opening of the Shands Cancer Hospital, the Guild, which co-owns the nonprofit shops with the Shands Auxiliary, will open its third location.

The Guild’s immediate past president, Kathryn Seagle, said a number of volunteers see the Gift Stop not only as a fundraiser but also as a service.

“They want to put on a pleasant face to anyone coming in no matter what level of trauma they or their family have experienced,” said Seagle, who is the wife of M. Brent Seagle, MD, chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Alix Gravenstein, a charter member and wife of the late Joachim Gravenstein, MD, founder of the UF department of anesthesiology, reflected about her days volunteering in the Gift Stop. “People came in to talk and tell their story, and you listened, and maybe that’s the only time they could speak to somebody,” she said.

The UF Medical Guild's current officers: recording secretary Keri Steele, corresponding secretary Nicole Scagnelli, treasurer Jennifer Postoak, president Janice Nelson, and vice president Sue Gaintner.

Charter member Mary Lou Eitzman, who is married to retired UF neonatologist Donald Eitzman, MD, said in the early days the group helped out however it could, from working with patients to delivering mail and flowers. Through its members’ devotion, the group has been able to fund larger-scale projects such as Mini Medical School, which provides the opportunity for science teachers from around the state to come to UF to advance their knowledge. The Guild also supports basic science and medical students by offering monetary awards and scholarships each fall semester.

The Guild’s efforts branch out into the community as its members have provided grants to numerous organizations throughout the years, including the ACORN Clinic, the Equal Access Clinic and Haven Hospice, along with a grant to provide clothing for trauma victims when they leave the hospital.

“To be able to fund those things that reach out into the community gives meaning to why we do what we do,” said Nelson.

UF Medical Guild membrs Mary Moreland, Marion Freund, and Anita Palmer prepare for the 1965 Antique Fair and Sale.

Fruits of their Labor

For 50 years, the UF Medical Guild has supported many people and programs. The following comments represent the impact of their contributions:

“The UF Medical Guild’s work is immeasurable. They started our Patient and Family Emergency Fund over 20 years ago. This fund helps us fill basic needs that are part of providing care for our patients and their families.”

— Cathy Cook, LCSW, director of Shands HealthCare’s department of patient and family resources

“The Guild is fabulous in its support of its members. When my husband passed away in January, my family and I were overwhelmed by all the Guild members who took the time to write notes and come by to deliver food and flowers. Acts like this reflect the heart and soul of what the Guild is all about.”

— Alix Gravenstein, charter member of the UF Medical Guild

“I won a Medical Guild Research award for my doctoral research investigating the origins of life using functionalized DNA molecules. I am very grateful for that award and the positive impact it had on me to continue a career in research. I’m sure, through its generosity and foresight, the Medical Guild has also influenced many students into a career in research and academics.”

— Darwin Ang, PhD ’99, MD ’01

“Through the collaboration between the Medical Guild and the UF Center for Precollegiate Education and Training, hundreds of teachers from across Florida engage thousands of Florida students in lessons and activities that demonstrate UF’s cutting-edge medical research and practice.”

— Mary Jo Koroly, PhD, an associate research professor and director of UF’s Center for Precollegiate Education and Training

Story By Priscilla Santos

Atlanta physician Dr. Paul Alphonse has turned opportunities into success

When you enter the Midtown Urology Surgical Center in Atlanta, you are greeted by autographed posters of James Brown on the walls, the sound of Motown tunes in every room and, most importantly, the charm and expert patient care of one of its most popular partners, Paul Alphonse Jr., MD.

The Atlanta Medical Association award Paul Alphonse Jr., MD, a 1998 graduate of the UF College of Medicine, the honor of Young Physician of the Year in 2006. Photo by Priscilla Santos

Known to his patients and staff as the cool and smooth “Dr. A.,” Alphonse is a 1998 graduate of the UF College of Medicine who has become one of Atlanta’s most admired young physicians. He is recognized as an award-winning urologist and great friend to his patients and staff — and notorious for his shameless loyalty to the Florida Gators in a land where Bulldogs rule.

The orange and blue blood started seeping into Alphonse’s veins when he was a boy growing up in Apopka, just outside Orlando, but he became a true Gator in 1993 when he started medical school at UF. In fact, when asked about his recent honors, such as the Atlanta Medical Association’s Young Physician of the Year Award, he gives the credit to his alma mater.

“I’ve been very, very blessed with the success I’ve had at such an early age,” he says. “But I know it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the early training I received from the UF College of Medicine.”

Alphonse understands that being successful takes not only hard work but also opportunity. It was the opportunity to work a yearlong clinical research project with former urology chairman Dr. Perinchery Narayan while in medical school that led to his receiving the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Society research award as well as his interest in urology and, ultimately, his career path.

But the opportunities his parents provided had the most impact on Alphonse’s life, he says. Both his parents were born in Haiti, and each immigrated to the United States in the late 1960s when their country plunged into poverty under “Papa Doc’s” dictatorship. The couple met and later married in Newburgh, N.Y., where Alphonse was born. Eventually, the family left New York when he was 5 and settled in Apopka.

Paul Alphonse Jr., MD '98, checks in with patient Vincent Alston at the Midtown Urology Surgical Center in Atlanta, where Alphonse is one of three partners.

“My family was truly blessed,” Alphonse says. “There were many of my parents’ family and friends who just didn’t have the means or the chance to come to the United States and make better lives for themselves.”

After graduating cum laude in biology from the University of Central Florida, Alphonse came to Gainesville, and during his first year as a medical student, he was drawn to his roots. A medical mission trip with classmates to Grenada inspired Alphonse to do something similar in Haiti.

Doug Campbell, a first-year classmate, founded a nonprofit medical mission group called CHORES (Children’s Health Organization and Relief and Educational Services), Alphonse explains. “I was invited to tag along, and my life was forever changed,” he says.

“That experience triggered me to do something in Haiti,”

Alphonse continues. “If Doug, an American, can do this for the people in Grenada, I can do this for the people in my parents’ country.”

It wasn’t just the example from CHORES that influenced

Alphonse. His calling to Haiti can be traced back to his childhood, when he traveled to Cap-Haïtien during the summers and spent days following his aunt, a nurse who ran the largest local government health-care clinic.

“She challenged me to become a doctor, then return to Haiti to build a hospital,” he says.

Paul Alphonse Jr., MD '98, during the first Project Haiti medical outreach trip in 1996, notifies residents about the health fair organized by his team from the College of Medicine.

He didn’t build a hospital, but Alphonse and his classmate, Serge Geffrard, MD ’98, began what is the longest-running international medical outreach program for UF medical students. The first Project Haiti took place in 1996, and every spring students, faculty and staff from the College of Medicine and Shands at UF provide free health care to the people of Haiti.

For second-year medical student and Haitian immigrant Ricardy Rimpel, Alphonse and Geffrard unknowingly influenced his choice of medical schools.

“Project Haiti was one of the reasons I chose to attend UF,” says Rimple, one of this year’s project leaders and a member of the class of 2012. “Last spring break our group of 29 medical students and attending physicians were fortunate to travel to Haiti and experience health disparity at its worst.

“Seeing the poverty and the lack of access to basic health care changes your perspective on life,” he says. “Programs like Project Haiti are so valuable to medical students because they allow us to care for the most unfortunate. In addition, it is a great opportunity to learn from caring physicians and practice our clinical skills.”

Home in Hotlanta

After medical school, Alphonse completed a residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He and his wife, Latanya, moved to Atlanta, and just two years out of residency he was offered a partnership with Midtown Urology, where, he says: “I’m living the dream.”

“I’m very happy where I am right now in this practice,” Alphonse says. “This place functions like no other. We laugh together, smile together and cry together. We are a family.”

The Atlanta Medical Association awarded him the honor of Young Physician of the Year in 2006, when he was 33.

“When I was nominated and then received the award, I was overwhelmed,” says Alphonse, who lives outside Atlanta in Smyrna with his wife and two sons, Paul III, 3, and Preston, 1.

More recently, Alphonse was awarded the 2008 University of Florida Most Outstanding Young Alumnus Award and was appointed a member of the board of directors of the UF Medical Alumni Association, the youngest member and first African-American to hold such a position.

“It’s all very humbling,” says Alphonse. “You really don’t think you are doing anything spectacular; just taking care of your patients and serving your community.”

Orange and Blue Activism

He’s taking care of his fellow Gators in Georgia as well.

As a member of the Atlanta Gator Club, Alphonse was instrumental in making sure that UF alumni living in Georgia can purchase Gator license plates and show their school pride among the throng of University of Georgia fans. And it wasn’t always easy — or nice.

“It got a little nasty there at times and was all over the newspapers,” Alphonse recalls. “There were a few senators and state representatives who weren’t too happy with me.

“We just fought for what was fair,” he says. “The state offered tags for other universities, such as Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee. They had no right to forbid Florida tags.”

Paul Alphonse Jr., MD '98, was instrumental in making sure UF alumni in Georgia have the opportunity to purchase Gator license plates and show their school pride in the middle of Georgia Bulldog territory. There are approximately 7,000 Gator tags on cars in the Atlanta area today.

Eventually, the state Legislature approved the Florida license plates, and Alphonse is happy to say there are approximately 7,000 Gator tags on cars in the Atlanta area today.

“Being in Atlanta is like being in a satellite community of the University of Florida,” says Alphonse. “There are so many UF alumni in the metropolitan area.”

With his successful practice, awards and now experience in political activism, what could be next for the physician? According to Latanya Alphonse, the only thing left for her husband to do is become the secretary of health.

“I don’t know about secretary of health, but I would be honored if President Obama assigned me to be the U.S. ambassador to Haiti,” he said. “I really would like to do more for my parents’ country. I see the struggle and would like to make a difference.”

Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a 1990 graduate of the College of Medicine and a senior scientist in the CDC’s division of birth defects and developmental disabilities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recognized health professionals at the CDC who work “tirelessly every day to promote the health of people of all ages.” Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a 1990 graduate of the College of Medicine and a senior scientist in the CDC’s division of birth defects and developmental disabilities, was one of those selected as a Health Protection Hero.

Rasmussen, who first became interested in the efforts of the CDC while in medical school, has been working to improve the lives of mothers and children for more than a decade. She emphasizes the importance of investing in public health research to identify what can be done to help prevent illness and suffering, and to save money in the long run.

Her research has led to a better understanding of the causes of birth defects because of factors such as drinking alcohol, smoking, taking certain medicines and maternal obesity. She also studies genetic factors. In the next 10 years, Rasmussen says, her goal is to discover more solutions and implement additional strategies to protect the health of America’s families.

“I am optimistic that this research will lead to improved lives and healthier Americans,” she says. “And since it can take up to a generation to see results, support and investment must be multipronged and sustained.”

Emanuel Newmark, MD, HS ’70, a life fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, has won the 2009 Physician Hero in Medicine Award for the Advancements in the Profession of Medicine. The award is issued yearly under the sponsorship of the Palm Beach County Medical Society. Newmark was recognized for his skillful and compassionate blend of the art and science of medicine and for his significant contributions of time and service. Dr. Newmark’s research established a new treatment for fungal corneal ulcers, natamycin. He is a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine, and he completed his residency and fellowship at UF.

Alan Smally, MD ’74, is the chief of the division of emergency medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

Bradley D. Fouraker, MD ’83, of Tampa, is serving as president of the Florida Society of Ophthalmology. Fouraker, of Tampa, practices at the Brandon Cataract Center and Eye Clinic in Brandon.

Alma Littles, MD ’86, was selected for the 2010 class of fellows in the national leadership program Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program for Women at Drexel University’s College of Medicine in Philadelphia. Littles, senior associate dean for medical education and academic affairs at the Florida State University College of Medicine, is one of 53 senior faculty women chosen for the program, which is designed to increase the presence of women in high-level administrative positions in medical institutions.

Juan Cendan, MD ’91, HS ’97, was appointed assistant dean for simulation and medical education at the UF College of Medicine. Cendan, an associate professor in the department of surgery since 2001, also serves as the department’s clerkship director and the medical director for the Harrell Professional Development and Assessment Center.

Shirley Codada, MD ’94, recently left her job as a hospitalist to pursue a career as a hospice and palliative care physician. She joined the faculty of the Moffitt Cancer Center in the department of psychosocial and palliative care.

Deanna Green, MD ’04, in her third year of a fellowship in pediatric pulmonary medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, recently was published in the Journal of Pediatrics and has papers under review for the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Leonard Williams, an Orlando businessman, had a unique relationship with his son, Douglas. The two were very close and spent a great deal of time together. When the younger Williams died at the age of 40 in 2003, it was a difficult time for Leonard and the entire family.

Earlier this year, the College of Medicine dedicated the Douglas Williams Executive Health Program and gratefully announced that the college would continue to provide the program’s valuable service thanks to the generosity of Douglas Williams’ family.

Leonard and Marjorie Williams

The Douglas Williams Executive Health Program provides comprehensive physical exams and personal health consultations for professionals who have countless demands on their time. The executive health program has become a model for wellness programs throughout the country, as companies and business owners have discovered the value in preventive health care.

Leonard Williams, owner of Wayne Densch Inc., an Anheuser-Busch distributor in Seminole, Lake and Orange counties, said he is a very satisfied customer of the UF executive health program and often traveled with Douglas to Gainesville from Orlando for its services.

“Douglas loved coming up here and being treated at this wonderful place,” Williams said the day of the dedication.

In football, halfway to goal is a critical moment in play. A game, a season, even a championship can hinge on whether a team can cover the remaining distance without losing possession of the ball. In fundraising, halfway to goal is a critical moment in a campaign. It represents a pivotal point in momentum — when we pause to express our appreciation for all who have given, and simultaneously intensify our efforts to cover the remaining distance.

For the UF College of Medicine, halfway to goal is indeed a point of celebration as well as a time for focusing collective energy on the coming months. The Florida Tomorrow: Campaign for Medicine has raised nearly $171 million in gifts, pledges and bequests, realizing 53 percent of the $315 million goal set for July 2012. Every donor to this campaign, regardless of the size of their contribution, has done something incredibly significant — they have supported academic medicine at a vital moment in the university’s history. And while this story highlights a variety of the gifts received by the College of Medicine, every gift is accepted with the heartfelt appreciation of current and future generations of students, researchers, clinicians and most of all, our patients.

There are philanthropists like Jerry and Judy Davis, whose leadership gift for cancer research is the largest ever received by the College of Medicine and strengthens the UF Shands Cancer Center. Or Wayne Huizenga, whose exceptional support for the department of urology has resulted in an endowed professorship and funding for other initiatives. A substantial gift from The Lillian S. Wells Foundation was matched by the state of Florida for the establishment of the Preston A. Wells Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, and the generosity of the Robert F. and Eleonora W. McCabe Foundation helped establish the UF Center for Psychiatry in Vero Beach. Over $10 million has been given to the campaign by anonymous donors, and medical alumni have risen to their own challenge (see page 44) by pledging to raise at least $2.5 million in support of new academic space for the College of Medicine. There have been dozens of gifts from foundations, charitable trusts and philanthropic divisions of corporations, and alongside these and many other major contributors are hundreds of individual donors, including our own faculty and staff. In fact, this campaign has included the most successful faculty and staff effort in the history of the College of Medicine, with more than 560 contributions raising more than $7.5 million. In short, the campaign’s success to date is due to the generosity of many people focused on a single goal — ensuring excellence in medicine at the UF.

The Campaign for Medicine is halfway to its goal today — but firmly focused on Florida Tomorrow — a belief that with private support, the possibility of preventing, treating and potentially curing diseases is limitless. Please consider how you can help the great tradition of medicine at UF with a gift, pledge or bequest. Thank you for investing in our future.

Two former deans of medical education were honored with Society of Teaching Scholars Lifetime Achievement Awards at this year’s College of Medicine Medical Education Banquet.

Robert Watson, MD ’69, who was senior associate dean for educational affairs for nearly 20 years, and Lynn Romrell, PhD, former associate dean of medical education and a professor of anatomy and cell biology, were honored for their excellence in scientific research and discovery, medical education and clinical career during their extended careers at UF.

“The University of Florida is where I went to college, medical school, did my residency and gave my professional life,” Watson said.  “It is my home, always will be, and I will always love it. Receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award was one of the nicest honors I have ever received, and I will cherish it forever.”

Receiving the award together made the honor particularly special for the pair, who became friends during their years working together on medical education.

Watson, who retired from UF after nearly 20 years as senior associate dean, is currently executive associate dean for administrative affairs at the Florida State University College of Medicine. Romrell left UF in early 2008 and is associate dean for curriculum development and evaluation, also at FSU.

The student loans are piling up. About $120,000 so far. It could be more by now. Jennifer Dettloff isn’t sure. Keeping the exact amount of her medical school debt in her head at all times isn’t exactly a cheery thought.

No one said medical school would be cheap, but tuition isn’t the only cost pushing the fourth-year UF medical student deeper into debt. The other costs add up, too: rent for an apartment she barely spends time in. Utilities. Books. Gas to get her to and from rotations in Jacksonville. Healthy food. Health insurance, which medical students are required to have.

While some students have parental pocketbooks to lean on, Dettloff pays her own way and has struggled to make ends meet each semester. But during the spring semester, Dettloff didn’t run out of money for the first time since she entered the UF College of Medicine. How?

She got a new address.

In the middle of her third year of medical school, Dettloff moved into the Rogers Rotary House, located less than a mile from Shands at UF. For two decades, UF undergrads have cycled through the tidy, ranch-style home, sponsored by the Southern Scholarship Foundation. But last year, the foundation decided to dedicate one of its nine scholarship houses in Gainesville to female medical students, opening spots for nine students to live rent-free in the house.

“If they had had this when I was in first year, the amount of stress it would have taken off my life would have been immense,” Dettloff says.

Along with a diploma and the initials M.D., the average medical school graduate takes away $119,000 in debt when he or she leaves medical school, according to the Association of American Medical Schools. For students who come to medical school already facing financial hardships, the burden can be even greater.

Photos by Sarah Kiewel

That’s one of the reasons the Southern Scholarship Foundation decided to gear one of its Gainesville houses — there are scholarship houses in Tallahassee and Fort Myers, too — toward medical students.

“We thought if we could help out with that debt just a little bit, we should do it,” said Teresa Turner, the foundation’s director of student affairs.

Previously a scholarship house for men, the Rogers Rotary House opened to medical students last fall. Although the house is now reserved for medical students, the first batch of dwellers included a handful of graduate students, too, mostly because the foundation didn’t have quite enough time to spread the word about the new house.

“There are very few scholarships available for medical students, as opposed to undergraduates,” says Patrick Duff, MD, associate dean for student affairs. “It also is almost impossible for a medical student to have a part-time job during medical school other than the summer after the first year.  Most students depend entirely on loans.”

The timing was perfect for Kari Mader, who’d lived in Southern Scholarship houses as an undergrad and was preparing for her first year in medical school.

“It’s definitely harder to get (financial) help in medical school than in undergrad,” says Mader, one of three first-years who moved into the house last fall. “The costs are insane. Going from $1,500 in tuition a semester in undergrad to $13,000 a semester is a huge difference.”

Like many medical students, Mader needs loans to pay her tuition, but living in the house shaves off hundreds of dollars from her expenses each month. The residents don’t pay rent but do split utility bills and other expenses. Like other Southern Scholarship houses, the group has its own internal hierarchy to determine who takes care of what responsibilities, too.

“Along with a diploma and the initials M.D., the average medical school graduate takes away $119,000 in debt when he or she leaves medical school.”

—Association of American Medical Schools

But the savings aren’t the only thing Mader likes about living with other medical students. Because of their hectic study schedules, the women actually don’t spend much time together as a group, but when she needs it, Mader knows she has a built-in support system waiting at home.

“Once the program is really established, it will be girls from all years. It’s a great opportunity for mentorship,” Mader says. “(Dettloff) has already been that for us. She just remembers everything.”

Huddled around a picnic table on the side of the house, the residents who stayed in town over the summer discussed what to make for dinner the next night. It’s not something they usually do, eat as a group, but the students wanted to take advantage of their comparably breezy summer schedules to spend a little time together.

The verdict? Pancakes. But as they debated the merits of homemade pancakes versus IHOP and whether they really needed grits, the women laughed and joked.

Those moments are one of the best things about living in the house, Mader says.

“It’s a family. It’s a support group,” she says. “And that’s really important when you are going through things. Even though we don’t always eat together, we have definitely been able to be there for each other as we’re dealing with the classes and life changes of medical school.”