Newsnotes

Alumni appointments and happenings

News | Notes

Milton S. Stratos, MD73, was named the 2007 Doctor of the Year for Blake Medical Center in Bradenton. A radiologist, Stratos has been on staff at Blake for 29 years. He was nominated by Blake employees and physicians.

Edward N. Hunsinger, MD76, was appointed senior medical executive for CIGNA HealthCare’s Carolina region. In this role, Dr. Hunsinger will lead physician relations, medical management and quality improvement initiatives to help improve health outcomes and manage medical costs in the region. Dr. Hunsinger will be based in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Anthony Abruzzini, PhD80, was appointed vice president of Global Regulatory Services for Clinsys Clinical Research Inc., a therapeutically focused clinical research organization in Berkeley Heights, N.J.

Jay I. Pomerantz, MD82, M.M.M., F.A.C.P., joined HealthNow New York, Inc. as senior vice president and chief medical officer. Dr. Pomerantz will lead the Health Care Services division, including case and disease management, quality improvement, clinical pharmacy management and Medical Economics.

William Mark McCollough, MD85, received a three-year appointment as cancer liaison physician for the cancer program at Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, NC. As a cancer liaison physician, McCollough is responsible for spearheading Commission on Cancer initiatives within the cancer program, collaborating with local agencies, facilitating quality improvement initiatives and utilizing data submitted to the CoC’s National Cancer Data-base.

R. Dean Hautamaki, M.D89, was named to the board of directors of WaferGen Bio-systems, Inc., a Nevada corporation focused on the development of state-of-the-art systems for gene expression, genotyping and stem cell research for the life science and pharmaceutical industries. Dr.Hautamaki is a practicing internist/pulmonary critical care specialist in Sarasota and serves as an assistant clinical professor of medicine for Florida State University. He is the principal investigator for over 40 clinical drug trials.

John Abernathy, MD92, of Gainesville, has been named volunteer medical director for Tri-County Hospital, a 60-bed acute care facility with an emergency room being built in Chiefland. “I’m really just a doctor of the dirt right now,” Dr. Abernathy said, “because the hospital won’t be finished for a couple of years.”

Frank Santamaria, MD92, was named senior associate medical director for Community Hospice of Northeast Florida in Jacksonville. Dr. Santamaria is responsible for establishing and maintaining medical service productivity standards and overseeing the activities of Community Hospice’s associate medical directors. He joined Community Hospice from the Navy, where he was head of the Prime Acute Care Clinic at Naval Hospital Jacksonville. He has also worked as a family practice physician for St. Vincent’s Primary Care.

Cynthia Brumfield, MD, HS95, has been named chief of staff for the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is only the third person appointed to the post permanently and is the first woman to hold the position in the facility’s history. Dr. Brumfield has been a member of the UAB faculty since 1984 and is a nationally recognized obstetrician-gynecologist.

Brian-Fred M. Fitzsimmons, MD96, was appointed assistant professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and to the medical staff of Froedtert Hospital, a major teaching affiliate. Prior to his appointment, he served as an assistant professor of clinical neurology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.