2 min read July 2022 —Invest: spoke with Julie Pilitsis, dean and vice president of medical affairs of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, about issues concerning the nursing and doctor workforce shortage, their focus on neuroscience and brain health and their efforts to increase debt-free medical graduates with their “Doctors Without Debt” program.
What are some key highlights this year for Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine?
First and foremost, there is so much opportunity in this region right now with the increasing population in Palm Beach, Broward and Martin counties. These regions have almost 3.2 million people, so we are moving to improve care for patients, and FAU is poised to do that by transcending the competitive landscape. We want to put education and research at the forefront to build the workforce that we need for today and tomorrow. That is our clear mission statement moving forward. I had a state of the union with my faculty concerning my first 100 days as dean, where we reviewed some of our biggest achievements during this time. It was a great time to start as dean because we recently received a $28 million gift for scholarships from Ann and John Wood towards “Doctors Without Debt.” This gift is a great start to making no debt a reality for all students, and the generosity of the Woods, coupled with the community around us, makes this an obtainable goal. Another exciting highlight is that we launched the FAU Health Network initiative, which is a true collaboration that brings together the region’s already robust healthcare infrastructure to help save lives and cure diseases. The network of outstanding partner hospitals and institutions gives us a competitive advantage because it brings together not only FAU’s College of Medicine, but also nursing, engineering and computer science, social work, business and many more programs. We have 10 colleges across six campuses, and we can shape people going into healthcare, including technologists and scientists as well as people in healthcare informatics. Externally, we are meeting with our public and private partners, and everybody feels great about developing better care for our patients.
What are some key trends in healthcare and medicine right now?
COVID-19 has made all of us think differently about our lives and how we move forward. A big concern is the healthcare workforce shortage, especially in nursing. This hits Florida particularly hard because of the population boom, so we need to hire the right people and be creative about how we do that. We work together within a consortium to make sure we are doing this well. Professional education and career ladders can help with this, and we are getting innovative about how exactly we are going to fulfill this need. There is also a doctor shortage and that will only get worse as the population grows. In that regard, we are expanding the medical school and training programs for residents to ensure we can retain as many doctors as possible. Thirty percent of our medical graduates stay in Florida and half of our residency graduates stay in the state, so we are excited about those numbers. The gift we spoke about is important because doctors can have more than $300,000 in debt when they graduate, and primary care is not a field that can easily pay for this. Hopefully, we can encourage the number of doctors to increase with these initiatives. The number of applicants for medical school went up with the pandemic. Our issues are not caused by the lack of people who want to be in medical school. We are growing our class sizes to meet the needs of these applicants. Then, we need to work with our hospital partners if we want to attract the best and brightest doctors. An academic position is attractive to many physicians, so if we can recruit in this way then it would be highly beneficial.
What makes Palm Beach an attractive place to do business?
From beautiful beaches to parks, recreation and outstanding restaurants, Palm Beach County is the ideal location for business and pleasure. I am from Albany, and everyone from this area knows that people from New Jersey and New York are moving here in abundance. I am enjoying not having to deal with the snow and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) because there are so many sunny days here. People want to live here to avoid the cold and people are re-evaluating their situation. Everyone here is really nice and there is a big sense of pride in the community. One point of pride for us is that our residents choose FAU and we are No. 5 for places that people search for surgery on Google. This speaks to how excited people are to be in Palm Beach County.
What is the current focus of FAU’s research programs?
Our neuroscience program is top notch, and with such a focus on brain health in the state, this will continue to be a strong focus for us. I think the brain is the most important organ because it incorporates pain and aging along with other issues. Several other schools on our Jupiter campus are also focused on this specific field. In that region, there is more work being done in neuroscience per-capita than most other places. Florida has so many incredible facilities, so that is exciting.
How has the landscape changed for the College of Medicine moving forward?
We have learned that you don’t have to be on-campus to get things done. Although we have multiple campuses, we are realizing we can do a lot of it virtually with just some important touchpoints to get together so often. This makes it easier to connect with people anywhere. We want to be an academic network and coalition so that we can improve healthcare through partnerships. This is my major initiative and focus. We must foster relationships and transcend our problems to work together. We are doing a lot of great things and there is a lot of energy here. There is a goldmine of opportunity because Jeff Bezos is starting a pre-school on-campus and we have connections with high schools and community colleges. Creating these connections across multiple age groups is a major focus. You walk in the building and can just feel the sense of community around you. I am honored to be around these people, who you will want to be your doctor or caregiver.
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