Festival of Trees 2018
Seasonal smiles
Visitors shared special moments at the fifth annual Festival of Trees held at the Tioga Town Center to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital. The event featured a silent auction of decorated trees and wreaths. — Greg Hamilton
Michele Lossius, M.D., appointed chief quality officer for UF Health Shands
Michele Lossius, M.D.
Michele Lossius, M.D., is the new chief quality officer for the UF Health Shands hospitals and clinical programs. Lossius will provide strategic oversight for
quality and patient-centered improvement efforts for the Gainesville hospitals and hospital-run outpatient programs. She will collaborate with staff in clinical risk management, patient experience, accreditation and clinical analytics through the UF Health Sebastian Ferrero Office of Clinical Quality and Patient Safety. Lossius joined the UF Health pediatric critical care division in 2006 and is now a UF College of Medicine associate professor and pediatric physician. She was promoted to division chief of pediatric hospital medicine in 2013 and has served as the physician director of quality and safety for pediatrics. — Doug Bennett
Nicole Iovine, M.D., named epidemiology chief for UF Health Shands
Nicole M. Iovine
Nicole M. Iovine, M.D., Ph.D., is taking on an expanded leadership role as epidemiology officer in chief for the UF Health Shands hospital system. Iovine will collaborate with hospital and medical staff while leading the hospital system’s infection control and safety efforts. She will also work closely with Michele Lossius, M.D., on infection prevention and mortality reduction. Iovine joined UF Health in 2009 as an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine’s division of infectious diseases and global medicine. From 2012 to 2014, she served as the director of the college’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. Since 2014, she has been the hospital epidemiologist for UF Health Shands, guiding the hospital’s Infection Control department. — Doug Bennett
New program aims to INSPIRE more therapists for children with disabilities
A new UF program aims to train more therapists for special-needs
children.
A new UF College of Public Health and Health Professions initiative called the Interdisciplinary Related Services Personnel Preparation for Early Childhood, or INSPIRE, the program will train 45 UF occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology graduate students, giving them the skills to treat very young children with disabilities. INSPIRE scholars will be trained to treat children with high-intensity needs who have significant disabilities or multiple disabilities. Children with such needs are usually treated more frequently or for a longer duration of time, and their care may involve coordination among a large group of professionals. The five-year program is supported by a $1.24 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. To address financial concerns, the INSPIRE program will cover one full year of tuition for INSPIRE scholars. — Jill Pease
