Helping Hands
2019 Hyundai Hope on Wheels
Pediatric oncologist Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., received a $300,000 Hyundai Young Investigator Grant as part of the Hyundai Hope on Wheels program. Sayour, an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine, had his white coat decorated with colorful handprints from pediatric cancer patients who also placed handprints on a new Hyundai to mark their fight for a cure to the disease. — Greg Hamilton
UF Health joins research network developing a data repository on infectious diseases
With funding from a five-year, $6.7 million National Institutes of Health grant, researchers at UF Health have joined the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and other academic centers to form a collaborative research network focused on improving global knowledge of infectious diseases. The NIH launched the Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study, or MIDAS, network in 2004 to help protect the nation from the threat of infectious diseases. The Pitt School of Medicine will serve as the MIDAS Network Coordination Center, standardizing and uploading infectious disease datasets for researchers to share. The UF team will develop processes for standardizing, organizing and cataloging terminology and data to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the MIDAS database. — Diana Tonnessen
College of Nursing students participate in annual BSN convocation
Nursing theorist and living legend urges students to care at BSN convocation
It’s not every day that you get to meet a living legend, but UF College of Nursing students had the honor when Jean Watson, Ph.D., R.N., AHN-BC, FAAN, was a guest speaker during the B.S.N. Convocation. Watson, the founder and director of the Watson Caring Science Institute, was named a living legend by the American Academy of Nursing in 2013. Watson spoke on “Beauty and Blessings” and advised all to “see the beauty of the spirit-filled person behind the disease, behind the diagnosis and behind the actions we may not approve of.” — Anna Hoffman
Xanadu Roque, left, a Gainesville-based diabetes liaison in the UF Diabetes Institute’s Project ECHO®, counsels a woman with Type 1 diabetes about managing the disease.
UF Health, Stanford get $7.6 million grant toexpand diabetes program
A program aimed at improving access to care for children and adults with Type 1 diabetes will be expanded with a $7.6 million, three-year grant from The Leona M. & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. UF Health and collaborators at Stanford University will share the award, with the UF Diabetes Institute getting about $3.3 million. The program, called the Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes model, or Project ECHO®, offers providers virtual training and tele-education from diabetes “hubs” at UF and Stanford. The award follows a successful 18-month pilot program at 10 health centers around Florida that reaches
an estimated 1,000 diabetes patients. — Bill Levesque
