GAINESVILLE — With the help of a grant from the Florida Blue Foundation, two University of Florida colleges will collaborate on a novel project to improve health care for vulnerable populations while providing valuable learning opportunities for students.

The three-year, $286,000 Advance Innovation and Promote Solutions in the Health Care System grant will allow the UF College of Nursing’s community primary care practice, Archer Family Health Care to work with the UF College of Dentistry’s on-campus clinic. Both settings care for underserved populations, who are often the most affected by a disjointed health care delivery system.

This innovative collaboration is the first of its kind in Florida. It will be led by Denise Schentrup, D.N.P., APRN, a College of Nursing clinical associate professor and associate dean for clinical affairs, and Cesar Migliorati, D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D., a College of Dentistry professor and associate dean of clinical affairs and quality.

The project will provide point-of-care service, a two-directional referral source and communication between both nursing and dentistry sites to solve two specific problems facing both clinics. At the student dental clinic, care is delayed for a significant portion of patients at the time of procedure due to incomplete health assessments and evaluation. Patients are redirected to their primary care provider, if they have one, to obtain a clearance to be treated. Meanwhile, about 60 percent of Archer Family Health Care’s patient population have limited access to timely dental evaluation and treatment.

To solve these problems, an advanced registered nurse practitioner will be embedded in the student dental clinic to provide immediate medical assessment, treatment and referral to primary care for dental patients, as needed. Health assessments completed immediately by the nurse practitioner would allow for dental care to continue without delay. If the nurse practitioner determines a more in-depth medical consult is necessary or if patients have an untreated chronic disease, the nurse practitioner can initiate a referral to a medical facility, such as Archer Family Health Care.

On the Archer Family Health Care side, a licensed clinical social worker will be hired to connect patients to the College of Dentistry for dental treatment.

“Underprivileged populations face many difficulties in accessing medical and dental care, which prevents these individuals from achieving total body and oral health,” Migliorati said. “With this partnership, dental students will work under professional supervision with a nurse practitioner to demonstrate a new model of medical and dental care and decrease complications for patients.”

In addition to the benefits to patients, students will be introduced to a unique interprofessional model of practice while learning how to manage medically compromised patients and how to communicate effectively with fellow health care professionals about their patient’s problems.

“This grant will create a partnership that will bridge the gap for health care services,” Schentrup said. “It will also serve as a stepping stone for future projects between nursing and dentistry and give students the opportunity to have interprofessional clinical practice experience. Student exposure to and adoption of innovative models of care are paramount to making changes in health care delivery.”

Florida Blue Foundation Vice President Susan Towler said this collaboration aligns perfectly with Florida Blue’s mission.

“This partnership between the UF colleges of Nursing and Dentistry to better treat underserved populations is an excellent example of the kind of work the Florida Blue Foundation supports,” Towler said. “This speaks right to Florida Blue’s mission to help people and communities achieve better health.”

About Florida Blue Foundation

Florida Blue Foundation enables healthy communities by making grants, building coalitions and rewarding best practices. More than 3 million people in Florida have received direct health services as a result of grants made to nonprofit organizations since our founding in 2001. Florida Blue Foundation is a trade name of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Foundation Inc., an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Visit www.FloridaBlueFoundation.com for more information about the foundation.

Anna Suggs Hoffman is the director of communications for the UF College of Nursing.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Grant fuels University of Florida nursing, dental colleges’ project for underserved patients

GAINESVILLE — The National Institute on Drug Abuse has awarded researchers at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy a two-year, $3.5 million grant to bolster research on Mitragyna speciosia, or kratom, and its potential to treat opioid misuse and physical dependence.

UFCP researchers have studied kratom, which comes from the leaves of a tropical tree from Southeast Asia, as a potential therapy to wean addicts off heroin or prescription opioids. It activates the same opioid receptors and appears to satisfy the craving, while possibly lessening the risk of respiratory depression.

Next they will seek to identify the pharmacology of its 40 alkaloids, test the effects of these individual alkaloids on the brain’s receptors and continue to develop treatment strategies to help addicts quit opioids.

Principal investigators Lance McMahon, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the college’s department of pharmacodynamics, and Chris McCurdy, Ph.D., a professor of medicinal chemistry in the college, say the grant will renew and reinvigorate their research.

Estimates show between 2 million and 4 million people in the United States use kratom, although the substance is poorly understood.

Many government agencies have a vested interest in the grant, including the NIDA, the National Institutes of Health, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration. McMahon, McCurdy and their team have monthly meetings with the NIDA program officers to discuss progress of the UG3/UH3 grant.

“Chris McCurdy was a pioneer in the area of kratom research 10 years ago,” McMahon said. “This NIDA grant shows interest in the potential of kratom-based medicines, as well as concerns over the potential misuse of kratom-related substances.”

With new funding made possible by this and other grants, the size of the research team and infrastructure to study kratom have expanded. Quantities of samples that once took two to three months to generate can now be available in just one week.

The next stage of kratom research involves identifying the pharmacology of its chemicals. Bonnie Avery, Ph.D. identifies kratom’s alkaloids through chromatographic methods, to determine where they go in the body and how they are broken down into metabolites.

After that, McMahon and Jay McLaughlin, Ph.D. run in vivo pharmacodynamics tests to determine the effects of individual alkaloids on receptor targets in the brain.

The scientific team will continue developing treatment strategies to wean addicts off opioids, similar to the way the classically accepted drugs, buprenorphine and methadone, are currently prescribed. Although less dangerous than heroine and other prescription opioids, they are narcotics with the potential to be abused, which is why researchers are interested in safer alternatives.

The last main research objective is for McCurdy to change a natural substance in kratom to reduce symptoms of opioid withdrawal.

Other members of the research team include research scientist Francisco Leon, Ph.D., and research assistant professors Jenny Wilkerson, Ph.D., and Takato Hiranita, Ph.D.

Donovan Baltich is a communications specialist at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: University of Florida gets kratom research grant

CRESTVIEW — This was going to be a notice that a local family who requested help getting food and bills paid after an Oct. 31 car accident. However, things went from bad to worse Dec. 20 when the family's home caught fire.

Before the fire, the Troutmans — Kenneth and Ivy, and their daughters, Victoria and Deserea — had enough food to get them through January, and are still working toward transportation and figuring out how they're going to pay their bills with no income stream.

The family's request for help a few weeks ago resulted in a donation of enough food to get them through January.

"We had about four people contact us. We got the food perfectly down," Ivy said Dec. 20.

She said one donor even cleared out her whole freezer for the family.

Later that evening, about 5 p.m. Dec. 20, the family's home caught fire.

"We lost everything except us and most of our pets," Ivy said. "The other, Dese's cat, left, ran out, and we can't find her."

Fortunately, the Troutmans were not injured. They were able to retrieve the diabetic medicine one of their daughters requires and some of their animals: two cats and the dog.

The fire started upstairs in Victoria's room. Ivy, who was cooking dinner at the time, and Victoria, who was in the living room, were downstairs. Kenneth had been cleared to be upstairs.

Deserea, who had gone upstairs, saw smoke coming from Victoria's room and came back down yelling, "Fire, fire!" and yelling for her dad.

"I was doing dinner and I turned off everything, and I went running upstairs to get my husband down, because he'd got the physical therapy people to say he could go up there and go to his own room.

"So I'm trying to get to him but I couldn't get to him because I couldn't even see my fingers in front of my face. And some neighbors across the street said, 'Is there anybody in the house?' and I said, 'Yeah, my husband.'"

So according to Ivy, these neighbors braved smoke and fire and were able to retrieve Kenneth Troutman.

By 8 p.m. the Crestview Fire Department had put out the fire.

Afterward, Red Cross members arrived from Niceville and gave the family a gift card to secure a motel room for a few days. They told the Troutmans United Way might be able to offer more help.

The Troutmans have no home insurance and have not been in contact with UW yet.

"I just don't know how much we can handle. We're just trying to get through the one incident, and wow, we get bombarded with this one. So, we have to find a whole new place to live," Ivy said. 

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Situation worsens for Crestview family in need