FSU held the first ever Clinical Catalyst as part of the 2025 Discovery Days, an event to bring together local clinical providers with researchers to find evidence-based solutions to pressing challenges in health and health care.
“There’s so much opportunity in this community for collaboration,” said Vice President for Research Stacey S. Patterson. “We have all the parts. This is just the first step in bringing everyone together.”
The event featured a panel discussion about the value of researcher and clinician collaboration with Dr. Gilbert Chandler from Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic, Professor of Medicine Andrew Kozel, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Assistant Professor Taylor Higgins and Associate Professor of Fine Arts Amy Huber. Then, 12 clinicians from throughout the region gave two-minute snapshots about the challenges they face in their practices.
Topics included mastectomy garments, pregnancy misinformation in social media, pacemaker complications, post-surgery stroke complications, trauma referral from rural areas, ER visits, same-day triage, team-based care, Parkinson’s disease and driving, and end-of-life care.
Chandler, during the panel, spoke at length about how he approached working with university collaborators. He has worked with a number of FSU faculty, including Kozel, on how patients manage post injury or post-surgical pain.
“It starts with why?” Chandler said. “Why is this occurring in such a manner? How can we do things differently? How do we need to shift in how we approach people and treat patients?”
Participants and audience members also were able to speak after the presentations about possible collaborations and ways they could move some of the issues facing providers forward.
Through FSU Health, the university is expanding its health and health care portfolios. Patterson said she hopes to grow this type of event so that the university can regularly bring together clinicians and researchers to help solve problems.
At the end of the event, Patterson announced she would be making five awards of up to $50,000 to FSU-Clinician collaborations that formed because of the event.
“It’s an exciting thing to bring people together and start those conversations,” Patterson said.