Temple Terrace Doctor Named ‘Family Physician of the Year’

From the Florida Academy of Family Physicians:

The Florida Academy of Family Physicians (FAFP) has named Richard Roetzheim, MD, MSPH, of Temple Terrace, the 2011 Florida Family Physician of the Year.

The distinction was conferred to Roetzheim “for exemplifying, in the tradition of family medicine, a compassionate commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of patients and communities in Florida, and possessing personal qualities that make him a role model to professional colleagues.”

Recognized worldwide for his research on the importance of primary care for all patients, Roetzheim serves as professor of Family Medicine and director of Research for the  Department of Family Medicine. He is also medical director of the  Lifetime Cancer Screening Center and a senior member of the Health Outcomes and Behavior Department at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa. In addition, Roetzheim has a primary care practice at USF.

“In over 25 years of practice, I have never known a more outstanding and ‘complete’ family physician,” said Daniel J. Van Durme, MD, FAAFP, professor and chairman for the Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health, and director of the Center on Global Health for the Florida State University College of Medicine. “He combines the compassion and clinical skills of the best clinicians, combining care with caring, and at the same time is a truly gifted teacher to any student, resident or peer with whom he interacts. He can go toe-to-toe with the high-powered researchers who produce truly ground-breaking research advances in our understanding of health and healthcare.”

Roetzheim, who joined USF’s Department of Family Medicine in 1985, also serves as co-director of the Center for Equal Health, a program based on a $6 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant earned in 2009 to create a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Center of Excellence. The five-year grant focuses on research, education and training, and community outreach to reduce cancer-related health disparities among minority and underserved communities in Florida.

The USF Department of Family Medicine is ranked within the top 20 percent of Family Medicine Departments nationally based on funding received from the NIH due to vigorous research efforts led by Roetzheim, said H. James Brownlee, MD, professor and chairman of USF’s Department of Family Medicine, who nominated Roetzheim for the award.

Along with his major focus on research, Roetzheim has a strong commitment to the underserved and regularly volunteers at medical clinics serving uninsured patients, including the BRIDGE clinic (a student run free clinic at USF) and the Catholic Charities Medical Clinic in Dover. He takes part in annual medical mission trips to the Dominican Republic and recently returned from Dilaire, Haiti where he and other USF faculty treated about 1,700 people.

“Every year with the student charity, Project World Health, we see thousands of patients and make a big difference,” Roetzheim said. “That’s been inspirational as well. It reminds me of why I became a doctor. In Dilaire, one of our motivations is to create something that’s sustainable in the community and with the help of the Catholic Diocese, we’re trying to establish a clinic so that we can keep coming back on a more regular basis to help those in need.”

When asked which of his roles he enjoys most—teacher, humanitarian, clinician, or researcher—Roetzheim said, “I wear many hats, and I enjoy that variety very much. In truth, the role I cherish most is being a family physician. It’s rewarding to work with patients over time and see them improve. Research has also been a major theme for me. I am especially interested in the role of primary care in our country and its impact on health disparities. One of the things that we’ve found that’s critically important is health insurance. Good healthcare depends on finding a way to provide health insurance to everyone in the country.”

The FAFP is Florida’s medical specialty association with more than 4,000 family medicine physicians, resident physicians and medical students from across the state. The FAFP works to advance the specialty of family medicine by promoting excellence and improvement in healthcare o fall Floridians.