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August 22, 2005by Nancy Kinnally

Clinical Training to Take Place at Thomasville Hospital

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Florida State University College of Medicine is joining forces with Archbold Medical Center in an agreement through which a number of medical students will receive their clinical training in Thomasville, Ga.

College of Medicine Dean J. Ocie Harris today announced that Archbold and the college have signed an affiliation agreement that allows FSU's third- and fourth-year medical students to train at the Thomasville hospital.

FSU medical students will begin clinical rotations at Archbold next July.

"It gives us great pleasure to welcome Archbold to our system of affiliates," Harris said. "Archbold has an outstanding regional reputation, an 80-year legacy of service to the region, excellent facilities and top-notch doctors, and we know they will provide wonderful learning opportunities for our students.""We are very proud to be able to provide a site for clinical training in collaboration with the FSU College of Medicine," said Archbold Medical Center President Ken B. Beverly. "We've been very impressed with the educational program the college has put together, and this joint effort is certainly in line with other strategic alliances we have with other area colleges and schools that are helping solve the problem of health manpower shortages across this region."

Practicing physicians at the college's affiliated institutions and in doctors' offices throughout the region will train students in each of eight required clinical areas - family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics-gynecology, geriatrics, psychiatry and emergency medicine - as a well as other specialties offered as fourth-year electives.

With the addition of Archbold Medical Center, the FSU College of Medicine has affiliation agreements with 14 hospitals and hospital systems. All are in Florida except Archbold, which is the college's only clinical training affiliate in Georgia.