The University of South Florida and Tampa General Hospital have teamed up to open Florida’s first infectious disease institute. The Taneja Family Global Emerging Diseases Institute will care for patients battling COVID-19. In addition, they will also conduct research and education on other emerging infectious diseases.
“The next generation of infectious disease care”
The institute opened its doors in December with the help of a gift from the Taneja Family Foundation. While planning for the institute had been in the works for some time, the COVID-19 pandemic made it easier to secure the necessary funding for the Institute. “It gave us the impetus to really make this happen,” he said.
“Especially with emerging infectious diseases where we don’t really understand everything, we wanted a separate space where we can do infusions and have research studies going on,” Dr. Andrew Myers said. “You don’t want to do that in clinic space with other patients. Partially it is for safety, but it also helps organizationally where you have a space where people working on disease processes are all in one place.”
“Tampa General has been a longstanding leader in diagnosing and treating infectious diseases, so this new facility is a great addition to our program that allows us to continue to meet the immediate challenge of COVID-19 and ensure that we have the capacity to deliver world-class care for every patient facing this disease,” said TGH President and CEO John Couris.
TGH’s chief epidemiologist Dr. John Sinnott and Dr. Kami Kim, director of the Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine at USF will lead the institute. TGH, USF and private physicians can collaborate on groundbreaking research and clinical trials that include vaccines and other medical testing. Dr. Seetha Lakshmi will develop future infectious diseases/COVID-19 outpatient clinics and therapy programs.
