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Southwest Florida Roundup
Sarasota Memorial Hospital uses robot to find lung cancer nodules
INNOVATION
The Depths of the Lungs
Among the challenges in diagnosing and treating lung cancer is the difficulty of detecting malignant nodules in hard-to-reach areas within the lung.
Doctors at Sarasota Memorial Hospital have begun using a robot that they hope will make it easier to find those cancerous areas. The equipment includes a flexible robotic endoscope that doctors can use to navigate and search the narrow and distant branches of the lung to obtain tissue samples for biopsy.
Sarasota Memorial is one of 10 hospitals nationwide with the robot, which is part of Auris Health’s Monarch Platform, a system that recently received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
DEFENSE
- In June, U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base will host the 2019 DoD Warrior Games, a multi-sport competition among more than 300 wounded, ill or injured active-duty and veteran military athletes. Events will include wheelchair basketball, swimming and archery.
EDUCATION
- Michèle Alexandre, a civil rights scholar, has been named dean of Stetson University’s college of law. Alexandre, who had been an associate dean of the University of Mississippi’s law school, becomes Stetson’s first African-American law school dean.
- The University of South Florida St. Petersburg leased space south of downtown to host its new accelerated second-degree nursing program starting next fall.
ENVIRONMENT
- To help the Gulf of Mexico recover from red tide-related fish kills over the last year, more than 14,000 hatchery-raised juvenile and adult redfish have been released off the coasts of Pasco, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties this year. The work is being overseen by the Coastal Conservation Association and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
FINANCE
- Tampa-based private equity firm Katz Capital has purchased Camp Grove State Bank in Illinois. The price was not disclosed.
- TD Bank has appointed Mike Nursey to head the bank’s middle market group for Florida. Based in Tampa, Nursey will oversee the bank’s operations serving mid-sized companies in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Lakeland and Melbourne.
- Belleair Bluffs-based Seminole Financial Services has named Chris Diaz and Tim Fetter co-CEOs. They replace founder and former CEO Robert J. Banks, who will stay on as chairman.
