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| For immediate release | Wednesday, January 10, 2007 |
$1.5 MILLION GIFT CREATES ENDOWMENT FOR ADDICTION MEDICINE RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
HOBE SOUND, Fla. – A gift of $1.5 million from Donald and Irene Dizney of Windermere, Fla. for UF’sCollege of Medicine's department of psychiatry to establish the Donald R. Dizney Chair in Addiction Medicine was announced today at UF’s annual Addiction and Psychiatry Advisory Board meeting held in Hobe Sound, Fla.
“The Dizney’s gift is one of the largest academic chair endowments ever received at UF,” said UF President Bernie Machen. “The impact of this gift on research of addictive diseases will be felt on the national level.”
The gift is eligible for $1.2 million in matching funds from the State of Florida’s Major Gifts Trust Fund.
Mark S. Gold, M.D., distinguished professor and chief of the division of addiction medicine in the College of Medicine and UF’s Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute, made the announcement.
He said the gift helps UF address major health challenges facing Americans, including smoking, overeating and obesity, secondhand smoke, drugs and alcohol.
"This is an extremely important gift for our division, the College of Medicine and also the State of Florida," Gold said. "This gift means that research, treatment and prevention of the nation’s top five causes of death will accelerate here at UF and remain an integral part of UF’s College of Medicine.”
Scientists, like Gold, within the division of addiction medicine at UF’s McKnight Brain Institute have a national and international reputation for cutting-edge research and have developed new theories and tested new treatments for people who are addicted to cigarettes, alcohol and food.
The University of Florida's College of Medicine teaches all of its medical students the basic science of drug use, abuse and addiction, and has pioneered mandatory clerkships in addiction medicine. In that respect, UF was the first medical school in the United States where all students learn how to evaluate and treat alcoholics and addictions in academic clinical addiction treatment facilities, just as they learn other important clinical skills, like obstetrics, surgery or cardiology.
Furthermore, the division has trained more American Society of Addiction Medicine board certified physician specialists than any other academic program over the past decade and is presently the largest in the nation. The division also has provided experts and technical support for community addiction prevention and treatment programs in many Florida cities.
“This is the largest known endowment for a professorship chair in addiction medicine in the United States,” said Gold, “and makes it possible for us to make investments in addiction research scientists and emerging technologies that will not only allow us to develop new treatments, but possibly reverse the effects of drugs of abuse on individual cells and systems within the brain.”
“It is critically important to transform our medical centers from disease centers to health and prevention centers,” said Donald R. Dizney. “All too often we are quite good at treating cancers, cirrhosis or other problems caused in the first place by drug abuse and addictions. We hope to help to change this approach by understanding the progression of addictive disease in the brain so we can identify and treat the cause rather than wait until we need to treat the debilitating and often fatal consequences.”
According to Dennis A. Steindler, Ph.D., professor and director of the McKnight Brain Institute, “this new Donald R. Dizney Chair will allow the Division of Addiction Medicine to continue to grow its bench-to-bedside research and prevention programs at the McKnight Brain Institute and also to collaborate with other researchers to look for new treatments and hopefully cures for drug abusers and addicts.”
To find out how you can help support research of addictive diseases contact the College of Medicine office of development (352) 273-5939
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