‘Retirement’ a launching pad for Jerome Modell’s volunteer efforts

After more than 30 years of service to the University of Florida as a physician, teacher, researcher and administrator, Dr. Jerome H. Modell retired Dec. 31 from his position as associate vice president for health affairs.

But retirement is just a launching pad – Modell is remaining active at UF, volunteering three to four days a week to care for patients and teach students in the colleges of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. He has been named professor emeritus of anesthesiology and courtesy professor of large animal clinical sciences, and is overseeing the Florida Board of Regents’ UF Self Insurance Program.

Modell joined the UF faculty in 1969 as chairman of the department of anesthesiology, a position he held for more than 23 years. Under his direction the department became recognized as one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious anesthesiology programs. While at the UF College of Medicine he also served as special assistant to the dean for professional support services, senior associate dean for clinical affairs, executive associate dean and interim dean.

In addition, he served five years as associate vice president for UF Health Science Center affiliations, during which he helped establish academic and clinical connections with major health-care facilities statewide.

During his career he has received several awards, including the Distinguished Service Award from the Florida Society of Anesthesiologists and faculty membership in Alpha Omega Alpha, the national honor medical society. In 1994 an endowed professorship in anesthesiology was established in his name.

He has contributed to 60 books and more than 200 scientific papers, and has given nearly 300 scientific presentations worldwide. He also has served as a reviewer or editorial board member for a variety of scientific journals,held leadership positions in various national medical societies, and taught as a visiting professor at more than 50 universities and academic medical centers in the United States and Europe.

While anesthesiology chairman more than 400 residents and fellows graduated from the program; 15 of these former residents, fellows and junior faculty have gone on to become chairs of medical school departments. He always encouraged scientific writing by his department members, who contributed to more than 2,700 papers, abstracts and book chapters during his tenure.

He is known worldwide for his discoveries related to the after-effects of near drowning and the treatment of near-drowning victims. He and his colleagues also conducted the original research in demonstrating that mammals could breathe special oxygenated liquids and survive. He was one of the first in the country recognized as an intensivist, a physician specially trained in critical care. He and his colleagues made numerous contributions to developing unique equipment in the field of intensive pulmonary support.

Modell recently was honored by two UF engineering centers for his help in laying the foundation to transform UF into a major center for surface science research --- studies of how atoms and molecules at a surface act and react when they come in contact with each other.

Modell recognized early on that the field would be of significance to biomedical research.

He also assembled the team of physicians, engineers and computer scientists who developed and obtained a patent on the Human Patient Simulator at UF. This simulator is now in use in more than 150 institutions in the United States and Europe.

At the invitation of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, a foundation of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Modell has written an autobiography. His autobiography was published last year by the ASA in the fourth volume of “Careers in Anesthesiology,” a series that is part of the library’s effort to preserve anesthesiology history.