It is often said—typically when a parent is urging their child to wear a helmet while riding a bike—that you only get one brain. The more applicable statement, however, would be that you only get one body. Yes, that body can be repaired when broken—tendons can be re-attached, cancerous tumors can be removed and even heart valves can be replaced—but that is still the body that you have to live with. More so than money, fame or material goods, good health truly is the most valuable asset one can have. It’s a good thing then, that some of the best healthcare one can receive in the nation is offered right here in Sarasota County. Sarasota Memorial Health Care System—supported in large part through the work of the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation—has become so much more than the traditional community hospital. Part of prioritizing patient care means recruiting the top physicians in the nation, pioneering research projects and clinical studies and educating the next generation of healthcare professionals on how to better serve the community.
SARASOTA MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
“The people that we want to bring in to work at Sarasota Memorial Hospital are people who are at the top of their game, that have that knowledge and want to expand it further,” says James Fiorica, MD, Chief Medical Officer of SMH. “Sometimes when you’re in a big city, in a big university system, it can be difficult to make time to expand that knowledge base. We try to make it easier for them.”
Much of what sets SMH apart, Dr. Fiorica maintains, is the healthcare system’s devotion to research and education. Since opening as Sarasota County’s first community hospital in 1925, SMH has grown in scope and size alongside the area’s development. What began as the 32-bed Sarasota Hospital has transformed into a full-service public health system, with two hospitals, the 897-bed SMH-Sarasota Campus and SMH-Venice Campus, a network of outpatient centers, urgent cares, laboratories and practices. Additionally, Sarasota Memorial includes Sarasota County’s only trauma center and offers an inpatient pediatrics unit, obstetrical services, a neonatal intensive care unit and psychiatric services.
Part of SMH’s devotion to providing the best possible care to Sarasota County residents is the healthcare system’s dedication to continually improving and advancing medicine. The Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute, which opened in April 2025, has become a center for innovative research and training for healthcare professionals throughout the area. “Once you add education and research together, you have an innovation hub for the whole hospital system. For example, one of our ophthalmology leads wants to start an ophthalmology project, which we’ve never done before,” says Dr. Fiorica. “Now we have the infrastructure to allow him to pursue that. We’re trying to create an environment for learning and advancing medicine.”
From the research and clinical trials underway at the Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute to the top notch oncological care at the Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute to a full slate of mental health services at the Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion, Dr. Fiorica aims to ensure that patients around the area can get the best possible care right here in their backyard.
“We want people to be comfortable with our hospital, whether they live here full time or are coming for the winter. We don’t want to have people have to run back to their home town to receive care,” says Dr. Fiorica. “We want to be able to deliver that same level of excellence as though they were at an academic center elsewhere.”
AI DRIVEN, 3D SURGICAL IMAGING
When it comes to internal surgery, visualization is the name of the game. The more that the surgeon can see, the more accurate and precise the surgery can be, providing even better care to patients. At Sarasota Memorial’s Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute, surgeons are using some of the world’s best technology to improve outcomes for their patients. Thoracic oncology surgeon M. Blair Marshall, MD, joined Sarasota Memorial’s First Physicians Group in 2023 and soon after implemented Ceevra’s 3D imaging technology to her practice.
Driven by artificial intelligence, Ceevra’s 3D imaging converts a black and white CT scan or MRI into an interactive, multi-colored 3D image. The technology is particularly useful to Dr. Marshall when pinpointing tumors in the lung during thoracic surgery. In late stage lung cancer patients, removal of a tumor in the lung typically requires a lobectomy, which removes one of the lung’s five lobes, a significant portion of the lung. As cancer screening has improved, however, SMH is seeing more patients in earlier stage lung cancer, when the tumors are smaller. This paves the way for a segmentectomy, which only removes a portion of the lobe.
“The problem is that I can’t see through the lung, so if you’re taking out a lobe, the vessels are big chunks at the center, like the trunk of a tree,” says Dr. Marshall. “But if you’re taking out a segment, it’s like taking out a quarter of that tree and just the structures to that specific part. Identifying that is critical—inside the lung there is a much higher incidence of anomalies—what you think should be there is not and is actually somewhere else.”
Dr. Marshall, who performs the majority of her surgeries robotically, notes that this technology is not necessarily limited to thoracic surgery. Other surgeons at the Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute, such as urologic surgeons Robert Carey, MD and Daniel Kaplon, MD, plan on using the technology as well. “A kidney cancer can be taken out, but wouldn’t it be great if you knew exactly where the plan and margins are so you can do operative planning?” says Marshall. “I sit on the computer and take everything in and out, so that I get a clear mental picture of exactly what I need to do, but then I also have the imaging in the operating room with me, on a computer and an Ipad, and eventually, it’s going to be in the robotic console itself.”
NON-SURGICAL THYROID TREATMENT
Ralph Tufano, MD, wants his patients to feel empowered. It’s one of the reasons that he joined SMH in 2021, after 21 years at Johns Hopkins Hospital. “We have probably the most complete and contemporary center for thyroid and parathyroid disease care,” says Dr. Tufano. “We have a coordinated care system with an endocrinologist and a surgeon working together on a daily basis, and that provides the patient with the most value, because the patient gets to hear all of their options without bias. They learn about the pros and cons of an intervention, such as surgery or ablation, and when there isn’t hard evidence to suggest one pathway over the other, they can make a value-based decision because they’ve heard all the options.”
One of the studies that Dr. Tufano and the research team at SMH’s Kolchowsky Research and Education Institute will soon implement is the use Pulse Biosciences’ Nanosecond Pulsed Field Ablation technology to treat low-risk, well-differentiated thyroid and papillary thyroid cancer patients. This follows a study in which Dr. Tufano and his team were able to prove the effectiveness and safety of the Pulsed Field Ablation technology in the treatment of benign thyroid nodules. Traditionally, these low-risk thyroid and papillary thyroid cancer patients would undergo a thyroidectomy to remove half of their thyroid. “The implications of not having thyroid surgery are significant, you don’t have to undergo general anesthesia, you don’t have to undergo a very invasive procedure, and most importantly, there’s a concern with the need to take thyroid hormone,” says Dr. Tufano. “If you take out half the thyroid, there’s a 30% chance that you’ll have to take thyroid hormone and if you take out the entire thyroid, there’s obviously a 100% chance that you’ll have to take the hormone.”
Dr. Tufano’s research and work at SMH, however, does not happen in a vacuum. In 2025, Dr. Tufano was part of a group of leading medical experts amassed by the American Thyroid Association to issue new guidelines for the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer. A product of five years worth of research, Dr. Tufano was one of just five surgeons to be selected to participate in the study. Dr. Tufano’s presence at SMH is just another example of how Sarasota is becoming a bastion for medical innovation.
“This health system was really hungry and thirsty for that kind of contribution to the community. The value of looking at what we’re doing for our patients in this community and looking at clinical outcomes as it relates to safety and efficacy is really remarkable,” says Dr. Tufano. “When I came from Hopkins, I wanted to know that I would be able to continue the research that I was doing. I wanted to make sure that we could continue to critically evaluate, analyze and refine if we needed to, the things that we’re doing for our patients.”
KOLSCHOWSKY RESEARCH AND EDUCATION INSTITUTE
As a standalone building, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System’s Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute is impressive by itself. Standing five stories, the building features 84,000 square feet of dedicated clinical research and training space, including state of the art simulation labs, classrooms, a 360-degree immersive training room and more. What’s more impressive than the building itself, however, are the medical advancements that are being pioneered by the people inside of it.
“This building was a way for us to all be in one central place, allowing us to work more synergistically together and do a lot of projects together,” says Director of Research Tamela Fonseca, Ph.D,RN. “What makes it unique is that Sarasota Memorial is a community hospital and you wouldn’t typically expect to have such commitment and investment to innovation at a community hospital. We’re able to provide treatment options that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to provide patients in this community—they used to have to travel far away for innovative drugs, investigational therapies or cutting edge devices and now they’re getting that right here in Sarasota.”
At the Kolchowsky Institute, research and education go hand in hand. One of the five floors is dedicated solely to research and ongoing clinical trials. These clinical studies and trials range widely in scope, from investigational drug studies for cancer treatments to innovative devices such as new valves for cardiovascular patients to even a study using robotic pets on how to improve care for patients with delirium and dementia in the ICU. “People always ask me, ‘what kind of trials can you do at Sarasota Memorial?’ My answer is always, well what population do we have walking through the door,” says Fonseca. “We want something that matters to our community and then we also want to contribute to worldwide science as well.”
Just as the clinical studies and trials are informing SMH’s care team on the latest treatment options, the educational division of the institute is dedicated to training the next generation of physicians, nurses and clinical specialists in the best practices. An entire floor is reserved for simulation learning—nurses, physicians and FSU Medical Residents alike can simulate real life scenarios such as a life-saving surgery after a car crash or the birth of a child. “We’re able to take surgeons and physicians that are learning new skills and bring them into a simulation environment that is as close to real life as possible. We have an entire simulation team that’s working closely with these clinicians so that they can learn from one another,” says Fonseca. “We also work to integrate our education division into our research—we invite FSU medical residents and nurses on the floor to participate in our research studies. We want the best working here—we’re looking for clinicians that are constantly thinking outside the box, that are constantly looking to improve care—that’s part of our mission.”
NEXT-GEN ROBOTICS
A PGA tour golfer has their clubs. A Major League shortstop has his glove. And surgeons, well, they have their tools. At Sarasota Memorial Hospital, surgeons are using some of the most advanced technology to provide next level care for their patients. In summer 2025, SMH deployed the TMINI Miniature Robotic System for use in select knee replacement surgeries. The TMINI is used solely for total knee replacements, in which damaged cartilage from the femur, tibia and back of the patella are replaced with artificial components made of metal and plastic.
A total knee replacement is commonly performed upon elderly patients with degenerative conditions such as arthritis, but is also seen in severe or ongoing injuries to the knee. It is a major surgery with a significant recovery timeline—when done correctly, however, it can give patients a new lease on life. The TMINI Robot, a miniature, hand-held robotic device, is giving surgeons at SMH the ability to provide a brighter future for patients post-op.
“The other robots we used for this surgery are a little more of a fixed C-arm, a little more bulky, so this gives the surgeon more freedom to operate,” says David Patterson, Associate Chief Nursing Officer at SMH. “It marries to a CT scan—the surgeon takes the device over different points of the knee and aligns it with the CT scan and then it directs the imaging over the top of the knee, so it tells the surgeon where to cut to have a more precise fit for the implant.”
SMH has also ushered in another innovative surgical device, the Intuitive da Vinci 5 (DV5). Used for a host of surgical procedures from urology to oncologic procedures to general surgery, the DV5 employs Force Feedback technology that allows surgeons to operate with extreme precision. “If you have your hands in the robot, it will actually feel pressure on your fingers, so you know whether you’re pushing or pulling,” says Patterson. “If you’re suturing, for example, you can actually feel the needle go through the tissue, instead of having no feeling at all.”
IMPROVING DIALYSIS TREATMENTS
“Patients who have kidney failure can undergo either peritoneal dialysis, which happens through a fluid installation in your abdomen, or hemodialysis, through a fistula or graft in the arm that connects the artery and vein together,” says vascular surgeon Inky Parrack, MD. “The biggest challenges that come across with this are the complications or side difficulties that arise from the hemodialysis’s access point.”
Hemodialysis, however, requires an ideal working vein—something that can be hard to access in an elderly patient that has been undergoing dialysis for what is typically three times a week, with over 300 needle insertions per year. The next step would be to surgically implant a graft, traditionally made from synthetic materials Gore-Tex or Dacron. “These grafts can run into complications either from the bleeding, or from the fact that when you first put it in, the patient cannot undergo dialysis until it heals for at least two to four weeks. So there’s a time when you have to have a catheter in your chest, which is an extra procedure, with a higher risk of infection,” says Dr. Parrack.
At Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Dr. Parrack and the hospital’s research and operative team have led a study on the use of Gore’s InnAVasc immediate usage graft. The investigational InnAVasc graft benefits the dialysis patient in two main ways: one, the patient is able to start dialysis immediately after implementation, avoiding having a catheter implanted in their chest, and two, the graft’s construction greatly minimizes the risk of extra bleeding and pain during hemodialysis. About 20-25% of a patient’s blood volume goes through a graft each minute—if the clinician were to accidentally puncture a traditional graft through the top and bottom, it causes the patient severe pain and bleeding complications. “This graft has two components that help with that. One is the top gel plates, which when you take the needle out, the gel reseals itself so that there isn’t bleeding around it. The second is a kind of metallic back plate, so that if the clinician accidentally pushes in the needle too far, you’re not jabbing the patient through the graft into their nerves and the surrounding soft tissue.”
TRICUSPID VALVE TREATMENTS
Located in the back of the heart, between the right ventricle and right atrium, the tricuspid valve is one of the most technically challenging of the heart’s four valves to operate on. Tricuspid valve regurgitation—a heart valve disease where the tricuspid valve doesn’t close properly—often affects patients later in life, and can introduce a host of medical issues, from fatigue to swelling in the legs and abdomen and eventually, heart failure.
“Generally, when someone has mild problems with the valve, moderate problems or even moderate to severe problems with a valve, it generally does not cause symptoms,” says interventional cardiologist Dr. Ricardo Yayura. “Even when it’s severe, it might not cause symptoms until you reach that extreme point, which can lead to right sided heart failure.”
Traditionally, treating tricuspid valve regurgitation would entail open-heart surgery to repair or replace the valve entirely. “The problem with that procedure is that the mortality rate is 10-15%, so if you’re just repairing the tricuspid valve, it’s a high risk procedure. Over the past few years, they’ve developed what’s called a clip—which has given us good results and is a low-risk procedure—but you can still be left with leakage,” says Dr. Yayura.
This past year, Dr. Yayura and the team at Sarasota Memorial have been among the first to pioneer a new treatment option for patients with failing tricuspid valves who are deemed too high-risk for open heart surgery. Using Edwards Lifesciences EVOQUE Tricuspid Valve Replacement System, SMH interventional cardiologists have completed transcatheter tricuspid valve replacements (TTVR), a non-invasive procedure that delivers the valve to the heart through a catheter. “It’s a relatively low-risk procedure and when we put these valves in, we eliminate completely or almost completely,” says Dr. Yayura. “What we’d suggest is that if you also had severe problems with your aortic or mitral valve on the right side of your heart, then we’d tell the surgeon to fix all three valves at the same time. Then the risk is worth more, because you’re fixing two or three things at the same time.”
Being able to offer TTVR is part of Dr. Yayura and SMH’s devotion to empowering patients. “Most people don’t want to have surgery, but sometimes it’s not a matter of whether we can operate, it’s about whether we should. We approach these cases as a team, I see the patient, the surgeon sees the patient and we discuss what we think the best option is for them,” says Dr. Yayura. “I’m a true believer in that it’s our job, our duty and our ethical behavior to tell patients what the options are, and if we explain it well to them, then they should be able to choose.”
SARASOTA MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION
One hundred years ago, a group of community volunteers came up with the $40,000 to open what was then known as Sarasota Hospital. 50 years after Sarasota Memorial Hospital became the county’s first community hospital, the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation started to act as the philanthropic arm of SMH.
“Our goal is to continue to help SMH be world class, and to do that through philanthropy,” says Stacey Corley, president of the Healthcare Foundation. “We work with donors to help do things that most hospitals, especially community hospitals, would not be able to do without philanthropic support. I feel that there is no other organization in town that impacts more people every day, in truly life and death situations, than the hospital and our role is to support that in any way possible.”
The Healthcare Foundation’s focus falls mainly into five categories: patient care, education, clinical research, technology and facilities. Those areas of focus are reflected in some of the Healthcare Foundation’s most recent initiatives—the Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute, which opened this past April, serves as an innovative hub for healthcare research, clinical trials and education. The Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion, which opened in 2023, offers a new pathway for mental health services and this spring, the Milman-Kover Cancer Pavilion will open at the Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute. Additionally, there is the continual expansion of the SMH-Venice campus, with a two-story 24,000 square foot addition with expanded radiology and MRI services planned for 2026, a Rehabilitation Pavilion planned for 2028 and SMH broke ground on a North Port hospital this past November.
“The through line with all of these projects are community need and patient care. All of the projects focus around that in some way—the Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute, the Cornell Behavioral Health Pavillion—those are all for patients who needed those expanded services that we were contemplating over the last decade or so,” says Corley. “We think that the community deserves world class health care. In doing that, the hospital and the health care system deserves a world class Healthcare Foundation, and so we’ve been working to build the team to grow and be able to meet those needs that are so important right now.”
