Education

2,300 students
160 faculty members
20 degree programs

The numbers of academic degrees awarded by PHHP has continued to rise. In 2017, the college awarded 646 degrees, an 11 percent increase over the prior year. Last fall, the college launched an online Master of Science in Biostatistics program with 25 students in the charter class. The college also received approval from Florida’s Board of Governors to offer the Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree, the first to be offered at a public university in the state of Florida. The inaugural class will enter in fall 2019.

Gordon Mitchell, Ph.D., and David Fuller, Ph.D., professors in the department of physical therapy, succeeded in attracting National Institutes of Health funding for an interdisciplinary training program in respiratory rehabilitation. PHHP now has a total of seven NIH-funded training programs, which provide important research training opportunities for doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows.

Rankings

U.S. News & World Report graduate programs, ranked in 2015, 2016 and 2018 (among AAU public universities)

Physical therapy 3

Occupational therapy 6

Biostatistics 10

Health care management 11

Public health 13

Audiology 15

Speech-language pathology 17

Clinical psychology 19

Research

$35 million in research awards

8 in NIH funding among schools of public health

The college continues to climb in NIH funding among peer schools and is ranked eighth in NIH funding among public universities, based on the most recent data available. Compared with the 2016 academic year, awards from NIH rose from $18.6 million to $20.9 million, and total grant funding grew from $30.1 million to $35.4 million.

Faculty members are working on research projects close to home and in countries throughout the world on a diverse range of topics, including muscular dystrophy, dementia, sports concussions, driving safety among older adults and at-risk populations, rehabilitation following traumatic injuries, suicidal ideation, violence and addiction, obesity, nutrition and physical activity, and infectious diseases such as cholera, malaria and Zika.

Service

5 outpatient practices

52,098 patient visits

data-gallery PHHP provides clinical, professional and community service at the local, national and international levels. The department of speech, language, and hearing sciences offers services at several UF Health locations. The department of clinical and health psychology provides psychological services for the entire academic health center and UF Health Physicians practices. UF HealthStreet is a community-based effort that works to reduce disparities in health care and research by linking people to research studies and health services. Students in physical therapy, occupational therapy and clinical and health psychology offer pro bono services through Equal Access Clinics, providing care for local residents who are uninsured or underinsured.

In 2017, Catherine Price, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of clinical and health psychology, launched the Perioperative Cognitive Anesthesia Network, along with colleagues in the department of anesthesiology. As part of the UF Health Shands Presurgical Center, the team seeks to identify older adults who may be at risk of developing cognitive problems after surgery so clinicians can intervene to lessen the risk. It is the first of its kind in the U.S.