Patient Spotlight

Physician Spotlight

Robert Nuss, M.D.

UF Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Dean of the Regional Campus, UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville
Associate Vice President for Health Affairs, UF Health Science Center-Jacksonville

Pioneering Excellence

Robert C. Nuss, M.D., put Jacksonville on the map when he was named the first dean of the University of Florida's only regional College of Medicine in June. His 35-year career at the University of Florida Health Science Center-Jacksonville represents not only the best in medical practice, education and administration but also a strong commitment to health-care excellence.

The story of how the University of Florida Health Science Center took roots in Jacksonville and expanded throughout Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia is intricate and complex. And for more than 35 years, Dr. Nuss has played a key role in that evolution.

"I understand that campus - its patients, its physicians and its importance to our community," said W.A. "Mac" McGriff III, former CEO of University Medical Center - now Shands Jacksonville - who is vice chairman of the University of Florida Board of Trustees and serves on the board of directors for both the University of Florida Jacksonville Healthcare, Inc. and Shands Healthcare.

"Bob Nuss has done an unbelievably great job of leading the faculty of the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville and developing a world-class health-care system with its partner Shands Jacksonville," said McGriff. "It's one thing to understand what it takes to build a top-notch academic medical center and quite another to dedicate yourself and your faculty to do it."

Perhaps the greatest legacy Dr. Nuss shares with his associates and the many students and residents whom he has mentored during his distinguished career is the sense that if an activity is worth doing at all, then it is worth doing to the fullest extent and in the best possible way. This has led him to excel in patient care, physician education and medical administration.

Prior to being named dean, Dr. Nuss served as senior associate dean of the UF College of Medicine and associate vice president for health affairs at the UF Health Science Center in Jacksonville since 2002.

A native of Boyertown, Pa., he earned his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in 1962 and then completed a residency in OB/GYN at the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia. He then completed a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at Hahnemann Medical Center and Hospital.

In 1972, Dr. Nuss was appointed director of the division of gynecologic oncology at University Medical Center in Jacksonville, where he was instrumental in bringing the latest gynecologic oncology treatments and techniques to the First Coast. In 1974 he was among the first physicians in the world to be certified in the subspecialty of gynecologic oncology. In fact, he was the first gynecologic oncologist to practice in Northeast Florida, as well as one of the first certified gynecologic oncologists in the state. From the seventies to the present, Dr. Nuss has treated thousands of women with gynecologic malignancies.

Dr. Nuss' academic accomplishments at UF's College of Medicine-Jacksonville represent a distinguished and dedicated career in training medical residents in obstetrics, gynecology and oncology. Recognized by former residents as being a constant source of inspiration, he received the Jacksonville Health Education Program's first Obstetrics and Gynecology Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Among his distinguished professional awards are the Florida Medical Association Leadership Award in 2006, the Naval Hospital Jacksonville's Rear Admiral Paul Kaufman Award for Outstanding Community Service in 2003, the Robert J. Thompson Award for Excellence in Gynecology Teaching in both 1980 and 1997 - and the first recipient to receive the award twice, and the 2007 Jacksonville Business Journal's Health Care Heroes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

Dr. Nuss' contributions to UF as a dedicated administrator have provided immeasurable guidance to Northeast Florida's local health-care community. As chair of the University of Florida Jacksonville Physicians, Inc. - the group practice of UF faculty physicians in Jacksonville - he administers approximately 1,800 employees and is in charge of an annual budget with a cash flow in excess of $180 million.

In addition to his academic achievements, Dr. Nuss has a long record of exemplary service in military medicine. A decorated military serviceman, Dr. Nuss served active duty with the U.S. Navy Medical Corps and with the U.S. Naval Reserve Medical Corps for more than three decades. He was the medical officer for the entire Reserve Naval Construction Force "Seabees" in 1984. In 1991 he was appointed Deputy Director of Navy Medicine for Reserve Affairs, the senior reserve medical flag position in the Navy. He retired from the Naval Reserve as a two-star admiral and with a Legion of Merit award from the Navy.

Dr. Nuss looks forward to continued growth - clinically, academically and structurally - for the UF Health Science Center-Jacksonville. But growth isn't his only priority. Excellence is his driving goal.

"Growth and excellence define a great medical community," he said. "Advancements in medicine come through research, but the propagation of that research comes through education."

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