Leader named for graduate medical education efforts at COM

Michael E. Mahla, M.D., a professor of anesthesiology and neurosurgery, has been named associate dean of graduate medical education at the College of Medicine.

In this role, Mahla will apply the skills and energy he has demonstrated throughout his career as a medical resident educator and advocate toward enhancing the entire graduate medical education enterprise at UF&Shands. He will focus on integrating graduate medical education into patient safety programs, and helping doctors make a smoother transition at two important points in their career —from medical school to residency, and from residency to independent practice.

“Dr. Mahla has enthusiastically taken on the important task of improving graduate medical education at the University of Florida,” said COM Dean Michael L. Good, the Folke H. Peterson dean’s distinguished professor. “In so doing, he is helping to ensure that patients continue to receive high-quality care from succeeding generations of physicians.”

An innovator in education, Mahla developed the Transition to Practice program in the department of anesthesiology, which allows residents to work with increased levels of responsibility and accountability in a simulated private practice environment in the hospital.

Mahla has held key positions both with the COM and Shands at UF. In the department of anesthesiology, he has served as residency program director, assistant chairman for education, director of the presurgery clinic and chief of the neurosurgical anesthesiology division. At Shands at UF, he served as director of the Intraoperative Neurologic Monitoring Laboratory.

Mahla has won the COM’s Outstanding Teacher award and was a member of the Exemplary Teachers in the College of Medicine program. In the department of anesthesiology, he has won teacher of the year, outstanding teacher, teaching merit, meritorious service and the Haven M. Perkins awards. And for ably shouldering many roles simultaneously, he was recognized with the anesthesiology department’s Atlas Award. Furthermore, he is a three-time nominee for the Parker J. Palmer “Courage to Teach” award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Mahla earned his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College and completed his residency and fellowship training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Johns Hopkins Medical Center. He came to UF in 1988 after serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

A prolific researcher and educator, he has published 23 peer-reviewed academic papers, contributed chapters to 22 books and given hundreds of lectures, workshops and presentations.

He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Society of Neurologic Monitoring and the Society for Neurosurgical Anesthesia and Critical Care. Mahla’s national service also includes being an associate examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology.