A new model in pediatrics is gaining ground in South Florida.
Bluebird Kids Health is opening primary care locations in heavily visited retail shopping centers in communities that lack sufficient pediatric offices. By locating in centers where the offices are visible and accessible, Bluebird Kids aims to give parents a convenient place for their children to go for basic care, rather than relying on hospital ERs and urgent care centers, which are more expensive.
On Sept. 3, Bluebird is opening its fourth children’s primary care office in South Florida and its first in Broward County. The new location is in Tamarac, in a retail center at Commercial Boulevard and University Drive, anchored by Publix.
CEO and founder Chris Johnson says demographics are driving the company’s expansion in the state. Florida has the second-highest numeric growth per year in its child population, trailing behind Texas. “It’s not just snowbirds coming to Florida, but also young families. Access to care has not kept pace with that growth,” he said.
Data revealed “pediatric deserts” where many children receive routine care in ERs instead of clinics, and those are the areas Bluebird Kids will target, Johnson said. “The cost of care in the ER is high and they are not intended to be a place to treat strep throat or an ear infection,” he said.
The idea behind Bluebird Kids Health is convenience, service and strategic use of technology. The pediatricians can spend longer with their patients because all administrative tasks, including billing, referrals and scheduling, are handled off-site in a central care center, Johnson said. Each clinic location provides children 24/7 physical and mental health services in person and virtually. Bluebird clinics have extended hours on weeknights, and there is videoconferencing access on weekends.
“We’re also building a lot of technology that supports making it easy for patients and families to access our care,” he explained. “That’s simplifying the ability to book appointments and simplifying being able to get in touch with us.”
To gain a foothold in South Florida, Bluebird merged last year with Palm Beach Pediatrics, a 40-year-old practice with five pediatricians and five nurse practitioners. The pediatric practice had operated three locations in South Florida office buildings, which are now operating as Bluebird Kids: in Loxahatchee Groves, West Palm Beach, and Boynton Beach. Bluebird also has two locations in Jacksonville. “We’re in the process of opening three more,” Johnson said.
In March, Bluebird announced it raised $31.5 million in capital for continued expansion throughout Florida and the Southeast.
A shortage of pediatricians has become a national dilemma, but Johnson said Bluebird’s model helps attract medical professionals. A care coordinator reviews standard-of-care reports in a West Palm Beach center and contacts patients with asthma or other conditions to refill prescriptions or schedule appointments. “We put support behind you as a pediatrician so you are not having to do follow-up outside the encounter,” he said.
Johnson said his company partners with commercial insurance and Medicaid plans. “We take on accountability for reducing medical expenses by reducing inpatient hospital visits by providing high-quality primary care and encouraging patients to call us first,” he said.
“When savings are generated, we share that between ourselves and the health plans.”
About 50% of children nationwide are on Medicaid plans, and talk of funding cuts looms. Any cuts could affect Bluebird Kids’ growth. “I think everyone is in agreement that children should receive health care, and I don’t see that changing,” Johnson said.
Saliva test for breast cancer
University of Florida researchers have improved a handheld device to detect breast cancer in saliva, simplifying the design and confirming its accuracy.
The pocket-sized biosensor quickly and accurately detects breast cancer by measuring biomarkers in saliva samples. A measurement is transmitted to an app via Bluetooth technology, making results available to test-takers in near real time.
“We were able to shrink the sensor platform so it fits in the palm of your hand, which was our whole drive: to make this accessible and portable for patients to be able to use,” said Josephine Esquivel-Upshaw, a professor in the UF College of Dentistry and member of the UF Health Cancer Center. “The portable design means it’s a promising alternative for breast cancer detection and monitoring, particularly in rural communities.”
Esquivel-Upshaw worked with a UF engineering professor and grad student to build the device with a reusable printed circuit board using commercially available glucose test strips. While testing the device, the researcher used 29 patient saliva samples; the biosensor correctly identified patients who had breast cancer 100% of the time and correctly identified patients who did not have breast cancer 86% of the time. That means it successfully minimized false negative tests. The team hopes the biosensor will become an additional tool for breast cancer screening.
Next, the team is testing more biomarkers in saliva to determine which ones best predict breast cancer. Ultimately, the biosensor could be calibrated to detect a range of diseases and have far broader applications, Esquivel-Upshaw said in a written statement.
New Cleveland Clinic concierge medical suite
Auto magnate Craig Zinn has donated $2 million for a new suite in Weston for Cleveland Clinic Florida’s concierge medicine practice.
With concierge medicine, patients pay annual membership fees to a physician or health care group and, in return, get quick access to their physician, including phone calls and texts. The new suite in a nearby medical building will introduce concierge medicine in Weston. Dr. Roberto Piloto will be the medical director of the concierge services offered at the new suite at 2500 Weston Road. Dr. Stephen Avallone will continue as the enterprise director of the overall Cleveland Clinic Center for Concierge Medicine, which has practices throughout South Florida and the Treasure Coast.
Fort Lauderdale woman treated with new rheumatoid arthritis implant
Gerline Brutus of Fort Lauderdale was one of the first patients in the country to receive an implant device for rheumatoid arthritis, which received FDA approval in August. She is a patient of Dr. Norman B. Gaylis, the first physician in the U.S. to treat patients with the innovative device.
Brutus started treatment with the Setpoint device at Gaylis’ Miami clinic through a clinical trial when she was 48 years old and suffering from debilitating RA that was not responsive to medications. Now at 55, Brutus said she is fully independent and exercises regularly.
“I was in so much pain before that I had trouble getting out of bed and I needed help with household chores and running errands,” she said. “Now I can do everything on my own and it’s amazing!”
In a written statement, Gaylis, medical director and principal investigator with Miami’s Arthritis & Rheumatic Specialties, said the SetPoint implant device is a significant departure from the standard treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, which is usually managed with medications such as immunosuppressant drugs.
“We are thrilled to see the FDA recognize the efficacy of this technology, and we are honored our research clinic was selected as the first to treat patients with the SetPoint implant,” Gaylis said. “We started seven years ago with two pioneering patients who have experienced sustained success with the therapy, and since then, we have continued to enroll and treat a large number of patients in follow-up trials, contributing significantly to the body of evidence that helped bring this device to market.”
Gaylis implants the small device into a patient’s neck, where it will stimulate the vagus nerve for one minute a day, using powers of the brain and nervous system to calm inflammation that leads to debilitating rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. He said patients he treated with a SetPoint implant have not reported adverse effects.
Organ donations on the rise in Florida
Florida had 1,416 organ donations in 2024, the third-highest in the US, according to DeMayo Law Offices. The total represents an 82% increase over 10 years.
Researchers analyzed organ donor statistics across all 50 states to identify which regions have seen the highest increases over the past decade. The study took data from the Organ Procurement & Transportation Network to examine organ donation trends from 1994 through 2024, revealing significant growth in donation rates nationwide.
Florida has a dedicated nonprofit organization, Donate Life Florida, focused on increasing organ, tissue, and eye donor registrations. An effort has been underway to increase the number of organ donors in Florida’s minority communities.
Pediatric surgery bigwig coming to South Florida
Dr. David M. Kalfa, a pioneer in developing minimally invasive surgical approaches to treating congenital heart defects in children, on Sept. 1 will join Nicklaus Children’s as chief of the Section of Cardiovascular Surgery and co-director of the Nicklaus Children’s Heart Institute. He also will serve as a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Surgical Sciences and a researcher at the Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.
Kalfa is the first joint hire through FIU’s affiliation with Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, one of the many pediatric specialists at the hospital who will serve as faculty in the college’s Department of Pediatrics. He has developed tissue-engineered cardiovascular devices and minimally invasive surgical approaches and leads multiple multicenter clinical studies in the United States and Europe. Kalfa joins Nicklaus Children’s from Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.
Broward County nurse Finds Relief After Years of Debilitating Back Pain
For more than five years, Nancy Dach of Pompano Beach, a retired nurse, experienced increasing back pain. As her lower back pain worsened, she said she tried everything to find relief — physical therapy, massage, icing and over-the-counter pain medication multiple times a day — without success. She was in constant pain while walking and sitting and continually standing on hard floors for her previous job as a clinical educator for 3M.
Dach said she finally found relief in an FDA-approved treatment that is becoming more common.
Many doctors have focused on treating the disc, but this type of back pain originates from the vertebral endplates. Dr. Mateusz (Matt) Graca of Fort Lauderdale Spine Care recommended a minimally invasive approach called the Intracept Procedure from Boston Scientific, which lasts about an hour and uses targeted radiofrequency energy to stop the basivertebral nerve from carrying pain signals to the brain. Dach said she had the procedure in February.
Six months later, she said her pain is 99% gone.
“It is a miracle for me. I can walk. I can swim … all of that,” she said.
She is now back at work as a per-diem nurse.