Florida Association of Medical Examiners
The Florida Association of Medical Examiners, (FAME), is committed to uphold excellence in the practice of forensic pathology for the public interest. FAME strives to unify Florida’s twenty-four medical examiner districts by providing networking opportunities, an atmosphere for professional development and a forum to discuss solutions to both professional and administrative issues that face district and associate medical examiners daily.
Medical Examiners Commission
The Medical Examiners Commission staff provides assistance to Commission members on issues related to the statutory mandates of the Commission, Legislative issues, maintenance of Commission Rules and other administrative issues. The section administers the quarterly meetings of the Commission, oversees the appointment and re-appointment process for all District Medical Examiners and annually publishes a workload report of the district medical examiners, as well as an annual and semi-annual detailed drug-related death report. As part of its statutorily mandated duties, the Commission has certain disciplinary oversight of the medical examiners activities, in which staff has certain duties and responsibilities. The Commission interacts with other local, state and federal agencies in an effort to enhance the medical examiners’ role of assisting the citizens of Florida in the area of death investigations and reporting.
National Association of Medical Examiners
The National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) is the national professional organization of physician medical examiners, medical death investigators and death investigation system administrators who perform the official duties of the medicolegal investigation of deaths of public interest in the United States. NAME was founded in 1966 with the dual purposes of fostering the professional growth of physician death investigators and disseminating the professional and technical information vital to the continuing improvement of the medical investigation of violent, suspicious and unusual deaths. Growing from a small nucleus of concerned physicians, NAME has expanded its scope to include physician medical examiners and coroners, medical death investigators and medicolegal system administrators from throughout the United States and other countries.
ABMDI
The American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators® (ABMDI) is a national, not-for-profit, independent professional certification board that has been established to promote the highest standards of practice for medicolegal death investigators.
FEMORS
The State of Florida in its disaster preparedness effort has joined forces with the William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine to develop and implement protocols to respond to a mass fatalities incident within its borders using trained personnel from multiple state, and local agencies, as well as other specialized resources in the event of a human-made or natural catastrophic incident. The investigative and identification process in a mass fatality situation is a multidisciplinary endeavor requiring multiple forensic and medical specialists to come together rapidly often under adverse conditions.
W.R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine
The mission of Maples Center is fourfold – Education, Research, Service, and Outreach. The Center utilizes its extensive expertise in forensic medicine to provide comprehensive services and innovative programs that relate to medicolegal death investigation. Multidisciplinary integration of services, technologies, training, and research address contemporary forensic issues. The Center has the responsibility of maintaining central laboratories for diagnostic anthropology and toxicology including the examination and diagnosis of forensic cases for local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, medical examiners, and attorneys. Educational programs are provided to law enforcement, medical examiners, and other healthcare professionals throughout the state. The Center has created a graduate certificate in veterinary forensic sciences and has plans to develop a graduate program in forensic medicine.
C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory
The mission of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory is to provide clinical anthropological services and state of the art cutting-edge anthropological, legal and technical laboratory-based education and training to graduate students, and professionals in the fields of anthropology, medicine, analytical chemistry and biology, and law enforcement. The major target audiences for these activities are anthropologists, physicians, scientists and technical experts practicing in communities and various jurisdictions in the
state of Florida; but may also include anthropologists, physicians, technical experts or human biologists from across the United States and around the world. This mission is addressed through the provision of seminars, workshops, review courses, symposia, conferences, meetings, lecture series, enduring materials, grand rounds, fellowships, post-doctoral scientists and visiting professors programs focused on these competencies.
UF Health Forensic Medicine
The mission of UF Health Forensic Medicine is fourfold – education, research, service and outreach. This division within the UF Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine utilizes its extensive expertise in forensic medicine to provide comprehensive services and innovative programs that relate to medicolegal death investigation, forensic toxicology and animal cruelty investigations. It also promotes efficient fiscal management and strategic future planning for growth and operational oversight; a visible presence for forensic medicine in the Department; the UF College of Medicine and the University; and increased interdisciplinary, cross-college and inter-agency communication and collaboration by providing a mechanism for promoting service, research, development, education and training.