Sarasota physician and wife create scholarship at UF College of Medicine, his alma mater

Sarasota physician R. Dean Hautamaki, M.D., FCCP, FACP, and his wife, Elizabeth, have created a $1 million scholarship for students at the University of Florida College of Medicine, Hautamaki’s alma mater.

The Dr. R. Dean and Elizabeth F. Hautamaki Endowed Medical Scholarship will provide merit-based scholarships supporting UF College of Medicine students.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, 84% of medical students attending public institutions accrue $100,000 or more of education debt. Last year, the median education debt for medical students at public institutions was $194,000.

Figures like these, and the impact crippling debt can leave on brand-new practitioners, inspired the Hautamakis to create this scholarship.

“My wife and I have come to a point in our lives now where we can give back, and one of the most important things to us is education. She’s a teacher, and I’m a physician. We’ve both been actively involved in teaching throughout our lives,” Hautamaki said.

“The debt load that today’s medical students graduate with creates a lot of difficulties for them when they’re first joining a practice,’’ he said. “This scholarship is designed for individuals who are clearly driven, passionate and hard-working in the field of medicine, no matter what specialty they decide to go into. I’d like to see physicians come out of training in the U.S. who are well-trained, moral, ethical, caring, compassionate and communicative.”

Hautamaki works as a private physician with Hautamaki and Horiuchi Personal Physicians of Sarasota, a practice he co-founded in 2008. He also is chair of the UF College of Medicine Dean’s Leadership Council and serves as director for biotechnology companies Fibralign Corporation and First Wave Technologies.

After graduating from the UF College of Medicine, Hautamaki completed an internal medicine residency and respiratory/critical care fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Elizabeth Hautamaki graduated from Ringling College in Sarasota and has taught for more than two decades, including at the Forty Carrots Family Center.

UF College of Medicine interim dean Joseph A. Tyndall, M.D., M.P.H., said, “I am deeply grateful for the Hautamakis’ commitment to our medical students. They understand how daunting tuition debt can be and what a barrier it can pose to medical students. Their generosity will have an incredible impact upon on our aspiring physicians.”