On a visit to Singapore’s acclaimed National Skin Centre in 2012, where she was invited to lecture the nursing staff and meet with the medical staff, Dr. Debra Shelby, Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Ph.D., witnessed a state-of-the-art, comprehensive dermatology facility that treats 1,000 patients a day, while also serving as a home for continuing education for doctors, new technologies and research studies.
Making a place like that became one of her dreams, and soon, it may become a reality right here in New Tampa.
Shelby, a Tampa Palms resident, is the CEO and Clinical Director for Florida Specialty Medical Services (FSMS), LLC, located on Amberly Dr. in Tampa Palms, where she currently sees patients.
She will soon begin building a new facility, to be called the National Institute for Dermatology: Dermatology Education, on the corner of Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and New Tampa Blvd. in West Meadows.
“I wasn’t even aware the property was for sale,’’ said Shelby. “I had been looking around the New Tampa area and didn’t find anything I really liked, and this was right in front of me the whole time. It’s a beautiful piece of property.”
The 7-acre property, most of it conservation and wetlands, with 2.5 acres of usable land, has been dormant for years, following a failed attempt to build a charter school on the site in 2012. Sold for $300,000, it was originally zoned for three 2,500-sq.-ft. offices or medical buildings. Shelby said an architect is currently “reconfiguring” that plan to instead include just one 8,000-sq.-ft. building, “with a nice flow.”
Dermatology Care From Start To Finish
Board-certified in dermatology (DNC) through the Dermatology Nursing Association, Shelby’s plan is to build and staff with qualified doctors a facility modeled after the one she visited in Singapore, offering a variety of services, including things like a pharmacy, a shop with sun protective clothing, laser-care, skin cancer treatments, aesthetics as well as a training center for doctors.
The project is currently in permitting.
“It will be a unique concept,’’ Shelby said. “We’re very excited about it.”
Shelby, who has a number of specialties but says she has a love for geriatric dermatology, developed the country’s first Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) Dermatology Residency at USF and became the first resident to ever complete the program in 2008, and has learned from the best doctors while serving as a Perioperative Clinical Specialist at the Moffitt Cancer Center on the USF Tampa campus.
Shelby spent 15 years at a practice, mostly in Hudson, at the Center for Dermatology, before scaling back to part-time while she founded FSMS, LLC, which provides dermatology care and education.
Shelby visits most of her patients at senior-assisted facilities.
“It was always my vision to do this, but being part of a practice, it wasn’t something I could make come to fruition,” she said.
Shelby, who says she will start law school in January to study elder care health policy, said she has received so many requests from patients for a land-based facility to visit, creating one in New Tampa only made sense. To that end, the National Institute for Dermatology will be located right next to the Legacy at Highwoods Preserve assisted living facility.
Florida Specialty Medical Services, LLC, is located at 15243 Amberly Dr. For more information, visit FSMSLLC.com, or call 765-0688.
Massage Franchise Set To Open In New Tampa Center
Massage Green Spa, a national spa chain, is opening a new location in the Publix-anchored New Tampa Center plaza at the site formerly occupied by Dine or Dash and La Cubanita Café.
Live Oak resident Todd Phillips is one of the owners. He says he hopes to have the new spa open by mid-June or early-July.
Massage Green Spa bills itself as an affordable luxury spa offering massage therapy, skin care, nail care and “internal care with the latest technology of our infrared saunas.” Phillips says infrared saunas are “all the rage in California” because they offer all the health benefits of a sauna without the stifling heat and atmosphere of traditional saunas. “A little bit more modern,’’ Phillips said, “with greater effect.”
For additional information, visit MassageGreenSpa.com.
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