The Tallahassee Memorial Cancer Center’s Walker Breast Program, the most comprehensive breast cancer program in the region, has added the area’s first fellowship-trained breast surgical oncologist, ensuring patients with breast cancer continue to receive expert care without leaving Tallahassee.
Shlermine “Shea” Everidge, MD joins Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) and TMH Physician Partners – General Surgery following her recent graduation from the Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.
“Breast Cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer we see, and we’re thrilled to add one of the brightest young minds in the country to our team,” said Kathy Brooks, Oncology Administrator at TMH. “We look forward to Dr. Everidge using her advanced training and knowledge in breast cancer care while providing the same excellent treatment to our patients that our community has come to expect from TMH.”
Dr. Everidge was one of only four physicians to be accepted into the 2022-2023 Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program that trains doctors to become leaders in cancer research and treatment. She is the third physician ever from a Florida-based residency program to be trained under the prestigious fellowship and the first to complete it since 2005.
Joining TMH is a homecoming of sorts for Dr. Everidge. Before her fellowship, she graduated from the Florida State University (FSU) College of Medicine General Surgery Residency Program at TMH in 2022 and the FSU College of Medicine in 2016. She is a South Florida native and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Central Florida.
Dr. Everidge was excited to return to Tallahassee following her fellowship.
“I love our patients here in Tallahassee and throughout our region,” she said. “Working in women’s health and helping patients through the most trying times of their lives, there’s a certain sense of reward you get with that, and they really appreciate the care they’re getting.”
As a resident at TMH, Dr. Everidge learned under Shelby Blank, MD, Chair of the Walker Breast Program and General Surgeon at TMH, and even assisted the oncology team in launching the Walker Breast Program at the Tallahassee Memorial Cancer Center.
“During my residency here, Dr. Blank and the team at the Cancer Center started a pilot program that eventually became the Walker Breast Program, and I was part of that,” Dr. Everidge said. “All of the credit goes to Dr. Blank and the team for starting such an impactful program, and I feel like I helped grow this program with her and wanted to be part of something that I saw begin.”
In returning to TMH, Dr. Everidge is now a partner of her mentor Dr. Blank at TMH Physician Partners – General Surgery.
“To have someone match at MD Anderson, which is obviously a very prestigious competitive program, is huge,” said Dr. Blank said. “These programs are looking for someone who has that extra something, and I would say that Dr. Everidge has that. She is really a fantastic person and a fantastic doctor.”
The Walker Breast Program, modeled after other large cancer research and treatment centers, brings nationally accredited breast cancer care to patients in Tallahassee and throughout the Big Bend.
Weeks, and even days, can be the difference between life and death after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. The Walker Breast Program expedites breast cancer care, reducing the time between receiving an abnormal mammogram result or biopsy to undergoing surgery or other cancer treatments. Through the program, TMH is able to bring as many cancer services and specialties as possible under one roof, without the need for the patient to travel to multiple locations for treatment.
The Walker Breast Program is Florida’s longest continuously accredited comprehensive community hospital cancer program and the Big Bend region’s only accredited breast program by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC).
For more information about the Walker Breast Program, visit TMH.ORG/WalkerBreastProgram.
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About Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare
Founded in 1948, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) is a private, nonprofit community healthcare system committed to transforming care, advancing health, and improving lives with an ultimate vision to elevate the standards of healthcare practice, quality and innovation in the region. Serving a 21-county area in North Florida and South Georgia, TMH is comprised of a 772-bed acute care hospital, a surgery and adult ICU center, a psychiatric hospital, multiple specialty care centers, three residency programs, 38 affiliated physician practices and partnerships with Alliant Management Services, Apalachee Center, Calhoun Liberty Hospital, Capital Health Plan, Doctors’ Memorial Hospital, Florida State University College of Medicine, Radiology Associates, Weems Memorial Hospital and Wolfson Children’s Hospital. For more information, visit TMH.ORG.
