The Department of Medicine swept the SOM Dean’s Excellence Awards this year, earning five of 11 awards in the categories of teaching, diversity enhancement, mentoring, research, and service.

• F. Stanford Massie Jr., MD, professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, is the senior faculty winner of the Dean’s Excellence Award for Teaching.
• Latesha Elopre, MD, instructor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, is a junior faculty winner of the Dean’s Excellence Award in Diversity Enhancement.
• Jennifer Pollock, PhD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and co-director of the Cardio-Renal Physiology and Medicine Program, is a senior faculty winner of the Dean’s Excellence Award for Mentoring.
• J. Edwin Blalock, PhD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, is a dual senior faculty winner of the Dean’s Excellence Award in Research.
• Kierstin Kennedy, MD, MSHA, clinical assistant professor of Medicine in the UAB Hospitalist Service, is the junior faculty winner of the Dean’s Excellence Award in Service.

The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center has received a five-year, $29 million Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute to renew support for its cancer research program through 2021. The Cancer Center will receive nearly $6 million per year to support six research programs, as well as 14 shared facilities and services.

Christina Muzny, MD (Infectious Diseases) has received an award from the CCTS Multidisciplinary Network Pilot Program to conduct a study entitled “Genital Microbiomes of Women with Recurrent Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) and their Regular Male Sexual Partners.” The investigation will explore the hypothesis that BV is a sexually transmitted infection and that Gardnerella vaginalis is the inciting pathogen.

William Geisler, MD (Infectious Diseases) has received a K24 Award from the NHLBI to support patient-oriented research in Chlamydia trachomatosis infection. This is Dr. Geisler’s third NIH grant, in addition to his existing RO1 and U19 awards.

Jessica Merlin, MD, MBA (Infectious Diseases) will present preliminary findings from her K23 career development award “Developing a Behavioral Intervention for Chronic Pain in Individuals with HIV” at the annual NIH Pain Consortium Symposium, "Advances in Pain Research."

Gustavo Heudebert, MD (General Internal Medicine) was published as a member of the ACP Task Force in Annals of Internal Medicine, “Financing U.S. Graduate Medical Education: A Policy Position Paper of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians.”

Jeffrey Curtis, MD, MS, MPH (Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology) was featured in a recent MEDPAGE TODAY news brief on strategies for tapering rheumatoid arthritis treatments for patients in remission.

The Department of Medicine is pleased to announce the 5th Annual Robert A. Kreisberg Awards for Faculty Development in Medical Education. The awards will support educational enrichment for clinical faculty, such as Harvard’s Macy Clinical Scholars Course. Division financial commitment required. Deadline for applications is 5:00 PM on June 15, 2016. Contact Yolanda Horton for information on how to apply.

Coming Next Week to Medical Grand Rounds: Christine Ritchie, MD, MSPH, FACP, FAAHPM, the Harris Fishbon Distinguished Professor in Clinical Translational Research and Aging in the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California San Francisco will present the annual Deane K. Corliss Lecture in Palliative and Supportive Care, "Palliative Care and Courage: Lessons from Patients, Families, Colleagues and Systems."