A Home Run for FUN! Last Saturday, the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine held its annual fall picnic at George Ward Park. The faculty won against the fellows (6-4) in a spirited softball showdown, and everyone enjoyed the festive family fun.
The Department is extremely proud of our NIH Funding results for Fiscal Year 2016. We exceeded the SOM Academic Common Goal of $75 million to reach $78 million. This tremendous 7% growth rate means the Department will earn 100% of our at-risk dollars for research performance.
Andrea Cherrington, MD (Preventive Medicine) and Elizabeth Turnipseed, MD (General Internal Medicine) report excellent results from their pilot program that partners community health workers and UAB patients with diabetes who have visited the emergency room four or more times in a 12-month period. Since the program began in April 2015, there was a 50% reduction in ER visits by patients enrolled in the program and an 18-fold reduction in care costs. Read the UAB Medicine story here.
Surya Bhatt, MD (Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine) was recently awarded a UAB HSF General Endowment Fund Grant to develop a new Lung Imaging Core at UAB—a multi-disciplinary facility that will provide state-of-the-art computer analysis of lung images to investigate lung tissue characteristics, mechanics, and fluid dynamics.
Jodie Dionne-Odom, MD (Infectious Diseases) has received a K-23 grant from the NICHD to support her ongoing work with the Cameroon Health Initiative at UAB. She will be investigating a novel regimen to prevent malaria and sexually-transmitted infections in pregnant women.
Kudos to Teresa Bryan, MD (General Internal Medicine) and all the clinicians, trainees, and staff in the VA Red Clinic for diligently improving primary care. A recent report shows terrific results in colon screening, blood sugar control, and hypertension management, among other key measures.
Jessica Merlin, MD, MBA (Infectious Diseases) was an invited speaker at the international conference HIV Endgame: Closing the Gaps in the Care Cascade in Toronto, Ontario, last week. She gave a plenary talk entitled "Chronic Pain in HIV: State of the Science," and she co-presented a concurrent session on managing pain and comorbid addiction.
The UAB Benevolent Fund is building its third Habitat for Humanity house with a little help from the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. A group of eager GI volunteers met at the build site on Saturday to participate in construction and meet the new homeowner, US Navy Veteran Toni Byrd.
Are you a resident, fellow, or junior faculty member? Are you interested in a research career in academic medicine? Could you benefit from advice of someone a few steps ahead of you in the process? If yes, keep reading! The DOM has a Peer Mentorship Program to help early career investigators transition into successful, productive faculty. Peer mentors complement more senior mentors, helping with logistics related to important milestones (e.g. grant submissions), navigating interpersonal relationships, work-life balance, and managing the stress of an academic career. Based on the experience of recent Career Development Award recipients, the program has been well-received. Email the Peer Mentorship Program Director, Jessica Merlin, MD, MBA, for details.
Open Enrollment for UAB Benefits begins Friday, October 28, and lasts through Monday, November 14. Enrollment is ACTIVE, meaning you must sign into the online portal and select your coverage, or you will NOT have benefits next year.
Next week at Medical Grand Rounds: Darwin Labarthe, MD, PhD, MPH, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Former Director of the Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention at the CDC will present “Heart Attack and Stroke: The End Game?”
Do you have Good News to share? If so, please email the Department of Medicine's Director of Communications, Carolyn Walsh.
