The 12th annual UAB Health Disparities Research Symposium on Wednesday, May 3, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Birmingham.The University of Alabama at Birmingham Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center will host the 12th annual UAB Health Disparities Research Symposium on Wednesday, May 3, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Birmingham. This year’s symposium will take an in-depth look at the role of social determinants in population health.
“The symposium will showcase the work being done to reduce health inequities in Alabama, the South and our nation,” said Mona Fouad, M.D., director and professor, UAB Division of Preventive Medicine and director of the UAB MHRC. “It provides an overview of the latest in health disparities research. Scientists and scholars look to it as an excellent opportunity to share discoveries, new approaches and successful models.”
Highlights of the symposium include the oral presentations and poster sessions featuring original health disparities research by academic investigators, students and community partners in the fields of basic science, clinical research, social and behavioral science, and community-based research.
Two national experts in the field of health disparities research will be featured speakers.
Catarina Kiefe, Ph.D., is the Inaugural Melvin S. and Sandra L. Cutler Chair in Biomedical Research, Chair of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Kiefe began as a mathematician, earning her doctoral degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She then earned her M.D. at the University of California, San Francisco. She specialized in internal medicine, completing her residency at the University of Minnesota Hospitals and Clinics. Now, as the inaugural chair of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, she combines the rigor of mathematics with the needs of clinical medicine. She draws upon the intellectual curiosity and drive for discovery that marked her early career as an abstract researcher, using it to help her lead an applied research program with the objective of improving health care outcomes for individuals and populations.
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“The symposium will showcase the work being done to reduce health inequities in Alabama, the South and our nation.” —Mona Fouad |
Before moving to UMMS in 2009, Kiefe was chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine and founding director of the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education at UAB. While building her new department at UMMS, Kiefe has actively maintained her research interests in the areas of cardiovascular outcomes and effectiveness research, measuring quality of care, and in conducting federally funded cluster-randomized trials to change practice patterns. She has been continuously funded as principal investigator by NIH, PCORI or AHRQ for more than 25 years. She has about 250 peer-reviewed publications, has served on or led multiple national and international scientific advisory boards, and is co-editor-in-chief — with Jeroan Allison, M.D. — of Medical Care, a premier journal in health services research.
Allison is professor and vice chair of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he also serves as associate vice provost for Health Disparities Research.
Allison’s research focuses on quality measurement, implementation science and statistical methodology, with an emphasis on eliminating racial/ethnic disparities in medical care and health outcomes. He has a 10-year history of sustained funding from several extramural sources, including the NIH, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Along with Kiefe, Allison is co-editor-in-chief of Medical Care, sponsored by American Public Health Association. He has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications in print or press. He is board-certified in internal medicine and received a masters’ degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.
The 2017 UAB Health Disparities Research Symposium is produced by the UAB Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center and co-sponsored by two national centers for health disparities research: Mid-South Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center, led by Fouad, and the Gulf States Health Policy Center, led by Regina Benjamin, M.D., founder and CEO of BayouClinic and 18th U.S. surgeon general.