The AMC21 Research Retreat 2020 was held last Friday, Jan. 31 at the UAB Alumni House. The focus of this year’s event was UAB’s future in health services research, with an emphasis on outcomes and effectiveness. Several interactive sessions were offered to determine goals and to identify barriers for research success in 2020.
Presentations were given by Selwyn Vickers, M.D., Seth Landefeld, M.D., Smita Bhatia, M.D., Kenneth Saag, M.D., Mona Fouad, M.D., Robert Kimberly, M.D., Anupam Agarwal, M.D., Mike Bertram, Ph.D., Christopher S. Brown, Ph.D., Barry Sleckman, M.D., Ph.D., and Tika Benveniste, Ph.D., who organized the event.
The annual AMC21 Research Retreat impacts research at UAB by allowing School of Medicine leadership to evaluate research activities on an annual basis. Here, they can make decisions on areas that will benefit from School of Medicine investments. AMC21 Research Grants, Bridge Funding, and Pittman Scholars are a few of the investments that were discussed at this year's event. The attendees also discussed recruitment of new faculty, and how to support current infrastructure needs (like cores and renovations). All of these investments are directed to improving research opportunities for School of Medicine faculty.
When asked how this year’s retreat was different than other years, Tika Benveniste, Ph.D., senior vice dean for Basic Sciences in the School of Medicine and associate vice president for Medicine, said: “We have focused on different areas in our yearly retreats. In 2016, we focused on internal School Of Medicine funding mechanisms; in 2017, the topic was space utilization and policies; for 2018, the theme was strategic recruitment; and in 2019 we focused on our research infrastructure-cores. This year we focused on UAB’s future in health services research, as well as outcomes and effectiveness research. The 2020 retreat was different in that we focused on a specific area of research that is critical to the mission of the School of Medicine, and also impacts a number of other UAB schools (Health Professions, Public Health, and Nursing)."
The AMC21 Research Retreat 2020 supports the Dean’s Office and their mission to advance research, as well as recruitment and retention.