Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center

The UAB Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center convened federal, state, academic, industry, and community leaders on April 15 for its inaugural symposium, bringing together different perspectives to advance community-engaged research efforts across Alabama and the Deep South.

While national and state leaders address population health at scale, community-engaged research takes shape through ongoing partnerships that connect academic expertise with local priorities.

At the Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center, research is grounded in the realities of the communities with which we collaborate. That connection is facilitated by the Partnerships & Engagement Program, a team dedicated to ensuring research is co-created with communities, not just conducted amongst them.

Chronic disease remains one of the most persistent challenges in health care. The UAB Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center is advancing this work by convening leaders in community-engaged, population health, and chronic disease research at its inaugural symposium, featuring special guest panelists George Mensah, M.D., and Scott Harris, M.D., MPH, and keynote speaker Admiral Brian Christine, M.D.

The UAB Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center will host its inaugural symposium, “Advancing the Science of Community-Engaged Research to Prevent Chronic Disease and Improve Health,” on Wednesday, April 15, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Marnix E. Heersink Conference Center. The event brings together researchers, clinicians, public health leaders, and community partners, reflecting the center’s mission to strengthen research that connects scientific discovery with the real-world needs of communities.

Behind every successful study is a network of people willing to participate, share their experiences, and contribute to knowledge that can improve health outcomes. At the Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center, that critical connection between investigators and participants is supported by the Participant Access to Research Core (PARC).

At the beginning of each year, many people set health-related goals with the best of intentions. Yet within a few months, those goals often fall away. While this pattern can feel discouraging, it is not a failure of motivation or discipline. Instead, it reflects how the brain, as well as our environment, form – and resist – behavioral change.

Dr. Michael Wesley, senior pastor of Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Birmingham’s West End neighborhood, knows how chronic disease affects communities. He deals with it on a very personal level. “I’ve presided over funerals of people who have passed away far more prematurely than they should have because of preventable health issues,” Wesley says.

Access to health care remains one of the most pressing challenges in Alabama’s rural communities. Many residents travel long distances to see a doctor or specialist, and shortages of primary care providers continue to affect both patient outcomes and quality of life. In honor of National Rural Health Day, celebrated on November 20 this year, the Heersink Office of Access and Engagement spoke with Irfan Asif, M.D., chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, associate dean for Primary Care and Rural Health, and co-director of the UAB Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center, to learn how UAB is expanding care and strengthening the state’s primary care workforce.