The Pancreatobiliary Disease Center (PDC) is honored to welcome five new faculty members from across the UAB medical campus to its faculty.
"Each member of the PDC team brings an extensive and unique research and clinical history that deeply enriches our treatment and care plans for each patient," says Center Director J. Bart Rose, M.D., MAS. "Our team is thrilled to work with such exemplary clinician-scientists as we continue searching for optimal treatments for pancreatobiliary diseases and disorders."
Martin J. Heslin, M.D., MSHA
Dr. Martin J. Heslin first joined the faculty of UAB Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology in 1996, following the completion of his Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Sloan-Kettering Hospital. He now serves as the Chief Medical and Quality Officer for UAB and is a professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology.
He has extensive training in hepatobiliary, pancreatic, and colorectal surgery and has established a thriving gastrointestinal oncology practice that focuses primarily on neoplasms of the pancreas, stomach, colon, and rectum. Dr. Heslin also played an instrumental role in establishing the UAB Interdisciplinary Gastrointestinal Oncology Center.
Annabelle Fonseca, M.D., MHS
Dr. Annabelle Fonseca joined the UAB Department of Surgery faculty as an Associate Professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology in October 2023. Dr. Fonseca is dual board-certified in General Surgery and Complex General Surgical Oncology, and her clinical focus is in hepatopancreatobiliary and other foregut malignancies.
Dr. Fonseca is a surgeon-scientist with a combined clinical and research appointment. She is a member of the UAB Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, where she conducts health services research, with a focus on improving the quality and delivery of high-quality complex oncologic care for foregut cancers across the cancer care continuum. Dr. Fonseca's research is supported by NIH funding.
Garima Gupta, M.D.
Dr. Garima Gupta is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the O'Neal Cancer Center. Her clinical practice focuses on patients with GI malignancies and neuroendocrine tumors.
Dr. Gupta graduated from St. George's University with her medical degree in 2010. She then moved to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland and trained with Dr. Karel Pacak. Her research focused on studying genetic alterations, biochemical phenotypes, functional diagnostic imaging, and treatment modalities for patients with pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma.
She completed her Internal Medicine training at the Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati, where she served as a third-year chief resident and was awarded the Deepak Bhandari award for research and academic excellence. Following this, she studied neuroendocrine tumors at the University of Kentucky, where she received a letter of achievement for academic excellence and a research excellence award. She has authored numerous publications and presented her research at international conferences.
Midhun Malla, M.D.
Dr. Midhun Malla is an associate professor in the Division of Hematology & Oncology. He completed his residency training in Phoenix, followed by a fellowship in the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, while simultaneously completing a Master's in Clinical and Translational Sciences.
He sub-specializes in the medical treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies. Malla is an active member of the Alliance co-operative group committee, where he is currently working on two national clinical trial proposals for colorectal and hepatocellular carcinomas. He represents the Alliance co-operative group as one of the investigators of the National Cancer Institute's Hepatobiliary Task Force.
Malla received a research scholar award through NIH at WVCTSI, and his translational research focuses on predictive biomarkers in colorectal cancer metastases.
S. M. Qasim Hussaini, M.D.
Dr. S. M. Qasim Hussaini is an assistant professor in the Division of Hematology & Oncology and a health systems researcher at the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. His clinical focus is gastrointestinal cancers. His research focuses on health systems, law, and policy as it pertains to oncologic care, and his current work examines disparities in the social context, financial/economic instability, and how policy could be effectively utilized to improve care access and delivery. Dr. Hussaini has previously received six Conquer Cancer Foundation Merit Awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for his research.
Before beginning at UAB, he served as Chief Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and helped set the clinical, education, and research direction for the program – including spearheading a Cancer Policy & Health Systems, Quality Improvement and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. Before fellowship, he completed his residency training at the Duke University Hospital where his primary research focus on financial toxicity and institutional medical debt. He received the Robert Califf Research Award, Eugene-Stead Research Award, and Faculty-Resident Research Award for this work. Before residency, he completed medical school between Singapore and Duke, where he focused on health policy in South Asia.