Jim Bakken
| This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.jimb@uab.edu • (205) 934-3887
Chief Communications Officer, Public Relations
Chief Communications Officer, Public Relations
As chief communications officer for the University of Alabama at Birmingham and UAB Medicine, Bakken leads teams that set and execute internal and external communications strategy. Prior to joining UAB in 2012, Bakken spent a decade working with a diverse client base at two full-service communications firms. Bakken spent eight years in Nashville at McNeely Pigott and Fox – one of the largest PR firms in the Southeast – prior to launching Peritus Public Relations in Birmingham in 2010. Bakken has served on the board of the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America and has been a Birmingham Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 honoree.
The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees approve new endowments, promotions and programs during its Feb. 7 meeting.
Weight loss as rapid as Frederickson's could result in a loss of bone mass and an increase in bone marrow fat, explained assistant professor Krista Casazza, Ph.D., R.D., which might set a person up for cardiovascular problems like heart attacks and high blood pressure, as well as increased risk of fractures. Casazza is an expert on body tissue partitioning (the interplay between fat, bone and muscle) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Yakov and Aleksandra Kasman, the father-daughter, teacher-student, duo-piano team, plumbed the depths of Sergei Rachmaninoff at the Alys Stephens Center, revealing the dreamy textures, soaring melodies and sumptuous harmonies in works from three periods of the composer's output.
Stephen Russell, M.D., strongly believes creativity is an important aspect of medicine, so much so that he teaches his students to use art to enhance their skills as physicians.
David Becker, a UAB professor specializing in health, labor and regulatory economics, was among a group of experts who said making more Alabamians eligible for Medicaid is in the best interest of the state’s short-term spending and long-term financial well-being, as well as the overall physical condition of the people in the state. Becker said there’s a “huge, huge incentive” to expand Medicaid while the federal government is paying 100 percent.
There is much value in training hospital and nursing home staff in the basics of palliative care to make the last days of a dying patient's life as comfortable and dignified as possible. So says F. Amos Bailey of the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the US.
“In the final episode, she looks emaciated,” said Krista Casazza, Ph.D., R.D. and an expert on body tissue partitioning at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Up until the final episode when she was losing weight with the trainers, not at home, she looked a lot healthier and looked like she was preserving the bone and lean mass,” Casazza told the Huffington Post.
"There are many considerations about stroke that might be different for women: Reproductive factors and risk factors more common or stronger in women, like diabetes and atrial fibrillation, might get lost in a general guidelines document," explained Virginia Howard, Ph.D., UAB professor of epidemiology and co-author of the new scientific statement Guidelines for the Prevention of Stroke in Women.
Like other hospitals, UAB Hospital faces deep cuts in federal reimbursement for treating uninsured patients under the health-care law, he said, but won't see many new paying patients without the Medicaid expansion. On a recent evening, as a rare blizzard struck Birmingham, dozens of uninsured patients filed through the emergency room at UAB's main campus. Complaints ranged from headaches and swollen feet to broken bones. Such visits contribute to more than $100 million in uncompensated care costs at the hospital, according to 2012 Medicare data.
For some, this is the tournament that officially kicks off the golf season - the much-loved AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. This week, let's go with a couple of guys who have Alabama connections. I'll take defending champ Brandt Snedeker, who is due to have a big week, as well as former UAB star Graeme McDowell in his first outing on the PGA Tour this year.