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.
Older patients with Parkinson's disease said high-intensity strength training produced significant improvements in quality of life, mood and motor function. Lead author Marcas Bamman, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said 15 subjects with moderate Parkinson's underwent 16 weeks of high-intensity resistance training combined with interval training designed to simultaneously challenge strength, power, endurance, balance and mobility function. This was the first study of its kind to look at the biology of the muscles.
The UAB Campus Recreation Center is one of the jewels of the Southside campus. The impressive structure measures about 150,000 square feet and cost about $25 million to build in 2005, according to Sean Ries, director of campus recreation. And the center offers just about anything a student or UAB staff member could want in a health facility.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham is opening a new medical program in Montgomery. The UAB Montgomery Regional Medical Campus opens Tuesday at Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery.
UAB Schools of Medicine and Health Professions collaborate to form new, all-inclusive medical center to fight obesity
Mayor William Bell, Miss UAB Chassidy Sumler and former “Biggest Loser” winner Roger Shultz will make appearances.
UAB students and alumni will have an opportunity to learn about volunteer and internship opportunities with Birmingham-area non-profits at an event on campus Tuesday. The fair is sponsored by UAB Career and Professional Development, the Office of Student Involvement and the Office of Service Learning. "We have had 300 students attend this event in the past, looking for internships, full-time positions, and/or volunteer opportunities," said Katie Letcher of Career and Professional Development.
Physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are employing a technology known as ECMO as a last-resort therapy for extremely severe cases of influenza. ECMO, short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is a sort of portable heart/lung bypass machine.
Young, low-income diabetics may not know they need annual eye exams, a new study suggests. At a large public hospital where the study was done, few diabetic patients had visited the eye care clinic within the last two years. Paul MacLennan led the study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.
A combination of IL2 therapy and activation of patients' immune systems using personalized vaccines made from their own tumor cells has been shown to improve survival rates even more than IL2 alone according to a new study. "This is an important addition to the literature on IL2 treatment for metastatic melanoma demonstrating that personalized vaccine therapy contributed to an increased survival rate," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Donald J. Buchsbaum, PhD, Division of Radiation Biology, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The investigators at the University of Alabama at Birmingham noted that growing concern about antibiotic resistance has led many hospitals to create policies for what is known as antibiotic stewardship — appropriate use of these drugs. "Given organized efforts to emphasize antibiotic stewardship, we expected to see a decrease in emergency department antibiotic use for such infections," study co-author Dr. John Baddley, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases.