In the News - News
The day of service was part of Hands on Birmingham's MLK Jr. Day of Service. Hundreds of students from Miles College, Lawson State Community College, and The University of Alabama at Birmingham, painted the bollards at Legion Field.
Antibiotic use for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) such as rhinitis, sinusitis, and bronchitis, which are often caused by viruses and do not require antibiotics, are still commonly given to adults who visit EDs for care, said John W. Baddley, MD, MSPH, department of medicine, division of infectious diseases, University of Alabama at Birmingham. “The widespread use of antibiotics to treat minor ARTIs may lead to increased bacterial antibiotic resistance. Other consequences include antibiotic-associated diarrhea, allergic reactions, and increased cost of care,” Dr Baddley told FormularyWatch.
Older adults who received as few as 10 sessions of mental training show long-lasting improvements in reasoning and speed of processing skills 10 years after the intervention, according to UF Health researchers with the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly, or ACTIVE, study. This study is funded by grants from the National Institute on Aging to the University of Alabama at Birmingham as well as six other universities.
The end of one gene fused to the beginning of another and, voilà, a new, composite gene was born. In most people the two-component gene does not work. But in a small percentage the gene functions and puts its possessors at increased risk for lupus and potentially other autoimmune diseases, in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, says a team of researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Jim Pittman tried to hire the best people in the country, attract them to UAB, and make them happy here. He was a great man for UAB’s medical school. He was a great man for Birmingham and Alabama and served both of them well.
Working with Healthiest Employers, a technology and research company focused on wellness, we surveyed companies around the Magic City earlier this year to determine which local employers have the best corporate wellness efforts. The University of Alabama at Birmingham was named as one of Birmingham's Healthiest Employers, based on the results of the survey.
Malcovery was launched in early 2013 as a result of an exclusive worldwide license with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and based on research conducted at the UAB Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research (CIA|JFR). Malcovery®, the leader in delivering actionable intelligence that can be proactively applied to neutralize the threats and actions by cyber criminals in the areas of phishing, spam and malware, released today the latest ‘Top 10 Phished Brands That Your Antivirus is Missing,’ a report that discloses leading brands that are most exploited by cybercriminals in phishing attacks with malicious spam.
"Historically, gout has been associated with overindulgence, in people who had access to foods of plenty, but now, in fact, gout is a condition of people with chronic illness such as kidney disease and heart disease, and regrettably it's often relegated to a lesser status given all the other challenges of management," explained Kenneth S. Saag, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Fish caught in the open fishing regions in the Gulf of Mexico are safe to eat following the BP oil spill in 2010. Writing in Environmental Science and Technology, Timothy Gerald from the Environmental Defense Fund and Julia Gohlke from the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported that only two samples from 92 tested had PAH levels above the detection limit in GC/MS tests. The measured ratios of particular PAHs suggested they did not come from oil but were derived from the combustion of hydrocarbons.
Another effort that is yielding data on glaucoma risk is the African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study (ADAGES). This NEI-funded study was launched in 2002, in order to seek explanations for the high prevalence and rapid course of primary-open angle glaucoma in African Americans. Dr. Weinreb is leading it in collaboration with his UCSD colleague Linda Zangwill, Ph.D., and with Jeffrey Liebmann, M.D., at New York University Langone Medical Center, and Christopher Girkin, M.D., at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have discovered a new immune protein influencing autoimmune diseases such as lupus and multiple sclerosis. Dr. Robert Kimberly, director of the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science, who co-authored the paper, says "“This new finding could play a significant role in the way companies design treatments for autoimmune diseases, in a more targeted approach. Now efforts can be made to target the individuals who will benefit from the treatments, based on the gene mutation.”
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. Bailey is the leader of a study¹ that saw the benefits of introducing palliative care strategies, typical of hospices, within the setting of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers.
Two musical tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. take place Sunday, Jan. 19, a day before the national holiday marking the civil rights leader's 84th birthday. The first is the Alabama Symphony Orchestra's annual "Reflect and Rejoice" concert. Then the UAB Wind Symphony will perform "Homas to the Dream."
Many clinicians contacted by MedPage Today said they'd feel comfortable writing a prescription for an app. "I have looked at some of the data supporting the role of technology like this in the management of diabetes, and I think it may be the [wave] of the future," said Fernando Ovalle, MD, an endocrinologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
A machine designed for use in heart-lung bypass surgeries earlier this year is being re-purposed again to save those with extremely severe cases of flu, University of Alabama at Birmingham officials announced.Fifteen severely ill flu patients have received a chance for another breath thanks to the last-resort therapy employing the ECMO.
The end of one gene fused to the beginning of another and, voilà, a new, composite gene was born. In most people the two-component gene does not work. But in a small percentage the gene functions and puts its possessors at increased risk for lupus and potentially other autoimmune diseases, in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, says a team of researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
In a small study, researchers found that the experimental drug — called pritelivir — substantially curbed "viral shedding" in people with genital herpes. That means it decreased the amount of time the virus was active and potentially transmissible to patients' sexual partners. There is still a lot of research to be done, said Dr. Richard Whitley, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who wrote an editorial published with the study. But he said it's good news that drugs that work in new ways are under development.
You may have inherited your mom's slow-mo metabolism, but you’re not stuck with it. New research shows you can trick your body into burning calories more efficiently, especially if you hit the gym. By strength-training just a couple of times a week, for example, you’ll reverse 50 percent of the seemingly inevitable metabolism slow-down that comes with age, said Gary Hunter, professor of human studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
We hear about flu cases every year and that push to get a flu shot. But doctors say this year you may want to heed their advice. "I would say that we're seeing a large number of cases this season and that we have seen a lot more serious illness resulting from positive flu swabs," Dr. Blayke Gibson with UAB Hospital said.
Physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are using a new technology known as ECMO as a last-resort therapy for extremely severe cases of the flu. ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is a sort of portable heart/lung bypass machine. The machine was first developed for use in heart bypass surgery, but it has now also been used as a bridge to heart or lung transplantation as well as the treatment of severe lung diseases.