May 1, 2006
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Edward E. Partridge, M.D., UAB gynecologist-oncologist who helped to create a community of cancer caregivers in Alabama and to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities, will receive the 2006 Odessa Woolfolk Community Service Award. The award will be presented at 10 a.m. on May 4 in a ceremony at the Alys Stephens Center’s Sirote Theatre.
Woolfolk was UAB’s special assistant to the president for community relations until her retirement in 1993. She directed the UAB Center for Urban Affairs from 1981 to 1993, then spearheaded development of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, eventually becoming its director.
Partridge’s efforts helped gain Alabama participation in the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, which allows women diagnosed with an abnormal mammogram to receive treatment regardless of financial means. He has led the Alabama Black Belt Cancer Linkage Initiative, which assures that men and women diagnosed with cancer in the Black Belt area would get state-of-the-art care, and he is a co-founder of the Alabama Partnership for Cancer Control in the Underserved.
Currently, Partridge is principal investigator for the Deep South Network for Cancer Control, a community-based participatory research network, as well as a partnership involving the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, Morehouse School of Medicine and Tuskegee University. The federally supported network pairs research at UAB with investigators at historically black colleges and universities, to enhance cancer disparity research.
His long volunteer work with the American Cancer Society (ACS) included a major role in the establishment of the Joe Lee Griffin Hope Lodge, which provides housing in Birmingham for out-of-town patients receiving cancer treatment. According to former Alabama Chapter ACS President Thomas A. Gaskin III, M.D., Partridge deserves much of the credit for improving the overall delivery of cancer care in the state. “When Dr. Partridge and others recognized that there were too many fragmented oncological organizations in the state, his work to develop the Alabama Cancer Congress provided that community of caregivers in a variety of disciplines,” Gaskin said.
Edward E. Partridge, 59, is a native of Demopolis, Ala., and was educated there and at the University of Alabama, where he received a B.S. degree. He received his M.D. from the UAB School of Medicine in 1973. He completed residencies and a fellowship at UAB in obstetrics and gynecology. He also was an ACS Clinical Fellow.
His entire career has been spent at UAB.. He rose from instructor to hold the endowed Margaret Cameron Spain Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He served for many years as director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, and served in leadership positions with the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he is now senior scientist and associate director for prevention and control research. The professor also holds senior positions in the UAB Center for Aging and the UAB Gene Therapy Center.
Partridge recently presented research at a national scientific meeting that promises to help reduce the number of false positive results in ovarian cancer screening and therefore prevent a large number of unnecessary surgeries.
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