January 23, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Myra A. Crawford, Ph.D., director of the division of research in the department of family and community medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has been elected to the Steering Committee of the Federation of Practice Based Research Networks, which oversees a system of 40 primary care research networks in the United States and abroad.

Crawford also serves as deputy director of the Alabama Practice Based Research Network (APBRN), a consortium of 32 family practice physicians located in 15 counties throughout the state. APBRN recently received a two-year $300,000 grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, through Dr. T. Michael Harrington, APBRN director and chair of the UAB department of family and community medicine, for network development and to conduct clinical research in tobacco and obesity assessment and counseling among family physicians using personal digital assistants (PDAs).