Several IM Residents participated in Equal Access Birmingham “Heart and Sole 5K” Fundraiser last Saturday. The race raised approximately $21,000 for the free health clinic which is operated by UAB medical students, and intern Connor Wann, MD came in first place!

100 DOM faculty members gathered for a Department-wide strategic planning meeting on Friday, August 19. Using an innovative head-to-head ranking process, the group evaluated more than 50 ideas to help shape 2016-2017 Department goals.

U.S. News and World Report has ranked five of the specialties within the Department of Medicine in the top 50 according to its annual Best Hospitals list! Among these high performers is the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, which ranks #29 in the country. Kudos to all involved for this national recognition! 

Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH (Director, Infectious Diseases) will co-chair the national HIV Research for Prevention meeting in October. The conference is the only scientific meeting dedicated exclusively to biomedical HIV prevention research.

A unique cancer outreach program led by Isabel Scarinci, PhD, MPH (Preventive Medicine) is using health promoters to connect patients to providers. “Sowing the Seeds of Health” has served more than 3,500 Latina women in six Alabama counties, raising awareness about cancer prevention and screening.

Suzanne Oparil, MD (Cardiovascular Disease) has received the American Heart Association’s Council on Hypertension 2016 Excellence Award for Hypertension Research. She will present a lecture on hormones and the heart at the Council’s annual meeting in September.

Alexander Szalai, PhD (Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology) has received an R21 grant from NIAMS. Working together with Co-PI Daniel Bullard, PhD (Genetics) and fellow rheumatology professor Jeffrey Edberg, PhD, Dr. Szalai’s research is aimed at unravelling the biological consequences of ITGAM gene variations known to associate with increased risk of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

The Department is delighted to welcome Tinsley Harrison Visiting Professor Jeffrey Samet, MD, to UAB on September 7. Dr. Samet is Professor of Medicine and Community Health Sciences, Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health; Chief, Section of General Internal Medicine, Boston Medical Center; and Vice Chair for Public Health, Department of Medicine. As a national thought leader on opioid addiction, he will present two lectures during his visit:

• How to Build It: the "Massachusetts Model" of Office Based Opioid Treatment with Buprenorphine. Wednesday, September 7, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. in Medical Towers 634
• Caring for Patients with Substance Use: An Addiction Medicine Creation Story. Medical Grand Rounds. Wednesday, September 7, from noon to 1:00 p.m. in Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium.