Dr. Seth Landefeld, MD, Professor and Chair, UAB Department of Medicine

The Residency Program you love is flourishing. Forty-one new interns arrive in June to experience the “contagious fire” of learning that Dr. Tinsley Harrison described—a flame that quickly spreads to others and lights our way to excellence. We look forward to all that they will contribute to the learning environment here at UAB.

I have great news to share with you about the Program and the Department of Medicine. Our recruitment efforts to attract residents from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine are paying off, with the support of the Carl E. Dukes, MD, Minority Residency Pipeline Endowed Support Fund. Our Director for Diversity and Inclusion Dr. Karla Williams led representatives from all UAB GME programs to participate in the Student National Medical Association annual meeting. She is also becoming a thought leader in the diversity arena, co-presenting on micro-aggressions at the Society of General Internal Medicine national meeting with Chief Resident Dr. Kiki Titer.

The Department is leading a university-wide initiative to launch an academy of medical educators that will support one of our most valuable resources—our teaching faculty. Collaborators across the health professions at UAB have joined forces to create a unique collaborative program that will provide resources and mentorship for clinician-educators, with the first cohort of mentees to begin training this September. I am grateful for Caroline Harada, Lisa Willett, Craig Hoesley and others for their leadership in this effort.

Clinically, our interventional and structural heart programs at UAB are already in the top 10% in the country, and we are growing them to be the largest and best structural heart program in the Southeast by the end of year. We recruited Dr. Julie Kanter in January to lead our Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Center. Dr. Kanter is building a statewide program to prevent stroke and to improve other outcomes in people with Sickle Cell Disease.

Dr. Ravi Bhatia will serve as Interim Director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center while a nationwide search is conducted for a new director. Dr. Bhatia has led the rapid expansion of clinical and research programs in our Division of Hematology and Oncology over last four years with the goals of being able to provide state of the art care to anyone with cancer and to make the discoveries that lead to better care for these patients.

I want to close by saying that it has been a joy to work with each of the chief residents who have led our program this year. Drs. James Barrios, Kiki Titer, Jeremey Walker and Joanna Zurko have made an indelible mark on each of the residents and on our curriculum. I’m proud of the next steps they now take to launch their careers. I also extend a warm welcome to the incoming chief residents who will follow in their footsteps: Drs. Jordan Crocker, Alison Dixon Johns, Stephen Stuart, and Jonathan Kalehoff.

I invite you to reconnect with (or meet for the first time) the extraordinary people who are the heart of our Department. We would love to have you in Birmingham for a visit soon!

Sincerely,

C. Seth Landefeld, M.D.
Professor and Chair, UAB Department of Medicine