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

I extend my best wishes to you for a happy holiday season and joyous new year.  Your contributions as alumni have built a lasting legacy of medical excellence here at UAB.  Thank you.

 I’d love to have you visit us in 2020 to see for yourself how the department and the residency program are thriving. Here are just a few examples:

Program Director Lisa Willett, MD, MACM, has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to training and was recognized with the coveted ACGME Courage to Teach Award this fall. I could not be prouder of this distinction, which came close on the heels of her New England Journal publication with former CMR Jeremey Walker, MD, and collaborators in UAB Neurology.

Dr. Willett is also working with GIM Assistant Professor and former CMR KeAndrea Titer, MD, and GIM Associate Professor Stephen Russell, MD to investigate ways to reduce resident physician burnout with the support of a grant from the American Medical Association. Their “Reimagining Residency”  project will support a five-year, multi-university collaboration to examine how to maintain wellness during demanding clinical skills training.  

Our residents always excel, and this year is no exception with trainees making important contributions to regional and national academic medicine. We have had presentation winners at CHEST, SGIM, and ACG, as well as a participant in the ASH institute for Leadership; and two of our second-year residents have been invited to join the social media sensation CPSolvers podcast team. At home, our outpatient training continues to produce clinical exemplars, and our primary care scholars are gearing up to address the internal medicine physician shortage here in Alabama and beyond.

As the year draws to a close, I’m delighted to reflect on some of the exciting discoveries our researchers have made over the past year. We have identified biomarkers for type 1 diabetes, found new ways to diagnose and treat cystic fibrosis,  reached further into our communities through telehealth, fought sexually transmitted infections, and identified why COPD causes inflammation that destroys lungs. Our research is unparalleled and unstoppable, and we boldly aspire to achieve a Grand Challenge to improve the health of all Alabamians. Thanks to the hard work and rigorous science of these investigators, and many others across our campus, UAB topped $600 million in research funding this year!

I ask you to join me in writing another exciting chapter in our residency in the year ahead. I look forward to hearing from you about the ways you are excelling in your careers and invite you to consider a year-end contribution to the residency program in support of the amazing training that happens every day at UAB. Just click here to give online. 

Best regards,
Seth