"We are delighted that our School of Medicine's primary care programs have been recognized in US News & World Report and we are also pleased that our research and AIDS programs have continued a strong showing in the rankings," said Anupam Agarwal, M.D., interim vice president for Medicine and interim dean of the UAB School of Medicine. Read about other UAB programs that also ranked this year.
"Many recent developments highlight how important primary care is at UAB and to Birmingham and Alabama. In the past year alone UAB launched a new regional campus in Montgomery, created the Primary Care Scholars Program and Primary Care Leadership Academy and increased the number of Rural Medical Scholars to 24. With the UAB School of Nursing we also launched the first Area Health Education Center in the state," Agarwal said.
UAB medical students are also contributing directly to primary care through an expansion of the medical student- and faculty-run Equal Access Birmingham clinic in downtown that provides primary care to the medically underserved.
"The need for primary care will continue to increase due to an aging population and to health care reform. Alabama’s need today is greater than most states," said William Curry, MD, Senior vice president for Population Health in the UAB Health System and associate Dean for Primary Care and Rural Health in the UAB School of Medicine. "We are committed to improving both the number of primary care physicians and the models for providing accessible, high-quality primary care."