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The Department of Urology welcomes three new faculty members.  

UAB Department of Urology Assistant Professors Kyle Wood, M.D. and Jed Ferguson, M.D., Ph.D. have been declared board-certified and admitted as a diplomate of the American Board of Urology. 

In 2019, UAB had more than 1,100 employees eligible for service award recognition. Three of those recipients include faculty and staff from the Department of Urology.

The American Urological Association (AUA) and the Urology Care Foundation have recognized 21 researchers as recipients of the 2020 Urology Care Foundation Research Scholar Awards. Two of those recipients are Anirban Kundu, Ph.D., postdoctoral researcher, and Joseph Crivelli, M.D., endourology fellow. 

Faculty, residents, and School of Medicine medical students will represent the Department of Urology in podium and poster sessions at the Southeastern Section of the American Urological Association 84th Annual Meeting.   

The Department of Urology received 228 residency applications, held 21 interviews, and matched with three new residents. The department is excited to welcome a new group of PGY-1 residents to the team.

Joseph Davis, M.D., is retiring after practicing for 40 years. He joined the Department of Urology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine in January 2012, after having been in private practice in Montgomery for the previous 27 years.

Patrick Selph, M.D., was slected as a 2019 American Urological Association Ambassador. He was invited to lecture Brazilian chief residents at the Sociedade Brasileira de Urologia-American Urological Association (SBU-AUA) Lessons in Urology in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Two Department of Urology faculty members received promotions. 

The following rank changes went into effect October 1:

Sunil Sudarshan, M.D., has been promoted from Associate Professor to Professor.

Jeffrey Nix, M.D., has been promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor.

This summer, two UAB medical students and one UAB undergraduate student received grants to conduct research with the Department of Urology.

Two medical students, Stephen Leahy and Taylor Tucker, received their grants through the UAB-UCSD O’Brien Center for Kidney Injury Research Summer Program. Ornin Hakim received his grant through the Morehouse, Tuskegee and UAB Cancer Research Symposium.

Stephen Leahy received a grant for summer research with P.I. Dr. Rais-Bahrami in collaboration with Dr. Soory Varambally of the Department of Pathology. The title of his research was “Differential Expression of BAP1 in Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma and Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Stratified by Race.”

Taylor Tucker also received a grant for summer research with P.I. Dr. Rais-Bahrami in collaboration with Dr. Kristin Porter with UAB Radiology. “ Examining the Role of Contrast-Enhanced Renal Ultrasound in Characterizing Indeterminate Renal Lesions in the Setting of Chronic Kidney Disease” was the title of his research.

Ornin Hakim recently presented his research titled “Evaluation of Perioperative Outcome of Robotic Laparoscopic Prostatectomy Between Multi-port and Sing-port Approaches” at the Cancer Research Symposium hosted by Morehouse, Tuskegee and UAB Cancer Research.

Summer Research Scholar Ornin Hakim

The Department of Urology celebrated recent graduates Dr. Justin Martinez and Dr. Vidu Yarlagadda with a party at the Country Club of Birmingham on Saturday, June 15th. The night was filled with distributing awards, sharing memories and giving thanks to everyone who helped the two graduates become the surgeons they are today.

Dr. Justin Martinez will be moving to Beverly, Mass. to join the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Urology Institute.

Dr. Vidu Yarlagadda will be joining the Clarksville Urology private practice in Clarksville, Tenn.

Several awards were also given to faculty and staff:

Dr. Luke Ellenburg was awarded the Urology In-Service Award for receiving the highest score on the in-service exam this year.

Dr. Zack Glaser received the Resident Research Award. He has eight publications and is only a PGY-2!

Dr. Rais-Bahrami was given the Faculty Teaching Award, voted by the chief residents.

Congratulations to the two wonderful graduates and the 2019 award winners!

Dr. Luke Ellenburg, winner of the Urology In-Service AwardDr. Zack Glaser, winner of the Resident Research AwardDr. Rais-Bahrami, winner of the Faculty Teaching Award

The inaugural COOKS  (Center for Research on Obesity and Oxalate Kidney Stones) Obesity & Kidney Stone Conference was held on July 11th and 12th at the UAB Hill Student Center. The conference brought together a broad network of scientific leaders to define the relationship between obesity and kidney stone disease.

The conference format was conducive to open discussions about the research being done to combat kidney stone disease. There were 15 speakers, 10 from UAB and 5 from other institutions. Each speaker provided a 20 minute presentation and 10 minutes of Q&A.

Dr. Ayfer Akgul, the first ever travel award recipient of the NIDDK-sponsored CAIRIBU (Collaborating for the Advancement of Interdisciplinary Research in Benign Urology) consortium, also attended the meeting. Congrats, Dr. Akgul!

COOKS was established in 2019 to evaluate the associations between obesity and kidney stone disease with a focus on oxalate. The Center is integrally connected to the Kidney Stone Research Center at UAB. At the Kidney Stone Research Center, experts are using mouse models to study the relationship between obesity and kidney stone disease. Working in collaboration with the Nutrition and Obesity Research Center, human subjects are being studied to describe the effects of measures of obesity on the urinary excretion of oxalate.

See the 2019 COOKS Conference agenda.

Dr. Dean Assimos and travel award recipient, Dr. Ayfer Akgul

The UAB Department of Urology is excited to welcome two new faculty members to our team!

Dr. Charles Peyton has just completed his urologic oncology fellowship with the Department of Genitourinary Oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. He attended medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina and completed his internship at Wake Forest Medical Center.

Dr. Adam Klein will join us as an assistant professor of general urology at the VA. He moves to Birmingham from University Hospitals St. John Medical Center in Westlake, Ohio. Dr. Klein attended medical school at The Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, Penn., and completed his residency at the University of Buffalo.

Drs. Peyton and Klein will begin seeing patients in August and October, respectively.

Audrey White recently joined the Department of Urology team as an administrative associate to our oncology physicians. 

A Birmingham native, Audrey has been able to display her 35 years of administrative experience in the healthcare and insurance industries. After serving many years at St. Vincent’s, Audrey made the leap to UAB where she has spent the last 2 ½ years in the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery. Energetic and eager, Audrey is always willing to go the “extra mile”. The mother of twin daughters, Audrey enjoys spending time with her family and shopping for shoes.