Jim Bakken
| This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.jimb@uab.edu • (205) 934-3887
Chief Communications Officer, Public Relations
Chief Communications Officer, Public Relations
As chief communications officer for the University of Alabama at Birmingham and UAB Medicine, Bakken leads teams that set and execute internal and external communications strategy. Prior to joining UAB in 2012, Bakken spent a decade working with a diverse client base at two full-service communications firms. Bakken spent eight years in Nashville at McNeely Pigott and Fox – one of the largest PR firms in the Southeast – prior to launching Peritus Public Relations in Birmingham in 2010. Bakken has served on the board of the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America and has been a Birmingham Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 honoree.
Paul Muntner, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues examined the Pooled Cohort risk equations in adults (age 45 to 79 years) enrolled in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study between January 2003 and October 2007, and followed up through December 2010.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine announced on March 19 that it will establish the Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development center on campus. “UAB and (Southern Research Institute) have spent a lot of time, money and energy developing the (Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance) over the last five years,” Whitley said, according to UAB News. “Having done that, being awarded this grant shows how that investment can pay off.”
Cynthia Ryan, an associate professor of English at UAB, has been named the winner of the 2014 Odessa Woolfolk Community Service Award for her work in breast cancer awareness, outreach and advocacy.
Michael Saag and his team at UAB are widely credited with helping to transform HIV/AIDs from an almost sure death sentence in the early 1980s to a manageable chronic disease.
REGARDS investigators have responded with a letter published in the AHA journal Circulation, saying it is premature to draw firm conclusions about potential overestimation of risk using the new risk formula.
Michael Saag, M.D., helped transform the deadliest virus in human history into a manageable chronic disease, and he is now receiving a top honor.
In a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, lead author Dr. Richard Whitley of the University of Alabama at Birmingham pointed out that, at the time of the study, immunization of older children had not yet become a priority of the U.S. Public Health Service. The researchers said, “As a consequence, the importance of antiviral agents, particularly neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors, cannot be overemphasized."
While reasons behind the marriage findings are unclear, it supports previous studies that show couples tend to be healthier and live longer than singles. The study reinforces the idea that heart health can be affected by social as well as physiological factors, said Vera Bittner, a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, and chairwoman of ACC’s Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Committee.
UAB Student Life will present a new event, the "World's Fair at UAB," on the Campus Green on Saturday, April 5, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The "World's Fair" will feature novelties and other carnival-themed attractions, including face painting, caricatures, a mechanical bull, a photo booth, a pedestal joust, a Moon Bounce and a Ferris wheel.
"Folks didn't know a whole lot about this [the Affordable Care Act] back in October and November when it started," said Michael Morrisey, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Lister Hill Center for Health Policy.