Two of our residency program alumni, Philip Johnson, MD, PhD (2011) and Mustafa Ahmed, MD (2009) recently won the 2015 Alabama Launchpad Startup Competition. Their HIPAA-compliant software application enables physicians to securely exchange medical images online. Read the UAB story here.
Kevin Leon, MD (Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine) has been named the new SOM Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education. In this role, Dr. Leon will supervise the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education and the implementation of the medical school curriculum, direct engagement with the Huntsville, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa branch campuses and participate in the LCME accreditation process.
Stefan Kertesz, MD, MSc (Preventive Medicine) and Caroline Harada, MD (Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care) have launched the Alabama Chapter of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, a year-long service learning program for graduate students who wish to develop entrepreneurial service projects to address unmet health needs. Read the UAB story here.
Stefan Kertesz, MD, MSc (Preventive Medicine) received notice of VA research support for a 4-year study to survey over 6,000 homeless and formerly-homeless veterans across 28 VA Medical Centers to learn how to optimize their primary care. It will be the largest survey of homeless and formerly homeless persons conducted in the last 20 years.
Edward Inscho, PhD (Nephrology) has been elected Joint Programming Committee Representative for the Renal Section of the American Physiological Society.
Carmen De Miguel, PhD (Nephrology) presented an abstract at the recent American Heart Association’s Council on Hypertension meeting. The study demonstrated that the immune system is involved in the development of cardiovascular disease, with changes in immune cells in the blood appearing years before people develop high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes or other cardiovascular diseases.
Justin Van Beusecum (PhD student, Nephrology) received a top poster award at the American Heart Association’s Council on Hypertension meeting for his submission on protecting kidney function, “MHC Class II-associated invariant peptide (CLIP) antagonism during chronic lipopolysaccharide treatment preserves afferent arteriolar autoregulatory behavior.”
Department of Medicine faculty members, Paul Goepfert, MD (Infectious Diseases) and Alexander Szalai, PhD (Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology) have been elected to serve a three-year term on the SOM Faculty Council, the principal advisory committee to the dean on matters of appointment, promotion, and tenure for all clinical and basic science faculty.
Coming Next Week: William P. Moran, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina will present "Reconnecting to Purpose: An Opportunity in the Era of Reform."
View this week's slides here.Do you have Good News to share? If so, please email the Department of Medicine's Director of Communications, Carolyn Walsh.