UAB School of Health Professions Current News
Alumnus honors favorite professor with an endowed scholarship
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Class 1: XIAN Medical University / UAB MSHA program on UAB campus in 1987Trevor Chen was a member of the only class of the UAB School of Health Professions' (SHP) Master of Science in Health Administration (MSHA) Sino-American Joint Program in 1989. The unique program sponsored by Project HOPE lost its funding when USAID funds were shifted to the Newly Independent States after the demise of the Soviet Union.
The graduation ceremony, held in Shaanxi Province, China, celebrated the combined MSHA Class 15 graduates from UAB and from Xian Medical University (XMU) and received news coverage from China’s national news agency. UAB President Scotty McCallum, DMD, MD, SHP Dean Keith Blayney, Ph.D., Chinese Minister of Health Dr. CHEN Mingzhang and XMU President Dr. REN Huimin, Vice President Dr. SHI Dapu, and Program Director Dr. Howard W. Houser attended this historical event.
And while many may view graduation as the end of education, Trevor, who is known as CHEN Hua in his native country of China, says it was only the beginning. The UAB Sino-American Joint Program altered history – for him and his country.
National experts launch inaugural Symposium for DHARS
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The inaugural Symposium for DHARS, hosted by the UAB Center for Disability Health and Rehabilitation Science (DHARS), brought nationally recognized disability experts to the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Friday, January 13, 2017.See More: Symposium Photo Album
The event kicked off with UAB School of Health Professions’ Dean Harold P. Jones, Ph.D., who challenged everyone to join the newly created Center because more members mean more research and more discoveries.
“Progress in rehabilitation science requires a true interdisciplinary approach where all angles and efforts – technology, community, science, communications and more – are working together and that is why we created the Center for DHARS,” said Jones.
Sue Feldman receives two national appointments from CAHIIM
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Sue Feldman, RN, MEd, Ph.D.Sue Feldman, RN, MEd, Ph.D., Director, UAB School of Health Professions’ Graduate Programs in Health Informatics, has been appointed to the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) Health Informatics Accreditation Council.Feldman, associate professor, SHP Department of Health Services Administration, associate professor, School of Medicine, Department of Medical Education, associate scientist, Informatics Institute, was also named to CAHIIM’s Health Informatics Competency Education Workgroup.
“This is a very dynamic time for health informatics as we continue to elevate the professional identity, academic discipline, and competencies of the health informatics professional,” said Feldman. “I am honored to serve on the Health Informatics Accreditation Council with some of the nation’s most respected health informatics thought leaders and contribute to the Health Informatics Competency Education Workgroup by helping to shape the education delivered in Health Informatics programs nationwide.”
Time-restricted feeding study shows promise in helping people shed body fat
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University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers are trying to find out whether changing a person’s eating schedule can help them lose weight and burn fat.
The first human test of early time-restricted feeding, or eTRF, found that this meal-timing strategy reduced swings in hunger and altered fat and carbohydrate burning patterns, which may help with losing weight. With eTRF, people eat their last meal by the mid-afternoon and do not eat again until breakfast the next morning. The findings were unveiled during a presentation at The Obesity Society Annual Meeting at Obesity Week 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
David Allison and colleagues’ paper tops list of best comment pieces for 2016 by Nature editors
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David Allison, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Research and ScienceDavid Allison, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Research and Science in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Health Professions, is Nature editors’ top pick for this year’s influential expert opinions.Allison and colleagues’ paper, titled “Reproducibility: A tragedy of errors”, points out mistakes in peer-reviewed papers are easy to find, yet difficult to correct. Allison, along with a team of researchers from his UAB Office of Energetics including Andrew Brown, Ph.D., Brandon George, Ph.D., and Kathryn Kaiser, Ph.D., wrote the paper after spending countless hours attempting to correct errors they found.
Pondering bold moves, health-care organizations turn to our data detectives for evidence
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Original story by Matt Windsor for The Mix UAB
In the Big Data era, information is plentiful. Insight is harder to come by.
Health apps are a case in point. More than two-thirds of American adults own a smartphone, and 62 percent of those smartphone owners use their devices to look up health information. They have plenty of options: A 2015 study found more than 165,000 health apps available on the Apple and Android app stores — a quarter of them focused on disease treatment and management, with the rest focused on fitness and wellness.
But which of these apps, if any, could a health organization actually recommend to its patients with confidence? What does the research say? Those are questions that Viva Health, the UAB-affiliated insurer, wants to answer. “Viva is interested in using apps to engage its members in more health-promotion activities,” says Robert Weech-Maldonado, Ph.D., professor and L.R. Jordan Chair of Health Administration in the Department of Health Services Administration at the UAB School of Health Professions. “Prevention is a major emphasis in health care, and the more we can use inexpensive technologies to help patients reduce their risk of disease, the better.”
UAB PT’s Diane Clark elected to serve on CAPTE
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Diane Clark elected to CAPTEDiane Clark, PT, DScPT, MBA, program director of the UAB School of Health Professions’ Doctor of Physical Therapy program, has been elected to serve on the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education. CAPTE is the only accrediting agency for physical therapist programs in the United States.“I am very honored to have the opportunity to serve on the Commission for the next four years,” said Clark, who will serve as a PT Panel Member for CAPTE. “I look forward to being a part of a group of people committed to ensuring the quality of physical therapy education programs across the United States.”
10 Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences members receive UAB Innovative Teaching Certificate
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Ten faculty and staff from the UAB School of Health Professions’ Department of Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences received the inaugural UAB Innovative Teaching Certificate at a ceremony held in the UAB Center for Teaching and Learning.The certificates were earned by completing workshops in the Teaching Innovation Series. Participants earned points for attendance and participation as part of a new gamification process designed by the CTL “to apply the psychology of game play to educational settings.”
SEE MORE: Flickr Photo Album
The CDS members who earned certificates included:
UAB Chapter of Alpha Eta Society inducts 32 members
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The Alpha Eta Society, a national honor society for allied health professionals, has 32 new members from the UAB School of Health Professions.
The School is represented by graduate students in their final year of training from the Clinical and Laboratory Sciences program and the Physician Assistant Studies program.
Membership in Alpha Eta is based on maintaining an overall GPA of 3.8 or greater (on a 4.0 scale) for graduate students, community and professional service and demonstration of leadership abilities.
