Assistant Professor

Research and Clinical Interests
- Geriatric emergency medicine
- Cognitive impairment
- Medication safety and outcomes research

Biography

Rachel Skains, MD, MSPH joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Emergency Medicine as an Assistant Professor in 2022 and holds a joint faculty at the Birmingham VA Medical Center. Dr. Skains earned a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from Washington and Lee University in 2010, followed by a Doctor of Medicine degree from Wake Forest School of Medicine in 2016. She came to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to complete an emergency medicine residency in 2016 and stayed in the department as a clinical research fellow as well as an AHRQ NRSA T32 postdoctoral fellow. During this time, she also completed a Master of Science in Public Health in Clinical and Translational Science. She currently serves as an Associate Scientist in UAB’s Integrative Center for Aging Research and as a Fellow Board Member for the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Geriatric Emergency Medicine Section. Dr. Skains completed a year-long Pilot Grant through the Integrative Center for Aging Research in 2022. She currently has grant support through the Geriatric Emergency care Applied Research (GEAR) 1.0 Pilot Grant. Her work has been published in Academy of Emergency Medicine, BMJ, Annals of Emergency Medicine, and Academic Emergency Medicine, among others.

Certifications

American Board of Emergency Medicine 

Education

Medical School
Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Residency
University of Alabama at Birmingham - Emergency Medicine

Fellowship
University of Alabama at Birmingham - Research in Clinical and Translational Science

Graduate
University of Alabama at Birmingham - Master of Science in Public Health