For many, the story of cancer in recent decades has been one of progress. Survival rates have improved dramatically, new therapies hold incredible promise, and once-deadly diagnoses now come with hope. Yet, as Smita Bhatia, M.D., MPH, director of the UAB Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, and distinguished professor in the Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, reminds us, survival is only part of the story. The long-term health and quality of life of survivors require just as much attention—and that’s where the power of lifelong, risk-based care comes in.

Early in his career, Michael Allon, M.D., professor in the UAB Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, noticed that the prevailing wisdom concerning vascular access did not match his observed experience.

On any given day at UAB Hospital-Highlands, Berdale Colorado, D.O., MPH, might be helping a ballet dancer recover from a foot injury, performing a platelet-rich plasma injection on a tennis player’s elbow, or diagnosing a nerve injury.

It was the mid-1980s when two young vision scientists found themselves on converging paths that would reshape how the world understands age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disorder of the retina that is a leading cause of vision loss in older adults.

The grand rounds session at the Heersink School of Medicine is quiet and charged with attention. Caroline Harada, M.D., professor in the Department of Medical Education, watches as a student unfolds the story of a man from rural Alabama who—afraid of hospitals—grew out his hair to conceal a lump on his head. When his wife discovered it, she took him to the doctor. The diagnosis was grim: stage 4 meningioma (a tumor that grows from the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord) with metastases to the spine.

When David Kimberlin, M.D., arrived at UAB in 1994, he joined a legacy decades in the making. Drawn by UAB’s expertise in virology, Kimberlin became part of a multi-institutional effort—first called the Collaborative Antiviral Study Group (CASG) and now known as the Congenital and Perinatal Infections Consortium (CPIC)—dedicated to understanding and treating rare viral infections in newborns.

A single memory can shape the course of a person’s entire life. For Farah Lubin, Ph.D., distinguished professor in the UAB Department of Neurobiology, memories didn’t just influence her life—they shaped her career, driving her to become a trailblazer in the field of epigenetics and memory research.