Department of Family and Community Medicine

In 2025, the UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine launched a transformative redesign of the Family Medicine Clerkship leveraging overhauled content and modern delivery platforms. Now implemented across all four UAB Heersink School of Medicine campuses, the initiative ensures a unified educational experience for every student that is aligned with national best practices.

For many Americans, a new year means new fitness goals. Three UAB Sports & Exercise Medicine physicians offer their tips for starting an exercise routine, preventing injury and even knowing if you are working out too much.

The UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine made an impact at this year’s Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) Conference on Medical Student Education. Faculty, residents, clinical and academic staff, and seven students from the department’s Comprehensive Urban Underserved and Rural Experience (CU2RE) program contributed to the national discussion on the future of family medicine.

Fatigue, unexplained weight changes, and mood swings. These common complaints can have many causes, but one often-overlooked culprit is the thyroid. This small, butterfly-shaped gland in the lower front of the neck produces hormones that influence every cell, tissue and organ in the body, controlling metabolism, heart rate and how quickly the body processes everything from food to sugar.

UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine Assistant Professor Haoyang Yan, Ph.D., received the Borrelli Family Lynch Syndrome Research Award at the 2025 Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancer Annual Meeting in recognition of her research to improve cascade testing.

UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office would like to welcome 19 individuals in its 12th cohort of the Institute for Leadership in the spring of 2026. The goal of the UAB Medicine Institute for Leadership is to enhance existing personal, leadership, and management competencies while leveraging current leadership strategies and trends. The 6-month program features guest speakers from executive-level leadership positions at UAB, including former graduates of the Institute for Leadership.

UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office (LDO) celebrated the graduation of the 11th cohort from the Institute for Leadership on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.

The Wiregrass Alabama AHEC is using its ongoing Pathways to Smiles initiative to introduce rural high school students to rewarding careers in oral health. This project to recruit future dental health providers comes as Alabama ranks No. 49 in access to dental care.

Access to health care remains one of the most pressing challenges in Alabama’s rural communities. Many residents travel long distances to see a doctor or specialist, and shortages of primary care providers continue to affect both patient outcomes and quality of life. In honor of National Rural Health Day, celebrated on November 20 this year, the Heersink Office of Access and Engagement spoke with Irfan Asif, M.D., chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, associate dean for Primary Care and Rural Health, and co-director of the UAB Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center, to learn how UAB is expanding care and strengthening the state’s primary care workforce.

On Friday, November 14, 2025, students from the UAB Heersink School of Medicine gathered to celebrate faculty excellence during the annual Argus Awards Ceremony. Established to recognize outstanding contributions in medical education, the Argus Awards are determined entirely by student nominations and votes, honoring faculty, courses, and course directors who have made a lasting impact throughout the year.

Nineteen providers from the Department of Family and Community Medicine have been honored by UAB’s Office of Patient Experience and Engagement for delivering an outstanding patient experience. Each achieved a remarkable 95% or higher rating on patient satisfaction surveys—placing them among the top performers across UAB Medicine.

The Family Medicine Clinic at UAB Hospital-Highlands has recently achieved outstanding results in patient experience, earning an extraordinary 100 rating. The UAB Medicine Office of Patient Experience and Engagement recently reported performance levels from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2025, across all UAB ambulatory settings, showing that the clinic achieved a Level 5 rating.

More than 120 physicians, hospital leaders, legislators, and educators gathered in Birmingham for the Rural Primary Care Summit, hosted by the UAB Heersink School of Medicine in partnership with the Alabama Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the Alabama Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Network, and the Medical Association of the State of Alabama (MASA). The goal: to identify practical, community-driven solutions to sustain rural health care across the state.

UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office (LDO) celebrated seven distinguished faculty members from the seventh cohort of the Sharing Authentically to Inspire and Lead (SAIL) program at a graduation ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 21. The program, facilitated by Celeste Morgan, Ph.D., CDMS, senior leadership development specialist, is designed to help early-career faculty strengthen their leadership skills, refine their academic identities, and chart clear, sustainable paths toward long-term success.

A research team within the UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine led by Tapan Mehta, Ph.D., has been awarded a grant to create the Telehealth Outreach and Policy for Rural and Underserved Populations (TOP-UP) Rapid Response Center. The center will conduct rapid, policy-relevant data analysis and research studies to assess how different telehealth modalities impact health outcomes, making it the country’s first HRSA-funded center specializing in this work. 

Ian McKeag, M.D., M.S., associate professor and head team physician for the USA Lacrosse Women’s Sixes team, recently played a pivotal role in helping the team secure a historic gold medal at the World Games 2025 in Chengdu, China.

Through hands-on activities, panel discussions, and the inaugural Research Day poster and lightning round competition, UAB Primary Care Week introduced students to the full scope of primary care careers.

B. Earl Salser Jr., M.D., associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, has been appointed as the department's inaugural Vice Chair of Education.

UAB Heersink School of Medicine students can enjoy a week-long celebration of Primary Care Week from October 6-10, 2025. This event-packed week aims to educate physicians-in-training and students across the health spectrum on the pivotal role of primary care in the health care system. 

A group of dedicated lifestyle medicine researchers within the UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine is leading the institution’s first randomized quality improvement (QI) project. The multi-phase study hopes to optimize enrollment into Sports & Exercise Medicine’s Fitness, Lifestyle, and Optimal Wellness (FLOW) program.