Department of Medicine

UAB Heersink School of Medicine has awarded four grants for the 2023/2024 Heersink Multi-Investigator Program Awards, which are each funded with $150,000 per year for two years.

The spring 2024 Endowed Chairs and Professorships Reception honored the distinguished faculty members of the Heersink School of Medicine for their outstanding impact on contemporary medicine and medical education. Anupam Agarwal, M.D., the dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, extended a warm welcome to the honorees, their families, and other leaders from the school. The gathering took place at the Wallace Tumor Institute on April 17. 

The Heersink School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion hosted the annual Women in Medicine and Science Promotion Reception April 11, which recognized women faculty promoted at the end of 2023. The honorees and their guests were greeted by Heersink leadership to celebrate their remarkable achievements.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine saw great success in acquiring research funding in 2023, making significant strides in securing resources to advance human health through biomedical discovery.

Orlando Gutiérrez, M.D., will be appointed senior associate dean for Clinical and Translational Research in the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine and director and contact principal investigator of the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science. In this role, Gutiérrez will also serve as the associate vice president of Medicine and Biomedical Research for UAB. In turn, Robert Kimberly, M.D., will transition into the newly created role of senior associate dean for Strategic Initiatives in the Heersink School of Medicine. Both appointments are effective April 1, 2024.

The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) recently held its annual conference in Birmingham, Alabama, from Jan. 9-14, 2024. Hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Entrepreneurship Program, the event, titled USASBE 2024: Forging the Future Together, brought together educators, innovators, and entrepreneurs from across the country and featured many team members from the UAB Heersink School of Medicine and UAB Medicine.

The American College of Physicians Alabama Chapter recently held its annual Winter Meeting at UAB’s new Active Learning Center in Volker Hall. The meeting, hosted by the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine, focused on “Medicine in the Machine Age: The Integration and Influence of AI in Medicine,” and featured presentations and expert involvement from the Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation team and other Heersink School of Medicine leaders.

Neurodiversity Celebration Week is an international awareness week observed during the second week of March.

On Friday, Nov. 17, 2023, students from Heersink School of Medicine gathered to celebrate faculty, courses, and course directors at the annual Argus Awards Ceremony.

Anupam Agarwal, M.D., dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, welcomed 13 esteemed faculty members, their families, and Heersink School of Medicine leaders to the Wallace Tumor Institute on Nov. 14 to honor the new endowed chairs and professorships for their contributions to modern medicine and medical education.

Department of Medicine Facilities Coordinator Corey Cates, M.S., was six years old when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. For doctors to uncover Cates’ diagnosis, it took a two-and-a-half-hour drive as well as a one-week stay at the Children's Medical Center in Dallas, TX in 1996.

Emily Wong, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, is the latest winner of the Heersink School of Medicine's Featured Discovery. This initiative celebrates important research from Heersink faculty members.

Jodie Dionne, M.D., associate director of Global Health in the UAB Center for Women’s Reproductive Health and associate professor in the Department of Medicine, is working on a new R01 funded by NIH/NIAID focused on helping pregnant mothers keep their unborn babies safe from syphilis.

Nine Heersink staff members were honored at the 2023 Dean’s Excellence Awards for Staff reception. Recipients, guests, and Heersink leaders gathered in the Wallace Tumor Institute Lobby on Sept. 14 to celebrate the inaugural group of honorees. Read about this year's honorees and see photos from the reception.

Betsy Hopson, MSHA, director of the UAB Staging Transition for Every Patient (STEP) Program in the Division of General Internal Medicine, has been selected as a recipient of the inaugural Heersink Dean’s Excellence Award for Staff.

April Agne, MPH, program director II in the UAB Division of Preventive Medicine and deputy director of the Forge AHEAD Center, has been selected as a recipient of the inaugural Heersink Dean’s Excellence Award for Staff.

The Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation held a symposium titled "Generative AI for Healthcare: Progress or Peril" with multiple speakers, all innovators in the field of health care, on Tuesday, Sept. 12.

Momentum in Medicine's third cohort includes an impressive list of 15 women leaders from a variety of roles, departments, and backgrounds within UAB Medicine.

Heersink School of Medicine is proud to announce nine staff members have been selected as the inaugural Dean’s Excellence Awards for Staff winners.

On Thursday, Aug. 10, the UAB Medicine Leadership Development Office (LDO) held its first annual reception to honor the participants of six cohorts (91 graduates) who have completed the UAB Medicine Institute for Leadership.

Frances Lund, Ph.D., Charles H. McCauley professor in the Department of Microbiology and director of the Immunology Institute, and Anoma Nellore, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, are the latest winners of the Heersink School of Medicine's Featured Discovery. This initiative celebrates important research from Heersink faculty members.

John Osborne, Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine at the Informatics Institute, recently received a notice of award for a U24 supplement to develop a cancer algorithm predicting the severity of cancer recurrence in patients. The work will build on previously funded work to identify recurrence retrospectively in UAB cancer patients using structured EHR data and clinical text.

Ryan Godwin, Ph.D., instructor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine and the Department of Radiology, and Sandeep Bodduluri, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and Instructor & Advisor for AI Programming for the Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation, have partnered to instruct the institute’s new graduate certificate course, Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine.

The UAB Heersink School of Medicine Office of Research introduces new faculty for Spring 2023. Please join Heersink School of Medicine and the Office of Research in welcoming these new faculty.

Nathaniel Erdmann, M.D., Ph.D., Amit Gaggar, M.D., and Matthew Might, Ph.D., are the latest winners of the Heersink School of Medicine's Featured Discovery. This initiative celebrates important research from Heersink faculty members.

The UAB Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, alongside the Division of Endocrine Surgery, is pleased to offer the 2023 Endocrinology Update Conference on Saturday, August 19 beginning at 8 a.m. at the Hilton Birmingham at UAB.

In the last several years, UAB Medicine and Heersink School of Medicine have worked to bring leadership development to faculty and staff through the UAB Medicine Institute for Leadership and Momentum in Medicine programs.

Sixteen remarkable faculty members have been named winners of the 2023 Dean’s Excellence Awards for Faculty.

Veena Antony, M.D., professor in the Department of Medicine's Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, is the senior faculty winner of the Dean's Excellence Award in Research. Antony's research is focused on environmental and translational medicine, cystic fibrosis, pleural disease, and lung injury.

Rui Lu, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Medicine's Division of Hematology and Oncology, is the 2023 junior faculty winner of the Dean's Excellence Award in Research.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine and the UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center (UCDC) are pleased to welcome Ananda Basu, M.D., and Rita Basu, M.D., as full professors into the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism.

Anupam Agarwal, M.D., dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, welcomed faculty members and their families to the Endowed Chairs and Professorships Reception on April 25.

UAB holds its administrative professionals in the highest regard. April 26, 2023, is Administrative Professionals Day – allowing us to recognize and celebrate our administrative professionals while also highlighting the administrative resources offered by UAB. Most recently, the Developing Emerging Administrative Leaders (DEAL) program was established to offer development opportunities for current administrative professionals through training experiences and networking, to assist administration with their career paths and plans of advancing within UAB and UAB Medicine.

UAB Heersink School of Medicine has awarded three grants for the latest annual Multi-Investigator Program Award cycle. The 2022/2023 AMC21 Multi-PI Awards, which provide grant funding of $150,000 per year for two years, were awarded to Javier Neyra, M.D., Carlos Orihuela, Ph.D., and Anna Thalacker-Mercer, Ph.D.

Thomas W. Buford, Ph.D., has been appointed associate dean for Research in the Heersink School of Medicine, effective April 1, 2023.

Surya Bhatt, M.D., MSPH, an associate professor in the UAB Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, and endowed professor in airways disease, has been elected as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI).

The Heersink School of Medicine communications staff sat down with Dr. Merry-Lynn McDonald to gain insights about the research of this study, UAB, and the science community.

Rubin Pillay, M.D., Ph.D., executive director of the UAB Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation, spoke on the concept of Healthcare 3.0 at a lunch and learn held by the institute on Feb. 9, 2023.

In the first installment of MHIGH's Partner Profiles series, Dr. Lynn Matthews shares about her life and work in global health.

This week, leaders from across UAB gathered to honor Stuart J. Frank, M.D., at the naming dedication of the Stuart J. Frank, M.D. Conference Room in the Boshell Diabetes Building (BDB). Hallways were lined with cherished colleagues, friends, and mentees. Department of Medicine Executive Vice Chair and Professor Emeritus, Stuart J. Frank, M.D., joined UAB in 1991 and has had an illustrious three-decade career as a physician-scientist.

The Heersink School of Medicine is pleased to announce the five faculty members being named the 2023 James A. Pittman Jr., M.D., Scholars.

Medical students honored their outstanding mentors, professors, courses, and course directors at the annual Argus Awards Ceremony on Friday, Jan. 6.

UAB Medicine Institute for Leadership has named their next cohort for Spring 2023: cohort six.

The year was 1997. Department of Medicine Communications Director Carolyn Walsh was traveling on i459 when things did not feel quite right. She was fighting to stay awake at the wheel, noticing bouts of drowsiness on and off. Before she could pull over, Walsh was in a car accident.

Anupam Agarwal, M.D., interim dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, welcomed faculty members and their families to the Endowed Chairs and Professorships Reception on Sept. 29.

National Primary Care Week is Oct. 3-7. Join us as we celebrate primary care at UAB!

Medical Student Research Day celebrates the research accomplishments of medical students and provides them with the opportunity to present their projects to fellow students and faculty.

The second year of UAB’s Momentum in Medicine program launched this month and includes 16 women across UAB Medicine and UAB Heersink School of Medicine.

Heersink and UAB Medicine are working to reduce disparities by adopting a new recommended formula to assess kidney function—one that no longer includes race as a variable for kidney health—effective Thursday, Sept. 1.

As the Heersink School of Medicine grows, the leadership has defined four new research focus areas to grow over the next five to seven years. This part explores the next focus area, I-4ward.