Hector Gutierrez, M.D., professor of pediatricsThe first nonprofit startup at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is redefining how cystic fibrosis care can be delivered in low-resource communities.
Hector Gutierrez, M.D., professor at the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, founded Dream a Little Dream, UAB’s first nonprofit startup. Its mission is to improve cystic fibrosis care for patients in underserved regions by helping clinical teams work together more effectively.
Gutierrez and his UAB team transformed their center into a highly ranked center for cystic fibrosis care. Through years of quality-improvement work, they developed specialized tools and training that improve patient outcomes without requiring costly new treatments.
“We realized that what made the biggest impact was improving access to knowledge and helping teams use the resources they already had,” Gutierrez said.
Growing a global network
The idea for DALD began at UAB, where Gutierrez and colleagues partnered with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to test a collaborative lung-care model internationally. With early support from a local nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of cystic fibrosis, Children’s of Alabama and UAB’s Department of Pediatrics, the team launched its first pilot program in 2014 at a hospital in Santiago, Chile.
From there, the network grew rapidly. Over the past decade, UAB physicians have worked directly with eight international cystic fibrosis teams, while indirectly assisting more than a dozen others across Latin America and the Middle East.
Since 2022, those sites have reported significant improvements, including:
- Better lung function for patients in all age groups
- Fewer infections and pulmonary exacerbations
- More patients treated without increased cost
The team built a new information-management tool, the DALD REDCap Registry, a patient-care and outcomes system modeled after those used in advanced medical centers but adapted for low-resource settings.
Turning innovation into impact
As global partnerships expanded, managing the initiative within the university setting became more complex. DALD officially launched as an independent 501(c)(3) in September 2025 with guidance from UAB’s Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, enabling more flexibility to continue the work.
“This nonprofit model demonstrates another way UAB innovations can create change around the world,” said Karthik Gopalakrishnan, Ph.D., director of the Harbert Institute. “DALD provides tools that ensure limited health care resources are used effectively while improving lives, which is the ultimate goal of research at UAB.”
Training trainers to ensure sustainability
DALD is designed to improve cystic fibrosis care and empower medical teams to become trainers to create lasting, scalable progress.
“We are building a model that is sustainable, scalable and deeply human,” Gutierrez said. “The dream is for every patient, everywhere, is to have access to quality care.”