In the News - News
A free downloadable Cancer Resource app for smartphones that allows patients and caregivers to identify more than 500 valuable community resources for people in north central Alabama has been created by faculty and students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Visualize Birmingham without UAB.  Exit the Red Mountain Expressway at University Avenue (without UAB--it would be 8th Avenue South) and drive west. What would we see in place of the 86 square blocks occupied by UAB?
It's been a little more than one year since Ray Watts was named president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. During that 12 months, UAB posted record enrollment for the fifth straight year. The school made several strategic hires, including four new deans. It added some high-tech upgrades to its cancer-fighting arsenal. And it launched a billion-dollar fundraising campaign.
When the 25-year-old student at UAB's School of Dentistry snapped an iPhone picture of the snow that blanketed Birmingham last week, he had no idea the impact the photo would have as it swept across social media, or its potential to earn him cash. Or to do good. Now's he taking advantage of his 15 minutes, but not to help himself.
From: Chicago Sun-Times
In the Jan. 16 New England Journal of Medicine, Ilana Yurkiewicz of Harvard Medical School, Lisa Soleymani Lehmann of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Bruce Korf of the University of Alabama at Birmingham argue that it is ethical to provide parents with prenatal whole genome sequencing information about their prospective children.
From: Time Healthland
Cabin fever isn’t a psychiatric diagnosis, but it does exist, says Josh Klapow, a clinical psychologist with a PhD at the school of public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “It’s when you’re in a space of restricted freedom for a period of time that you can no longer tolerate.”
Using home-based hospice practices for terminally ill, hospitalized patients could reduce suffering and improve end-of-life care, according to a study. The study “was designed to see whether home-based hospice practices could be successfully integrated into care in hospitals to improve the end-of-life experience for those who remain hospitalized at time of death,” Amos Bailey, MD, of the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The idea that sex sells is generally accepted as fact. The idea that the sex of cells is important to biomedical research is not as well-known, but an article co-written by a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, suggests that the sex of individual cells matters.
UAB's football team had an offseason workout at Legion Field this morning. That's normal, but check out this photo of strength and conditioning coach Zac Woodfin carrying Tim Alexander, who was paralyzed in a 2006 car crash, up the steps to join the team.
"I don't have any scientific evidence, but, yes, we anticipate there will be a spike in deliveries," said Elicia Jacob, administrative director of nursing in UAB Hospital's Women and Infant Services. Jacob said she's making the observation based on 19 years of experience. She said they plan staffing for such events, making sure not too many people are on vacation surrounding that 9-month period after a big storm or long-term power outage. Alabama has been hit by back-to-back snow and ice storms that have virtually shut down the city for days.
When a prime-time sportscaster went on the air to cover the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics with pink eye, the world took notice of the obvious symptom of the swollen, red eye. One University of Alabama at Birmingham optometrist says this virus currently lacks an FDA-approved drug, but she has a planned study to solve that.
University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, which has been operating on a severe weather plan since Monday, and Alabama-based St. Vincent's Health System are keeping in close contact with patients and rescheduling procedures on a case-by-case basis, ABC3340.com reported. Automated systems allow the hospitals to send patients text messages, emails and phone calls to keep them informed about their procedures.
In his spare time, the leader of Alabama’s largest employer and Birmingham’s economic engine enjoys gardening and deep-sea fishing. Metaphorically speaking, Dr. Ray Watts did quite a bit of both during his first year as president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which has more than 23,000 employees and 18,500 students.
Today marks the 205th birthday of the great British naturalist Charles Darwin, whose famous theory of evolution -- first advanced in 1859 -- still stirs passionate debate between scientists and creationists.

The UAB Department of Biology will mark Darwin's birthday -- and tout the value of scientific research -- with a two-day event, "Darwin Day: A Celebration of Science," on Thursday and Friday, according to a UAB news release.

Most "Darwin Day" activities will take place at the Edge of Chaos conference venue at the Lister Hill Library on campus.
Consolidating Analytics at UAB - Many health systems’ data analytics expertise is spread across the organization, with business analysts and quality analysts focused on different pieces of the puzzle. Until recently, diffuse analytics capabilities were prevalent at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Health System, Birmingham, Ala., one of the five largest academic medical centers in the United States. But UAB is moving its data analytics resources under one umbrella, says Joan Hicks, CIO.
Weight loss as rapid as Frederickson's could result in a loss of bone mass and an increase in bone marrow fat, explained assistant professor Krista Casazza, Ph.D., R.D., which might set a person up for cardiovascular problems like heart attacks and high blood pressure, as well as increased risk of fractures. Casazza is an expert on body tissue partitioning (the interplay between fat, bone and muscle) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Yakov and Aleksandra Kasman, the father-daughter, teacher-student, duo-piano team, plumbed the depths of Sergei Rachmaninoff at the Alys Stephens Center, revealing the dreamy textures, soaring melodies and sumptuous harmonies in works from three periods of the composer's output.
Stephen Russell, M.D., strongly believes creativity is an important aspect of medicine, so much so that he teaches his students to use art to enhance their skills as physicians.
David Becker, a UAB professor specializing in health, labor and regulatory economics, was among a group of experts who said making more Alabamians eligible for Medicaid is in the best interest of the state’s short-term spending and long-term financial well-being, as well as the overall physical condition of the people in the state. Becker said there’s a “huge, huge incentive” to expand Medicaid while the federal government is paying 100 percent.
There is much value in training hospital and nursing home staff in the basics of palliative care to make the last days of a dying patient's life as comfortable and dignified as possible. So says F. Amos Bailey of the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the US.
“In the final episode, she looks emaciated,” said Krista Casazza, Ph.D., R.D. and an expert on body tissue partitioning at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Up until the final episode when she was losing weight with the trainers, not at home, she looked a lot healthier and looked like she was preserving the bone and lean mass,” Casazza told the Huffington Post.
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