UAB Grand Challenge winning proposal announced April 30, 2019
Healthy Alabama 2030: Live HealthSmart is the winning project selected for the inaugural UAB Grand Challenge. Led by Principal Investigator Dr. Mona Fouad, director of the UAB Minority Health and Health Equity Research Center, the project plans to make Alabama a model of healthy living.
By expanding proven innovations and changing policies, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces, Healthy Alabama 2030 aims to dramatically improve the health of all Alabamians by elevating our state out of the bottom 10 in national health rankings by the year 2030.
Alabama ranks 46th nationally in obesity, 48th in diabetes, and 49th in high blood pressure, among other metrics, and the magnitude of this problem and its impact on population health, quality of life, workforce readiness and our state economy is staggering. Dr. Fouad and her team will employ a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach—comprising academic partners, businesses, healthcare and insurance providers, local and state governments, faith-based organizations and community stakeholders—in a concerted effort to lift Alabama into the 30s in key health metrics over the next 10 years.
UAB Grand Challenge Finalists
The UAB Grand Challenge, a key component of Forging the Future, UAB’s strategic plan, inspired 77 initial entries from teams across campus and the community. Following workshops, teams formed to further develop and consolidate their concepts, eventually producing six fully formed and impressive proposals.
UAB team wants to build a roadmap to a model city
What does a smart, sustainable city look like in the 21st century? This Grand Challenge proposal would create a large-scale testbed for new approaches in technology, policy and sustainability in Birmingham to prove best practices to be used by cities throughout Alabama, the United States and the world.
