• High-Tech hide-and-seek being played in UAB classroom

    SAM 940 NormanBolus HalieStephenson ShannonPettwayNorman E. Bolus, MPH, CNMT, Halie Stephenson, Shannon PettwayThe University of Alabama at Birmingham offers a class where students play hide and seek.

    However, they are not looking for each other and they cannot see what they are looking for.

  • UAB students spend Spring Break serving others

    Physician Assistant student w/childPhysician Assistant student w/childSo what did you do for Spring Break?

    Beach? Check.

    Exotic destination? Check.

    Provide medical services to those in need? Wait, what?

  • UAB student discusses genetic testing at Rare Disease Symposium

    Emily WakefieldEmily Wakefield presentation, Rare Disease DayUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham graduate student Emily Wakefield, a second-year in the UAB School of Health ProfessionsGenetic Counseling program, addressed an audience of rare disease patients, along with their family, friends and care givers, about the benefits, limitations and fears of genetic testing.
    February 28, 2014, marks the seventh worldwide Rare Disease Day and Wakefield’s remarks came at UAB’s Rare Disease Symposium. This is the first year UAB has celebrated the international event. Rare diseases are categorized as those that affect fewer than 200,000 people.

  • UAB program uses Standardized Patients, Simulators to prepare Genetic Counseling students

    GC Sim Lab web 01Dawn Taylor Peterson, Ph.D., monitors simulatorSitting in the clinic room alone with her crying baby is a 20-something year old mother. She does not know it, but she is about to be told that her 10-month-old son who is being evaluated for failure to thrive may also have a genetic condition that could lead to additional health and developmental problems in the future.

    Delivering the news is a second-year graduate student in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Genetic Counseling Program. This is the first time the student will have the opportunity to deliver this type of abnormal test result during her training as a genetic counselor.

    Fortunately for all involved, this is a simulation session where the mother is a standardized patient and the baby is a high-fidelity mannequin. The session provides the genetic counseling class members the opportunity to deliver difficult and complex genetic test information in a realistic, yet supervised environment. Unfortunately, this will not be the last time any of them deliver bad news.

  • SHP alumna 1st Genetic Counselor for UAB Cytogenetics Lab

    Dana Hollenbeck-2When the University of Alabama at Birmingham Clinical Cytogenetics Laboratory decided to hire their first ever genetic counselor they started by meeting with prospective applicants at the 2012 National Society of Genetic Counselors conference in Boston - the logical place to find the best genetic counselors in the United States.

    But as it turns out, to find the best they didn’t need to leave Alabama. Or Birmingham. Or UAB. Or University Boulevard. Dana Hollenbeck, who they eventually hired, was a second year student in the UAB Genetic Counseling Program located in the School of Health Professions Department of Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences – a mere three blocks from their headquarters in the Kaul Human Genetics Building.

  • Physician Assistant program offering three options for workforce needs

    Surigcal Physician Assistant options Because of the Affordable Care Act, the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Physician Assistant Studies (PA) degree program is adding options for students to better prepare them for workforce needs. Currently, all graduates from the PA program can be employed in any setting; however, the program has a history of adding additional courses and clinical rotations in surgery, allowing students to be better prepared for surgical subspecialty when they graduate. Now the students will have the option to obtain additional clinical rotations in trauma or primary care.

  • Use the holidays to gather your family's health history

    lynn_holt talks family history during holidaysUAB Genetic Counselor Lynn Holt says holidays are a great time to gather family medical history.How much do you know about your family’s health history? Did PawPaw die of heart disease? Has anyone had breast cancer, diabetes or miscarriages?

    If you don’t know the answer to these and other family health questions, this holiday season is the perfect time to mine for information from both sides of your family on your family’s health history, says UAB Genetic Counselor Lynn Holt.
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