On May 18, 2024, UAB Heersink School of Medicine hosted its 2024 Commencement ceremony at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, to celebrate its 169 graduating medical students.

W. Scott Jennings, CPA, MBA, executive administrator of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Radiology, has been named the 2024 Will Ferniany Academic Medicine Leadership Award recipient.

Mark Dransfield, M.D., has been named interim chair of the UAB Department of Medicine, effective Sept. 1, 2024. Dransfield is a professor of Medicine and director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine. He also holds the Ben Vaughan Branscomb Chair of Medicine in Respiratory Disease.

The House Staff Council (HSC) is a group of residents and fellows that meets monthly with Graduate Medical Education (GME) Office leadership to represent the voice of residents and fellows throughout all programs. A few of the outgoing leaders discuss their time on the HSC and look ahead to the future of HSC leadership.

Each quarter, the Heersink School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion hosts Staff Grand Rounds, featuring guest speakers who provide educational content to staff. This quarter on April 30, Michelle Horvath, J.D., university ombudsperson at UAB, delivered the presentation for Staff Grand Rounds.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) hosted its Annual Education Conference March 7-9. More than 4,000 people in health care education leadership, caregiving, and administrative positions attended the conference in Orlando, Florida. Among these attendees were Tekuila Carter, M.D., Anesthesiology Program Director, Kimberly Butler Pediatric Residency Program Manager, and Gabriel Daniels, M.D., PGY 4 fellow in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. There were a total of 14 attendees from UAB.

Eddie Higginbotham, an MS2 student at the Heersink School of Medicine on the primary care track, recently visited his childhood elementary school to perform vision screenings in partnership with Impact America’s Focus First.

As May approaches, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion looks forward to celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month 2024.

Since October 2023, Heersink School of Medicine’s Department of Medical Education has hosted several faculty training sessions in partnership with the Global Ultrasound Institute (GUSI). GUSI aims to equip medical professionals with skills to effectively use Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) devices.

On April 9, 2024, an AAMC-sponsored briefing was held in a U.S. Congressional session to examine the impact of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA, 2021). UAB’s Craig Hoesley, M.D., senior associate dean for Medical Education, participated as one of three panelists representing health systems and hospitals that have benefited from the legislation.

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.

The second annual Montgomery Health Policy Meeting was held on Thursday, April 4, 2024. Sponsored by UAB Heersink School of Medicine Montgomery Regional Medical Campus and the Kennamer family, the event aims to bring together prominent members of government, public health and policy, and medicine to highlight urgent issues affecting the people of Alabama.

The Office for Diversity and Inclusion is excited to host the next Staff Grand Rounds session featuring UAB’s University Ombudsperson. Michelle R. Horvath, J.D., will discuss practical strategies to navigate workplace conflicts effectively.

In the intricate landscape of cellular biology, a group of dedicated Heersink investigators is unraveling the mysteries of protein glycosylation, particularly focusing on the enigmatic world of sialylation. Led by Susan Bellis, Ph.D., the Glycobiology group at UAB delves deep into the significance of sialic acid modifications and their profound impact on cellular behavior. As we sat down with Bellis, she shared valuable insights into the group's pioneering work and its pivotal role in shaping our understanding of glycobiology.

In this second quarterly space and facilities article, we will focus on space assignment and space management. The Heersink School of Medicine has roughly 1.8 million square feet to manage, fund, and account for across 60 campus buildings, and the school is the predominant occupant in over 20 of the facilities. Most of the school’s space [85%+] is assigned to our academic departments, while the remainder is assigned to the Dean’s Office, Medical Education, regional campuses, Heersink institutes, and institutional research cores. All assignable space is organized into three main categories: administrative space, clinical research space, and basic research space; these groups account for 54%, 8%, and 38% of the school’s total space footprint, respectively.

The UAB Graduate Medical Education office is now offering its residents, fellows, and faculty a new training opportunity through the American Medical Association (AMA). The piloting of the AMA GME Competency Software in September 2023 was made possible by medical education funding through a HRSA grant.

World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every April 7, and is one of 11 global health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, at least 140 countries currently recognize health as a human right in their constitution. However, as of 2021, at least 4.5 billion people were not fully covered by essential health services.

Nineteen individuals comprising five teams recently graduated from UAB Medicine’s High Performing Care Collaborative’s (HPCC’s) Spring 2024 program.

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.

UAB medical students gathered with family, friends, and Heersink School of Medicine faculty and staff on Friday, March 15, 2024, to celebrate this year’s Match Day. At 11 a.m., the 2024 graduating class learned the institutions where they will complete their residencies.