Addressing the burden of chronic diseases that are especially prevalent in the South, like heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure, is the focus of a new University Wide Interdisciplinary Research Center (UWIRC) that was announced in July 2025. The UAB Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center is UAB’s only UWIRC that offers a comprehensive infrastructure for chronic disease prevention and control through community-engaged and population health research approaches.

The center offers expertise and services in study and clinical trial participation, measurement/evaluation, community health coaching, and community-based participatory research. This integrated infrastructure reinforces and streamlines the research process, reduces complexity, and increases transparency across complex, multi-level, multi-partner studies.

The Heersink School of Medicine Office of Research unveiled a new research focus area in 2025, Health Across the Lifecourse (HEAL). The focus area is aimed at improving understanding of how factors such as environment and socioeconomic background shape a person’s access to healthcare and their health outcomes over a lifetime. Through HEAL, we aim to bridge research, practice, and policy to address these influences more effectively.

According to Michael Mugavero, M.D., professor in the UAB Department of Medicine and HEAL faculty lead, “Alabama experiences some of the highest rates of chronic disease, early mortality, and limited access to essential care, particularly in areas with geographic or economic barriers. Without focused, data-driven research, these challenges will continue to strain the healthcare system and slow our economic progress. HEAL research supports health improvement across the lifecourse by developing real-world solutions that enhance health outcomes for individuals and populations.”