The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences is dedicated to improving and promoting the health of individuals and communities. The College accomplishes its mission through leadership in medical and health-related education, the provision of direct patient care and research.
College announces new psychiatry residency
The College of Community Health Sciences is launching a new residency program to help address the critical need for psychiatrists in the state. The newly accredited University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Psychiatry Residency Program is a four-year education and training program for medical school graduates that will prepare board-eligible residents in the field of psychiatry. The residency will allow for six residents each year, with the first class to start June 2026.
Education
- The College is home to one of the nation’s oldest and largest family medicine residencies, the UA Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency program, and offers post-residency fellowships as well as graduate degree programs in population health and community and rural health.
- In its role as a regional campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine, the College provides the third and fourth years of clinical education and training to a portion of medical students.
- Through a series of nationally recognized pipeline programs, the College recruits and mentors students from rural Alabama who want to return to their hometowns or similar areas to practice.
Health Care
- The College operates University Medical Center, with six locations that together comprise the largest multi-specialty community medical practice in West Alabama.
- The College also operates the UA Student Health Center and Pharmacy and Capstone Hospitalist Group.
Research
- The College houses the Institute for Rural Health Research, the UA Center for Convergent Bioscience & Medicine and the UA Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society and engages in research to support its mission.
Departments
Sports Medicine
The Department of Sports Medicine is committed to impacting the field of sports medicine through innovative and practical clinical teaching and training.
Surgery
The Department of Surgery provides comprehensive education and training for future generations of physicians and delivers the most advanced care to patients from across the region.
Translational Science and Medicine
Coming Soon!
In the News
Connect health care and research with a CCHS online master’s degree in population health sciences.
One of seven family medicine physicians practicing in Alabama graduated from our residency – one of the oldest and largest family medicine residencies in the United States.
Congratulations
Twenty-six graduates of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine were recognized at The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences Senior Banquet held May 15 at Cypress Inn Pavilion in Tuscaloosa.
As a regional campus of the Heersink School of Medicine, the College provides clinical education for a portion of third- and fourth-year medical students.
The graduating students, now physicians, have begun residency training in programs across 10 states. The students were matched into residencies in family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, general surgery, urology, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, internal medicine and neurology.
Eighteen students studying to become physicians, dentists and other health-care providers and who want to practice in rural Alabama communities were recognized April 26 at a College of Community Health Sciences convocation. The students are part of the College’s 2024-25 classes of Rural Medical Scholars, Rural Dental Scholars and Rural Community Health Scholars programs.
The Rural Medical Scholars and Rural Dental Scholars programs are exclusively for rural Alabama students and provide admission pathways to UAB medical and dental schools. Both include a year of study and a master’s degrees in Rural Community Health, after students receive their undergraduate degrees, and early admission to the UAB Heersink School of Medicine and the UAB School of Dentistry. Students in the 2024-25 Rural Medical Scholars and Rural Dental Scholars classes will begin medical school and dental school this summer.
Participants in the Rural Community Health Scholars Program, also for rural Alabama college graduates, complete a year of studies alongside Rural Medical Scholars and earn a master’s degree in Rural Community Health. Many enter nursing, physician’s assistant and other allied health programs and professions.
Distinguished CCHS Professor wins UA’s SEC Faculty Award
Dr. M.N.V. Ravi Kumar, Distinguished Research Professor with the College of Community Health Sciences, has been selected as UA’s recipient of the 2025 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award.
Our Mission
We are dedicated to improving and promoting the health of individuals and communities in rural Alabama and the Southeast region through leadership in medical and health-related education, primary care and population health; the provision of high quality, accessible health care services; and research and scholarship.
Core Values
- Integrity
- Learning
- Innovation
- Transparency
- Social Accountability
- Patient-Centeredness
- Interprofessional Collaboration