Dr. Meenahski Arora, associate professor of biomedical sciences at the College of Community Health Sciences, Dr. Raghu Ganugula, assistant professor of biomedical sciences at CCHS, and Dr. M.N.V. Ravi Kumar, Distinguished University Research Professor at CCHS, co-authored: “Dose optimization of lymph node-targeted cyclosporine A for lupus-driven vasculopathy,” published in the Journal of Controlled Release; “Design and in vitro evaluation of gambogic acid-conjugated stearic acid solid lipid nanoparticles for transferrin receptor-mediated drug delivery,” published in the Pharmaceutical Research Journal; and “Naringenin-functionalized polyester nanoparticles improve oral urolithin A delivery and protect against cisplatin-induced kidney injury via heme oxygenase-1 activation and mitochondrial quality control,” published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
Dr. Ansley Baccus, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine, was interviewed by a third-year medical student, Kendrick Yu, that was published in NexBioHealth magazine. The interview focused on the inner workings of medical education and how medical students can position themselves for growth.
Dr. Maryam Bidgoli, assistant professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health, co-authored “Perceived Discrimination in Health Care Settings and Care Delays in Patients with Diabetes and Hypertension,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network; she was interviewed by MedPage Today for her article, “When Patients Feel Unheard: The Impact of Perceived Discrimination in Chronic Disease,” which highlights her research on the impact of perceived discrimination in health care settings.
Drs. Maryam Bidgoli and Abbey Gregg, assistant professors in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health, and Dr. Martha Crowther, professor and chair of the department, co-authored “Financial perceptions and subjective well-being among older adults,” published in Frontiers in Psychology: Psychology of Aging.
Dr. Alan Blum, Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair of Family Medicine and director of The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, published an online exhibition on the center’s website of 300 old advertisements titled “Diabetic Bread, Goat Milk Formula, Soda, Sun Lamps, and Cigarettes,” which showed how the Journal of the American Medical Association published advertisements for medications alongside promotions for unhealthy products; he also published a four-part exhibition on the center’s website titled “Universities and Tobacco: The Ties that Blind,” which focused on smoking on college campuses and how university career centers welcomed cigarette manufacturers to student job fairs.
Dr. Nathan Culmer, associate professor and director of academic technologies and faculty development at CCHS, co-authored “Patient perceptions on the acceptability and appropriateness of mental health screening and follow-up in national dental practice-based research network practices,” published in PubMed in the National Library of Medicine of the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Dr. Dale Dickinson, clinical associate professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health, co-authored “Environmental Health: Overview” and “Environmental Carcinogens,” published in the International Encyclopedia of Public Health.
Dr. Marcelo Galafassi, teaching assistant professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health, co-authored “Impact of prior concussion history on concussion symptoms and health-related quality of life in an underrepresented and historically excluded population,” published in the Brain Injury Journal.
Dr. Antonio Gardner, associate professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health, co-authored a chapter in A Competency-Based Framework for Health Education Specialists – 2025, which focused on the Health Education Specialist Analysis III 2025 Process and Outcomes; “18: Health education research with black/African Americans, published in Research Handbook on Health Education, Health Promotion and Diversity; and authored “Preparing Public Health Education Advocates,” published in Health Promotion Practice.
Dr. Richard Giovane, clinical assistant professor of inpatient medicine in the Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine, co-authored “Identifying High-Risk Combat Sport Athletes: Position Statement of the Association of Ringside Physicians,” published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine; and “Blood-borne infection prevention in combat sports guidelines,” published in the Association of Ringside Physicians.
Dr. Lisle Hites, professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health, co-authored “An Assessment of Dental Care Quality and Patient Experience in Yerevan, Armenia,” published in the International Journal of Health Care and Quality Assurance.
Drs. Catherine Lavender and Drake Lavender, clinical professors in the Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine, co-authored two chapters for Berek and Novak’s Gynecology 17th Edition: “Preventive Health Care Screening” and “Primary Care.”
Dr. Bob McKinney, clinical associate professor of social work at the College of Community Health Sciences and director of the Office of Case Management and Social Services at University Medical Center, co-authored “Evaluating AI-Generated Geriatric Case Studies for Interprofessional Education: Systematic Analysis Across 5 Platforms,” published in the Journal of Medical Internal Research. CCHS operates UMC.
Dr. Mercedes Morales-Aleman, associate professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health, and Drs. Joy Bradley and Hui Wang, both assistant professors in the department, and their former students, Mary Elizabeth Miller and Amber Marrero-Sierra, co-authored “Periodontal Disease among People Living with Diabetes: Examining Social Determinants of Health in an All of Us Study Sample,” published in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry.
Dr. Sachin Shenoy, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Ashton Robinson and Sheena Khan, both fourth-year medical students, co-authored “Inadequate perinatal asthma control resulting in status asthmaticus requiring ECMO,” published in the British Medical Journal.
Dr. Jane Weida, clinical professor in the Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine, authored a chapter on Measles published in Conn’s Current Therapy 2026, which presents evidence-based information, along with the personal experience and expertise of physicians, including primary care physicians, sub-specialists and allied health professionals; and co-authored “Safe Guns, Saved Lives, A Suicide-Prevention Call for Alabama,” published in the Alabama Daily News.
Dr. John Wheat, professor in the Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine, authored “Twenty-five years of Alabama’s Rural Health Leaders Pipeline: What difference has it made?” published in Frontiers in Medicine.
Dr. Yuhui Yao, assistant professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health, co-authored “Exploring the link between social and economic instability and COPD: A cross-sectional analysis of the 2022 BRFSS,” published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.