Category Newsletter


Colonoscopies the Gold Standard: Other Screening Tools 

Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of mortality in the US, and last year the American Cancer Society began recommending screening at age 45 for those at average risk. The age had previously been 50. But many health insurers only pay for colonoscopies, considered the gold standard of colorectal cancer screening, for people beginning at…


Health equity still out of reach

African-American women are more likely to die of breast and cervical cancer than white women. African-American men are more likely to die of prostate cancer than white men. Hispanic and Native American women have higher rates of cervical cancer than women of other racial and ethnic groups. These disparities, as reported by the National Cancer…


African films, Oscar-nominated Alabama documentary to spotlight annual film festival

The 7th Annual Tuscaloosa Africana Film Festival, co-sponsored by The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences, will be held Saturday, February 16, at Central High School in Tuscaloosa. The event begins at 2 pm with a children’s movie, and regular programming is from 6 pm to 11 pm with a showing of four…


New CCHS Faculty

Dr. Maryam Jafari Bidgoli joined the College as assistant professor of Health Economics in the Department of Community Medicine and Population Health and the Institute for Rural Health Research. Bidgoli earned doctoral and master’s degrees in Economics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She served as a visiting assistant professor of Health Economics for…


Accolades: Dr. Robert Sheppard and Dr. Nathan Culmer

Robert Sheppard and Nathan Culmer

Dr. Robert Sheppard, associate professor of medicine and founder and director of the College’s Hospitalist Medicine Services and Hospitalist Medicine Fellowship, was awarded the 2019 Distinguished Service Award from The University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association. The award is given “For superior accomplishments and contributions to the University of Alabama School of Medicine.” Sheppard was…


January 2019 Accolades: Dr. Robert Sheppard and Dr. Nathan Culmer

Robert Sheppard and Nathan Culmer

Dr. Robert Sheppard, associate professor of medicine and founder and director of the College’s Hospitalist Medicine Services and Hospitalist Medicine Fellowship, was awarded the 2019 Distinguished Service Award from The University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association. The award is given “For superior accomplishments and contributions to the University of Alabama School of Medicine.” Sheppard was…


Mission Moment: Millennials changing food trends, benefits everyone

Suzanne Henson

Millennials are driving trends in the food industry, but those changes can help everyone, said Suzanne Henson, a registered dietitian at University Medical Center, which is operated by the College of Community Health Sciences. Henson, also assistant professor in the College’s Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine, gave the first presentation of the spring…


Accolades: November 2018

Dr. Gregg Bell, assistant professor in the College’s Department of Community Medicine and Population Health and Institute for Rural Health Research, provided a poster presentation about his research on National Data Centers at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Expo in San Diego, California, November 10-14. Research on long-acting, reversible contraception conducted by…


November 2018 Accolades

Dr. Gregg Bell, assistant professor in the College’s Department of Community Medicine and Population Health and Institute for Rural Health Research, provided a poster presentation about his research on National Data Centers at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Expo in San Diego, California, November 10-14. Research on long-acting, reversible contraception conducted by…


Online exhibition examines smoking in the military

The latest online exhibition of The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society examines smoking in the military and was released in November to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Dr. Alan Blum, the College’s Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine, also…