45th Anniversary of the UA Family Medicine Residency

This year marks the 45th anniversary of The University of Alabama Family Medicine Residency (formerly the Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency). To mark the occasion, the College of Community Health Sciences, which operates the residency, will host an alumni reunion weekend August 28-30, 2020. The reunion will be held in Tuscaloosa and will include a welcome…


IUGR and Umbilical Artery Dopplers: Informed Delivery for Healthier Babies

Intrauterine growth restriction occurs when the baby is less than the 10th percentile in growth, and if a mother has one baby with IUGR there is a 20% risk of reoccurrence. It is, therefore, vital that all physicians be well versed in the signs, symptoms and diagnostic markers for the condition, according to Dr. Elizabeth…


January 2020 Accolades

Dr. John C. Higginbotham, senior vice president for research and economic development for The University of Alabama, will serve as a senior fellow and mentor for UA’s Alabama Life Research Institute fellows and as an advisor to Dr. Sharlene Newman, ALRI executive director. Dr. Louanne Friend, assistant professor of community medicine and population health, was…


New Roles

Dr. Marisa Giggie, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine for the College of Community Health Sciences, was named vice chair of the College’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine. Giggie, who joined the department in 2009, also directs the Betty Shirley Clinic at University Medical Center, which CCHS operates, and the College’s Behavioral Medicine…


Memory Loss Prevention: Exercise the Mind

Moderate exercise of just four hours over the course of the week can lower your risk of developing cogitative degenerative disease like dementia or Alzheimer’s by 20%, according to research cited by Dr. Raheem Paxton during his presentation as part of the Mini Medical School program, a collaboration of the College of Community Health Sciences…


Understanding Seizures and Epilepsy

Only a third of people who experience one seizure will have a second seizure in their lifetime. However, if two seizures occur more than 24 hours apart, the chance of another seizure rises to 76%, usually within a year. Seizures are an excess of neurons firing in the brain, said Dr. Catherine Ikard, an assistant…


2019 Year in Review

As we look forward to a new year, we reflect on 2019, a year of transition and growth for the College of Community Health Sciences. During the past year, CCHS added more than 20 new faculty to expand the College’s work of educating and training future generations of primary care physicians and of conducting pioneering…


November 2019 Accolades

Dr. Raheem Paxton, associate professor of community medicine and population health at the College of Community Health Sciences, co-authored: “Development and implementation of a logic model: Occupationalstress, physical activity, and sedentary behavior in the workplace,” acceptedfor publication in WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation; and “Item-level psychometrics of a brief self-reported memory problem…


Spinal Stenosis in the Geriatric Community

Lower back pain can be caused by a variety of factors, but in 22% of patients the culprit is lumbar spinal stenosis, or LSS, said Dr. Brett Bentley, assistant professor of sports medicine at The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences. He said the compression of the nerves extending from the spinal cord,…


Breast Cancer Disparities

Breast cancer is the most common form of detected cancer in women in the U.S., according to Carol DeSantis, MPH, a principal scientist in surveillance research in the intramural research program with the American Cancer Society. DeSantis spoke to residents, faculty and medical professionals at the Dr. Joe W. and Virginia Hursey O’Neal Endowed Lecture…