UAB Briefs: International honor, doctors needed, mixed methods
In this weekly online feature, we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
A UAB administrator who helps make sure that students have quality dining and housing on campus has received some international recognition.
The School of Medicine is continuing its efforts to provide more doctors for Alabama’s underserved rural areas.
And a new online graduate certificate is now available from the School of Nursing and the School of Health Professions.
Know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention? Email jchambers@starnespublishing.com.
INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
Patricia Martinez, assistant vice president for Student Affairs at UAB, is in charge of operations for the Division of Student Affairs and its Student Services departments.
And she has a long list of duties, including ultimate oversight for student dining, housing and other services on campus.
Martinez was honored recently with the 2019 Parthenon Award for outstanding achievement in the collegiate housing field, according to UAB Media Relations.
The award is given by the Association of College and University Housing Officers International, which has about 17,000 members worldwide.
Martinez, who joined UAB three years ago, is “well-deserving” of the award, and her “excellence has a wide, impactful reach,” said John Jones, vice president for Student Affairs.
DOCTORS NEEDED
There is a dire shortage of primary-care physicians in Alabama, especially in rural and underserved urban areas, according to UAB experts.
“Alabama has one of the worst primary care shortages in the nation,” said Dr. Irfan Asif, chair of the UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine, in a recent university news release.
That’s why Asif and others recently created a new rural residency program made possible by a partnership between UAB and Cahaba Medical Care, a family medicine group with clinics in Jefferson, Bibb, Perry, Chilton, Dallas and Autauga counties.
Medical West Hospital in Bessemer, an affiliate of the UAB Health System, and J. Paul Jones Hospital in Camden will also take part, according to the news release.
The program, called Frontier Track, is funded by a grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration’s Rural Residency Planning and Development program.
The grant is part of a larger $20 million, multi-year initiative by HRSA to expand the physician workforce in rural areas.
Last year, UAB and Cahaba Medical Care partnered to create the Cahaba-UAB Family Medicine Residency, which trains 12 new medical school graduates per year during a three-year residency.
With the creation of the Frontier Track, two or three additional residents will be added to the program for a three-year residency
UAB and Cahaba Medical Care will begin recruiting residents for the Frontier Track in 2021. The residency is expected to begin in 2022.
MIXED METHODS
The UAB School of Health Professions and the UAB School of Nursing have combined to launch a new online graduate certificate in applications of mixed methods research, according to a news release from UAB Media Relations.
There is a growing demand for researchers who can use both quantitative and qualitative approaches in their research projects, according to the news release.
The program “helps fill in the gap in formal educational opportunities in mixed methods research in the United States,” said Nataliya Ivankova, program director and a professor in the Department of Health Services Administration.
“More scientists have come to understand that quantitative research methods alone don’t tell the whole picture of an individual’s experience of health or illness,” said Linda Moneyham, senior associate dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Nursing.
The program is open to doctoral and post-master students, instructors, researchers and practitioners.
For details, check out go.uab.edu/gcmmr.