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UAB Medicine passed an impressive milestone last Friday: successful completion of 200,000 ambulatory telehealth visits since March 16, 2020. Medical Director for Telehealth Eric Wallace, MD (Associate Professor, Nephrology) reports that our speedy adoption of the UAB e-Medicine platform was vital to provide necessary healthcare for our patients during the pandemic, and it will continue to expand our access to patients for years to come. To every patient care provider from schedulers, to the MSO office, informatics, CMAs, nurses, compliance and clinicians, we salute you!

In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, cardiologists began to notice a disturbing trend in their caseload: a precipitous drop in hospital admissions due to heart attack. Dr. Mustafa Ahmed (Associate Professor, Cardiovascular Disease) attributes the decline to an obvious cause. People delayed coming to the hospital because they were afraid of contracting COVID-19. However, through rapid expansion of telemedicine and safety protocols, UAB is able to deliver needed cardiovascular care without potentially dangerous delays.

The Department is delighted to celebrate the appointment of Luciano Costa, MD, PhD (Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology) as the new Associate Director for Clinical Research in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Costa currently directs the Multiple Myeloma and the Immune Effector Cellular Therapy programs at UAB, and his primary research focus is the development of new therapies for plasma cell malignancies. In this new role, Dr. Costa will work with the team of O’Neal clinical investigators to expand the number of potentially disease-altering clinical trials that we can offer our cancer patients, and to accelerate the transition of research discoveries to clinical care.

Pictured above: Research nurses Sue Ellen Binkley, RN, and Dorothy Nieters, RN, in the Infusion Clinic.

When patients with chronic illness like sickle cell disease or cancer also test positive for COVID-19, they still need access to their intravenous medicines. Similarly, people who are participating in COVID research, such as convalescent plasma therapy or development of new treatments, also need a dedicated space for infusion care. Now, thanks to a collaborative effort between leaders in Ambulatory Services and the Department of Medicine, a new clinic space in West Pavilion provides a 9-chair space to safely cohort both patients and research subjects as they receive infusions. We are thrilled to be proactively providing this standard of care with partners across the institution.

The Staging Transition for Every Patient (STEP) Program begins next week as a collaboration between Children’s of Alabama and UAB. The program will help adolescent patients with chronic and complex childhood medical conditions transition to adult health care. Medical Director Carlie Stein, MD (Assistant Professor, General Internal Medicine) explains that many conditions that were previously associated with shortened lifespans now have increased life expectancy due to treatment advances. The program will help these patients foster independence as they take over responsibility for health-related concerns from a parent or caregiver.