UAB

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In just a few decades, UAB has evolved into a world-renowned research university and health care center, Alabama’s single largest employer, and an engine of revitalization for the city of Birmingham. With more than 17,000 students, 18,600 faculty and staff, and a campus covering more than 80 city blocks, UAB is focused on the future of teaching, research, health care, and community service.ECONOMIC IMPACT Of UABUAB's overall direct and indirect economic impact in the Birmingham MSA in 2003 reached nearly $2.9 billion. Over the past two fiscal years, the overall impact increased by an estimated 15.5 percent.A large portion of that total comes from spending by 16,000 employees coming to campus to work and teach, more than 17,000 students coming to campus to learn, and untold thousands visiting UAB’s hospitals, clinics, performing arts center, athletic events and other public venues.UAB is responsible for 52,900 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs. This figure represents the number of jobs the presence of UAB creates both within the university and the community. Eight in every 100 jobs in the Birmingham area is related to UAB; 2.8 jobs in every 100 jobs in Alabama are related to UAB.RESEARCH AT UABA consortium of investigators from six regional universities has been chosen to be part of a new biodefense initiative that will work to develop the next generation of vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tests against emerging infections such as SARS, and for defense against organisms such as smallpox that might be used in bioterrorist attacks. The Southeast Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense (SERCEB) will include researchers from Duke University Medical Center, Emory University, UAB, University of Florida, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.UAB received a nearly $16 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to aid in the construction of the Southeast Biosafety Laboratory, which will be used to help develop the next generation of vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tests for emerging infections such as SARS and West Nile and for defense against organisms such as pox viruses that might be used in bioterrorist attacks.Scientists at UAB discovered the origin of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1), the virus that causes AIDS in humans. This finding by an international team of scientists led by Dr. Beatrice H. Hahn of UAB, solved a 20-year-old puzzle regarding the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic which now afflicts some 40 million people worldwide.UNIVERSITY HOSPITALThe 2005-2006 list of "Best Doctors in America" includes 234 UAB physicians, comprising more than two-thirds of all specialists from the Birmingham metropolitan area now in the Best Doctors database. Best Doctors is an independent, knowledge-based medical referral service located in Aiken, S.C. Its surveys ask peer physicians, If you or a loved one needed a doctor in your specialty, to whom would you refer them? Only about 3 to 5 percent of all specialists worldwide make the list, which currently names 33,000 in the U.S. including 345 physicians in the Birmingham area.Seven UAB Hospital specialty programs are among the nation's top 50 - five are in the top 25 - of the 16 categories evaluated at America's 5,189 hospitals in 2006 by U.S. News & World Report. The rankings appeared in the magazine's 17th annual "America's Best Hospitals" issue, released July 7. With its seven ranked programs, UAB Hospital was one of only 176 hospitals, or about 3 percent of U.S. institutions studied -and the only hospital in Alabama or Mississippi - to rank high enough in even one specialty to make the magazine's national "Best Hospital's" list. Highlights for UAB Hospital this year include: The UAB Hospital rheumatology program ranked sixth nationally for an unprecedented 15th consecutive year, topping seventh-place UCLA Medical Center. In heart and heart surgery. UAB Hospital ranked 14th, ranking for the 11th consecutive year and ahead of 15th-place Emory University Hospital. The gynecology program at UAB Hospital ranked 15th, ahead of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (16). In kidney disease, UAB Hospital ranked 17th, with the University of Maryland Medical Center 18th. UAB Hospital's cancer program was 23rd, topping New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell. In orthopedics, UAB Hospital was 47th in the survey; and for respiratory disorders, 48th.The UAB Health System (UABHS) remains one of the 100 most wired hospitals in the nation, with 2006 marking its seventh year on the prestigious list - a tenure longer than other top medical centers, including Duke University Health System (two years), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (two years) and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (two years). UABHS was named by Hospitals and Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association, as one of the 100 “Most Wired Hospitals and Health Networks” in its July 2006 issue. UABHS has been included on the list seven of the eight years HHN has been conducting the annual survey, making it the only hospital in Alabama to merit such a distinction.Two UAB Hospital specialty programs made the Top 10 and nine specialty programs were ranked in U.S. News & World Report's 2005 annual "America's Best Hospitals¨ issue. Rheumatology was ranked sixth for an unprecedented 14th consecutive year; and heart and heart surgery leapt from 25th to 10th during the last two years. UAB programs ranked include: Cancer, ranked 22nd; Ear, Nose and Throat, ranked 29th; Geriatrics, ranked 27th; Gynecology, ranked 15th; Heart and Heart Surgery, ranked 10th; Kidney Disease, ranked 15th; Neurology and Neurosurgery, ranked 35th; Orthopedics, ranked 34th, and Rheumatology, ranked sixth. Cardiology has been ranked for the past 10 years and gynecology for seven years.UAB FIRSTSIn May 2006, an international team of scientists led by UAB researchers discovers a crucial missing link in the search for the origin of HIV-1, the virus responsible for human AIDS. That missing link is the natural reservoir of the virus, which the team has found in wild-living chimpanzees in southern Cameroon. the study, UAB Professor of Medicine Beatrice H. Hahn, M.D., and her team conducted the first-ever molecular epidemiological survey of SIVcpz infection in wild-living chimpanzees in west-central Africa.UAB researchers at the AIDS Vaccine Evaluation Unit were the first to test a Phase III trial of an AIDS vaccine. This is the first experimental AIDS vaccine to make it to the final stage of testing.The UAB AIDS Center was the first to perform clinical trails of the protease inhibitor Indinavir (Crixivan), one of the first protease inhibitors used in the “triple drug cocktail” to fight HIV.In 1996, UAB researchers showed, for the first time, that the AIDS virus replicates early and aggressively soon after a person is infected with HIV. That discovery changed the way clinicians treat HIV infection.UAB investigators were the first to demonstrate the value of viral load testing in clinical practice. This test allows physicians to follow the response to antiretroviral treatment, much as they follow the blood-sugar response to insulin when treating diabetics.UAB researchers were the first to develop an antibody that causes the death of harmful cancer cells and those active in autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.In May 2003, A UAB patient became the first person in the nation to be administered a new “orphan drug” for Fabry disease that was approved on April 25 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).NEW FACILITIES/ACQUISITIONSUAB dedicated its new Richard C. and Annette N. Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building in April 2006. The building brings together investigators from a wide variety of fields to study important health issues such as diabetes and autoimmune diseases, and conduct bone, bioengineering and brain research. The Shelby Building increases research space on campus by 25 percent and is an integral part of UAB's efforts to continue to grow its research infrastructure. The 12-story facility, with 323,000 square feet of research and office space, was built at a cost of $100 million. Groundbreaking for the project took place in April 2002. Funding for the facility came from the federal government, the State of Alabama, Jefferson County, the City of Birmingham, and the Birmingham-based Community Foundation.In March 2006, the UAB Health System assumed ownership of UAB Highlands. UAB finalized its purchase of the facility (formerly HealthSouth Medical Center) on the south side of Birmingham, culminating a transaction first announced in July 2005. During the interim, UAB provided management services for the facility. Adding this facility to the UAB Health System allows expansion of its physical plant to meet the growing demand for patient services. Clinical services available at UAB Highlands include orthopedic surgery, ophthalmology and plastic surgery. The emergency room at UAB Highlands is another valuable community service.Construction for UAB's new, $140 million Women and Infants' Facility will begin in fall 2006, with completion of the 600,000-square-foot facility expected in 2009. It wil bring together maternity and women's health care services now located in several areas of existing space throughout UAB Hospital. The building also will contain 60,000 square feet for UAB's new Hazelrig-Salter Radiation Oncology Facility.The new UAB Hospital North Pavilion, which opened in November 2004, is nine stories tall, has 850,000 square feet and features an emergency department the size of a football field - desperately needed space since UAB is home to the state’s only adult Level 1 Trauma Center. The new hospital also includes private intensive care units almost the size of current ICUs and larger operating suites with the latest technology from minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgery. A new $33 million Heart and Vascular Center opened in June 2006 and is of the most advanced such facilities in the world.As envisioned in the campus master plan, the university is creating a major Campus Green by closing four city blocks along 15th Street from University Boulevard southward to 10th Avenue South.May 1, 2005, UAB opened a corner stone of the new Campus Green, the $24 million, nearly 150,000-square-foot UAB Campus Recreation Center, which features an indoor recreational pool with a lap pool, indoor basketball courts, a multi-purpose court, a climbing wall, cardiovascular fitness areas and well-equipped weight-lifting areas. The center was one of nine facilities nationwide to receive the 2006 Outstanding Sports Facilities Award presented by the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (MIRSA). The predominant feature of the building is an oval running track that exits and re-enters the building on the west side and protrudes from the building on the north side providing an interesting view for the walkers and joggers.Additional milestones in implementing the Campus Green include new Commons on the Green dining facility, which brings a new concept of food options to campus. Students and staff can choose from a salad and soup bar, international cuisine, a pasta and pizza station, vegetarian or event popular diet program options.Also located on the Green is the new 700 –bed Blazer Hall, offers first-time freshman a wide variety of amenities and a great central location. The new 16th Street Parking Deck at 10th Avenue South and 16th Street South adds 1,300 parking spaces for commuter and residential students.Soon, construction of a new Academic Building at the southeast corner of the Green at 14th Street South at University Boulevard will be underway.