Employee of the Month - July 2014

Deborah Dixon Honored as OB/GYN’s July Employee of the Month
With a beautiful smile and a pleasant personality, Deborah Dixon graces the halls of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) clinic. The sentiment is that she is a staple in the team - “Like the glue that holds this unit together,” said co-worker Rebecca Ellison. It is therefore no surprise that she was nominated and chosen as the OB/GYN July Employee of the Month.
Dixon, a Clinical Assistant/Phlebotomist, is a 29-year employee of UAB.  She began her employment as a Research Assistant in the Department of Microbiology,a job that she held for 21 years. Interestingly, her connection to OB/GYN ran parallel, as she recruited women from the Obstetrics Complications Clinic (OBCC) for the 15-year, longitudinal study of Gestational Diabetes, which was conducted by Microbiology. Dixon’s work in recruitment and retention “followed” the OBCC from its initial location at the Russell Clinic (basement), to the 1917 Building, Byrd Building, Cooper Green Hospital, and finally to its present location in the 1500 building. Thus, coming to work at the MFM clinic was just a right fit. She absolutely loves her job and co-workers, as well as the patients. The feeling is most definitely mutual.   

UAB awarded $19.31 million to lead national study on chronic hypertension in pregnancy

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Biostatistics have been awarded a $19.31 million R01 grant by the National Institutes of Health’s Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to coordinate the most comprehensive study of chronic hypertension in pregnancy ever undertaken.

The Chronic Hypertension and Pregnancy Project (CHAP) is a multicenter, randomized trial which will enroll between 4,700 and 5,700 pregnant women during the next six years with a primary aim to evaluate the benefits and potential harms of pharmacologic treatment of mild chronic hypertension in pregnancy, a decades-old question that has remained unanswered.  Read more ...