PARTNERS FOR OSTEOPOROSIS FUND
The UAB Partners for Osteoporosis Fund has been established to provide an endowment to provide support for the dietitian and physical therapist members of the clinic; future funds for faculty recruitment and equipment needs of the Center for Metabolic Bone Disease and will be used for community education programs on osteoporosis, to improve patient care, and for research to help cure osteoporosis.
The Center for Metabolic Bone Disease (CMBD) was established in 1996 to provide broad-based research, training, and clinical care of metabolic bone disease. Jay M. McDonald, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology directs the CMBD. The general mission of the CMBD is to support, catalyze, and integrate clinical activities, clinical research, basic research, and professional and consumer education. Activities of the Bone Center include a monthly journal club, a visiting expert/speaker program, support of pilot-project research grants, multiple research core facilities, and the multidisciplinary Osteoporosis Prevention and Treatment Clinic. Since its inception, the CMBD membership has grown to include 88 faculty members and continues to accept new members who contribute to the missions of the Center. The CMBD has joined with the Biomedical Implant Center to form a Musculoskeletal Mechanics Laboratory.
The CMBD has excelled in research, training and clinical care. For example, the CMBD received a prestigious NIH grant in 2001 to establish a “UAB Research Core Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders.” This five-year award enables the Center to conduct research leading to the development of innovative therapeutic strategies to improve the health care of people with metabolic bone disease. The UAB Research Core Center is one of only five nationally, joining Yale University, New York University, University of Michigan and the University of Connecticut. In 2002 the CMBD was awarded a five-year NIH T32 Institutional Training Grant in Bone Biology and Disease. This award provides support for three predoctoral and three postdoctoral fellowships. In addition, the CMBD serves as a partner with the Alabama State Department of Public Health in the planning and implementation of the State of Alabama Osteoporosis Work Plan. The Osteoporosis Clinic has been cited as a strength of the CMBD by all three External Advisory Committee (EAC) reports. The reports emphasized the dedication to the health of the Alabama population and its spirit of community service. The 2004 EAC report stated that the clinic is “of excellent quality, in fact a model of health care delivery in osteoporosis.”
The outstanding achievements cited above enable the CMBD to recruit internationally recognized senior scientists and also to be designated as a University-wide Interdisciplinary Research Center (UWIRC). Of the more than eighty Board of Trustee approved centers at UAB, only fifteen have University-wide designation. UWIRC awards are for three years and provide financial support to the Centers. Both the recruitment of outstanding faculty researchers and UWIRC designation provide valuable resources to help the CMBD treat and cure osteoporosis.
The UAB Osteoporosis Prevention and Treatment Clinic was started in May 1995. The clinic is multidisciplinary and provides a thorough evaluation of bone mineral density by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), a patient education class, nutritional counseling, and physical therapy evaluation. Three board-certified internal medicine physicians staff the clinic, all of whom have a different area of expertise. Sarah L. Morgan MD, RD, FACP, from the Departments of Nutrition Sciences and Medicine is the Medical Director and focuses on the nutritional aspects of osteoporosis, postmenopausal osteoporosis, and the prevention of osteoporosis. Kenneth G. Saag MD, MSc. from the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine is interested in glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis and outcome analysis. Dr. Eric Albright, MD from the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism in the Department of Medicine is interested in endocrine-related bone diseases. The clinic is also staffed with a registered dietitian/patient educator, Beth Kitchin AMS, RD, and certified DXA technicians Nancy Nunnally RT, CDT, and Leandria Burroughs RT, CDT, and a physician therapist Don Lein MS, PT. Ms. Kitchin offers each patient individual instruction on calcium and vitamin D intake, exercise recommendations, and information on fall prevention. She is in charge of the weekly free Tone Your Bones Education class from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. each Wednesday in the Kirklin Clinic (reservations can be made for the class at 205-801-8187). She is also the Director of the UAB Osteoporosis “Tone Your Bones” hotline, a toll-free hotline that provide information about bone mineral density screening and osteoporosis at 1-888-934-BONE and the Tone Your Bones website which can be accessed at ToneYourBones. Mr. Lein evaluates all new patients for balance, strength, and posture in a comprehensive physical therapy evaluation. In addition, Ms. Kitchin and Mr. Lein jointly run a weekly exercise and nutrition class called the “Tone Your Bones Exercise and Nutrition Group”. In this group, patients learn strengthening and posture exercises as well as nutrition, medication, and fall-prevention techniques to build better bones.
The clinic runs a bone densitometry diagnostic service with Drs. Robert Lopez, Dirk Rehder from the Department of Radiology, Drs. Kenneth Saag and Eric Albright from the Department of Medicine, and Dr. Sarah Morgan from the Departments of Nutrition Science and Medicine.
Donations to the UAB Partners for Osteoporosis Fund can be sent to:
Jay M. McDonald, M.D.
Director, UAB Center for Metabolic Bone Disease
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
LHRB 509
1530 3rd Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35294-0007
Office: (205) 934-6666
Email: mcdonald@uab.eduFor more information about contributing to the UAB Partners for Osteoporosis Fund please contact:
Ms. Jennifer L. Philpot
Director of Development
University of Alabama School of Medicine
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
FOT 1236
1530 3rd Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35294-3412
Office: (205) 975-7298
Email: jphilpot@uab.eduContact: Sarah L Morgan, MD,RD
Email: slmorgan@uab.edu
The UAB Partners for Osteoporosis Fund
354A Learning Resource Center
1714 9th Avenue South
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, AL 35294-1270
Phone: 205-934-3235
