News at USA Health

Recently, more than 450 people took part in a back-to-school block party at City Drugs of Grove Hill, a town of less than 1,500 in Clarke County, Alabama. Amid the face painting, school supply raffle, shaved ice and inflatables, the event sought to fill a real need in the county -- get more children and youth vaccinated against humanpapillomavirus (HPV) and other diseases.

In an effort to understand the causes of disproportionate breast cancer outcomes in women, researchers at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine will explore whether and how socioeconomic difficulties affect human biology, leading to a higher cancer risk.

Luis del Pozo-Yauner, M.D., Ph.D., has devoted his professional life to the scientific research of amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, a disease that occurs when the bone marrow produces abnormal antibodies.

Zachary White, a third-year medical student at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, recently won first place in the Radiology and Radiation Oncology Medical Student Oral Presentation section of the 117^th National Medical Association (NMA) Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly in Honolulu.

For Benjamin Niland, M.D., choosing a career in medicine was an innate decision. “Ever since I was a young child, if you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would have told you that I was going to be a doctor,” he said. “It was just something that was a part of me from the beginning.”

Dr. Melody Petty, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and a pediatric hospitalist at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital, has been selected for the Advanced Pediatrics Educator Excellence (APEX) Teaching Program.

Nick Sellers, vice president for the Mobile Division of Alabama Power Company, and his wife Julie are the chairs for this year’s USA Health Night Honoring Heroes. It honors first responders, physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals who provide lifesaving healthcare to patients throughout the Gulf Coast.

Mary B. “Mimi” Munn, M.D., has been appointed professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and will start in September. In addition to her administrative leadership for the department, Munn, who is a maternal-fetal medicine physician, will provide specialty care for women with high-risk pregnancies at USA Health.

Silas Leavesley, Ph.D., professor of chemical and bimolecular engineering at the University of South Alabama, and Thomas Rich, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology at the USA College of Medicine, recently received the 2019 USA Center for Lung Biology Murray Bander Faculty Development Award. The award – which is given to one or two investigators each year— seeks to foster innovative discoveries in pulmonary research and promote faculty development.

Blount has served as manager of the division of clinical trials at USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute since 2016. Over the past three years, she has strengthened infrastructure and processes at MCI, helped to develop a Phase 1 clinical trials program and established an infusion unit at MCI dedicated to clinical trials.

Amelia Hewes, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and an obstetrician-gynecologist with USA Health, offers the following tips for parents of daughters preparing for their first visit to the gynecologist.

Currently serving as assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and a gastroenterologist at the USA Health Digestive Health Center, Sonnier said he is excited to join USA Health.