University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Pathology Department Creates New Women’s Health Division

The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s department of pathology has established the Division of Women’s Health. The primary goals for the division are to aid in recruiting talented individuals to UAB to focus on women’s health, to work with UAB Medicine to enhance diagnostic and molecular testing in areas impacting women’s health, and to build a research portfolio in these areas.

“Both our primary and secondary faculty will have strong relationships with anyone on campus working on women’s health issues,” said George Netto, who holds the Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair. “This will enhance our connectivity to others in the institution working toward the goal of improving health care diagnostics and treatment for all women seeking care at UAB.”

Thomas Winokur, interim director of the new division, says the creation of the division stands to help emphasize our departmental and institutional commitment to women’s health. “The establishment of this division serves to unify the subspecialties we have focused on in women’s health in pathology as a field — obstetrics/gynecology, breast, perinata l— and bring them under one umbrella.”

Helen Kontiras, who holds the Kirby I. Bland, M.D., Chair in Surgery and division director for breast and endocrine surgery, added that “the establishment of this division will allow us to recruit and grow everything related to caring for women. It has tremendous potential to bring under one umbrella many of the diseases that impact women in our area. The opportunities for research in these areas are huge, both from the standpoint of diagnosis, but also to identify more precision treatments for women. At UAB we are just trying to treat patients efficiently, with compassion and cutting-edge therapy.”