UAB Synopsis, Vol. 24, No. 31, August 15, 2005
Internationally known AIDS investigator and clinician Michael Saag, MD, professor of medicine and director of the 1917 AIDS Clinic and UAB's Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), has been appointed chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Infectious Diseases Subspecialty Board. ABIM and its subspecialty boards certify the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of physicians practicing internal medicine and related subspecialties.
Dr. Saag, who previously was CFAR deputy director for clinical care and experimental therapeutics, also has been appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to the National Institutes of Health's Office of AIDS Research (OAR) Advisory Council. OAR is responsible for scientific, budgetary, legislative, and policy elements of NIH's AIDS research program. Specifically, Congress has provided OAR with broad authority to plan, coordinate, evaluate, and fund all NIH AIDS research. It also is responsible for development of a comprehensive AIDS budget and research plan, targeting such challenges as the rising prevalence of HIV in women (an estimated 30% of new infections reported in the U.S.) and in young female racial and ethnic minorities (girls age 13 to 19 represent only 2% of AIDS cases among women, but 58% of new AIDS cases).
UAB's CFAR has quickly become a top-tier international AIDS Research Center. "To remain in this elite group, we must nurture our areas of strength and shore up areas of weakness," Dr. Saag says. "We judge our success not by the number of new grants or total dollar awards amounts, but rather on the quality of scientific contributions to the literature and on being recognized with national leadership positions."