Inside Pediatrics Winter 2019

CHANGING BODIES, CHANGING MINDS

Expert adolescent medicine physicians at Children’s of Alabama take holistic approach to treating tweens, teens and young adults

P hysicians and staff of the William A. Daniel Jr. Adolescent Health Center at Children’s of Alabama recently hosted an open house for their newly renovated clinic space. The renovation, the result of meeting increased demand for specialized adolescent medicine, doubled the number of patient rooms, improved patient access and expanded services. The clinic now houses 11 exam rooms, each outfitted with a computer, as well as a conference room, physician and nurse work rooms. The renovation comes on the heels of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Pediatrics introducing its new Division of Adolescent Medicine, formerly part of the Division of General Pediatrics. The Adolescent Health Center is home to one of seven premier programs in the U.S., federally funded through the Maternal Child Health Bureau as a Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) Training Program. The center’s LEAH Clinic is the only one of its kind in the Southeast.

“This funding allows us to train our multidisciplinary adolescent providers to be leaders in clinical care, research, public health policy and advocacy. It also allows us to provide comprehensive adolescent health care considering one’s physical and psychosocial well-being,” said Division Director and Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine Tamera Coyne-Beasley, M.D., MPH, FAAP, FSHAM. Coyne- Beasley is also the Derroll M. Dawkins, M.D. Endowed Chair in Adolescent Medicine and Vice Chair of Pediatrics for Community Engagement at UAB. At the Adolescent Health Center, more than 5,000 adolescents and young adults are seen each year by a team of physicians, nurses, nutritionists, psychologists and social workers specially trained in adolescent health. Clinic programs specialize in both primary and subspecialty consultations for patients ages 11 to 21. Services at the center’s Adolescent Well Clinic include comprehensive health assessments, immunizations, contraception,

Samantha Hill, M.D., MPH, instructor in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the UAB Department of Pediatrics and Children’s of Alabama, examines a patient at the William A. Daniel Jr. Adolescent Health Center at Children’s of Alabama. The center recently underwent renovations to meet increased demand for specialized adolescent medicine.

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