UAB Sports & Exercise Medicine has developed the nation’s first training video on how to perform CPR and defibrillation on athletes with disabilities. The video and accompanying tools are designed for medical professionals and others who provide sideline coverage for adaptive athletes, offering detailed guidance on performing CPR both in and out of a wheelchair.

Studies show that a sedentary lifestyle, characterized by long periods of sitting or lying down, can increase a person’s chances of heart disease — even among individuals who get the recommended amount of exercise each week. Alabama leads the nation in physical inactivity with 30.7 percent of adults in Alabama reporting no physical activity outside of work. Experts in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Cardiovascular Disease say there are many steps people can take to minimize the impacts of a sedentary lifestyle on heart health.

UAB Hospital has once again earned international recognition, securing a place as Alabama's top-ranked hospital on Newsweek’s prestigious list of the World’s Best Hospitals 2026.

UAB Medicine is playing a key role nationally in advancing research and treatment for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), thanks in part to a new partnership with the American Heart Association and other U.S. hospitals. The Association is celebrating this effort by presenting UAB with a Get With The Guidelines® 2025 Innovator Award.

The Heart Failure Society of America is recognizing UAB’s Heart FailuRe Transitional Care Services for Adults (HRTSA) Clinic team with a 2025 Outstanding Heart Failure Care Team Award.

The UAB Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Heart Failure Gold Plus award. This quality achievement award recognizes UAB Medicine’s commitment to improving the care and outcomes for patients with heart failure.

In Birmingham, survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases lag behind national averages. But a new research effort at UAB Medicine is taking steps to close that gap – starting with a phone call.

One Saturday morning in June, Jamie Smith, 47, began her shift at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital. What Smith thought would be a normal day led to her waking up in a hospital bed three days later.

Atrial fibrillation, also known as AFib, is a serious heart condition that affects the rhythm of the heart causing it to beat irregularly. It is estimated to affect 40 million people worldwide and 6 million in the United States alone, according to the Heart Rhythm Society. By 2035, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 12.1 million people in the United States will have AFib.

At 1:13 a.m. on Sept. 19, 2022, Haley Crumpton woke up out of a dead sleep to find her then 29-year-old-husband Blake completely unresponsive.

People who’ve had a stroke often need physical therapy as part of their recovery. Though most are age 65 or older, high-intensity gait training can be the fastest way for these patients to regain their ability to walk.

Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating. Unlike a heart attack, which occurs from a blockage that limits blood flow to a part of the heart, SCA occurs when the heart loses function due to an irregular heart rhythm, causing breathing to stop and the individual to become unconscious. SCA can occur in anyone at any age. Experts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Sports and Exercise Medicine say that, by learning the symptoms of SCA and how to respond, one could save a life in an emergent situation.