Dr. Mark Williams, the Director of the Center for Health Services Research, was interviewed by UK Public Relations and Strategic Communications' Carl Nathe for UK's "Behind the Blue" podcast. In this episode, Dr. Williams recalls a moment of perseverance from his childhood that inspired him to enroll in medical school, discusses the role teamwork has in providing patients with top-of-the-line care, and envisions what the future of health care could look like as he begins a "hospital care at home" initiative at UK.

Dr. Jing Li, the Co-Director of the Center for Health Services Research, was recently interviewed for "Vital Signs," UK HealthCare's monthly newsletter. Dr. Li answers questions about her career, provides valuable work tips for achieving success in research, and recalls her experience moving to the United States after being raised and completing medical school in China. This issue also contains UK HealthCare news, research updates, achievement highlights, and other information.

The Department had eight publications listed in PubMed for the month of December 2020.

1: Arenas A, Kuang L, Zhang J, Kingren MS, Zhu H. FUS regulates autophagy by mediating the transcription of genes critical to the autophagosome formation. J Neurochem. 2020 Dec 22. doi: 10.1111/jnc.15281. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33354770.

The Kentucky Office of Rural Health (KORH) recently received the Excellence in Education Award, one of the annual MediStar Awards given to health care organizations and professionals in Kentucky and southern Indiana by IGE Media, publisher of the Medical News.

The award is presented to an organization that takes creative approaches to developing and implementing programs that enhance the level of knowledge, and educational and career opportunities for health care professionals.

Ten organizations were nominated for the award this year.

"How could I have missed this? She was growing, eating, drinking and playing lots of softball."

Those thoughts went rushing through Crystal and Vernon Cecil's minds in August of 2017. Their 10-year-old, Evie Cecil, came home from school with a stomach ache but no fever. After a nap, the fifth-grader grew increasingly lethargic and Crystal's motherly instincts kicked in. "Her symptoms didn't seem to fit the typical flu or stomach virus," she said.

This feature appeared in the blog of George Wright, the University of Kentucky's vice president for institutional diversity.

Recently, I was grateful to have a conversation with Dr. Stephanie White, associate dean of diversity and inclusion for the UK College of Medicine. Dr. White joined the University of Kentucky in January 2020, and she is currently a member of the DEI Leadership Team.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 15, 2020) — The COVID-19 pandemic introduced many new actions to our daily lives — wearing masks, washing hands more frequently, and watching our distance from others. Add these health behaviors on top of already existing challenges like isolation, transportation and access to health care, and creative solutions are more necessary than ever.