<\/p>\n
Caring about Birmingham, sign up for the ComebackTown newsletter<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n
Comeback Town is an opinion column exploring all things Birmingham. It is coordinated with <\/i>David Shah<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n
I’m writing this column for one reason.<\/p>\n
This article is for those who take Birmingham’s strengths for granted and feel they are lagging behind Huntsville.<\/p>\n
Let me be clear from the outset: Huntsville is a remarkable American success story.<\/p>\n
Its economic growth, population boom, and emergence as an aerospace powerhouse deserves all the praise it can get.<\/p>\n
Nothing I’m about to write will alleviate that. I have the utmost respect for what Huntsville has built.<\/p>\n
In 2000, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Twenty-five years later, her cancer is still in remission.<\/p>\n
If we didn’t live in Birmingham with UAB and its world-class oncology program, I’m completely convinced that I would have been a widow.<\/p>\n
Now, as my wife and I get older, our need for excellent medical care increases even more. I was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and a leaky heart valve.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Birmingham and UAB, I was able to meet one of the most respected prostate cancer specialists and one of the best heart valve surgeons in the country.<\/p>\n
My wife also faces her own health challenges. And, like me, you have access to the best doctors in the world.<\/p>\n
This tells the story better than any statistic.<\/p>\n
Whenever we visit Kirklin Clinic, someone always asks, “Where are you from?”<\/i><\/p>\n
They are often surprised when I tell them we live in Vestavia, just a few minutes away. Because they host people who come to Birmingham from all over the state, region, and even the United States.<\/p>\n
UAB Hospital is 5th largest hospital in the US<\/b>.,and The only hospital in Alabama currently designated as a Level 1 Adult Trauma Center<\/b>.<\/p>\n
UAB Medicine is consistently ranked among the nation’s top academic medical centers, as evaluated annually by U.S. News & World Report across multiple specialties, including cancer, cardiology, nephrology, and rheumatology.<\/p>\n
Children’s of Alabama ranks as one of the 10 busiest. <\/b>Third largest pediatric medical facility in the country<\/b>. We provide specialized care across dozens of pediatric specialties, from complex heart surgery and childhood cancer to neurology and rare genetic disorders.<\/p>\n
We are the only hospital in Alabama dedicated to the care of children, and families from all over the Southeast come here to trust our hospital in its most important responsibility.<\/p>\n
Grandview Medical Center and Baptist Health add a new dimension of world-class specialty care to our community, and our deep network of research institutions, clinical trials, and specialists puts Birmingham far above and beyond for a city our size.<\/p>\n
This is not an accident. For decades, Birmingham has made deliberate and sustained investments in health care excellence. The results are visible in our outcomes, our rankings, and our patients who come from hundreds of miles away.<\/p>\n
Atlanta, Nashville, Austin, and Charlotte are all fast-growing Sunbelt cities that are dynamic, growing, and competitive. Each has a strong hospital system. But when it comes to the depth of academic medical research, specialty care, and nationally ranked programs, Birmingham holds its own and often leads.<\/p>\n
Atlanta has great educational institutions: Emory and Grady. However, Birmingham’s concentration of specialty care per capita is remarkable for a city of our size.<\/p>\n
Nashville is home to Vanderbilt University, but Birmingham’s medical community rivals it in several important areas, including cancer and transplant medicine.<\/p>\n
Despite experiencing explosive growth, Austin continues to develop the healthcare infrastructure its population demands.<\/p>\n
The city of Charlotte is also growing faster than its health care system can keep up.<\/p>\n
While these cities are still under construction, Birmingham offers: depth<\/i> \u2014 Decades of research, physician training, access to clinical trials, and subspecialty expertise are woven into the fabric of the city.<\/p>\nWhen your life or the life of your loved one is at risk…<\/b><\/h2>\n
Economic growth is important.<\/p>\n
Jobs, investment and population growth are all important.<\/p>\n
Huntsville is winning in these metrics, which is good for them.<\/p>\n
But when you strip away everything else, when the question is not which city is growing the fastest, but where you want to be when your life or the life of a loved one is on the line, the answer is clear to me.<\/p>\n
When it comes to life and death, me and my family are happy to be here in Birmingham.<\/p>\n
David Sher <\/i>comeback town<\/b><\/i>. He has served as Chairman of the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and City Action Partnership (CAP).<\/i><\/p>\n
Invite David to speak for free to your group about how to make Birmingham Metro more prosperous. dsher@comebacktown.com<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Comeback #Town #family #Birmingham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caring about Birmingham, sign up for the ComebackTown newsletter Comeback Town is an opinion column exploring all things Birmingham. It is coordinated with David Shah. I’m writing this column for one reason. This article is for those who take Birmingham’s strengths for granted and feel they are lagging behind Huntsville. Let me be clear from … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,491],"tags":[2060,2055,2058,1040,2056,2057,2059],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-health-care","tag-birmingham","tag-buildings-and-places","tag-comeback","tag-family","tag-medical-center","tag-night","tag-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picsura.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}