UTA Health Bulletin | September 2025

Marion Ball received the inaugural Marion Ball Leadership Award by the International Medical Informatics Association. (Photo courtesy of IMIA)

International award named for UTA’s Marion Ball

A global health informatics award now bears the name of Marion Ball, a distinguished professor at The University of Texas at Arlington whose career has shaped the field for decades.

Fall guidance: Flu and COVID vaccinations

With flu season approaching and COVID-19 remaining a threat, infectious disease expert Erin Carlson encourages people to consult with their family physicians about getting vaccinated to avoid serious illness, hospitalization or death this fall and winter.

UTA Libraries invites you to take a short survey about your experiences so they can better understand UTA's community’s perception and awareness of their materials and services, their spaces, and what resources are most important to you. Your voice matters! Take the survey and be entered to win cool prizes like a massage at the MAC, UTA sweatshirts and other swag.

Jitenga Knox (4th from the left) standing with UT System Administration members.

Jitenga Knox, an administrator in the Center for Innovation in Health Informatics (CIHI), has been named chair of the UT System Employee Advisory Council (EAC).

The EAC is a group of staff representatives from across the UT System that serves as a forum for communication between employees, the Board of Regents, and UT System leadership.

Knox has served on the EAC since 2023 and says she is honored to be chosen by her peers to lead the FY 2025–26 term, which will be her final year of service.

Elizabeth Coen, an associate director of Development, also represents UTA on the council.

Interim Dean Dr. Tanya Sudia pictured with CONHI nursing students as they receive their scholarships from Henry “Hank” Fink, president of Johanniter Humanitarian Group (JHG) of Texas, and founding member Robert Clark.

The smart hospital welcomed members of the Johanniter Humanitarian Group (JHG) as they awarded scholarships to several CONHI nursing students. JHG, a proud partner of UTA, helps address the nursing shortage in Texas by providing scholarships to qualified nursing students.

Yue Liao (College of Nursing and Health Innovation) contributed to a study on how wearable health devices could help manage, and possibly prevent, long-term health risk in childhood cancer survivors. The study was covered by MSN.com, Science Magazine, Cardiovascular Business, Bioengineer.org, Philanthropy News Digest, FirstWord Health Tech, and The Munich Eye.

Coordinated by the UTA media relations team, Ogan Gurel (CONHI) spoke with The Dallas Morning News on Texas House Bill 2038, also called the DOCTOR Act, that is designed to address the doctor shortage.

Coordinated by the UTA media relations team, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram spoke with UTA nursing student Caroline King and Interim Dean and Chief Nursing Officer of UTA’s College of Nursing and Health Innovation Tanya Sudia about UTA’s nursing program and the education it offers students. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram highlighted that UTA is the leading producer of nursing graduates in Texas. Yahoo! News reshared this story.

New Texas law opening the door to foreign physicians: Coordinated by the UTA media relations team, Ogan Gurel (College of Nursing and Health Innovation) spoke with D Magazine about the DOCTOR Act and if it will be an effective measure to increase the number of physicians in the state.

Texas eases school vaccine opt-outs: Erin Carlson (CONHI) served as a guest on the Texas Public Radio program “The Source,” a live call-in program, to discuss misinformation surrounding vaccinations and the safety and effectiveness of the flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.

The University of Texas at Arlington is set to host the fifth annual Texas Health Informatics Alliance Conference, an event rapidly gaining prominence as a cornerstone for professionals and researchers at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and health care. Read more.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Exploring Primary Care Providers' Perspectives on Medication Review and Management through Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Neelamegam M, Espinoza AM, Fulda KG, Young RA, Nhpang R, Patil S, Gurses AP, Hendrix ZN, White A, Pitts SI, Xiao Y. J Patient Saf 2025 Aug 22. PMID: 40843555.

Vitamin D Status, CMV Seropositivity, and Viral Cytokine Expression in Pregnancy. Martins, A. D., Woo, J., Falley, B., & Spencer, J. V. (2025). Viruses, 17(9), 1203.

Willingness to use long-acting injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (LAI-PrEP) among black cisgender women in the Southern United States Sylvia Shangani, Jaquetta M. Reeves, Kristin Heron, Jessica M. Sales, & Kenneth K. Mugwanya

What Should Patients Learn? Co-Designing Patient Education to Improve Medication Safety, Professional-Patient Communication, and Partnership. Hendrix ZN, Fatoumata J, Fulda KG, Young RA, Espinoza AM, Gurses AP, White A, Xiao Y. Front Med 2025 Sept 10.

Correction: In our last issue, we mislabeled the photos of Dr. Leslie Jennings and Dr. Regina Urban. The photo captions were incorrectly swapped. We apologize for this error.