The economy may be stalling, but one sector shows no sign of a slowdown: Health care.

That's one of the reasons the University of Alabama at Birmingham launched its new Medical Equipment and Supplies Distribution program, aimed at combining the expertise of its Department of Marketing and Industrial Distribution with that of its School of Medicine.

The 35 students enrolled in the program (UAB hopes to build that number to about 150 students) take 17 credit hours of core industrial distribution classes and 13 hours of biology and health science classes, including biology, human anatomy, health care systems, medical terminology and financial management in health care, according to department chairman Robert Robicheaux.

The roughly 20 students slated to graduate in a year will have earned Bachelor of Science degrees in industrial distribution, with a concentration in medical equipment and supplies. Given that 45,000 new wholesale medical equipment and drug sales jobs were created last year, according to BusinessWeek magazine, their prospects look, well, healthy.

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