Here are this week’s Accolades, a roundup of some of the honors and accomplishments of College of Medicine and UAMS faculty, staff, residents, fellows and students I’ve heard about recently!
DCOC Renewal
Congratulations to Dr. Jeannette Lee, Professor of Biostatistics, and Dr. Jessica Snowden, Associate Professor and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, on the $39 million, five-year renewal of the Data Coordinating and Operations Center (DCOC) for the IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network. Dr. Lee and Dr. Snowden serve as Co-Principal Investigators on the grant from the National Institutes of Health, which was first awarded to UAMS in 2016.
The DCOC facilitates the development, implementation and reporting on multicenter clinical trials that address the health needs of children living in IDeA states, which are disproportionately rural and medically underserved, and where there are more limited opportunities for children to participate in clinical research. Dr. Lee, Dr. Snowden and their team will also collaborate with clinical investigators at the network’s 18 sites to enhance the clinical trials workforce and the environment for conducting clinical trials in these states.
The exemplary letters of support the UAMS team received from the network’s clinical sites late last year perhaps foreshadowed this renewal, which speaks volumes about Dr. Lee and Dr. Snowden’s leadership and commitment to excellence. Way to go!
What is an Expert?
Dr. Jamie Watson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, has a new book coming out that explores what it means to be an “expert” and why segments of society are increasingly skeptical about experts and what they have to say. Published by Bloomsbury, “Expertise: A Philosophical Introduction,” examines implications for concepts relating to expertise in politics, religion, society and more. Congratulations, Dr. Watson.
Re-Invited
Department of Pathology Assistant Professor Dr. Ericka Olgaard and Professor and Interim Chair Dr. Jennifer Laudadio have been invited to repeat their short course “Minding your Ps and Qs: Process and Quality Improvement for Anatomic Pathology Services” at the 2021 United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) meeting. The invitation to repeat the course at next year’s virtual meeting in March stems from positive reviews from course attendees at the live 2020 meeting. They were originally selected to deliver the course through a competitive application process. Congratulations to these outstanding colleagues.
National Appointment
Congratulations to Dr. Robert Griffin, Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, on his recent election as the standing radiobiologist member on the nominations committee for the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). With more than 10,000 members, ASTRO is the largest professional organization in the field of radiation oncology, and Dr. Griffin will be a great addition to its nominations committee.
Eczema Education
A shout-out to the Department of Dermatology’s Dr. Jay Kincannon and Dr. Vivian Shi for their initiative, in collaboration with Alison Caballero’s team in the Center for Health Literacy, to develop better educational materials for patients with atopic dermatitis (eczema), as well as caregivers and health care providers. The team recently received an education grant from Pfizer for the project, which aims to help patients better manage their eczema.
Study Selected
Fourth-year Anesthesiology resident Dr. Stephanie Kierstead and Dr. Indranil Chakraborty, Professor and Director of the Division of Neuroanesthesiology, will present a poster at the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC) virtual annual meeting in September. The SNACC selected their study, “Comparative Evaluation of Incidence of Post-Induction Hypotension Using Propofol Vs Etomidate in Cases of Acute Ischemic Stroke Undergoing Endovascular Thrombectomy Under General Anesthesia at UAMS: A Retrospective Chart Review.” Congratulations to both.
Giving & Gratitude
Finally this week, I would like to share a thank you note from M.D./Ph.D. student Bukola Odeniyi, the inaugural recipient of the Dr. Michael Jennings and Paula Jennings Endowed Scholarship. Dr. Jennings, who served as Chair of Physiology and Biophysics for 25 years, and Mrs. Jennings generously created the scholarship for third-year medical students who are interested in medical or health-related research. Having completed the four-year graduate school portion of her dual-degree program, Bukola has just begun her third year of medical school. As you will see from her note, she is an ideal recipient of this new scholarship!
“I am very happy and grateful to be the first recipient of the Dr. Michael Jennings and Paula Jennings Endowed Scholarship. Thank you so much for your generous support as I complete my M.D./Ph.D. education. With this award, you are investing in my goals of making health care more accessible to underserved populations. I plan to accomplish this goal through my clinical practice and research, especially in the area of cardiovascular health.
Once again, I am very thankful to Dr. Jennings and his wife, Mrs. Paula Jennings, for this generous financial support, and also to have had Dr. Jennings as a professor.” — Bukola Odeniyi
Do you know someone – faculty, staff, student, resident, or fellow – who deserves accolades? Send me your idea, courtesy of COMInternalCommunications@uams.edu.