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.
Shaping Food Allergy Medications
The Arkansas Children’s Food Allergy Program, under the leadership of Dr. Stacie Jones, Professor of Pediatrics, has been a major contributor to advancing therapies for food allergy patients for almost 20 years. The field took a major step forward this month with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Xolair (omalizumab) as the first biologic treatment for multi-food allergy in patients ages 1-55. The medication can help reduce life-threatening allergic reactions from accidental exposure to one or more foods.
The Arkansas team, including Drs. Amy Scurlock, Safia Nawaz, Robbie Pesek and Tamara Perry, along with a host of committed team members, patients and families, contributed as one of 10 sites for the landmark OUtMATCH study, which was published Feb. 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Jones and colleagues have lent their expertise to the NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-funded Consortium for Food Allergy Research as an inaugural center since 2005. Well done.
Insights from UAMS in NEJM Catalyst
UAMS’ unique challenges as the state’s lone academic medical center (AMC) and the contributions of institutions like ours to states that only have a single AMC are the focus of a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst. Co-authors of the insightful article are Dr. Cam Patterson, UAMS Chancellor and CEO for UAMS Health; Dr. Stephanie Gardner, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Provost and Chief Strategy Officer; and Dr. Kristie Hadden, Associate Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics and UAMS Senior Strategy Associate. UAMS is one of 10 institutions across the country that serve as the lone AMC in their state. Drs. Hadden, Patterson and Gardner and colleagues also collaborated on an article about UAMS’ leadership in a novel rural hospital alliance, published this month in the Southern Medical Journal.
AAMC Educator Award Regional Honoree
Dr. Lauren Gibson-Oliver, Assistant Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine and Program Director of the UAMS Little Rock Family Medicine Residency Program, has been selected as the regional winner of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) M. Brownell Anderson Award. The award celebrates early-career medical educators who exemplify enthusiasm, commitment and creativity in medical education. Dr. Gibson-Oliver will be honored by the Southern Group on Educational Affairs (SGEA) at its annual meeting in April. She and three other regional winners are under consideration for the national award to be presented later this year.
Reducing Preventable Trauma Mortality
The outstanding work done by the Arkansas Trauma System to save lives of severely injured Arkansans was reported in a recent article in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons and presented at the 2023 Southern Surgical Association (SSA) meeting. UAMS coauthors included Department of Surgery faculty members Drs. Kyle Kalkwarf, Deidre Wyrick, Ben Davis and Department Chair Dr. Ron Robertson, along with Dr. Charles Mabry, Adjunct Associate Professor and surgeon at Jefferson Regional Medical Center, UAMS Trauma Program Manager Terry Collins, RN, and Dr. Austin Porter with the UAMS College of Public Health and Arkansas Department of Health. Dr. Mabry presented the study at the SSA meeting.
Otolaryngology Research Funding on the Move
A shout-out to Dr. Susan Emmett, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Epidemiology, on her ranking as the 10th highest National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded PI in the nation in otolaryngology and the second highest funded otologist, with $2.16 million in NIH funding for FY23 in the prestigious Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research rankings. With this funding alone, the Department of Otolaryngology ranked 26th in the country among otolaryngology departments, just behind the University of North Carolina and Duke University.
Coagulation Study Insights
Department of Surgery Division of Acute Care Surgery team members, led by senior author Dr. Joseph Margolick, recently had their work presented by second-year Surgery resident Dr. Maraya Camazine at the annual Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) Scientific Assembly. The presentation was titled “Standard ROTEM Protocols May Mask Underlying Coagulopathy in Hypothermic Trauma Patients.” Other contributors included Drs. Nolan Bruce, Avi Bhavaraju, Kyle Kalkwarf and Ginell Post, along with medical student Hudson Surber and UAMS biostatistician Scott Stewart. In addition, the premise of the work – that coagulation studies run at room temperature may not reflect current physiology – has been deemed worthy of an EAST multicenter trial that will start enrolling soon.
Neuroanesthesia Expertise
Department of Anesthesiology second-year (CA-1) resident Dr. Emily Breland, Associate Professor Dr. Priya Gupta and Dr. Indranil Chakraborty, Professor and Chief of the Division of Neuroanesthesiology, authored a peer-reviewed medically challenging case report that was published in the quarterly newsletter of the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC). Their article, “Functional Pituitary Macroadenoma: Anesthetic Considerations” reflects the world-class treatment of complex neurosurgical cases and associated neuroanesthesia care available at UAMS.
Welcoming Dr. Webber
Tomorrow marks my last day as Interim Dean, and Dr. Steven Webber begins serving as Dean and Executive Vice Chancellor on Friday. Dr. Webber is a highly regarded pediatrician, researcher and leader in academic medicine who is internationally known for his expertise in solid organ transplantation in children. He trained and has served at leading institutions in the U.K. and U.S., including the University of Pittsburgh and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, where he served as the James C. Overall Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-Chief of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital from 2012 until his recruitment to UAMS. I have greatly enjoyed getting to know Dr. Webber over the past several months and appreciate his collegiality and friendship. The College of Medicine has a bright future ahead under his leadership.
Thank You, Colleagues
Last but not least this week, I have one final accolade to share – for all of you. It has been an honor to work with you in this role for the past 14 months. Last year was challenging in many respects, but we enjoyed many successes as well. These wouldn’t have been possible without your contributions and your dedication to our college, our students and trainees, our patients, and all those we serve across our state.
Thank you.