Greetings, colleagues!
I am very pleased to continue the tradition of sharing Accolades with you each week. I have been reading Accolades over the past couple of months, and it has been a joy to learn about some of the great things College of Medicine team members are doing. Here are some of the honors and accomplishments of faculty, staff, residents, fellows and students I’ve heard about recently! – Susan S. Smyth, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice Chancellor and Dean
Newly Invested Colleagues
Congratulations to Pediatrics faculty members Dr. Elizabeth Sellars and Dr. Jessica Snowden on their investitures in endowed chairs at Arkansas Children’s last Thursday.
Dr. Sellars, Section Chief of Genetics and Metabolism, was the recipient of the Committee for the Future Endowed Chair in Genetics. Among other leadership roles, she serves as Medical Director of the INSTEP Clinic for children with differences in sexual differentiation and development, Co-Medical Director for the Neurofibromatosis Clinic at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH), Co-Director of the UAMS Genetic Counseling Master’s Program, and Medical Director of the Arkansas Reproductive Health Monitoring System.
Dr. Snowden, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, was invested in the Horace C. Cabe Distinguished Chair for Infectious Diseases. Her leadership roles include Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics and Co-Principal Investigator of the IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network Data Coordinating and Operations Center, which directs clinical operations for trial implementation and professional development across a 17-state NIH-funded research group.
Watch the virtual ceremony here, and learn more about Dr. Sellars, Dr. Snowden and the philanthropists who made these endowed chairs possible in the ceremony program.
Public Service Award
Congratulations to Dr. Jerrilyn Jones, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, on being selected to receive the Arkansas First Lady’s Woman in Public Service Award from the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas (WFA). Dr. Jones’ longstanding dedication to public service has been front and center during the pandemic. She serves as Medical Director for Preparedness and Response at the Arkansas Department of Health and was named to the Governor’s Medical Advisory Group for Post-Peak COVID-19 Response and the Winter Task Force. Dr. Jones will be one of three women honored at the WFA Power of the Purse Luncheon on September 22. You can read more about Dr. Jones in the latest issue of Little Rock Soiree magazine.
Team Publication
Department of Radiology faculty, residents and fellows contributed substantially to a special issue of Pediatric Radiology focused on child abuse imaging. Professor and Chair Dr. Arabinda Choudhary, who is internationally recognized for his expertise in pediatric neuroimaging and imaging related to pediatric abusive head trauma, served as Co-Editor, and UAMS authors collaborated on nearly a third of the 32 articles. Congratulations to Drs. George Vilanilam, Rangarajan Purushothaman, Iqbal Haq, Flavio Garcia-Pires, James Sorensen, Shivang Desai, Sateesh Jayappa and Raghu Ramakrishnaiah on this impressive and important work.
Maternal Disparities
Dr. Nirvana Manning, Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of the Women and Infants Service Line, did a great job as a panelist for a “Conversations on Health Equity” event hosted by the Clinton Presidential Center on May 25. Dr. Manning and other experts discussed policies and systems that impact the reproductive health care of marginalized women, as well as resources to help ensure good health for women and their babies before, during and after pregnancy. A recording of the virtual discussion is available here.
Stress & Meth
Dr. Michael Wilson, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, is leading the first ever study of its kind to better understand meth addiction and the stress of an Emergency Department visit experienced by a meth user. Dr. Wilson’s novel study will use simulation to model such stress. The project, which was featured in this KATV news report, is the latest example of Dr. Wilson’s outstanding research into diverse aspects of psychiatric emergencies.
Cardiovascular Health & Longevity
The Class of 2021’s Dr. Brandi Mize is first author on an article published in SAGE Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, “Cardiovascular Health in Individuals with Exceptional Longevity Residing in Arkansas.” Dr. Mize will begin a vascular surgery residency at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta this summer. Dr. Brandon Duke, a 2020 graduate currently completing his family medicine residency at the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa College of Community Health Sciences, is a coauthor. Their mentors and collaborators in the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging included Research Associate Amanda Pangle, Dr. Jeanne Wei, Professor, Chair of Geriatrics and Institute Director, and Geriatrics Professor Dr. Gohar Azhar, who served as senior author.
Scholarly Collaborations
2021 UAMS graduate Dr. Muhammad Abu-Rmaileh and 2020 graduate Dr. Santiago Gonzalez are first authors of separate studies resulting from collaborations with Dr. James Yuen, Chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery, and others. Dr. Abu-Rmaileh’s article, a timely review of live-streaming technologies in surgery, has been accepted for publication in the Annals of Plastic Surgery. Dr. Abu-Rmaileh will start his internal medicine residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas this summer. Dr. Gonzalez and third-year resident Dr. Tamara Osborn also were collaborators. Dr. Gonzalez, who is completing his plastic surgery residency at the University of California San Francisco, is first author on “Self-development Tools Utilized by Plastic Surgeons: A Survey of ASPS (American Society of Plastic Surgeons) Members,” published in PRS Global Open. Former faculty member Dr. Michael Golinko, now at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is also among the collaborators.
Cardiology Mentorship
Mentorship and collaboration among Cardiovascular Medicine faculty, fellows and residents continue to result in publications on timely issues such as treatment of COVID-19 complications. Dr. Khalid Sawalha, a resident with the White River Health System Internal Medicine Residency Program in Batesville who rotated with the UAMS team, has had two case reports accepted for publication. The latest is “Theophylline in Treatment of COVID-10 Induced Sinus Bradycardia,” in Clinics and Practice. Coauthors included Chief Cardiology Fellow Dr. Fuad Habash, Associate Professor Dr. Srikanth Vallurupalli and Professor Dr. Hakan Paydak, senior author on the study.