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!
Arkansas Children’s Honors Excellence
Each year, Arkansas Children’s honors individuals and teams who exemplify its core values and mission to improve the health and lives of children across Arkansas. Congratulations to the College of Medicine faculty who are among the honorees of the 2022 awards announced last week. The links below are videos featuring the honorees. If you have a moment to watch, you’ll see that all of these awards are richly earned. Thanks to all of these honorees for their service to our college, Arkansas Children’s and our state.
Ruth Olive Beall Award
Two physicians were presented this award for consistently displaying Arkansas Children’s core values:Dr. Charles Bower, Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Arkansas Children’s Northwest; and Dr. Kendall Stanford, Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
Drs. Joanna J. & Robert W. Seibert Award
The Pediatric Psychology Team received this award for teamwork, communication and collaboration. Dr. Brandi Whitaker, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Section Chief for Pediatric Psychology, directs this team. Dr. Nicholas Long, Professor of Pediatrics, served as Director from 1987 to 2022.
Dr. Robert H. Fiser Jr. Research Achievement Award
Dr. Elisabet Børsheim, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center Physical Activity Core Laboratory, received this honor. The award is presented to a scientist in the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute for extraordinary research that will have a lasting impact on the health, development and well-being of children and their families.
Diane S. Mackey Quality Award
This award recognizes a team whose project utilized rigorous scientific methods resulting in meaningful improvements in care. It was presented to the “Improving the Identification and Diagnosis of Pediatric Hypertension in Primary Care” Project Team. Dr. Laura Sisterhen, Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Director of the General Pediatric Clinic, leads this team.
Prestigious Grand Rounds
Dr. Laura Hollenbach, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecologyand Director of the Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology Division, recently shared her gynecological expertise as the Pediatric and Obstetrics and Gynecology Grand Rounds speaker at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Dr. Hollenbach represented the Arkansas Children’s Vascular Anomalies Multidisciplinary Team in educating trainees and faculty at the Icahn School of Medicine on the presentation, evaluation and treatment of vascular anomalies of the female pelvis.
Passing it On
Senior medical student Caleb Nissen did a great job presenting his educational research on peer mentoring at the Innovations in Medical Education virtual conference hosted by the University of Southern California. Caleb discussed the positive effects of peer mentoring of third-year medical students by fourth-year medical students on clinical skills and stress. Most importantly, the insights Caleb gleaned from his project with mentor Dr. Jasna Vuk, Associate Professor in the Educational and Student Success Center, will be shared with next year’s M3s and M4s to help organize their peer mentoring.
Residents and Students Shine at Conference
A shout-out to the UAMS residents and medical students who presented at the 8th Annual Southern Dermatology Consortium Resident Research Day last month. Third-year Dermatology resident Dr. Patrick Phelan received the resident presentation award for clinical mastery for his talk, “A Clinical Approach to Parsing Panniculitis.” Third-year resident Dr. Khiem Tran presented “A New Immune Evasion Mechanism in Melanoma.” Second-year medical student Kayla Perry presented “Dermatology Practitioners’ Perspectives Regarding Arkansas Medicaid Coverage of Dermatologic Medications,” which drew praise from participants from other states who were interested in her findings and how their state compared. Swetha Atluri, a visiting third-year medical student who is completing a research fellowship with Associate Professor Dr. Vivian Shi, received the award for the best presentation from a medical student, for “Biologic use during pregnancy and breastfeeding in dermatology – an evidence-based review.”
Pediatrics Proves Power in Numbers
UAMS was well represented at the recent Southern Regional Meeting of the Society for Pediatric Research in New Orleans. Dr. Joana Mack, Assistant Professor in the Section of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Program Director for the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship, led a group of over 40 Pediatrics trainees and faculty members attending the meeting. Collectively, they presented 19 oral presentations and 24 poster presentations. Peers from other states took note of how supportive the UAMS colleagues were of one another, with comments such as, “Here comes the group from Arkansas” whenever one of our trainees was preparing to present.
National Proteomics Symposium
For the seventh consecutive year, the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute hosted a national symposium that enables proteomics directors and staff from across the country to share insights and best practices for enhancing their crucial services in support of cancer research. The Cancer Institute is home to the National Institutes of Health-designated IDeA National Resource for Quantitative Proteomics, which is directed by Dr. Alan Tackett, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Deputy Director of the Cancer Institute. Read more in the UAMS Newsroom.
Geriatric Education Development Awardee
Congratulations to Dr. Leah Tobey on being selected as an Arkansas Geriatric Education Collaborative (AGEC) Junior Faculty Development Awardee. Dr. Tobey is a doctor of physical therapy in the Interventional Pain Clinic, an Instructor in Psychiatric Research Institute’s Center for Health Services Research, and clinical educator for AGEC in the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. She joins two awardees for the year-long program who were announced last summer, Dr. Lee Isaac, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, and Dr. Caitlin Price, an Assistant Professor in the College of Health Professions Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology. Dr. Tobey is dedicated to improving the quality of life for older Arkansans through self-care management, optimal, evidence-based therapies and education.
Transforming Lives
For the third consecutive year, team members in the Department of Ophthalmology and Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute volunteered their time to provide transformative, sight-giving cataract surgeries at no cost for Marshallese patients. Thanks to these volunteers, six formerly blind individuals will see spring unfold around them in Northwest Arkansas. The team effort followed on the successes of events in 2021 and 2022. I join with Ophthalmology Chair and Jones Eye Director Dr. Paul Phillips in thanking faculty members Drs. Joseph Chacko, Carina Sanvicente, and Ahmed Sallam; residents Drs. Aric Clegg and Zia Siddiqui; administrative staff members Shelli Madison, Valarie Robinson and Shannon Coleman; and all of the clinical team members who made this initiative possible.