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!
Honoring our Veterans
As we observe Veterans Day this Friday, I hope College of Medicine team members will pause to reflect on the profound contributions and sacrifices of our veterans and active duty, Guard and Reserve members of the Armed Forces. For those of you who are service members and veterans, thank you.
Kudos to all who are planning to spend time this week in service to veterans. For example, the Department of Pediatric and Special Needs Dentistry’s Drs. John Jones, Hank Marcantoni, Courtney Donner and Laurence Howe will be participating in the first Arkansas Operation Stand Down on Thursday. They will join with dentists across the state for the multi-site event, hosted by the International College of Dentists, to provide free dental care for veterans in need. Dr. Marcantoni served as a Colonel in the Army, and Dr. Jones served in the Air Force and Navy.
Many of our team members will find time for quiet reflection about the service and sacrifices of veterans – and some make it a point to do so every day. Dr. Gloria Richard-Davis, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Executive Director of the Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, does pushups each morning as a memoriam to the veterans who are lost to suicide. An Army veteran herself, Dr. Richard-Davis is mindful of the obstacles so many U.S. veterans face, including some 37,000 who are homeless. Another staggering issue, she notes, is the growing overrepresentation of minorities among the veteran population, projected to climb to 35.7% by 2040.
On Veterans Day – and year-round – we are grateful for our veterans and service members.
New Internal Medicine Residency
Kudos to the many Graduate Medical Education team members who made the new UAMS-Washington Regional Internal Medicine Residency Program in Northwest Arkansas a reality. The new residency is led by Program Director Dr. Sheena CarlLee, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine. The program received initial accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in September and is now recruiting for its first class of eight residents, who will start next July. The new residency will have a crucial role in our ability to train much-needed primary care physicians for the region and Arkansas as a whole. Read more in the UAMS Newsroom.
Best Time to Take Blood Pressure Meds?
Dr. Jawahar (Jay) Mehta, Distinguished Professor in the departments of Internal Medicine, Physiology and Cell Biology and Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Dr. Husam Salah, Chief Resident in Internal Medicine, wrote a commentary in the highly acclaimed journal The Lancet. The commentary, “Best time for administration of antihypertensive medications: morning or evening?” addresses an important issue in the management of patients with hypertension. Dr. Mehta and Dr. Salah discuss the results of the TIME (Treatment In Morning versus Evening) study, also published in The Lancet last month, which suggested that the timing of taking blood pressure medications should be a shared decision-making process between patients and clinicians based on lifestyle factors, to maximize adherence.
Best Paper of the Year
Dr. Adam Johnson, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head/Neck Surgery, is a coauthor on the article recently selected as Best Paper of the Year for 2021 by the editorial board of the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. Dr. Johnson, who serves as Associate Director of Research for the Global Smile Foundation, collaborated with researchers with the foundation and several leading institutions on the article, “A Guide to Developing Safety Protocols for International Craniofacial Outreach Programs during the COVID-19 Era.” The manuscript was among more than 3,300 submissions and 700 articles published by the journal in 2021. In addition to providing outstanding pediatric otolaryngology care for patients in Arkansas, Dr. Johnson has dedicated his time to providing cleft lip and palate care for underserved populations around the world.
Radio Interview Spotlights New Grant
Dr. Dan Voth, Professor and Chair of Microbiology and Immunology, did a great job discussing the new $7.9 million NIH grant UAMS has received to expand infectious disease research capacity during an interview last week with KUAF, the public radio station and NPR affiliate in Northwest Arkansas. The funding will establish a Pandemic Response and Public Health laboratory and expand research space in the Biomedical Research Building One. As Dr. Voth noted in the interview, having additional and more efficient research facilities will prime UAMS for future collaborative research to combat both the “everyday” infectious agents that impact lives and those that could lead to future pandemics. You can also read more about the new grant in the UAMS Newsroom.
Integrating Addiction Medicine into Medical Education
The Coalition on Physician Education in Substance Use Disorders (COPE) is a voluntary organization devoted to improving patient care and the public health by assuring that all physicians are trained to prevent, identify and provide specialty-appropriate interventions for patients with substance use problems. A team from UAMS was recently elected to work alongside COPE’s leadership to integrate addiction medicine content into core clerkship rotations and other clinical experiences. Dr. Shona Ray Griffith, Dr. Abigail Richison and Dr. Margaret Ege-Woolley of the Department of Psychiatry and fourth-year medical student Logan Clay are joining teams at three other institutes around the nation to integrate addiction medicine curricula at their respective schools. Through a series of virtual conferences, the teams will be guided in developing components of an addiction medicine curriculum and planning the subsequent implementation based on the needs of each school.
International Cleft Care Teaching
The Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery’s Dr. Larry Hartzell and Dr. Adam Johnson contributed extensively to the recent International Comprehensive Cleft Care Workshop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dr. Hartzell, Associate Professor and Director of the Arkansas Cleft Lip/Palate Team, lectured on airway and middle ear factors in cleft palate repair and on the otologic impacts of velopharyngeal insufficiency speech therapy. Dr. Johnson, Associate Professor and Director of Velopharyngeal Insufficiency, directed a Facial Nerve Block workshop and lectured on the impact of cleft anatomy and surgical interventions on obstructive sleep apnea, and on race and gender disparities in global cleft care. Both UAMS colleagues participated in simulation labs in cleft lip surgery and cleft palate surgery. Seventy-one countries were represented at the conference.
National Psychiatry Honors
Congratulations to Dr. Molly Gathright, Professor of Psychiatry and Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education, and Dr. Chris Cargile, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Behavioral Health Service Line, on being named Fellows of the American College of Psychiatrists (ACP). They are among just seven ACP members across the United States and Canada approved for elevation to Fellows this year. Dr. Lewis Krain, Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Psychiatry Residency Program, and Dr. Jessica Coker, Associate Professor and Medical Director of the Psychiatric Research Institute’s Women’s Inpatient Unit, were approved for ACP membership. All four will be recognized at the ACP’s Annual Meeting next February.
Excellence in Faculty Advising
And finally this week, a shout-out to the eight faculty members who were recently honored by the COM Office of Academic Affairs for their excellence in advising medical students. These Academic House advisers received the highest evaluations and feedback from students for demonstrating concern for their personal wellbeing and academic and professional career success, for encouraging open communication, and for being available for advising appointments or questions. The honorees are:
Dr. Carla Brown (Pediatrics) – Bruce House
Dr. Sheena CarlLee (Internal Medicine) – Compton House
Dr. David Davies (Neurobiology/Developmental Sciences) – Compton House
Dr. Neil Masangkay (Neurology) – Beall House
Dr. Brita Rook (Ophthalmology) – Tank House
Dr. Matt Spond (Anesthesiology) – Lowe House
Dr. Lindsey Sward (OB/GYN) – Tank House
Dr. Bill Ventres (Family/Preventive Medicine) – Lowe House