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!
Student Volunteers, Faculty Make “Girlology” a Hit
The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s “Girlology” workshop continues to draw “sell-out” crowds of pre-teen and teenage girls along with parents or other caregivers. On the heels of a very successful event in Springdale last month, faculty and medical student volunteers welcomed the largest turnout yet on Sunday with close to 700 participants in two sessions on the Little Rock campus. Launched in 2022, the program provides thoughtful information about puberty and related health and social topics. OB/GYN Chair Dr. Nirvana Manning and faculty physicians Dr. Laura Hollenbach and Dr. Kathryn Stambough have done an outstanding job developing and growing this program.
“We couldn’t do it without our student volunteers,” emphasizes Dr. Manning. “They register attendees, help with props, assist the children during question-and-answer sessions and during breaks, and more. They provide such great energy and help so much in making the families feel more comfortable.”
Second-year student Ashton Jones took the lead inorganizing fellow students for Sunday’s event. Other student volunteers included Macie Cain, Lauren Camp, Alex Carrasquillo, Makenzie Cole, Rachel French, Khristina Huff, Sarah Mitchell, Katie Pacheco, Ashton Rogers, Emily Pavlovic-Segal and Lane Tupa. (See photos here.) The Northwest Arkansas program on Sept. 17 was presented in partnership with the UAMS Office of Community Health and Research and Arkansas Children’s Northwest. Kudos to all for making this program so successful.
Musculoskeletal Research in the Spotlight
The UAMS Musculoskeletal community is having a strong showing at the meetings of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR), Pre-Meeting on Osteocytes, and the Endocrine Fellows Forum in Vancouver, British Columbia, this week. Faculty, postdocs and students will present six invited talks, seven oral presentations and 15 posters (two oral and six plenary) and receive several awards. Post-doctoral fellows and student honorees include: Most Outstanding Translational Abstract recipient Dr. Japneet Kaur; Young Investigator Award winners Dr. Adriana Carvalho and Hayley Sabol; Travel Awardees Alicen James, Aric Anloague, Mohsin Ali and Ana Resende-Coelho; and Plenary Poster winner Dr. Alongkorn Kurilung. Dr. Melda Onal, Assistant Professor, also received a Travel Award and was one of many faculty presenters and lab leaders from the departments of Physiology and Cell Biology, Internal Medicine/Endocrinology, Orthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Informatics, and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. Read the full schedule of UAMS presentations and honorees here.
IDSA Fellow Designation
Dr. Bobby Boyanton Jr., M.D., Professor of Pathology and Pathologist-in-Chief and Section Medical Director of Molecular Pathology at Arkansas Children’s, has been named a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). The highly competitive designation is one of the most prestigious honors in the field of infectious disease and reflects Dr. Boyanton’s nearly 20 years of service in clinical laboratory diagnostics, medical education and research in the areas of clinical microbiology and molecular infectious diseases.
Keynote Address Highlights Simulation Education
Dr. Karen Dickinson, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of Interprofessional Education (IPE) Simulation and Clinical Skills Training, presented “Computer Assisted Surgery and Training” at the Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference (SBEC) in September. Her invited keynote address provided an overview of technology-enhanced simulation education in health care and summarized current evidence for efficacy and recommendations for application as part of an educator’s toolkit. The SBEC was conceived by bioengineering professionals from academia and industry located primarily in the southern United States in 1982. It has grown to become a global event that regularly attracts attendees from all over the world.
Rising Stars in Spine Surgery
Congratulations to Dr. Samuel Overley, Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Director of the Spine Surgery Fellowship, on being featured as one of “10 spine surgeons younger than 45 to know” in Becker’s Spine Review. The national shout-out wasn’t the first for Dr. Overley, who was honored by the North American Spine Society last year in its “20 Under 40” list in SpineLine. It’s worth noting that Associate Professor and Orthopaedic Spine Division Director Dr. David Bumpass was featured in SpineLine’s inaugural list in 2018. The 2023 list includes Dr. Abduljabbar Alhammoud, who completed a fellowship at UAMS in 2022-2023 and is now at the University of Arizona. That’s a great track record for our Orthopaedic Spine Surgery team.