Christopher T. Westfall, M.D., F.A.C.S., a professor of ophthalmology and longtime clinical and academic leader at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), has been appointed dean of the College of Medicine.

Westfall has served as interim dean since Feb. 23, when former dean Pope L. Moseley, M.D., stepped down to pursue his research.

Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, became UAMS chancellor June 1 and made Westfall’s position as dean permanent this month.

“We conducted a nationwide search and found that we already had the best person for the job in Dr. Westfall,” Patterson said. “Dr. Westfall has served UAMS for more than 20 years as a physician, department leader and head of the Jones Eye Institute. He is the perfect person for the job and we are thankful he has agreed to continue to serve in this important capacity.”

Until his appointment as permanent College of Medicine dean, Westfall had been chair of the college’s Department of Ophthalmology. UAMS professor Sami H. Uwaydat, M.D., has been appointed the department’s interim chair.

Westfall continues as director of the UAMS Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute and as holder of the Pat Walker Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology.

“In my past six months as interim dean, my understanding of the complex inner workings of this institution has expanded, my respect for the UAMS College of Medicine faculty is deeper than ever before and my dedication to our mission is stronger for the experience,” Westfall said. “I am honored that the chancellor and my colleagues continue to put their trust in me as we work together to educate exceptional physicians, advance research that transforms health care and improves health, and ensure that Arkansans receive the very best medical care.”

Westfall joined the faculty in 1997 and served in numerous leadership positions prior to his appointment as chair of ophthalmology and director of the Jones Eye Institute in 2009. These included vice chairman and medical practice leader; chief of the oculoplastic surgical services at UAMS Medical Center, the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital and Arkansas Children’s; chief of service at Arkansas Children’s; and chairman and medical director of the Ophthalmic Medical Technology Program in the UAMS College of Health Professions. Westfall served as UAMS chief of medical staff in 2014-2016. In 2008 he was invested as the inaugural holder of the Pat Walker Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology.

Westfall received his undergraduate degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and earned his medical degree at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He completed a residency in general surgery at Keesler U.S. Air Force Medical Center in Mississippi, was certified by the American Board of Surgery and awarded fellowship in the American College of Surgeons (FACS). He went on to complete a residency in ophthalmology at Wilford Hall U.S. Air Force Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, and a two-year fellowship in ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology.

Westfall served as department chair and residency program director in ophthalmology at Wilford Hall U.S. Air Force Medical Center. He retired at the rank of colonel and as chief consultant in ophthalmology to the U.S. Air Force Surgeon General.

Early on May 27, UAMS neuroradiologist Martin Radvany, M.D., was working to make sure that a joke about stroke from teenager Dra Bishop was not the last joke Dra made.

Bishop’s stroke was not a laughing matter.

Dra, 16, a Bentonville High School and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball player, was feeling a little sluggish when he got out of bed on the morning of May 26. Typically, Dra was enthusiastic and hard charging on a game day like that Saturday. His mother, Angela Copeland, noticed his lack of energy, but wrote it off as teenage lethargy.

Later in the day, she and Dra traveled from their northwest Arkansas home to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where her son played two AAU games.

“I knew something was off because Dra never misses lay-ups or free throws,” Copeland said. “He hasn’t missed a free throw in years, and he missed three that day. His shooting was just off.”

Dra explained after the game that his misses probably happened because his right hand felt weird and heavy. He and his mother thought that may have been caused by muscle strain and fatigue from some pre-game weight training.

Back at home and on waking at 6 p.m. from an afternoon nap, Dra called his mother on his cell phone, knowing she was only a room or two away in the house. She didn’t answer the call but yelled at him to get out of bed.

“He came in the room and said, ‘Hey, Mom, I think I’ve had a stroke.’ He looked just fine, and we started joking about it. About two hours later, we were watching the Cavs-Celtics game and all of the sudden, I was joking with him, and he wasn’t responding,” Copeland said.

Dra got up to take a shower and fell. His second and third attempts also failed. That’s when Copeland noticed her son couldn’t speak and one side of his face was drooping. Her daughter’s boyfriend carried Dra to her car, and she rushed him to Mercy Northwest Arkansas to find out what was wrong. She didn’t yet suspect a stroke

Initially, they thought his partial paralysis might be due to muscle loss and dehydration, but the hospital staff recommended Dra be transferred to Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) in Little Rock for a full diagnosis by a neurologist.

An MRI scan done there confirmed Dra was having a stroke, and Radvany was called in to the hospital. By 1 a.m., Radvany and the stroke care team were working to remove the clot.

Radvany, a professor and chief of interventional neuroradiology in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Radiology, also sees ACH pediatric patients.

“Stroke and especially this type of stroke is pretty uncommon in children,” Radvany said. “As far as treating strokes like this in children, I believe we’ve seen maybe one a year and on the adult side, maybe four or five a week. It’s a very large difference we see in the numbers of patients with these kinds of strokes.”

Adults typically develop high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis and other health conditions that can contribute to stroke, but children usually don’t have those issues, Radvany said.

Radvany inserted a catheter through an artery in Dra’s leg and with the visual guidance of a live, real-time x-ray used it to get to the clot. The team deployed a small stent to trap the clot in Dra’s brain, and then introduced a suction catheter very close to the clot to gently pull it out.

After the procedure, Dra was moved to a patient bed in the hospital’s intensive care unit to recover. He spent the next three weeks undergoing physical therapy before he was discharged to return home. Dra continued to take part in physical therapy over the summer along with follow-up visits with Radvany.

“Three and a half months out now, he has made fantastic progress,” Radvany said recently. “When I first saw him a month after the stroke, he still had some weakness in his right hand.  He had otherwise recovered well. I saw him today and as soon as I shook his hand I noticed a difference. The strength had improved significantly.”

Both Dra and his mother are grateful to Radvany and the team for saving Dra’s life.

“It’s still terrifying,” Copeland said. “He’s so young. I’m no stranger to stroke. My grandmother died of a stroke. I grew up knowing the signs, but to associate the signs to a healthy 16 year-old, that’s tough. It’s also tough as a mom knowing that 11 hours prior to the onset of his stroke, I could have gotten him medical attention if I had thought about him being sluggish and his right arm. People need to be aware it can happen to anyone.”

Copeland said Dra sometimes still experiences a slight aphasia, a loss of the ability to understand or express speech, and Dra acknowledges that and some remaining small-motion problems in his right hand. Both mother and son are optimistic about his chances of overcoming these remaining effects of the stroke and returning to the basketball court in the coming months.

Likewise, Radvany said Dra’s youth will be advantage in his recovery because his brain still is dynamically growing and developing, allowing it effectively to route around any neural damage and function normally.

“Thank you for saving my life,” Dra said. “Without all of you, I’d be six feet under. Don’t think you’re never too young to have a stroke. You’re not. Keep working. You only have one life, live it.”

Zoe Weeks of Jonesboro has been awarded the $10,000 Arkansas Mutual Medical Student Award, a scholarship for third-year medical students at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) who want to practice primary care in rural Arkansas.

Weeks, a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, first pursued a career in teaching and decided to switch to medicine after spending a summer in the Delta and seeing the health care challenges there.

“Throughout my time in education working in underserved communities, I found the challenges facing our rural communities to be particularly unique and intertwined with so many other barriers, like access to health care,” Weeks said. “This is why I came to medical school, and I hope to one day be a part of a bigger solution that focuses on improved health care access and preventive medicine in rural Arkansas.”

Weeks plans to return to northeast Arkansas to practice either family medicine or pediatrics, particularly in one of Poinsett, Craighead or Jackson counties, where her family is deeply connected: her father is a produce broker, her mother is an agricultural entomologist, and her husband is involved in rural agriculture.

“I am very passionate about rural development, particularly in the Delta, and believe that health care access expansion is critical to the future success of our community,” Weeks said.

Corey Little, president of Arkansas Mutual Insurance Co., the only medical liability insurance provider headquartered in Arkansas, said the company continues to commit its resources to improving rural health care in the state.

“As an Arkansas company, we’re thrilled to provide this scholarship to Zoe,” Little said. “Her passion and commitment regarding quality health care in rural Arkansas is exactly what Arkansas Mutual had in mind when we established this scholarship five years ago.”

More than two-thirds of Arkansas’ counties include federally designated Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas. Primary care physician shortages are projected to increase substantially as the state’s population continues to age and require more medical care, and as more Arkansans, now insured as a result of health system reform, seek primary care services.

“The College of Medicine is very pleased to award the Arkansas Mutual Scholarship to Zoe Weeks,” said Christopher T. Westfall, M.D., executive vice chancellor of UAMS and dean of the College of Medicine. “Zoe clearly shares our commitment to improving access to high-quality primary care for all Arkansans and especially those in underserved rural areas and smaller communities.”

Westfall also thanked Arkansas Mutual for the company’s ongoing support. “Scholarships help us attract the very best students to UAMS, and this scholarship is especially helpful because of its focus on students who intend to practice primary care where they are needed most.”

At 35, Mozart was feeling well and was as productive as ever, then a sudden illness killed him less than two months before his 36^th birthday. The cause of death has been the subject of speculation ever since, with more than 100 proposed diagnoses.

Philip A. Mackowiak, M.D., MBA, was invited to UAMS to lecture about his theory of Mozart’s cause of death. The emeritus professor of medicine from the University of Maryland School of Medicine spoke at the UAMS College of Medicine 14^th annual George L. Ackerman, M.D., Visiting Professor Internal Medicine Grand Rounds.

The event marked a couple of firsts for the grand rounds: It was the first time it has hosted an historical clinical pathological lecture and the first time with accompaniment by the Quapaw String Quartet from the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

Mackowiak’s lecture, “Mozart’s Fatal Anasarca,” followed the quartet’s performance of one of Mozart’s early string quartets, Herschel 159. It was composed by Mozart when he was 17.

Why the interest in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s death?

“The Quapaw Quartet told us the answer to that better than I could possibly articulate,” Mackawiak told the medical professionals and students packing the Rahn Building auditorium. “His music is just sublime, to say the least.”

Mozart’s extraordinary talent was evident at age 3, when he was playing the harpsichord, and age 4, when he was composing quartets. He also overcame numerous debilitating conditions and diseases, including malnutrition as an infant, typhoid fever, rheumatic fever, smallpox and hepatitis, yet he managed to compose a total 626 works, including 22 operas, before he died.

Some of the more popular theories about his cause of death include poisoning, syphilis and trichinosis.

“We’ll never know for certain what was the specific culprit that carried him off,” Mackawiak said, although he made a case for Streptococcus equi, a type that can infect humans through consumption of unpasteurized milk and cheese.

Streptococcus equi would account for Mozart’s symptoms – particularly the massive swelling all over his body (anasarca/edema) – that made him unrecognizable according to those who saw him before and after he died, Mackowiak said. A local physician at the time wrote that Mozart had the same symptoms as other residents, indicating an epidemic. In addition, a 2009 investigation of the Vienna Daily Register of Deaths for the winter of 1791 showed a spike in deaths from edema, also indicating an epidemic disorder.

Mackowiak has authored two related books: Post Mortem: Solving History’s Great Medical Mysteries, and Diagnosing Giants: Solving the Medical Mysteries of Thirteen Patients Who Changed the World.

The Quapaw String Quartet closed the grand rounds lecture with one of Mozart’s later movements.

James D. Marsh, M.D., chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, said the collaboration with the Arkansas Symphony for the lecture was made possible by Robert W. Bradshear, M.D., professor and director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine, and Richard P. Wheeler, M.D., executive associate dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Medicine.

“One of the main points of this professorship is the humanities, and we thought we could bring it to life this way,” Marsh said.

The George Link Ackerman Visiting Professorship in Internal Medicine honors the now professor emeritus for having always been an exemplary model of the physician educator. He graduated cum laude from UAMS in 1954, and following an internship at Philadelphia General Hospital and service in the U.S. Navy, he returned to UAMS to complete his residency in internal medicine and his training in nephrology and in metabolic diseases.

Ackerman, a native Arkansan, has received numerous awards and has been frequently recognized as a consummately skilled clinician and exceptional teacher, known for his skillful practice of the Socratic mode of teaching.

He was the Honors Convocation speaker three times; recipient of a Golden Apple Award, an Outstanding Faculty Award from the internal medicine house staff, an Abernathy Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine from the Arkansas Chapter of the American College of Physicians, and the Arkansas Caduceus Club Distinguished Faculty Award. He received the Distinguished Service Award from UAMS and the UAMS Master Teacher Award in 1999. In 2000, he was named a Master of the American College of Physicians. In 2004, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award and was named as Inaugural Member of the UAMS College of Medicine Hall of Fame.

Ackerman was active in the American College of Physicians, serving as governor for Arkansas 1987-1991. He has always been interested in literature and for many years organized an annual reading retreat for physicians.

Sept. 19, 2018 | William “Bill” Ventres, M.D., M.A., assistant professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), was invested Sept. 17 as the holder of the Ben Saltzman, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Rural Family Medicine.

Ventres, who joined UAMS in 2017, is a family physician and medical anthropologist with more than 30 years of clinical experience working with disadvantaged patients. He is known as a leader in developing family medicine internationally, researching doctor-patient communication using qualitative methods, and studying the social history of family medicine in the United States. He plans to encourage students and residents to practice in rural and underserved areas in Arkansas to improve health outcomes.

“It is a great honor to receive the Saltzman Chair, with its emphasis on rural and underserved family medicine,” Ventres said. “When I was in medical school and residency, I saw that lots of patients felt left out. Sometimes they were poor or uneducated, sometimes it was because of where they lived, and sometimes it was because of the color of their skin or the language they spoke. I didn’t see that medicine was doing a very good job helping these people, so I found my small niche in working to try and change things in this area.”

An endowed chair is among the highest academic honors a university can bestow on a faculty member. A distinguished chair is a $1.5 million endowment established to support the educational, research and clinical activities of the chair holder who will lead future innovations in medicine and health care. Those named to a chair are among the most highly regarded scientists, physicians and professors in their fields.

“The choice of Dr. Ventres to assume this chair is a very wise decision, and that’s because of his passion for the very highest quality of medicine and for his passion for taking care of his fellow man, which he has demonstrated throughout a long career and all parts of the world,” said Christopher T. Westfall, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine. “I am absolutely convinced that he is the right holder for this chair.”

The chair is named in honor of Ben Saltzman, M.D., who has been called the father of rural family medicine in Arkansas. Saltzman joined UAMS in 1974 as the first professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. During his seven-year tenure, he served as director of rural medicine development and the flexible internship program. In 1981, he was appointed director of the Arkansas Department of Health and served until his retirement in 1987. Saltzman died in 2003.

Saltzman built the first hospital in Mountain Home and helped establish others across the state. He is remembered as a champion of rural health and an international leader in helping eradicate polio. Saltzman made health care more widely available and worked as a traveling doctor who owned a twin-engine plane for his work.

Saltzman was past president of numerous statewide health organizations, including the Arkansas Lung Association, what is now The Arc Arkansas, the Arkansas division of the American Cancer Society and the Arkansas Board of Health. He served as chairman of the American Medical Association’s Council on Rural Health, as a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Community Health Project Review Committee, and as a member of the National Advisory Health Services Council.

“Dr. Saltzman was quite a leader in our state, and this endowment is to help those who follow his example as we expand our programs for the underserved and in rural medicine,” said Daniel Knight, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. “In his short tenure here, Dr. Ventres has made quite a difference, and we’re excited to see the difference he’ll make going forward.”

Ventres was presented with a commemorative medallion by Westfall and Knight. He thanked Saltzman and recognized Julea Garner, M.D., the previous chair holder. Ventres reserved special thanks for his wife, Estella and his children, Roby and Cory, who were in attendance.

“With all the technologies that are supposed to make things smoother, we are sometimes prone to overlook what is most important in our work – the people we serve,” Ventres said. “I commit to you to learning from the people of Arkansas, as I am able, to see them as full of worth and dignity; to appreciate their presence; and to engage with them in a way that invites conversation, collaboration and compassion.”

“The work of improving the health of all Arkansans, wherever they may be, is not the task of one person – it is a responsibility we all share,” Ventres said. “And we are all enriched by the labor we invest to fulfill it.”

Ventres received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed his residency and fellowship training in family medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. He has received two Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar awards and has taught family medicine residents at the National Experimental University of Táchira in San Cristobal, Venezuela, and public health students at the University of El Salvador in San Salvador. Prior to his arrival at UAMS, he was a research associate for five years in the Institute for Studies in History, Anthropology and Archeology at the University of El Salvador.

Ventres has served as visiting professor at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and scholar-in-residence at both the Brocher Institute in Geneva, Switzerland and the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Sept. 19, 2018 | William “Bill” Ventres, M.D., M.A., assistant professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), was invested Sept. 17 as the holder of the Ben Saltzman, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Rural Family Medicine.

Ventres, who joined UAMS in 2017, is a family physician and medical anthropologist with more than 30 years of clinical experience working with disadvantaged patients. He is known as a leader in developing family medicine internationally, researching doctor-patient communication using qualitative methods, and studying the social history of family medicine in the United States. He plans to encourage students and residents to practice in rural and underserved areas in Arkansas to improve health outcomes.

“It is a great honor to receive the Saltzman Chair, with its emphasis on rural and underserved family medicine,” Ventres said. “When I was in medical school and residency, I saw that lots of patients felt left out. Sometimes they were poor or uneducated, sometimes it was because of where they lived, and sometimes it was because of the color of their skin or the language they spoke. I didn’t see that medicine was doing a very good job helping these people, so I found my small niche in working to try and change things in this area.”

An endowed chair is among the highest academic honors a university can bestow on a faculty member. A distinguished chair is a $1.5 million endowment established to support the educational, research and clinical activities of the chair holder who will lead future innovations in medicine and health care. Those named to a chair are among the most highly regarded scientists, physicians and professors in their fields.

“The choice of Dr. Ventres to assume this chair is a very wise decision, and that’s because of his passion for the very highest quality of medicine and for his passion for taking care of his fellow man, which he has demonstrated throughout a long career and all parts of the world,” said Christopher T. Westfall, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine. “I am absolutely convinced that he is the right holder for this chair.”

The chair is named in honor of Ben Saltzman, M.D., who has been called the father of rural family medicine in Arkansas. Saltzman joined UAMS in 1974 as the first professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. During his seven-year tenure, he served as director of rural medicine development and the flexible internship program. In 1981, he was appointed director of the Arkansas Department of Health and served until his retirement in 1987. Saltzman died in 2003.

Saltzman built the first hospital in Mountain Home and helped establish others across the state. He is remembered as a champion of rural health and an international leader in helping eradicate polio. Saltzman made health care more widely available and worked as a traveling doctor who owned a twin-engine plane for his work.

Saltzman was past president of numerous statewide health organizations, including the Arkansas Lung Association, what is now The Arc Arkansas, the Arkansas division of the American Cancer Society and the Arkansas Board of Health. He served as chairman of the American Medical Association’s Council on Rural Health, as a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Community Health Project Review Committee, and as a member of the National Advisory Health Services Council.

“Dr. Saltzman was quite a leader in our state, and this endowment is to help those who follow his example as we expand our programs for the underserved and in rural medicine,” said Daniel Knight, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. “In his short tenure here, Dr. Ventres has made quite a difference, and we’re excited to see the difference he’ll make going forward.”

Ventres was presented with a commemorative medallion by Westfall and Knight. He thanked Saltzman and recognized Julea Garner, M.D., the previous chair holder. Ventres reserved special thanks for his wife, Estella and his children, Roby and Cory, who were in attendance.

“With all the technologies that are supposed to make things smoother, we are sometimes prone to overlook what is most important in our work – the people we serve,” Ventres said. “I commit to you to learning from the people of Arkansas, as I am able, to see them as full of worth and dignity; to appreciate their presence; and to engage with them in a way that invites conversation, collaboration and compassion.”

“The work of improving the health of all Arkansans, wherever they may be, is not the task of one person – it is a responsibility we all share,” Ventres said. “And we are all enriched by the labor we invest to fulfill it.”

Ventres received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed his residency and fellowship training in family medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. He has received two Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar awards and has taught family medicine residents at the National Experimental University of Táchira in San Cristobal, Venezuela, and public health students at the University of El Salvador in San Salvador. Prior to his arrival at UAMS, he was a research associate for five years in the Institute for Studies in History, Anthropology and Archeology at the University of El Salvador.

Ventres has served as visiting professor at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and scholar-in-residence at both the Brocher Institute in Geneva, Switzerland and the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

By Linda Haymes

Sept. 12, 2108 | Those who pursue a medical degree know the endeavor isn’t all fun and games but at times, learning and levity can intersect.

Just ask the new UAMS radiology residents who recently found themselves locked in a room, working together to escape the clutches of a fictional crazy physician with hazardous nuclear materials.

The game is called an escape room and has become popular in the last few years for fun among friends and for team building with work groups and others. It’s a fun, safe game where four to six players must discover clues and solve a mystery to escape a “locked” room. This one was designed by physicians in the UAMS Radiology Department.

It has attracted national attention, said Kedar Jambhekar, M.D., associate professor of radiology and residency program director in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Radiology Department.

UAMS has been invited to offer it in November in Chicago at the Radiology Society of North America, the largest radiology and technology meeting in the world with about 60,000 attendees annually.

The idea for the escape room was planted after Jambhekar visited an escape room in Boston.

Returning to work at UAMS, he shared his idea with Linda Deloney, assistant professor and medical education director.

“We thought this would be a great team-building and educational activity for radiology residents,” Jambhekar said. “It seems so simple but it’s not,” he added, laughing.

Deloney, in turn, mentioned that Rachel Pahls, M.D., one of the senior resident physicians, is a gamer.

“So then I talked to Rachel and she said ‘Oh, that’s easy to do,’” said Jambhekar.

Deloney wrote a grant proposal for the Association of University Radiologists/ Association of Program Directors in Radiology and they received a $5,000 Jerome Arndt grant from the Association of Program Directors in Radiology. Using the grant, they hired Wero Creative of Toronto, a company that builds escape rooms. Pahls designed the content of the game while Wero designed the room.

“We were able to create the escape room in time to use it during our boot camp for new radiology residents in July,” Deloney said.

The portable, hour- long game uses small props including lanterns, a skeleton, a view box, a small, portable ultrasound machine, boxes with number code locks, photographs and charts. The game masters, Pahls and Jambhekar, can view and communicate with the participants, by video chatting via Facetime or Skype. The participants can ask for up to three clues.

The challenge includes clues and various puzzles to solve, from crosswords, riddles and search-and-find challenges to identifying photos or images and answering trivia questions.

After all the clues are collected, the team is able to escape the room.

“We tried it out first with some really smart faculty members and some senior residents,” Pahls said. “Then we held it for first- and second-year residents.” Four teams, totaling 20 UAMS residents, have experienced the escape room so far and the plan is to hold the challenge for the students annually.

In addition to a team-building experience and educational avenue, the challenge gives administrators insight into which students are leaders or followers and who gets upset easily and who keeps their cool.

“The game also evokes a lot of friendly rivalry among the students wanting to know which teams completed the challenge the fastest,” Pahls said. The students were surveyed before and after the experience.

“Their feedback was extremely positive, confirming that millennial learners prefer learning experiences that are active, innovative, and social with high expectations and immediate feedback,” Deloney said. She said they value working in teams, being engaged and interacting with their instructors and material, and they are motivated by achievement and affiliation. “And they thought it was fun!”

The game, using a computer and several paper-based challenges, teaches some basic facts about radiology as a medical specialty.

“Gaming in the academic world is being used more often as a learning tool among the millennials,” Jambhekar said. “There was already a lot of Jeopardy-type games being played, but an escape room is something unique.”

“We hope to prove the escape room helps increase a student’s grit,” Pahls said, referring to the students’ experience and heartiness.

“As part of the grant, we’ll share it with other universities,” Jambhekar said, adding that the plan includes providing an instructor’s guide for others who may want to replicate it.

“We’ve already been communicating with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, sharing information about it with them and we have the ball rolling for them to use it,” Pahls said, adding they met via video conference, walking those at Johns Hopkins through each step, sharing what objects were needed and the posters to print.

Jambhekar and Pahls are also considering holding it for students who have expressed an interest in radiology and building an escape room for other specialties.

“We’d use the same puzzles and mechanisms but instead of asking radiology questions, have clinical ones and redesign the clues,” Pahls said.

Sept. 7, 2018 | Although the decades may have separated them, UAMS graduates from all specialties arrived Aug. 17-18 for Alumni Weekend and caught up as if the years didn’t matter.

More than 350 UAMS alumni and guests participated in this year’s event, making it the highest attended reunion in recent history. Most were there to reminisce and reconnect with old classmates, but many were eager to see how much UAMS has grown and changed in the years since they had been students.

A Friday night welcome reception, sponsored by the Chancellor’s Circle, featured new UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, who was nearing the end of his first 90 days. Flanked by banners of UAMS’ five colleges and graduate school, Patterson thanked alumni for their contributions to UAMS and to the better health and health care of the state.

“I hope you are as proud as we are of what UAMS has become,” Patterson said. “It wouldn’t be that way without all the contributions of the people in this room. You, as our alumni, are the best examples of what UAMS contributes to the community.”

Patterson recognized four college deans in attendance: Christopher T. Westfall, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine; Keith M. Olsen, Pharm.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy; James M. Raczynski, Ph.D., dean of the College of Health Professions; and Patricia Cowan, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the College of Nursing. Golden Graduates, or those celebrating 50-plus years, were given commemorative medallions with red and blue ribbons. There was plenty of bling – in addition to the medallions, Golden Graduates wore buttons with old yearbook photos of themselves in addition to color-coded name tags representing their college and graduation year.

It made everyone easy to identify, though some didn’t need any help recognizing old friends. This year’s featured Golden Graduates, the Class of 1968, wore their medallions proudly and traded a few light barbs as they looked at old annual photos.

“Our class started out as a bunch of idealists who wanted to take care of patients, and that same group is still here with that same thought,” said Jack Blackshear Jr., M.D., COM ‘68 and class representative. “Everyone has had a full life of service in medicine – some are still practicing – but all of us really thank UAMS for teaching us and for the great role models that we had. You’re always standing on somebody else’s shoulders – you can’t do it all alone. We’re all very grateful.”

Saturday morning’s showcase events were a big hit, including a hands-on look at UAMS’ new 4K-resolution virtual dissection table, which allows students to explore human anatomy in 3D with simple gestures common on the average smartphone. Alumni were eager to hear from David L. Davies, Ph.D., and Kevin D. Phelan, Ph.D., who co-direct the Division of Clinical Anatomy in the College of Medicine, as they demonstrated how the table works. Afterward, alumni crowded around the table and had the opportunity to try it themselves.

Some alumni traveled great distances to have the chance to catch up.

Jeanne Bonar, M.D., COM ’58, traveled from Anchorage, Alaska to make the weekend events – a distance of 3,923 miles. Dennis Schreffler, M.D., COM ’73, and wife Karen, were a distant second, traveling 1,400 miles from their home in Dayton, Wyoming.

“I wouldn’t have missed it,” Schreffler said. “I owe everything in my career to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. It’s been phenomenal to see the amount of technological advancement since I graduated – it’s like day and night.”

C.D. Williams, M.D., COM ‘65, was honored with the College of Medicine’s Dean’s Distinguished Alumni Award at its noon luncheon. Williams, a leading cardiovascular surgeon, was recognized for his pioneering work in heart surgery in Arkansas over the past four decades.

Williams was nominated by fellow COM ‘65 graduate Kent Westbrook, M.D., distinguished professor in the College of Medicine. Westbrook said that Williams built many of the heart programs in Arkansas, performing between 15,000 and 20,000 open heart surgeries. “Without question, heart surgery would not be where it is in in Arkansas without C.D. Williams,” Westbrook said.

Williams credited one of his favorite professors, Joseph Bates, M.D., COM ‘57, associate dean for public health practice in the College of Public Health, with bringing him back to Arkansas to practice. Bates himself was in attendance for the award ceremony. “He told me that I owed it to the state of Arkansas to come back, participate in what was going on up here, and pay back my debt to the state,” Williams said. “That was good advice, Joe, and I appreciate that.”

The College of Health Professions hosted a big bash the same afternoon in the Hospital Lobby Gallery, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of its Medical Laboratory Sciences program. A host of more than 100 program alumni and incoming students attended.

Jo Kathryn Mitchell, CHP ’55, has a history with UAMS dating back to before the campus moved to its present location on Markham Street. “So much has changed that it’s almost overwhelming, but it’s all been for the better,” Mitchell said.

Many alumni capped off the weekend in style, with Golden Graduates dining in the ballroom at the Capital Hotel, and several classes making evening plans at Cajun’s Wharf Restaurant. Food and chatter were plentiful as alumni reminisced the evening away. So many COM ’08 graduates signed up for their reunion that they rented out a party room at Cajun’s to celebrate.

David Hunton, M.D., COM ’78, was in an adjacent room with his classmates. He is one of six Huntons to graduate from UAMS, including his wife and their children. “I wish more of us were here, but we’ve had a great time with those of us who are here,” he said. “It’s mind-boggling, the things that have changed. We didn’t have any computers when I was here.”

Sponsors for this year’s event were the Chancellor’s Circle, ARORA, Arkansas Medical Society, Arkansas Urology, National Treasury Solutions, and Westrock Coffee Company.

“We appreciate your commitment to a life of service and all you’ve done,” said Dean Lee, Ed.D., UAMS executive director of alumni and constituent relations. “Most of all, we’re proud that you’re one of us and that you chose UAMS to be your school.”

Debuting Aug. 23, the first Neuroscience Conference at UAMS quickly proved itself, attracting an audience of 160.

About 160 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists and members of the public listened to presentations on topics ranging from ways to treat aneurysms, the 10-year history of the stroke telehealth program, and palliative care.

Martin Radvany, M.D., a professor and the chief of Interventional Neuroradiology in the College of Medicine Department of Radiology, gave the audience an overview of the latest treatments and research findings regarding non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH).

One of the hemorrhage’s symptoms Radvany described as “the worst headache you will ever have. Migraine sufferers who have had it said it made bad migraine headaches seem mild.”

Traumatic head injury is the most common cause of an SAH, but the focus of Radvany’s presentation was the variety of types and treatments for the hemorrhage caused by ruptured aneurysms. An aneurysm is a localized enlargement of an artery caused by a weakening of the artery wall. The hemorrhage occurs when an aneurysm bursts and bleeds in the space between the arachnoid membrane in the outer tissue of the brain and matter surrounding the brain.

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Radvany said 40 percent of patients with aneurysmal SAH die before they reach the hospital and 20 percent die while in the hospital. . The average age of a patient is 55, and a patient typically spends at least 14 days in an intensive care unit. He reviewed several different types of SAH and their treatments.

Aliza Brown, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Neurology and the Department of Radiology, reviewed the state of stroke care in Arkansas.

Although stroke is a leading cause of death in the state, killing about 1,700 Arkansans in 2014, the state is making progress in fighting it.

“Our saving grace in Arkansas is we have two really great programs in place,” Brown said. “Our first one is our telestroke program, AR SAVES, and the Arkansas Stroke Registry is our second. Both have worked to improve access to stroke care in rural areas of our state.”

The Arkansas Stroke Assistance through Virtual Emergency Support (AR SAVES) program uses a high-speed video communications system to help provide immediate, life-saving treatments to stroke patients 24 hours a day. The real-time video

communication enables a stroke neurologist to evaluate whether emergency room physicians should use a clot-busting blood thinner (Alteplase) within the critical three-hour period following the first signs of stroke.

Arkansas ranks sixth in the nation in stroke death rates. Surviving a stroke is becoming more likely as community hospitals have joined the SAVES network, now comprised of more than 50 hospitals.

Brown presented the results of several studies of stroke care in the state in which she has been involved.

One 2014 study’s  results indicated that the highly specialized care at the two primary care stroke centers and the smaller rural hospitals in the AR SAVES network, what are called ‘stroke-ready hospitals’, were underused at 12 percent and 53 percent respectively.

“This left 35 percent of all stroke transports across the state going to a non-specific care facility,” Brown said. “Overall, our state’s emergency services for stroke transport time were good and comparable to those in other published literature at that time.”

Approaches for improvement of stroke care include making more hospitals stroke ready, and educating the public to recognize the signs of stroke and the importance of calling 911, teaching paramedics the best ways to diagnose and where to transport stoke patients, and providing essential training to non-medically trained 911 dispatch operators through a mobile phone app, WeTrain911.

“From AR SAVES we saw a strong positive correlation between referrals of stroke patients for treatment and public education,” Brown said. “We saw something similar with higher Alteplase administration rates. We concluded that the telestroke networks can increase referrals by increasing public awareness.”

She said stroke education at local sporting events in rural Arkansas towns have been especially effective at reaching large numbers of people at once.

Arkansas is ranked as sixth among states for stroke deaths, an improvement from a No. 1 ranking a few years ago.

Eleven speakers spoke or participated in 10 different presentations or panel discussions during the conference. Other topics addressed by presenters ranged from comprehensive stroke center certification, rehabilitation for stroke patients, and palliative care.