Kevin D. Young, Ph.D., has been appointed chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), effective Sept. 1.

Young has served as a professor in the department since 2009. He succeeds Richard P. Morrison, Ph.D., who became the college’s executive associate dean for research Aug. 1.

“Dr. Young is an accomplished, well-funded scientist who will ensure that the Department of Microbiology and Immunology continues its outstanding trajectory in research, scholarly work and education,” said Pope L. Moseley, M.D., executive vice chancellor at UAMS and dean of the College of Medicine.

Young has received more than $6.4 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over the past two decades for his innovative research into bacterial cell walls, which could lead to new classes of antibiotics with longer effective life. He has been continuously funded for the past 32 years with more than $10 million in grant funding from federal agencies, national organizations and the pharmaceutical industry.

Young has focused his research on a pivotal step in the process of bacterial cell division, at which point bacteria are more vulnerable to antibiotics. He has served on numerous NIH and other federal agency panels that review grants or conduct advisory activities relating to research. Young has published extensively in prominent scientific journals. He serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Bacteriology and is a past member of the advisory boards for Molecular Microbiology and Microbe.

At UAMS, Young has served on numerous committees in support of research programs as well as the scientific advisory committees for faculty members, graduate students and post-docs. He has chaired the Promotion and Tenure Committee in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology since 2013. He received the Red Sash Award for teaching from senior medical students in 2016.

Young received his doctorate in microbiology at the University of Oklahoma in Norman in 1981. He completed postdoctoral work in the Department of Medical Biochemistry at Texas A&M College of Medicine in 1981-1983 and in the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of California at Berkeley in 1983-1985.

---

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 2,870 students, 799 medical residents and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS and its regional campuses throughout the state, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

###

The findings of Lyle Burdine, M.D., Ph.D., transplant surgeon and assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Division of Surgical Research and his research team — including postdoctoral fellow Ara Kim Wiese, Ph.D., and assistant professor Marie Schluterman Burdine, Ph.D. — were published July 27 in PLOS ONE, an online, peer-reviewed journal.

The team uncovered a new role for an enzyme, DNA-dependent protein kinase, or DNA-PKcs, central to many immune system processes, most notably the production of IL-2 which regulates white blood cell activity.

The majority of unsuccessful transplant surgeries are due the recipient’s immune system rejecting the transplanted tissue and attacking it.

“DNA-PKcs, is critically important in processes that are essential to a properly functioning immune system,” said Burdine. “We knew this enzyme could be inhibited so we decided to study it closer to see how it works and if it could manipulate the protein to aid in preventing transplant rejection.”

The team’s research included the study of a DNA-PK inhibitor, NU7441, a small molecule inhibitor. The study found that in the presence of NU7441, the production of IL-2 by lymphocytes, a subtype of white blood cells, decreased significantly. This could prove to be a successful method of immunosuppression, which is done deliberately after transplant surgeries to prevent the recipient’s body from rejecting the transplant.

“Our results underscore an additional role of DNA-PKcs in the immune system and suggest that inhibition of this enzyme will likely have an immediate and profound effect on the maturation of lymphocytes as well as antibody formation,” said Burdine.

The next step will be to see if suppressing DNA-PKcs following a transplant will help avoid a rejection from the recipient’s immune system. The team of UAMS researchers is starting pre-clinical studies this year. The work will take place in the new home of the Division of Surgical Research at the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute.

---

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 2,870 students, 799 medical residents and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS and its regional campuses throughout the state, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

###

UAMS is reaping the rewards of its first Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award. It funds UAMS’ Center for Translational Neuroscience (CTN), now in its third and final phase of funding. Led by Edgar Garcia-Rill, Ph.D., the CTN has benefited UAMS’ research enterprise in many ways since it was first funded in 2004, said Lawrence Cornett, Ph.D., UAMS vice chancellor for research.

“Over the years, the CTN has helped support a number of researchers at UAMS capable of overseeing large-scale research programs funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and others,” Cornett said. “It has also helped us acquire and maintain the core research equipment and facilities necessary for the highest caliber science anywhere.”

Garcia-Rill, a professor of neurobiology and developmental sciences in the UAMS College of Medicine, applied for the nation’s first Center for Translational Neuroscience COBRE in response to a national decline in medical doctors with NIH grants. The COBRE funding has come in three phases:

• Phase I, $7.5 million, 2004-2009. CTN activities included bringing established, nationally funded researchers to UAMS who could mentor early-career researchers; and support to help early-career researchers at UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Research Institute reach independent status with their own national funding awards.
• Phase II, $7.5 million, 2009-2014. More mature programs were supported along with collaborations between clinical and basic scientists. Investments in these efforts helped increase grant support at UAMS by more than $33 million.
• Phase III, $3.5 million, 2014-2019. The CTN has focused on helping UAMS successfully compete for large-scale research programs, such as additional COBREs and Centers. CTN investigators have generated over 550 articles and chapters, averaging more than 40 per year over the last 13 years.

The CTN was designed to benefit a wide range of research at UAMS, from studies in the laboratory to studies that involve human participants. The success of the CTN started early, Garcia-Rill said, and is a credit to the researchers who received funding support and to the CTN external advisory committee that identified them. As just one of many examples, he cited Mary Aitken, M.D., a professor of pediatrics and injury prevention researcher in the College of Medicine.

“The first time we funded Mary Aitken was 2004 and within a year she had three or four grants,” he said. “And we gave her peanuts; we just gave her a little pilot study money. We’re fortunate to have researchers like that, people who can take a tiny amount of money and turn it into millions.”

The CTN’s more recent focus on helping land large research programs at UAMS has paid significant dividends. The CTN has provided targeted funding to help UAMS researchers earn three major awards, including two new COBREs:

• IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trial Network (ISPCTN) Data Coordinating and Operations Center, $41.8 million, led by UAMS’ Charlotte Hobbs, M.D., Ph.D., the College of Medicine executive associate dean for clinical and translational research and the Pamela D. Stephens Professor of Birth Defects Research; and Jeannette Lee, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics in the College of Medicine.
• Center for Translational Pediatric Research, $11.5 million, led by UAMS’ Alan Tackett, Ph.D., Scharlau Family Endowed Professor of Cancer Research and a professor of biochemistry, pediatrics and pathology.
• Center for Studies of Host Response to Cancer Therapy, $10.5 million, led by UAMS’ Martin Hauer-Jensen, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical sciences, surgery and pathology.

“All of these people scored well on their applications,” Garcia-Rill said. “They may just need a little tweaking here and there, just a little nudge to get one more point and get funded. That’s what we help invest in – that extra point.”

The CTN can claim a number of achievements, possibly its biggest being the reduction in infant mortality in Arkansas. The CTN’s COBRE-supported telemedicine program, Pediatric Physician Learning and Collaborative Education (Peds PLACE), led by pediatrics professor Whit Hall, M.D., connects UAMS neonatologists such as Hall with physicians caring for newborns in hospital nurseries across the state.

In 2006, 8.5 of 1,000 newborns died in Arkansas. Since then, the rate has fallen to 6.8 per 1,000, with the biggest improvement among African-Americans. That equates to saving about 60 babies a year, Garcia-Rill said.

The success of Peds PLACE recently led to additional federal funding that will allow the program to expand into Oklahoma, where five telemedicine units will be placed in hospitals that serve American Indians, a population with high infant mortality rates.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,021 students, 789 medical residents and two dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,000 physicians and other professionals who provide care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS regional centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

###

Weekend festivities began with a Friday night reception on the 12^th floor of the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, co-hosted by UAMS Interim Chancellor Stephanie Gardner, Pharm.D., Ed.D., and the Chancellor’s Circle, UAMS’ premier annual giving society. Gardner thanked alumni for their support of the institution, particularly through scholarships.

Sponsors for this year’s Alumni Weekend were the Arkansas Medical Society, Crothall Healthcare, ARORA, Arkansas Urology and Westrock Coffee Company.

Deans from four colleges were in attendance: Pope. L. Moseley, M.D., UAMS executive vice chancellor and dean of the College of Medicine; Patricia Cowan, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the College of Nursing; Keith M. Olsen, Pharm.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy; and Douglas L. Murphy, Ph.D., dean of the College of Health Professions.

Golden Graduates – those celebrating 50 years or more – were given commemorative medallions with red and blue ribbons, which many wore proudly. Alumni and their guests met and mingled, some needing a quick glance at buttons featuring their yearbook photos to reacquaint with old friends. A gaggle of Class of ’97 graduates spent the evening together, 20 years seeming barely any time at all.

As the sun set and splashed the room with bright colors, alumni sat in small groups at tables decorated with white hydrangea blooms, enjoying heavy hors d’oeuvres and live jazz music. Several lingered by televisions with a slideshow of the 1967 Caduceus, pointing out themselves or former classmates. Others carried glossy copies of class pictures and examined them closely.

William Weaver, M.D., of Lake Village, and John Webb, M.D., of Gainesville, Texas, both COM ’52, spent much of the weekend attending events together. Because their names are so close alphabetically, Weaver and Webb sat next to each other for four years in medical school and were side-by-side in their Caduceus class pictures. They became close friends and have kept in touch for more than 60 years.

Webb said that, as a UAMS graduate, he had an advantage over other medical schools because of the hands-on experience he had treating patients – in his case, those with diphtheria and typhoid fever. “They [at other schools] had more research experience than we had, but we [at UAMS] had more clinical experience,” Webb said.

It was a family affair for Weaver, who was escorted by his granddaughter, Natalie Burr, M.D., COM ’14. Burr said that having multiple generations of small-town doctors in Lake Village comes with a lot of name recognition. “Even still, 30 years after he quit practicing, you’d go in the grocery store and meet someone he delivered,” she said of her grandfather.

It was a more casual atmosphere on Saturday morning. A continental breakfast with plenty of hot coffee greeted alumni at the I. Dodd Wilson Education Building. Several enjoyed the historical display, courtesy of the UAMS Historical Research Center, featuring old annuals, textbooks, various medical equipment and a bird’s-eye view of the campus as it was nearly 50 years ago.

After a welcome from Gardner and Dean Lee, Ed.D., UAMS executive director of alumni and constituent relations, class was in session. Joseph Bates, M.D., COM ’57, professor and associate dean of public health for the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, led a wide-ranging discussion on public health in Arkansas. Bates, renowned as a public health hero, recently retired as deputy state health officer and chief science officer for the Arkansas Department of Health.

That kind of commitment is only a small part of the dedication of UAMS alumni, Lee said.

Lee praised alumni for their service across multiple disciplines. “In unison, everybody turns and looks at you as the go-to person to save the day – and you do,” he said. “It’s not just a 40-hour-a-week job. It’s 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thank you for choosing a life of service, and thank you for choosing UAMS.”

Saturday showcase lectures, always a popular item, were brought back. Alumni from each college broke into groups and settled into classrooms, where they listened and learned about a range of topics including neurology, mental health, precision medicine, orthopaedics, heart disease and community pharmacy. Follow-up questions and the ensuing discussions led to many showcases being extended, as they were the year before.

Their appetites whet for knowledge, alumni were led across campus for college-centered catered lunches, and a chance to talk one-on-one with their dean. At the College of Medicine luncheon, held at the I. Dodd Wilson Education Building, Moseley thanked alumni for serving as ambassadors. “You, as graduates, demonstrate every day the successes of UAMS,” he said.

Moseley presented the 2017 Dean’s Distinguished Alumnus Award to James Y. Suen, M.D., COM ’66, distinguished professor and former chair of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. Suen stepped down as chair of the department in April after 43 years of continuous service and is believed to be the longest-serving chair of otolaryngology in United States history. He was instrumental in development of what is now the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, serving from 2001 to 2007 as its third director, and he holds the Patricia and J. Floyd Kyser, M.D., Endowed Chair in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

“James has really embodied the physician-scholar that we’ve talked about – someone who has pioneered clinical innovation and used scholarship to develop new ways to care for patients,” Moseley said.

“Success and achievements are rarely accomplished by one person,” Suen said. “I accept this honor on behalf of my nurses, my administrative assistants, my residents, my colleagues, all who have helped me with patient care, my academic achievements or endeavors – I could not do anything I do without all of the people that help me.”

Saturday night’s Southern Supper, held in the main ballroom of the Little Rock Marriott, was the weekend’s smash hit. Inside, dozens of tables draped in elegant black surrounded a wooden dance floor leading up to the main stage, where the Lockhouse Orchestra played golden oldies and contemporary hits. A smorgasbord of Southern delicacies were on the menu, including red beans and rice, fried okra and gumbo, with pecan pie and bread pudding for dessert.

Alumni waited in long lines throughout the evening to get their pictures etched into a small commemorative crystal keepsake. In the meantime, several hit the dance floor – at least one in bare feet – to sway and rock as the music took them. Song requests came in for Chuck Berry, Glen Campbell and Led Zeppelin. “Boy, that band is great – they can play anything,” said Rick Bell, M.D., COM ’67, before breaking into an air guitar riff.

Midway through the evening, most Golden Graduates – many still wearing their medallions – retired to private rooms and reminisced. The Class of ’67, this year’s newest Golden Graduates, took class photos with their phones, remembered old times and talked of their grandchildren.

Sunday morning, Golden Graduates arrived early for brunch at the Capital Hotel. Held in the hotel’s first floor ballroom, alumni crowded around lavishly appointed tables and tucked in to heaping plates of eggs benedict, crispy bacon, plump sausages, cheese grits and fresh fruit.

Anita Mitchell, Ph.D., Marilyn Harper and Freda Bush, M.D., all CON ’67, had a happy and long-awaited reunion in the foyer – the first time they’d seen each other since graduation 50 years ago. Initially, they didn’t recognize each other, until each looked at the other’s button of her younger self, Harper said. After that, they were inseparable.

“We’re older versions of our younger selves,” Bush said, laughing.

There was plenty to catch up on, but they quickly made up for lost time, telling stories.

“When you start thinking about the dreams and goals that we had then, and how we separated from each other, didn’t see each other, didn’t communicate with each other, and now we’re back together,” Bush said. “We’ve fulfilled our dreams and our goals! It’s nice seeing that we have really made significant contributions; we didn’t just go away.”

Aug. 23, 2017 | C. Lowry Barnes, M.D., has made a distinguished career as an orthopaedic surgeon with the support of a kindly mentor and a dedicated nurse. Now, he’s paying it forward: spreading $75,000 across two scholarships, each honoring their contributions.

Barnes donated $37,500, matched by UAMS for a total of $75,000, towards the Blackwell-Barnes College of Medicine Scholarship and the Marty Bushmiaer Orthopaedic Nursing Scholarship. The former honors his mentor, Banks Blackwell, M.D., and the latter honors Marty Bushmiaer, A.P.R.N., Barnes’ longtime nurse.

The Blackwell-Barnes College of Medicine Scholarship will assist College of Medicine students with a preference for those from southeast Arkansas and an interest in orthopaedics.

“I have a strong affection for southeast Arkansas,” Barnes said. “This is about giving back – both to that region of Arkansas and to orthopaedics.”

Barnes, who has served as chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery since 2014, was invested June 1 in the Carl L. Nelson, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery. He is one of Arkansas’ and the region’s foremost joint replacement experts.

Barnes credits his interest in orthopaedics to Blackwell, a fellow Pine Bluff native, who mentored him at Jefferson Regional Medical Center. “Banks was an orthopaedic surgeon, and his support helped me become one,” Barnes said.

Barnes, who graduated with honors from the College of Medicine in 1986 and completed his internship and residency in orthopaedic surgery at UAMS, was one of many students whom Blackwell helped send to medical school.

“Banks did this for me and others from Pine Bluff,” Barnes said. “He asked that we do it for others when we could, and I have enjoyed doing so.”

The Marty Bushmiaer Orthopaedic Nursing Scholarship will support orthopaedic nurses in obtaining an advanced nursing degree from the College of Nursing.

“Marty is a good example for orthopaedic nurses because she is dedicated to patients and quality outcomes,” Barnes said. “We have worked closely together for more than 20 years and hopefully have advanced hip and knee replacement in our state.”

Bushmiaer has worked alongside Barnes since 1994, when she was pursuing an advanced degree at UAMS. They collaborated on project at Arkansas Children’s Hospital while she was in graduate school “and the rest is history,” Bushmiaer said.

The scholarship announcement came as a total surprise. “I was truly overwhelmed by his generous gift,” Bushmiaer said. “It is amazing.”

The path to becoming a nurse was always clear in her mind, Bushmiaer said.

“Since the age of 5, I have wanted to be a nurse,” she said. “I fell in love with orthopaedics on my first job following nursing school. I was inspired by the nurses in the operating room who shared their love and enthusiasm for orthopaedics.”

Bushmiaer looks forward to introducing more nurses to the specialty.

“This scholarship means that a nurse, who may not have been able to, may now pursue an advanced degree in nursing,” Bushmiaer said. “I am proud to know that there will be an opportunity for another nurse to love and enjoy a fulfilling career in orthopaedic nursing.”

---

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 2,870 students, 799 medical residents and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS and its regional campuses throughout the state, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

###

Now, they’re looking even farther ahead: the Mehtas have given $50,000, matched by UAMS for a total of $100,000, to establish an endowed lectureship to bring in top physicians in internal medicine to share their scientific knowledge with medical students and residents.

Jay Mehta, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics, holds the Stebbins Chair in Cardiology and is the former director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Paulette is a professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. The Mehtas have bridged their respective fields through research on platelets and other blood cells in cardiovascular disease. They’ve developed lasting relationships with their patients, treating them like family. With this new lectureship, the Mehtas plan to invite notable physician educators and scientists to visit UAMS.

“This lectureship will help train and educate the future physicians of Arkansas by providing invaluable interactions with prominent physicians at the top of their fields,” said Jay Mehta. “In this way, we can continue to provide the best possible care to the people of this state.”

“This is our chance to pay back for all that we have been given, and to pass philanthropy on to future generations,” he said.

“Jay and I share the same vision,” said Paulette Mehta. “Our hope is that this contribution will help push the path forward to reduce the burden of those living with blood and heart diseases, and to eradicate these diseases in our lifetimes.”

---

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 2,870 students, 799 medical residents and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS and its regional campuses throughout the state, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

###

Aug. 9, 2017 | The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) recently was chosen by the Home-Centered Care Institute as one of eight Centers of Excellence for its Home-Based Primary Care program, a first-of-its-kind program designed to make high-quality, home-based primary care a more common practice across the United States.

The institute’s program aims to train and expand the home-based primary care workforce of physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants from the currently estimated 1,000 providers to 5,000 nationwide over the next five years.

The training curriculum to be used at the eight centers focuses on four core components — foundational principles, economics, operations and clinical care. Ann Riggs, M.D., a professor in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics, and Jasmine Brathwaite, M.D., an assistant professor in the same department, will teach the curriculum at UAMS along with two advanced practice registered nurses. In September, all four will travel to Chicago for a “training the trainers” course and plan to start teaching classes in home-based primary care by early November.

“This is a new educational component that we can use to help train future house-call physicians how to build medical teams going to the homes,” Riggs said. “We are very excited and proud to be asked to participate in it. We’re grateful that Dr. Brathwaite is leading up the House Call Program through the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and also helping us step up to be one of the Centers of Excellence.”

In 1999, Debra Caradine, M.D., established the House Call clinical program in the Department of Geriatrics. Brathwaite now leads the program and along with two advanced practice registered nurses sees about 250 patients.

Home-based primary care makes possible timely and appropriate care, improves medical outcomes and patient and family experience, and reduces health care costs for older Americans with multiple chronic conditions and other medically complex patients, Brathwaite said.

“In the past, it’s been difficult to make house call programs financially feasible, but with the new changes in payment structure, we will be able to make the financial piece work,” Brathwaite said. “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services did research over four years looking at four or five different house-calls program. They showed a tremendous savings in overall cost of care, mainly because we’re showing better health outcomes, reducing emergency medical visits and decreasing hospitalizations.”

The other Centers of Excellence in the program are Cleveland Clinic, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, MedStar Health-Medical House Call Program in Washington D.C., Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, University of Arizona Center on Aging in Tucson, Arizona and University of California, San Francisco.

Founded in 2012 by Thomas Cornwell, M.D., the Home-Centered Care Institute is a collaborative nonprofit organization that is advancing home-based primary care nationwide to ensure that medically complex and homebound patients have access to high-quality primary care in their home.

By Ben Boulden | August 9th, 2017 |

Expansion of the college’s senior research team comes on the heels of a highly successful year for federal research grant funding awarded to UAMS. The College of Medicine rose from 84^th to 53^rd last year in the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research’s ranking of U.S. medical schools that receive research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A key factor in the college’s grant funding increase was a $41.8 million NIH grant that Hobbs and Jeannette Lee, Ph.D., a professor of biostatistics, received in 2016 to oversee a 17-site Pediatric Clinical Trials Network.

Under Morrison’s leadership, the Department of Microbiology and Immunology also has improved significantly in the Blue Ridge Rankings, moving from 71^st among 99 comparable departments receiving NIH funding in 2008 to 48^th among 98 departments in the most recent ranking.

Morrison and Hobbs will work collaboratively to advance the college’s research mission. Morrison will focus on goal setting and monitoring of the college’s progress in research and external grant funding. He will work closely with UAMS’ research core facilities and research support offices, along with department chairs and faculty scientists throughout the college.

“Dr. Morrison brings exceptional, proven leadership and administrative skills to his new post,” said Pope L. Moseley, M.D., executive vice chancellor of UAMS and dean of the College of Medicine. “Dr. Morrison and his colleagues in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology have been highly successful in obtaining grants, conducting world-class research and publishing scholarly work since he joined us as chair in 2007.”

Hobbs will focus on the college’s clinical and translational research efforts. She will also continue to direct the college’s Clinician-Scientist Development Program, which is designed to increase the ranks of specially trained physician-scientists who can bridge the basic and clinical sciences in the effort to translate research findings into better medical care.

“The Clinician-Scientist Development Program has benefited significantly from Dr. Hobbs’ founding vision and mentoring skills,” Moseley said. “Her remarkable ability to convene researchers from different disciplines around innovative and complex projects will be an asset to her work in this new leadership post.”

Hobbs directed the Birth Defects Research Section in the College of Medicine from 2001 to 2015. She previously served as principal investigator of the Arkansas Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention – a leading U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-supported birth defects research site – from 1997 to February 2017. She was scientific director of the Arkansas Reproductive Health Monitoring System from 1996 to 2015 and served as medical director until February 2017.

Hobbs received her Ph.D. in epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, in 1991 and her medical degree at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1992. She completed her residency in pediatrics at UAMS.

Morrison served as a co-principal investigator and director of the Research Core and associate director of the Administrative Core for UAMS’ Center of Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Inflammatory Responses before assuming his current post. He was the inaugural recipient of the rotating Endowed Chair in Sciences Basic to Medicine at UAMS from 2007 to 2012.

Morrison worked previously at the University of Alabama Birmingham, where he was a professor in the Department of Medicine from 2004 to 2007. He also served on the faculty at UAB earlier in his career, from 1994 to 1997. From 1997 to 2004 he was a faculty member in the Department of Microbiology at Montana State University in Bozeman, where he was promoted to professor in 2002.

Morrison received his Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma in Norman in 1982. He served in postdoctoral and staff positions at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, from 1982 to 1994.

---

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 2,870 students, 799 medical residents and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS and its regional campuses throughout the state, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

###

Keith Bush, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, is the principal investigator of the study funded by the National Science Foundation, a federal agency that funds nearly a quarter of all basic research conducted by U.S. colleges and universities. He and co-investigator Andrew James, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry, are with the Brain Imaging Research Center, part of UAMS’ Psychiatric Research Institute.

Bush, whose background is in computer science, plans to use the Brain Imaging Research Center’s MRI scanner to analyze the brain responses of 81 healthy people between ages 18 and 65. He will be studying multiple dimensions of human emotional expression — such as positive versus negative or levels of arousal — in an effort to understand the emotional responses of humans and how they control them.

“We’re going to be showing them emotionally rich images while they are in the scanner,” said Bush. “Using fMRI, we’ll be able to see their brain reactions in real time and learn more about how we as humans decode the complex social messages within emotions and how we regulate our responses. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that if we gain an understanding of how the healthy brain reacts, then we will gain valuable insight into the mechanisms of prevalent mood and anxiety disorders.”

“We know relatively little as to how specifically we deploy control systems to regulate our emotional brain,” according to Clint Kilts, Ph.D., director of the Brain Imaging Research Center. “This makes this project vital in recognizing and correcting control issues for patients with problems like depression and bipolar disorder. This study intersects the fields of affective and computational neuroscience, machine learning, engineering control systems and the technical advances of real-time functional brain imaging.

“If you’re going to understand the mechanisms of the brain, you’re going to have to first understand them in the healthy population,” said Kilts. “This project will go a long way towards helping people understand, in a healthy sense, ‘how am I doing in my own world.’ It’s going to generate new knowledge on a problem that we’ve been studying for centuries.”

---

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 2,870 students, 799 medical residents and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS and its regional campuses throughout the state, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

###