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.

Surgical Association Leadership
Congratulations to Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman, Professor and Executive Vice-Chair of the Department of Surgery, on her election as First Vice President of the Southern Surgical Association (SSA). The prestigious appointment reflects Dr. Henry-Tillman’s national and international recognition in breast surgical oncology and her many contributions to the SSA including initial service as Chair of the SSA Leadership Development Program. As First Vice President, she will co-preside over the SSA’s annual Scientific Session next December, among other activities. At UAMS, Dr. Henry-Tillman is a leader in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute as well as the Department of Surgery and a beloved champion for patients from Arkansas and around the world. 

National Leadership in Geriatric Psychiatry
Dr. Prasad Padala, Professor of Psychiatry and Geriatrics and Program Director for the Baptist Health-UAMS Psychiatry Residency, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP). Dr. Padala has served in several capacities within the AAGP including Co-Chair of the Research Committee and Chair of poster and oral sessions. Significantly, he has become known as a champion for trainees and young faculty through his leadership of the “Building your Research Career” symposium at the organization’s annual meeting for over a decade, along with other work. His longstanding mentoring efforts culminated in the establishment of a named scholar this year in the AAGP Scholars Program, a pipeline for future Geriatric Psychiatrists. Kudos, Dr. Padala.

Top 5 Most Read Paper
An article by Dr. J.L. Mehta, Distinguished Professor of Internal Medicine, Physiology and Cell Biology and Pharmacology and Toxicology, and colleagues was one of the top 5 most read papers in the American College of Cardiology’s JACC: Advances in 2024. Published as a State-of-the-Art Review, the article discussed the impact of COVID-19 infection on the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. Dr. Mehta served as senior author, and Dr. Vignesh Chidambaram, a graduate of the UAMS Internal Medicine Residency Program, was first author. Other UAMS-affiliated coauthors included Associate Professor Dr. Subhi Al’Aref, former faculty member Dr. Tushar Tarun, and Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship graduate Dr. Murrium Sadaf.

Groundbreaking Psychiatry Advances for Arkansas
Dr. Laura Dunn, Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Psychiatric Research Institute (PRI), did a great job updating the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees on the impactful work in psychiatry being done at UAMS for patients across the state. Speaking at the board’s recent monthly meeting, Dr. Dunn highlighted groundbreaking programs including the UAMS Health Six Bridges Clinic, which provides care for young people ages 12-21 with substance use disorders. She also shared information about the UAMS Health Odyssey Clinic for patients and families affected by schizophrenia, and noted how UAMS was the first in the country to provide an innovative therapy for treatment-resistant depression called SAINT (Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy). The talk was well received by the Board of Trustees and covered by news media, including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. 

Sociodemographic Factors in Prenatal Care
The Institute for Community Health Innovation, led by Pearl McElfish, Ph.D., continues to publish excellent scholarly work on a wide range of health topics impacting Arkansans. Most recently, a study in the March issue of Preventive Medicine demonstrated that Arkansas mothers who live in rural areas, and/or who have a Medicaid-covered birth, are less likely to receive early prenatal care or have an adequate number of prenatal visits. The research team also found that Black and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations were more likely to have later or fewer than the recommended number of prenatal care visits. Dr. Clare Brown, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, was a coauthor with Dr. McElfish on the study. Dr. McElfish shares insights about impacts of those findings in this UAMS news article.  

Teach the Teacher
A shout-out to all who made the 16th annual Teach the Teacher Symposium a great success. The symposium last Friday included sessions on teaching and advising neurodivergent students in both classroom and clinical settings. UAMS presenters included Pediatrics faculty members Dr. Angie Scott, Dr. Chayla Slaton and Associate Dean for Student Affairs Dr. Becky Latch; Albrey Love, DNP, from the College of Nursing; and Michelle Zengulis, Title IX and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator. Many other faculty, residents and students presented posters on educational research topics. Special thanks to Dr. Karina Clemmons, Assistant Dean for Medical Education and Professor of Medical Humanities,and Dr. Latch for leading the symposium. Kudos also to Michael Anders, Associate Professor in the Office of Educational Development, and to Jennifer VanEcko, Program Manager in COM Academic Affairs, for her organizational contributions. Learn more about the presentations and posters here.

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.

National Physician Advisory Leadership
Congratulations to Dr. Ahmed Abuabdou, Chief Clinical Officer for UAMS Medical Center, on his appointment as President-Elect of the American College of Physician Advisors (ACPA). Dr. Abuabdou will bring extensive experience in clinical leadership, physician advisory programs and hospital medicine to his upcoming role as President, which starts in October. Dr. Abuabdou, an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine, has served at UAMS since 2012. He established the UAMS Physician Advisory Program in 2016 and served as the Physician Champion for the Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) Program from 2016 to 2022. The ACPA is the leading national organization working to cultivate and support leaders in case management, hospital utilization, CDI, revenue cycle and health care regulation.    

Editor-in-Chief for Drug Metabolism Journal
Dr. Grover P. Miller, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has been named Editor-in-Chief of Drug Metabolism Reviews, the journal of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics. The journal publishes reviews on a wide array of drug metabolism research including environmentally toxic chemicals, absorption, metabolism and secretion. The journal draws from leaders in academia, industry, and government research on the biological impacts of foreign, biologically active (xenobiotic) compounds to human health. Dr. Miller brings extensive expertise in the metabolic activation and clearance of small molecules, particularly in relation to pharmacological and toxicological effects.

Psychiatric Journal Leadership
Dr. Laura Dunn, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, has been named Interim Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice. The peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the American Psychiatric Association is dedicated to building on the psychiatric knowledge base to help move research findings toward clinical application. Dr. Dunn brings expertise in general psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry, along with extensive experience from numerous clinical, educational and administrative leadership roles, to her editor post. She has served as the Marie Wilson Howells Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Director of the Psychiatric Research Institute since her recruitment to UAMS from Stanford University School of Medicine in early 2022.

Family Medicine Residency Education Network
The Department of Family and Preventive Medicine (DFPM) is launching the Arkansas Family Medicine Residency Network Educational Collaborative in February with a boost from the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) Foundation. The foundation has just awarded a $75,000, three-year Seed Programming Grant, following an initial $5,000 grant in 2023 when the DFPM team began planning the initiative. The network will support collaborative efforts by all UAMS-affiliated Family Medicine programs to build a robust training framework, support practice transformation, and develop partnerships benefiting both residency programs and community health. Leaders in the initiative include Dr. Shashank Kraleti, DFPM Chair and Director of the Primary Care and Population Health Service Line, Dr. Julea Garner, Vice Chair for Community Health and Engagement and Director of the Baptist Health/UAMS Family Medicine Residency, and Dr. Diane Jarrett, Director of Communication and Departmental Relations.

Groundbreaking Orthopaedic Procedure
A shoutout to Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Associate Professor Dr. David Bumpass and Assistant Professor Dr. Matt Landrum and team for performing the first-ever robotic-assisted Shilla surgical treatment for scoliosis. The groundbreaking procedure was performed at Arkansas Children’s. It combines the precision and minimally invasive benefits of the Mazor robotic guidance system for spinal surgery with the internationally recognized Shilla technique – a procedure invented at Arkansas Children’s by now retired Professor Dr. Richard McCarthy. The Shilla technique corrects spinal curve in children while allowing the spine to grow naturally without requiring repeated surgeries.

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.

Neuromodulation Strategies for Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome
Dr. Debopam Samanta, Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Director of the Level 4 Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Arkansas Children’s, is the lead and primary author on an important new article providing the first clinical guidelines for neuromodulation therapies to treat one of the most severe forms of epilepsy. Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) is often resistant to seizure medications, and while emerging research suggests neuromodulation therapies can be an effective alternative, selecting and managing the appropriate neuromodulation therapy has remained challenging. The guidelines from Dr. Samanta and colleagues in the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Consortium (PERC) were published in Epilepsy Research.

American Cancer Society Fellowship
Congratulations to Dr. Jessica Kelliher, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, on receiving a highly competitive fellowship award from the American Cancer Society (ACS). Dr. Kelliher will use the $217,500, three-year award for a research project aimed at exploiting DNA repair in cell therapy for solid tumors, in the lab of her mentor, Assistant Professor Dr. Brian Koss. Dr. Alan Tackett, Distinguished Professor and Executive Associate Dean for Research in the College of Medicine, is a co-mentor. The grant is the second ever ACS fellowship awarded to a UAMS postdoctoral fellow, following the 2022 ACS fellowship award to Dr. Kirk West.

American Heart Association Fellowship
Congratulations to Dr. Rami Shahror, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, on receiving a prestigious American Heart Association fellowship. The $176,020 award will support his work for the next two years. Dr. Shahror is investigating the role of myeloid HDAC3 enzyme in retinal neurovascular injury with his mentor, Assistant Professor Dr. Abdel Fouda, and co-mentor Dr. Nancy Rusch, Distinguished Professor and Chair. The project aims to identify new therapies for diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults, by targeting the enzyme histone deacetylase 3 in immune cells.

National Neurology Recognitions
A shout out to Dr. Abhilash Thatikala, PGY-4 resident and Academic Chief Resident in the Department of Neurology, on his recent national honors including being named to the Editorial Board of Clinical Neuroimaging, the journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging. Dr. Thatikala also has been awarded a highly competitive scholarship to attend the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in San Diego in April. In addition to having travel and attendance costs covered, he will participate in special programs for scholarship recipients. Both honors reflect Dr. Thatikala’s quickly growing stature in the field.

Emergency Medicine Residents on a Roll
Our Emergency Medicine residents are on a roll this year with honors and presentations at national and international conferences. Most recently, PGY2 resident Dr. Brian Slayyeh received the highly competitive Michael Spadafora Travel Award from the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) to attend the annual scientific meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, in April. He will present a poster on snakebite antivenom adverse events. PGY3 Dr. Brooke Yasgur also will be presenting a case report in Vancouver, as well as at the Annual Congress of the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists in Glasgow, Scotland, in May. This past fall, PGY2 Dr. Jack Sudduth presented an abstract at the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization annual meeting in Detroit.  Congratulations to all.

Question of the Day App
Dr. Khushboo Verma, PGY-4 resident and Administrative Chief Resident in the Department of Neurology, is helping neurologists, trainees and medical students around the world through the popular “Question of the Day” (QOD) app offered by the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Verma is serving on the app’s workgroup alongside Dr. Humaira Khan, Assistant Professor and Program Director for the Neurology Residency. The workgroup is exclusive, comprising eight experienced neurologists and their respective mentees. Following a monthly curriculum, the QOD app provides continuing medical education (CME) to national and international neurologists, fellows and residents, as well as a separate track of questions for medical students.

Podcast Features BioVentures Initiatives
The UAMS BioVentures Podcast continues to showcase promising initiatives supported by the technology transfer office, including the three UAMS research teams that received inaugural AR Health Ventures Accelerator (ARHVA) awards last year. The Jan. 10 episode featured an interview with Dr. Gyan Sahukhal, Assistant Staff Scientist in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and his project to target biofilm regulators when treating staph infection. Dr. Samir Jenkins, Research Instructor in Radiation Oncology, kicked off the ARHVA series in October with his project focusing on a new approach to chemotherapy using liposomes. Another episode featured Dr. Mitch McGill, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the College of Public Health, and his project to develop new biomarkers to detect liver injury. You can catch all episodes of the BioVentures Podcast here.

Medicaid Expansion & the Marshallese
UAMS Northwest Regional Campus senior medical student Robert Brand is the first author on a recently published study into the impact of Medicaid expansion for the Marshallese population served by the UAMS North Street Clinic. The study, published in the Journal of Regional Medical Campuses, demonstrated a significant increase in the use of health care services by previously uninsured Marshallese patients in 2021-2022, following the expansion. The findings could aid policymakers in designing and implementing strategies for increasing access and utilization in target populations. Coauthors included UAMS faculty members Dr. Sheena CarlLee, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, and Dr. Hanna Jensen, Assistant Professor of Surgery.

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.

Breakthroughs in Medicine
UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Research Institute clinician scientists were integral in two of the seven “breakthroughs that changed medicine in 2024” highlighted in a retrospective article published by National Geographic in December.

One of the breakthroughs was the development of “partial heart transplants” to provide lifesaving replacement heart valves that will continue to grow with infants who are born with faulty heart valves. Dr. Taufiek Konrad Rajab, Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery, pioneered the procedure. His collaborative work with coauthors at Duke University was published in JAMA last January.

National Geographic also noted the FDA approval of the drug Omalizumab to reduce the risks posed by life-threatening allergies to peanuts and other foods. The approval stemmed from the work of Dr. Stacie Jones and Dr. Amy Scurlock, Professors in the Department of Pediatrics Section of Allergy and Immunology, and their peers in the NIH Consortium for Food Allergy Research. The Omalizumab trial was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February.

Congratulations to these outstanding faculty members and their research teams!

Distinguished Service Award
Congratulations to Dr. Alan Diekman, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Urology, on being selected to receive the 2025 Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Andrology (ASA). Dr. Diekman is nationally recognized for his research into the molecular mechanisms of reproductive biology and has been active in the ASA for over two decades. He has served in numerous leadership roles and as ASA Treasurer coauthored the organization’s five-year strategic plan in 2021. He will be recognized in a March 30 ceremony at the annual conference of the ASA and the International Society of Andrology (ISA). 

National Family Medicine Programs
A shout-out to Family and Preventive Medicine Assistant Professors Dr. Lauren Gibson-Oliver and Dr. Rachael Goodwin, who have been selected to participate in faculty development programs sponsored by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) in 2025. Dr. Gibson-Oliver, Program Director of the UAMS Little Rock Family Medicine Residency, will participate in the STFM Emerging Leaders Fellowship. Dr. Goodwin, who practices and teaches at the UAMS North Central Campus in Batesville, has been chosen for the STFM New Faculty Scholars Program.

Clinical Documentation Stars
Kudos to Dr. Katy Marino, Associate Professor in the Division of Thoracic Surgery, and Dr. Stephen King, Assistant Professor in Family and Preventive Medicine, who were recently named Chart Champion Stars by the UAMS Medical Center Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) team. Dr. Marino was recognized for her detailed, well-explained query responses that “vastly improve the DRG assignments for her patients and accuracy in coding and billing.” The CDI team noted that Dr. King frequently contacts coding specialists to provide polite, personable feedback and rationale for codes he is dropping, and that he helps to “improve understanding of the standpoints between the physicians and the coders.” Both were highlighted in the November-December Chart Champions newsletter. 

Mobile Vision Screening Hits the Road
A shout-out to the Department of Ophthalmology on the successful rollout of the new GoVision mobile vision screening unit. As Professor and Chair Dr. Paul Phillips notes in this UAMS news story, the initiative is poised to significantly improve vision care access for children and adults across Arkansas. UAMS received a grant from the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas to support the program. Special thanks to resident Dr. Zain Chauhan, who was the lead grant writer, along with resident Dr. Abdel Elhusseiny and Professor Dr. Ahmed Sallam, for their work on the initiative. Kudos also to Shelli Madison, Sajida Chauhan, Megan Brown and Angela Johnson, and to residents Dr. Alex Kwok and Dr. Joshua Shin, who joined Dr. Chauhan for the inaugural screening event at the Huda Academy in Little Rock.

National Behavioral Neurology Leadership
Dr. Anthony Davis, Associate Professor of Neurology, has been elected Vice Chair of the Behavioral Neurology Section of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). His two-year term will start in April. The election is a wonderful recognition of Dr. Davis’ national stature in the field. Kudos to Dr. Davis as well for his ongoing work to expand behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry services at UAMS.

CMS Expert Panel Appointment
Dr. Stephen Foster, Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine (DFPM) at the UAMS Northeast Regional Campus in Jonesboro, has been selected to serve on the Technical Expert Panel (TEP) for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Development and Maintenance for Eligible Clinicians project. At UAMS, Dr. Foster also serves as Director of the DFPM Office of Digital Health and as Medical Director of Population Health for the Primary Care and Population Health Service Line. As a member of the TEP, he will join with other experts and stakeholders to provide input on the prioritization and development of eCQMs that support CMS’ quality program goals.

Editorial Board Appointment
Dr. Josh Kennedy, Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Allergy and Immunology Section, will lend his expertise as a member of the Editorial Board of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, for the next two years. Dr. Kennedy’s research has focused extensively on the intersection of asthma and the effects of the common cold virus, as well as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Last year, he received a $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to lead a five-year study to help clarify the viral and host factors that lead to severe disease in children infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Prestigious Echocardiography Accreditation
The UAMS Cardiac Noninvasive Laboratory has received accreditation for adult transesophageal, stress and transthoracic echocardiography from the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC). As Dr. Paul Mounsey, Professor and Director of the Cardiology Division in the Department of Internal Medicine, notes in this UAMS news story, the prestigious accreditation is a testament to the hard work, dedication and excellence of the entire cardiac noninvasive team. Special thanks to Dr. Srikanth Vallurupalli, Associate Professor and Medical Director, and Randi Booker, MHA, Manager and Technical Director of the lab.

Student Travel Award, Research Honor
Congratulations to second-year medical student Grace Turbyfill on her recent research honors, including a prestigious travel award from the Medical Toxicology Foundation to attend the American College of Medical Toxicology annual meeting in Vancouver, B.C., in April. She also has been invited to do an oral presentation at the Southern Society for Pediatric Research/Southern Regional Meeting in New Orleans in February. Her research, completed as part of our Pediatric Honors Program, focused on evaluating the impact of a simplified treatment regimen for acetaminophen toxicity. Dr. Erica Liebelt, Professor and Medical and Research Director for Pharmacology and Toxicology in the Section of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Pharmacology and Toxicology, is Grace’s program mentor.

Graduate School Celebrates Students and Mentors
The scientific achievements of students and contributions of their faculty mentors were in the spotlight at the recent UAMS Graduate School Winter Awards Reception. Outstanding Achievement Awards were presented to M.D./Ph.D. student Amie Brint and graduate students Katherine Deck, Christian Mitchell and Dakota Redling. Excellence in Mentoring Awards went to their mentors, respectively: Dr. Robert Griffin, Professor of Radiation Oncology; Dr. Shengyu Mu, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology; Dr. Abdel Fouda, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology; and Dr. Kimberly Stephens, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. Many other students received Achievement Awards or were recognized for other accomplishments, and several additional faculty members received Mentor Awards. Read more in the UAMS Newsroom.

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.

Transformative Initiative Earns Advocacy Award
Congratulations to Dr. Kapil Arya, Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Neurology, on being selected to receive the 2025 Viste Patient Advocate of the Year Award from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). Dr. Arya, who directs the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and spasticity programs at Arkansas Children’s, will be honored at the AAN annual meeting in April for his outstanding work with SMA, including his leadership to implement statewide newborn screening for the rare disease.

If not detected and treated within a few weeks of birth, SMA can be debilitating and often fatal. The Arkansas General Assembly enacted a law requiring newborn screening for SMA in 2019, but a complex system was still needed for the screening to become routine across the state. Dr. Arya developed the system as a UAMS Translational Research Institute Implementation Science Scholar in the UAMS Center for Implementation Research in 2020. (Read more about this transformative initiative in this UAMS news story.) In addition to receiving the AAN award, Dr. Arya will present the AAN’s priorities to congressional lawmakers as part of the “Neurology on the Hill” advocacy program in 2025.

Award Honors Service in Respiratory Care
Dr. Ariel Berlinski, Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Pulmonology, received the 2024 Albert H. Andrews Jr, M.D., Award from the National Board of Respiratory Care (NBRC). The annual award recognizes a physician who has contributed significantly to the development of respiratory care and the organizations supporting the profession. Dr. Berlinski has served as a consultant for the neonatal-pediatric certification issued by the NBRC for the past 17 years. At Arkansas Children’s, Dr. Berlinski serves as Medical Director of the Pulmonary Diagnostic Laboratory, Medical Director of Respiratory Care Services, and Director of the Arkansas Children’s Cystic Fibrosis Center. Dr. Berlinski also directs the Pediatric Aerosol Research Laboratory at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute.

Hypertension Control Champions
Congratulations to Dr. Tabasum Imran, Medical Director of UAMS’ Fort Smith Family Medical Center, and team on being designated as a 2024 Hypertension Control Champion by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as part of the agency’s Million Hearts Campaign. The national initiative recognizes clinicians, practices and health systems that have achieved blood pressure control for at least 80% of their patients with hypertension. Dr. Imran, an Associate Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine, also serves as Assistant Service Line Director for Quality in the Primary Care and Population Health Service Line. Clinical Services Manager Brenda Morris and Quality Improvement Coordinator Virginia King also had essential roles in the clinic becoming one of only two in Arkansas to achieve the designation. 

National Honor in Bioethics
A shout-out to Dr. Micah Hester, Professor and Chair of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, on his election as a Fellow of the Hastings Center, the premier interdisciplinary professional organization and research institute in the field of bioethics. Hastings Center Fellows are recognized as leaders in areas of global importance in bioethics, and whose work has informed scholarship and public understanding of complex ethical issues in health, health care, science and technology. As a leading expert in “pragmatic bioethics,” Dr. Hester has written and lectured extensively on the ethics of patient-professional relationships and end-of-life issues. The Hastings Fellow election was just the latest honor for Dr. Hester. In September, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.

Championing Women in the Thyroid Field
Dr. Spyridoula Maraka, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, has been named Chair-Elect of the American Thyroid Association’s Women in Thyroidology. The organization works to address the unique challenges of women in the field, promote gender equity in the thyroidology workforce, and celebrate the achievements and contributions of women advancing thyroid research and clinical care. Dr. Maraka is an internationally recognized expert in thyroid disease. She also currently serves on an expert panel that develops clinical practice guidelines for the Endocrine Society. At UAMS, she serves as Program Director for the Endocrinology Fellowship.

Anesthesiology Diversity Teaching Initiative Earns Grant
Department of Anesthesiology Professor Dr. Faiza Khan and Assistant Professor Dr. Michelle Tenorio have been awarded a Diversity Mentoring Grant from the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). The grant will support an initiative to develop an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) to teach learners behavioral skills related to communication challenges and diversity, equity and inclusion topics. The ASA grants are aimed at fostering diversity within the anesthesiology community through mentorship-focused projects involving research, education, political advocacy or an organized medicine endeavor.

Supplement Guest Editor
Dr. Bobby Boyanton, Professor of Pathology and Chief of Pathology at Arkansas Children’s, shared his expertise as guest editor for a supplement in the Journal of Infectious Diseases focusing on laboratory and point-of-care diagnostics for pharyngitis. Dr. Boyanton was the first author or lead author on three reviews covering the topics of emerging and remerging pharyngitis pathogens; current laboratory and point-of-care pharyngitis diagnostic testing and knowledge gaps; and diagnostic potential for collaborative pharyngitis biomarkers.  

Military Match
Congratulations to our medical students who matched to programs in the U.S. Military Match last week as the next step in their service to our nation and the field of medicine. They include Andrew Brown, who will train in ophthalmology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and Luke Livingston, who will train in family medicine at Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. We are all thankful to them and all our military students for their commitment to service. Meanwhile, most of our seniors will have to wait until next March 21, when the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) culminates in Match Day 2025, to learn their match location. We’re rooting for you all!

CPR Teaching Initiative Earns Prestigious Award
Dr. Steve Schexnayder, Professor and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, was part of a team receiving a special honor at the American Heart Association’s recent Resuscitation Science Symposium in Chicago. The Ian G. Jacobs Award for International Group Collaboration to Advance Resuscitation Science recognizes international collaborations that have resulted in major contributions to fundamental or clinical science related to cardiac arrest or traumatic injury. The team’s long-running “Kids Save Lives” project has promoted CPR training in schools around the world, and the group recently published a scientific statement on the value of teaching CPR in schools. Commissioned by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, the statement was published in the journal Resuscitation.

In Arkansas, Dr. Schexnayder led an effort to begin teaching CPR at Little Rock Central High School in 2013, using UAMS medical students as instructors to teach about 600 teens each year. The program continues today as part of the required health class curriculum. Several former medical students who were part of those initial efforts are now on our faculty, including Dr. Daniel Bingham and Dr. David Fitzgerald in Anesthesiology and Dr. Garrett Williams in Pediatrics. Congratulations to Dr. Schexnayder, and kudos to all who have participated in this initiative.

Journal Guest Editor
Dr. Jill Mhyre, Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, served as the Guest Editor for a special themed issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia this month focusing on quality and safety in obstetric anesthesia. Dr. Mhyre, who is the section editor for the topic on the journal’s editorial board, also recorded podcasts to accompany the issue and will lead a webinar on quality and safety in obstetric anesthesia in January. Interestingly, the cover of the issue features a reinterpretation of a masterpiece by Gustav Klimt, “Hope II,” that evokes the risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth while also signifying the efforts of health care providers to keep women safe.     

Multiple System Atrophy Center of Excellence
A shout-out to Dr. Tuhin Virmani, Associate Professor of Neurology and Director of the Movement Disorders Program, Neurology Chair Dr. Rohit Dhall, and colleagues on being selected as a 2025 Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) Center of Excellence by Mission MSA. The renewal of the designation for UAMS reflects the ongoing dedication to providing the best possible multidisciplinary care, support services and clinical trials opportunities for individuals and families affected by MSA. Along with Dr. Virmani and Dr. Dhall, the Movement Disorders team includes Dr. Hillary Williams, Dr. Aditya Boddu and APRNs Rachel Sloan and Tim Paslay.

International Otology Teaching
Dr. John Dornhoffer, Professor and Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, is sharing his expertise at several presentations, panel discussions and other sessions at the 8^th Munich Hearing Implant Symposium in Germany this week. Dr. Dornhoffer is internationally renowned for his expertise in cochlear implantation and other areas of otology. In addition to presenting at events conducted in English, he will be teaching a number of lab sessions in German.

Novel Method for Identifying Infection
Robert Brand and Caroline Geels, seniors at the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus, collaborated with the University of Arkansas Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington Regional Medical Center and others on a small trial for a novel spectroscopy method to determine whether synovial (joint) fluid is infected. The team’s encouraging preliminary findings into the use of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy were recently published in the Journal of Biophotonics. Dr. Hanna Jensen, Assistant Professor of Surgery, also was on the research team and mentored Robert and Caroline.