By David Robinson

Scientific discovery could be accelerated with more open access to genomic data, says an article in the latest journal Science by a group of research leaders from across the globe that includes David W. Ussery, Ph.D., at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

“We argue that the publicly available data should be treated as open data, a shared resource with unrestricted use for analysis, interpretation and publication,” the article states in the journal’s Policy Forum titled, “Toward unrestricted use of public genomic data.”

The article, with 51 authors, challenges long-standing customs and guidelines that have allowed the producers of genomics data to keep it for analysis and publication before outside researchers can study it.

As a specialist in bacterial genomics, Ussery, a professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics, said a better understanding of genome sequences will help scientists more easily determine where outbreaks originate and how they can be treated.

“In my field, it is critical to have unrestricted access to this kind of genomic data,” said Ussery, a member of the international Genomics Standards Consortium. “Some of our biggest scientific advances are likely to come from genomics research, and we need to remove barriers that could delay discoveries.”

The article calls for revising the landmark 2003 Fort Lauderdale Agreement, which is a public declaration by scientists supporting free and unrestricted use of genome sequencing data. The agreement, the authors say, is “self-contradictory” because it also recommends a hands-off approach to publicly available data so that those who produced the data have a chance to analyze and publish it.

A key factor in the article’s push is the growing wave of raw data from faster, inexpensive third-generation genome sequencing devices, said Ussery, who holds the Helen Adams & Arkansas Research Alliance Endowed Chair in Bioinformatics.

“By 2025, the amount of data from third-generation sequencing will dwarf other big data generators like Youtube and Twitter,” Ussery said. “Youtube is expected to reach 2 exabytes, but third-generation sequencing will produce about 20 zettabytes of data.” A zettabyte is 1,000 times larger than an exabyte.

In a recent presentation, Ussery cited the 20 zettabyte projection for genetic sequencing data, noting that the estimated cost to store that much data is $2 trillion.

In fact, with the advent of large global data analysis studies, the article says, the amount of publicly available data is at the scale of yottabytes (1,000 times larger than a zettabyte).

Scientific analysis of so much data requires costly computing resources and advanced analytical capabilities, and some scientists who produce genomic data don’t have those advanced capabilities. In those cases, outside researchers should be allowed free access to the data without restriction.

“For example,” the article states, “the outsider team may have better analytical capabilities and/or overarching protocols for analyzing more comprehensive sets of data, pre- or post-publication. Also, sequence datasets can be interrogated by means of numerous value-added platforms and tools from multiple groups.”

The article cites three guiding principles for their recommendations:

• Public genomics data that have ethics approval for release should be open data – available for unrestricted use, together with associated metadata – with the exception of sensitive human data to which additional ethics restrictions may apply
• Science advances through open competition with clear-cut, transparent rules, not through posing restrictions and limitations
• Credit should be given appropriately to resource producers (those who produce the data) and should be transparent.

“These recommendations should not impede protection of sensitive human data,” the article states. “We acknowledge that for existing sensitive human data, some restrictions may be appropriate.”

The article is available here: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6425/350.

By Susan Van Dusen

A group of Arkansas legislators proclaimed their support of a UAMS initiative to expand its cancer research and treatment efforts during a Jan. 23 event at the state Capitol.

Lead sponsors Sen. Missy Irvin of Mountain View and Rep. Michelle Gray of Melbourne joined with fellow members of the Republican Women’s Legislative Caucus to name the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute’s quest to achieve designation by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as one of the priorities in their Dream Big for Arkansas Initiative.

“Cancer knows no bounds and has likely affected everyone in this room today. That’s why we vow to work with all legislators and community leaders to identify sustainable funding sources and make this designation possible for all Arkansans,” Irvin said to the crowd gathered for the announcement.

Those in attendance included UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA; Cancer Institute Interim Director Laura Hutchins, M.D.; former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker; constitutional officers and fellow legislators; members of the Cancer Institute board of directors and University of Arkansas board of trustees; and other UAMS supporters.

“I want to thank the members of the General Assembly, Governor Hutchinson and especially Senator Irvin and Representative Gray and the Republican Women’s Legislative Caucus for their support of our push for NCI designation,” said Patterson. “This is a major undertaking and will require the efforts of many groups across the state. This announcement is a major step forward in our ability to offer new therapies and expand research efforts to benefit all Arkansans.”

NCI Designation is awarded through a highly competitive assessment process during which cancer centers must demonstrate outstanding depth and breadth of high-quality cancer research, including basic laboratory, patient/clinical and population-based research.

There are 70 NCI-designated cancer centers in 36 states across the country, with the closest to Arkansas being in Memphis (pediatrics only), Dallas and Oklahoma City.

Achieving NCI Designation would provide many tangible benefits, including improved access to clinical trials and new therapies unavailable elsewhere in the state; greatly increased access to federal research grant awards; and the creation of more than 1,500 new jobs over five years.

“Not only would NCI Designation increase the ability of Arkansans to receive the most up-to-date cancer treatment, it also would provide an estimated $70 million economic benefit to the state annually,” Irvin said, citing an economic impact assessment conducted by the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.

In addition to the caucus’ support of NCI designation, they announced four other areas of focus: juvenile justice, child care, education and economic development.

One day before the caucus’ announcement, members of the Arkansas Legislature’s Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee gathered at UAMS for a tour of the Cancer Institute and several other key areas on campus.

Rep. Jack Ladyman of Jonesboro, chair of the committee, said the tour was an essential element to his committee’s understanding of the health care needs of Arkansans.

“With some health care-related bills expected to come before us during this session, we want to be as educated as possible in this important area,” Ladyman said.

The tour began with a welcome by Patterson, who expressed thanks to the committee members for their service to the state and their interest in UAMS.

“We hope that Arkansans who are sick benefit from the services we provide and those who are well sleep better knowing we are here when they need us. None of this would be possible without the ongoing support of the state,” Patterson said.

In the emergency department, tour participants were introduced to Ron Robertson, M.D., director of trauma, who discussed the complex process of treating patients with traumatic injury.

UAMS Medical Center is the only adult trauma center in the state designated as Level 1, which indicates its capability to provide the highest level of trauma services.

“We average about eight trauma patients each day, most of whom are critically injured,” Robertson said, adding that patients are regularly transferred to UAMS from every county in Arkansas.

From the emergency department, the group visited the Cancer Institute where Hutchins discussed the ongoing efforts toward achieving NCI Designation. Two researchers shared their work in the development of a liquid biopsy for lung cancer and in proteomics, which is the study of proteins and their role in the development and treatment of cancer.

Additional stops on the tour included two simulation centers: one serving future eye surgeons and one benefiting students and employees from several UAMS colleges and departments.

In the Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute, committee members were greeted by Christopher Westfall, M.D., professor of ophthalmology and dean of the UAMS College of Medicine, who explained the complex process of becoming an eye surgeon and welcomed them into the simulation center where future surgeons practice techniques on silicon or donor eyes for a minimum of 120 hours before operating on real patients.

On the tour’s final stop, Mary Cantrell, executive director of the Centers for Simulation Education, demonstrated how UAMS students, practicing physicians, nurses, first responders and other staff members improve their ability to practice safe, high-quality health care through the use of simulation activities.

Using the center’s high-tech, lifelike manikins, students and health care professionals can practice procedures such as endoscopy, ultrasound, childbirth and central line placement prior to serving actual patients.

Rep. Lee Johnson of Greenwood, an alum of the UAMS College of Medicine, expressed his thanks for the chance to revisit his alma mater and witness the advances that have taken place since he graduated in 1996.

“As Arkansas’ only academic medical center, UAMS is the pinnacle that drives health care for the rest of the state. Just because I am a doctor, it doesn’t mean I know everything there is to know about public health, so I was glad to return to UAMS and see the fantastic advances that have taken place in health care and education,” Johnson said.

By Spencer Watson

The 2^nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Pediatric Vision Outreach at UAMS was a day providing vision care to commemorate a visionary.

Nine organizations, four UAMS departments, and two local schools united to provide the opportunity for free eye exams and glasses to students in Little Rock and the surrounding areas.

“The goal is to reach the two out of three Arkansan children who fail their school vision screenings without receiving follow-up eye care,” said second-year medical student John Musser, founder of a nonprofit called Rural Ophthalmology Optometry Treatment & Screening (ROOTS).

At the UAMS Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, 66 students were given a free comprehensive eye exam by a volunteer eye doctor and then were provided prescription eyeglasses. Frames for the glasses were donated by Sue Griffin, Ph.D., vice chair of Basic Research in the UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics. Tim Norton, O.D., from Contact Lenses X-Press provided the eyeglass lenses for the second consecutive year at no cost.

At last year’s event at the Shepherd’s Hope Neighborhood Health Center, a dozen area students were seen by Katie Brown, O.D., Sami Uwaydat, M.D., and a team of medical students and ophthalmic technicians, in the inaugural event for ROOTS.

Brown and Musser coordinated more than 50 volunteers with the goal of improving the vision health of local children. Brown said she and Musser reached out through the Arkansas Department of Education State Nursing Consultant Cheria Lindsey and the Little Rock School District Coordinator of Health Services Margo Bushmiaer to reach all school nurses within 50 miles of Little Rock to share this opportunity with the students who had failed their vision screenings.

To make the eye exams more accessible, they worked with Billy Thomas, M.D., M.P.H., and the UAMS Center for Diversity Affairs to arrange shuttles so parents could drop their children off at one of two Little Rock schools. Volunteers at Stephens Elementary School and Chicot Elementary School provided a safe presence at the community shuttle sites. The shuttles transported the kids to the UAMS campus for their eye exams and returned them afterward.

“Transportation is sometimes one of the biggest barriers to getting kids the follow-up they need, so we wanted to take care of that for them,” said Brown.

Pastor Mike Blanchard and Brenda Covington, M.D., of Shepherd’s Hope Neighborhood Health Center managed the outreach’s documentation and compliance coordinated by Angela Johnson with the Jones Eye Institute.

Portable photo-based autorefractor devices, which are ideal for pediatric use, were provided by the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Circle of Friends, the Episcopal Collegiate School, and the Lion’s Club of North Little Rock.

The UAMS Office of Interprofessional Education approved the free clinic as a “service learning event,” empowering UAMS students to get involved in their local community.

More than nine doctors from UAMS, Arkansas Children’s, and the surrounding community participated, including three from the Arkansas Optometric Association’s charitable foundation, Vision Arkansas.

“It was a team effort, absolutely,” said Musser.

Brown, too, said she was pleased with the group effort.

“It was amazing the response we had from UAMS and our community of volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without every single group that participated. It shows that we are not only committed to improving awareness of the importance of vision and its strong connection to learning, but we are willing to do whatever it takes to get the children of Arkansas quality eye care,” said Brown.

“Our goal was to reach as many students as possible in a single day who would have otherwise gone untreated. We wanted to make a dent in the 15,000 kids that failed school screenings last year without getting a follow-up eye exam. We were able to see almost 70 kids who can now perform better in school and pay attention in class without feeling lost in a fog due to poor eyesight. Our efforts could make a profound difference in the lives of these children into adulthood,” said Brown. “I think that makes for a pretty phenomenal day.”

By David Wise

The Schmieding Foundation in Springdale has given the $4.85 million building that houses the UAMS Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education in Springdale to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

Pearl McElfish, Ph.D., vice chancellor for the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus, joined Schmieding Foundation President Gilda Underwood and Schmieding Foundation Vice President/Treasurer Lance Taylor for the signing ceremony at the Schmieding Center on Dec. 27, 2018.

The Schmieding Center was established Jan. 1, 1999, when Lawrence H. Schmieding gave UAMS more than $15 million to operate health and education programs for the seniors of Northwest Arkansas and to train home caregivers so older Arkansans could age in place at home.

Lawrence Schmieding, who died in 2009, made the gift after searching in vain for qualified home caregivers for his aging brother, Bert. The center became the first regional Center on Aging of the UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, which is directed by Jeanne Wei, M.D., Ph.D.

After leasing two temporary sites for a few years, in 2002 the Schmieding Foundation designed and built the current 27,500-square-foot facility at 2422 North Thompson Street in Springdale.

Since 1999, the Schmieding Foundation has invested about $31 million in the Schmieding Center, Taylor said, including building costs, maintenance and educational programs. Per written agreement, UAMS received the title to the building after 20 years, which was Jan. 1, 2019.

“It was Lawrence Schmieding’s dream that the Schmieding Foundation work with UAMS to help seniors age in their home and enjoy the best possible quality of life,” Underwood said. “UAMS has worked with many partners in Northwest Arkansas toward these goals and has improved services to seniors not only in Northwest Arkansas but all over the state.”

“It has been a privilege to partner with UAMS and to see the developments that have occurred at the Schmieding Center,” Taylor said. “We look forward to UAMS continuing to advance the vision of Lawrence Schmieding and watching the Schmieding Center grow and serve seniors in Northwest Arkansas through quality health care, educational programs and caregiver training.”

The building includes a 125-seat auditorium, a geriatric medical clinic wing operated by Washington Regional, and an education wing that includes an Aging Resource Center, the Walter Turnbow Boardroom, administration offices and two classrooms. The facilities are equipped with audio/visual equipment and include the signature “Beth Vaughan Wrobel Care House” where students train in a simulated apartment to teach them how to take care of someone at home.

The Schmieding Center addresses the needs of seniors through:

• Senior Health Clinic
• Social and physical activities such as watercolor workshops and Tai Chi and yoga classes
• Family caregiver workshops and support groups
• Health professional continuing education
• Aging resource center
• Alzheimer/dementia classes
• Certified nursing assistant training
• Social work student fellowship experiences

The original gift included an operations endowment that funded the Schmieding Home Caregiver Training program to fulfill Schmieding’s quest to train caregivers to provide one-on-one personalized assistance that helps older adults stay healthy and safely at home. In Schmieding’s words, “Where there’s home, there’s hope.”

“Lawrence Schmieding passed away in 2009, and his legacy has been carried forward under the wonderful leadership of Gilda Underwood and Lance Taylor,” McElfish said. “Because of Mr. Schmieding’s vision and the dedication of people like Gilda, Lance and the foundation’s board of directors, the Schmieding Center will forever provide high-quality educational programs for health professionals, paraprofessionals, and the community and further Mr. Schmieding’s vision for an excellent quality of life for seniors and their families.”

By Spencer Watson

Standing in a long, rectangular room with his feet firmly planted on an artificial green turf surrounded by a series of 10 different infrared motion-capture cameras, PGA golfer and Arkansas native Austin Cook aimed carefully with a driver as he prepared to send a golf ball flying from a tee into a net.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Cook, a former Arkansas Razorback who is in his second year on the PGA tour, having won the RSM Tournament at Sea Island and qualified for the prestigious Masters in his first year. As of late December 2018, he was ranked 112 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

Obviously, it wasn’t the golfing Cook was referring to. It was the 78 retro-reflective markers he had positioned all over his body, along with electromagnetic sensors taped to his legs that measured the electrical output of his quadriceps and hamstrings. Together, the instruments were being used to create a comprehensive, real-time picture of the motion and energy Cook used in each swing he took, information that is useful to UAMS researchers.

“There are really many aspects to what we can do” with the data captured, said Cecilia Severin, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. “We can use this technique to compare movement before and after surgery, for example, or after surgery at three months, six months, nine months, et cetera, to track progress and improvement.”

That’s why UAMS is recruiting golfers – and not just professionals – as well as surgery patients to study their movement patterns using the cameras and sensors. The hope is to find an optimal pattern of movement and muscle use in golf to prevent injury and improve performance.

“A golf swing is not something our bodies are really designed for, so one of our goals in the study is to understand how healthy golfers, people who don’t have injuries, achieve a good golf swing,” said Erin Mannen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and lead investigator on the study. “By learning something about that, we can learn about what we call pathologic populations, or people who have problems like knee or hip injuries, arthritis or lower back pain.”

As a 27-year-old professional who works out three times a week and, by his own admission, has spent the past couple years paying a lot more attention to what he eats, Cook is an ideal candidate to provide a baseline of sorts, researchers said. Comparing the data captured in tracking his movements to those of a surgery patient and noting differences, for example, could provide valuable insight.

“Looking at our elite golfers like Austin Cook, his variability – which is the measure of how different one swing is from another – is like nothing we’ve ever seen. It’s almost zero. Every single one of his swings was almost exactly the same,” said Mannen.

Of course, Cook said he was fascinated to see the report on his results himself.

“I do think it’s important to understand how the body moves, so you can max your swing to what your body is capable of,” he said, adding of his own body: “This is my tool. The clubs help, but our tool, ultimately, is our body, and if it’s not functioning properly, we can’t play well.”

Golfers age 50 or older with a handicap of 15 or less interested in participating the study can call 501-246-4439. Potential participants must give their age, golf experience and any past surgeries they may have had. Those who meet study criteria will be invited to schedule an appointment at the study facilities in Little Rock.

By Amy Widner

Jan. 7, 2019 | Hailey Dougherty, 17, remembers crying from constant pain she was too young to even understand. She didn’t know it yet, but blood vessels were growing out of control and pressing against her 8-year-old brain.

“She would just cry from the time she got up until the time she went to bed,” said Hailey’s mom, Marisa Rokstad.

When Hailey was 12, doctors gave them a name for the condition — arteriovenous malformation — but they didn’t give her a solution. They told her the condition was so rare, dangerous and complicated that there are no medications and they wouldn’t risk performing surgery.

Soon, the renegade blood vessels began expanding on the outside of her skull, deforming Hailey’s face. Hailey remembers being a pre-teen who was in pain, insecure about her looks, and confused.

“I didn’t want to get up in the morning,” Hailey said. “I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want to see my friends.

“I remember one of the worst times. A doctor was telling us: ‘We’re going to have to remove a fourth of her face. She’s never going to look the same again. She will look completely different from everyone else.’ And I didn’t really understand. I was so young and I was so confused. I didn’t understand, but it scared me a lot.”

Rokstad was consulting with expert medical centers from across the country. When she called Harvard, they told her to call James Suen, M.D., at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

When Hailey met Suen, a distinguished professor in the College of Medicine Department of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, Hailey said he was unlike any doctor she had met. Although he characterized her chances of being cured as “maybe 1 percent,” he gave her hope and an action plan for the path ahead. They got to work.

Four years later, Hailey has undergone many procedures and surgeries, the most significant of which involved removing a large part of her skull and the dura covering of her brain. The bone was filled with the malformed blood vessels, so much so that when UAMS neurosurgeon J.D. Day, M.D., who was assisting with the surgery, removed her skull, Hailey lost 10 pints of blood. Without the vascular malformation, a patient wouldn’t even lose half a pint of blood during the same operation, Suen said.

They removed the affected vessels from the lining around her brain, from the tissue in her orbit around her eye and also in her forehead and eyelid. Day used a special material to replace the dura covering her brain and fitted Hailey with a prefabricated prosthetic piece of skull to replace the bony defect.

The stakes were high. If the malformation had spread to Hailey’s brain, it would have killed her. If it had spread to her eye, it would have left her nearly blind. She has very little vision in her opposite eye from childhood.

Hailey continues to see Suen every three months for checkups and treatment with lasers and injections of Bleomycin, a cancer medication that Suen has found to be promising for patients like Hailey. Not only is Suen a leader in the treatment of arteriovenous malformation, he and his colleague, Gresham Richter, M.D., have done research in the area that has literally redefined the field.

“We’ve actually shown that the majority of arteriovenous malformations are very similar to low-grade cancers,” Suen said, explaining that previously, they were thought of as a problem having to do with flow dynamics.

“The recognition that they are actually more similar to cancers leads to new treatment options. Hopefully, AVMs can be treated with these new cancer drugs that can stop the growth and spread of these malformations. Very few drugs have been tried before, but our research will lead to new treatments. Under Dr. Richter’s direction, we have a research lab that’s devoted to just these vascular malformations.”

In October, two years after the major surgery, Hailey underwent an arteriogram to look for signs of the malformation. Hailey and her mother were relieved by good news. There was no sign of anything growing back along her skull or brain or face. Suen found a small spot just inside her eyelid he will continue to monitor.

Is Hailey that 1 percent who found a cure? As a scientist, Suen will only say, “hopefully,” but one thing is for certain: Hailey and her family will keep coming to Suen for his care and expertise as they work to keep the effects of her disease at bay.

“He turned my whole life around,” Hailey said. “He’s an angel sent from heaven, and I’m not kidding when I say that.”

“He couldn’t be a better human being,” Rokstad said. “What she has is scary and painful. It was difficult for us to even find the right care, and then when we did, to have him be so caring on top of having the expertise — it’s phenomenal! Dr. Suen’s team and UAMS have been a godsend for us.”

By Spencer Watson

Laura Hollenbach, M.D., an assistant professor in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine, has become the first and only physician in Arkansas to be board certified in Obstetrics-Gynecology with Focused Practice Designation in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. She mostly sees pediatric patients on the campus of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where UAMS Department of Pediatrics faculty members practice.

“It’s a relatively new specialty,” said Hollenbach, also the division director for pediatric and adolescent gynecology at Arkansas Children’s. “The American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which certifies OB-GYNs in all subspecialties, has never had a separate examination for pediatric gynecology. But now it’s gotten large enough nationally that this is the first year they’ve offered it.”

Pediatric gynecologists treat patients from birth to age 22. While there is some overlap with general gynecology, certain issues arise specific to children, from structural issues at birth to early or late onset of puberty, that require specialized care, Hollenbach said.

“Kids aren’t just small adults, so we can’t extrapolate the way we treat adult women, with regard to gynecologic care, in the way we treat children. Specialty training in pediatric gynecology allows physicians to learn more about the special reproductive needs of children and adolescents,” she said.

Candidates for the exam were required to meet a certain volume of cases in which they specifically treated children in both operative procedures and clinical care in order to sit for the exam. About 100 candidates were selected nationwide.

“Since this is the first exam ever of its kind, even the people who were writing and contributing to the test had to take it,” Hollenbach said. “That’s kind of a weird phenomenon, but that’s because it was the first one.”

Hollenbach, who was heavily influenced and mentored by Little Rock physician Karen Kozlowski in this area of practice, said it’s rewarding to be among such a small group in a field that has existed as a specific area of research and interest for some time, but is expanding the formalization to a recognized field of specialty care.

“It’s a really tight knit group of people who are focused on this aspect of health care. If my colleagues had a question about a complicated delivery, for example, they could ask each other. Whereas, with this kind of specialty, if I email people, it’s specialists and experts from all across the nation. The people who trained me are the people who wrote the textbook.”

Hollenbach said that she was drawn to and has grown to love her field for its interactions with people, both in teaching residents and students at UAMS and treating younger patients at Arkansas Children’s and statewide through telemedicine.

“Working with children is rewarding in that you have a lot of opportunity to do preventive care and a lot of opportunity to do education,” she said. “While you can still do that in adult medicine, too, I feel you can have a bigger impact as they are still developing their habits and values and learning about themselves.”

Hollenbach, a graduate of Hendrix College in Conway, received her medical degree from UAMS in 2008 and joined the faculty in 2012. In 2014 she began a two-year fellowship in pediatric gynecology at Cincinnati Children Hospital Medical Center and afterward returned to UAMS in her current position.

By Katrina Dupins

For the first time in decades, James Pruss is spending this December making appearances as Santa Claus. Until the Spaghetti with Santa event in North Little Rock on Dec. 2, Pruss says he had forgotten how much he enjoys the gig.

“It’s fun to see the looks on the kids’ faces when they see me – especially the younger ones,” Pruss said. “Some of them are really nervous.”

The requests often put a smile on his face. Some make him laugh out loud.

“An 8-year-old told me he wanted a Camaro. A real Camaro! I’m not sure if his feet would even reach the pedals.”

Others pull at his heart strings.

“She told me she wanted her pawpaw back. I wasn’t quite sure how to answer that one.”

Pruss is able to get back to playing Santa and other hobbies because he no longer has pain in his wrist. He spent 36 years installing and repairing car washing equipment. He’d even built some from the ground-up. Over the years, Pruss would often injure his hands. In 2016 he was looking for a new hand surgeon for a consultation.

“We were in the hospital following my wife’s hip replacement so I started asking around. Everyone told me to see Dr. Wyrick.”

Theresa Wyrick, M.D. is an orthopaedic surgeon at UAMS who specializes in hand and upper extremities. In 2016, she diagnosed Pruss with carpel tunnel syndrome in both hands and cubital tunnel syndrome in his elbows. She repaired his right hand and elbow and Pruss was able to go back to work.

Months later, Pruss reinjured himself when he grabbed a pipe wrench. He’d heard something pop and then felt excruciating pain. He’d had another surgery bu

t the pain remained in his wrist.

“Dr. Wyrick was studying my x-rays and noticed my ulnar bone was too long and that it was impending my nerves and tendons,” Pruss said. “I was game for anything.”

The ulnar and radius are the two long bones in the forearms that extend from the elbow to the wrist. In August Wyrick performed a surgery in which she shortened Pruss’ ulnar bone.

“The idea is that we’re decompressing the outside part of the wrist and making the ulnar bone shorter than the radius bone,” Wyrick said. “It’s a procedure to give function and eliminate pain.”

In his follow-up visit a few weeks later, Pruss told Dr. Wyrick the pain in his wrist was gone. It’d been nagging him for 15 years.

Pruss thanked Wyrick and told her that he was able to get back to doing things he enjoyed because his wrist felt better, including playing Santa Claus.

“Using the skills I’ve learned to serve others and ultimately get them back to the things they love is rewarding,” Wyrick said. “I helped him. And now he’s brining joy to others this holiday season.”

Wyrick’s children, 8 and 4, took photos with Santa at a Christmas party this year. They were excited to learn that their mom fixed his hand.

“Dr. Wyrick will sit and talk to you like she’s known you all your life,” Pruss said. “She’s one of the most caring doctors I’ve ever had.”