Teresa Hudson, Pharm.D., Ph.D., has been named assistant dean for health services research in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Hudson joins Jessica Snowden, M.D., M.S., MHPTT, who serves as vice dean for research, and Paul Drew, Ph.D., assistant dean, on the College of Medicine (COM) research leadership team.
“The expansion of health services research is essential to our ability to improve health care and health outcomes in Arkansas, and Dr. Hudson brings extensive experience to her new role,” Susan S. Smyth, M.D., Ph.D., said in an announcement to COM faculty.
“We are excited to add Dr. Hudson to our research leadership team in College of Medicine,” said Snowden. “Health services researchers examine the access to care, health care costs and processes, and the outcomes of health services for individuals and populations. As such, this part of our research portfolio is critical to improving the health of all Arkansans and we’re looking forward to having Dr. Hudson’s expertise to help us build programs and research capacity across our college.”
Hudson is a professor of psychiatry and co-director of AR Connect in the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute. She is also associate director of the VA Health Services Research and Development Center for Mental Healthcare and Outcomes Research in the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS).
A pharmacist with a doctorate in health systems and services research, Hudson’s work focuses on the delivery of, and access to, health services. Her earlier work examined access to safe, high-quality medications, disparities in access to behavioral health and substance abuse care, suicide prevention, and development and validation of quality indicators for treatment of persons with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.
More recently, Hudson’s work has expanded to examining how medical marijuana affects use of traditional health care. Her research funding sources include the National Institutes of Health, the VA Health Services Research and Development Service, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Centers for Disease Control, and the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Hudson is co-director of AR Connect, a partnership among SAMHSA, the Arkansas Department of Human Services Office of the Drug Director, and UAMS. AR Connect brings together a clinical, research and policy partnership that provides virtual mental health and substance abuse care to anyone in Arkansas with no cost to the client.
Hudson received her Bachelor of Science and Doctorate of Pharmacy from St. Louis College of Pharmacy. After completing her pharmacy residency in adult internal medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, she joined the UAMS College of Pharmacy as an assistant professor of pharmacy practice in 1991.
As she assumed roles with the CAVHS and shifted her focus to health services research, Hudson joined the College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, initially as an instructor. She rose through the academic ranks and has served as a professor since 2019. Hudson received her doctorate in health systems and services research in the UAMS Graduate School in 2015. She was named director of the UAMS Center for Health Services Research that year and held the position for seven years.
She has served in numerous other leadership roles, including director of evaluation for the UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) in 2010-2014 and co-director of TRI’s Collaboration and Team Science Program in 2015-2019. Hudson directs the VA Health Services Research & Development (HSR&D) SWIFT IVI grant program, a pilot grant program for health services researchers at VAs that do not have a VA-funded Health Services Research Center, and currently serves as vice chair of a HSR&D Scientific Review Board. She also has served on multiple NIH study sections.