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Physician Wins Award for High Colorectal Cancer Screening Rate

Dr. Clinton Smith with 1^st Choice Healthcare was named the Arkansas Cancer Coalition Healthcare Provider of the Year at the Arkansas Cancer Summit March 7 for his 75 percent rate of colorectal cancer screening with his patients.

The family physician has participated in the UAMS Partnerships in Colorectal Cancer Screening for Arkansas (PiCS-AR!) since 2020, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant that seeks to raise colorectal cancer screening rates in the state. His 75 percent rate is closing in on the national goal of 80 percent set by the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable.

Clinton Smith, DO, physician with 1st Choice Healthcare in Corning, Arkansas

Smith’s first year with the PiCS-AR! grant showed a screening rate of 65 percent. His rate grew to 70 percent in 2021 and has escalated in one year to 75 percent. He said the reasons for his higher screening rate stem from frequently reminding the patients of screening, making it easy for them to screen, and relaying the facts.

“Each time I have a checkup with a patient (not even necessarily a wellness checkup), I try to mention (screening) and see if they’re due for anything. And if they are, we try to go ahead and facilitate that and get it set up,” said Smith. “The best time to (mention) it, in my opinion, is when you see them. Sometimes people are non-compliant and you may not see them for a while. Now, it does take extra time, and sometimes I get behind, but I feel that prevention is the key. It’s better to prevent a problem than to have to treat it later.”

Smith gives his patients several screening options: stool-based tests and a colonoscopy. The stool-based tests (FIT or Cologuard) require that the patient send a sample of their stool in the mail, which takes minutes and is not invasive and requires no dieting, fasting or anesthesia. The colonoscopy is considered the most accurate for colorectal cancer screening, but with his rural patient population in northeast Arkansas, arranging a colonoscopy can be cost- and time-prohibitive.

“I tell them about the options and let them decide. I think the FIT tests have helped a lot. We’re rural, so to get a colonoscopy, you not only have to take a day off of work, you have to drive 30 miles outside of town,” said Smith.

Colorectal cancer is the second deadliest cancer for Americans, and it’s on the rise with younger age groups, according to the American Cancer Society. The rate of new colorectal cancer cases among Americans younger than 55 increased from 11 percent of all cases in 1995 to 20 percent in 2019. The recommended screening age for those with average risk is 45, which the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force lowered from age 50 two years ago because of this new trend. Screening at an earlier age means cancer will be caught in its first stage and is highly treatable if detected early.

Smith also credits his employer, 1^st Choice Healthcare, for allowing him to spend more time with his patients who are often chronically ill and require more than the suggested 15 minutes many physicians are tethered to. 1^st Choice is one of two healthcare partners working with the PiCS-AR! five-year grant. Mid-Delta Healthcare System in eastern Arkansas is the latest system to join.

$420,000 Gift Realizes Alumnus’ Longtime Wish to Support Education and Training of Family Physicians

By Benjamin Waldrum

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has received a $420,000 gift from the estate of Jack T. Steele, M.D., to finalize the creation of the Jack T. Steele, M.D. Endowed Chair in Family and Preventive Medicine in the College of Medicine.

Jack T. Steel, M.D.

Endowed chairs allow UAMS to recruit and retain top leaders in the medical field who can provide the best care for patients. A chair is established with gifts of at least $1 million, which are invested and the interest proceeds used to support the educational, research and clinical activities of the chair holder. An endowed chair is among the highest academic honors a university can bestow on a faculty member. Those named to a chair are among the most highly regarded scientists, physicians and professors in their fields. UAMS will announce a professor to the Steele Chair at a later time.

Steele, a 1952 College of Medicine graduate and longtime supporter of UAMS, died March 6. Over several years, he gave more than $620,000 toward the creation of an endowed chair. Together with the $420,000 estate gift, Steele’s combined lifetime giving to UAMS exceeds $1million.

“We are grateful for the late Dr. Steele’s generosity and longtime support for our university and college,” said Christopher T. Westfall, M.D., executive vice chancellor of UAMS and dean of the College of Medicine. “As a family physician, Dr. Steele understood how important primary care physicians are for our patients and communities, and this has never been more true than today. The Jack T. Steele, M.D., Endowed Chair in Family and Preventive Medicine will support outstanding education and training of family physicians for generations to come.”

“Practicing medicine was integral to my dad’s identity,” said son Jeffrey Scott Steele, M.D. “He had a difficult time retiring completely from his practice and continued to work at least part-time, well beyond the age when most would have retired. Even after retiring he maintained his state medical license and satisfied the required continuing medical education.”

Steele was born in 1926 in Lynn, Arkansas, and moved to Walnut Ridge at age 3. He was a cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy from 1945-1946, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1948 with degrees in psychology and philosophy. In 1952, he graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine (now UAMS), and completed an internship with the St. Louis City Hospital. He then served as a Navy physician from 1954-1956. Steele had a longtime medical practice in the greater St. Louis area, including Ferguson and Bridgeton. Four of his sons are physicians.

William Ventres, M.D., Invested in Ben Saltzman, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Rural Family Medicine

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

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

Westfall and Knight presented Ventres with a commemorative medallion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ventres with his wife, Estella and daughter, Cory.

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

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

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

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

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