The UAMS Partners in Health Sciences program was a statewide PreK-14 educational outreach program in the health sciences. It was directed since its inception in 1991 by Dr. Bob Burns in the Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences.
Over 20,000 teachers, students, school nurses, museum and county extension service educators, other school personnel and parents consumed 70,521 hrs of continuing education, in 155 different health science topics taught by 182 different UAMS faculty from all UAMS colleges.
The two major components of the program were professional development workshops for teachers with 100% of Arkansas counties represented and live interactive television (ITV) teaching sessions between UAMS faculty and grade 7-12 students with 68% of Arkansas counties represented.
Included in the ITV component were students from Montana, West Virgina, Florida, California, Louisiana, New York, and Kaoshiung, Taiwan. The program was funded ($1.5 million) from 1997-2004 by a Science Education Partnership Award from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health. Other funding for the PIHS program was received from The Kellogg Foundation, the Arkansas Department of Human Services, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, the Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Arkansas Cancer Coalition, the Arkansas Department of Health, the UAMS Chancellor, the Dean of the College Medicine, and others.