The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) recently added a transplant clinic at its Northwest Regional Campus, which will allow patients who live in northwest Arkansas to participate in the UAMS transplant program locally instead of traveling to Little Rock.
The current focus of the clinic is post-transplant patients in need of follow-up care. In the future, the clinic plans to include patients in need of transplant evaluations. The clinic at 1125 N. College Avenue schedules six to eight patients one Friday per month for follow-ups to kidney and liver transplants.
Lyle Burdine, MD, surgical director for the solid organ transplant program at UAMS, said the clinic offers the exact same level of service and access to care as the UAMS multi-organ transplant program in Little Rock.
“The goal, of course, is to provide the best care in our patients’ own community,” Burdine said, “thereby making it easier for them to remain on track with the best outcomes. These are sick patients who will need long-term follow-up. Whatever we can do, both in northwest Arkansas and around the state, to help them get that care is essential.”
Burdine, who leads the UAMS team of transplant physicians and surgeons, obtained bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and philosophy from Duke University and an MD/PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He completed his residency in general surgery at UAMS and a fellowship in abdominal transplants from the University of California San Francisco.
Kidney transplants in Arkansas date back to 1964 when the state’s first kidney transplant was performed at UAMS. The first liver transplant in Arkansas was performed in 2005.
“UAMS is the home of the only adult liver and kidney transplant programs in the state,” said Pearl McElfish, PhD, vice chancellor of the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus. “We can now offer our local transplant patients and their families the finest in transplant care through our caring and compassionate team right here in northwest Arkansas.”