HJAR Jul/Aug 2019

Healthcare Journal of ARKANSAS I  JUL / AUG 2019 19 just finalized a strategic plan, the Vision 2029 Report, to guide efforts in our col- lege and throughout UAMS for the next 10 years. By 2029, the 150th anniversary of our college, UAMS pledges to lead Arkan- sas to be the healthiest state in the region. We will accomplish this through our inte- grated activities in education, clinical care and research, as well as through purpose- ful leadership. For the College of Medicine, first and foremost this means educating and training superb physicians for communities across the state. Great doctors start with great medical students, so we are doing every- thing we can to attract the most promising students. Scholarships are extraordinarily important in this effort, and we are working to increase our ability to offer prospective students substantive scholarships through philanthropic support. The tagline for the Vision 2029 Report is, “Advancing the Science of Health.” UAMS has long beenArkansas’premier biomedical research institution, and this role has never been more important for improving the health of Arkansans. Faculty in our college alone secured more than $100 million in grant funding in fiscal year 2019. They hold four Center of Biomedical Research Excel- lence (COBRE) grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supporting inno- vative research in infectious disease, cancer, bone development, and nutrition. College of Medicine faculty researchers also hold a $41 million grant from the NIH to oversee a 17-site pediatric clinical trial network that provides medically underserved and rural children with access to clinical stud- ies exploring environmental influences on early development. UAMS’ Translational Research Institute is supported with a pres- tigious Clinical and Translational Science Award from the NIH to accelerate research that improves health and health care. Some of our key research strategies for the next several years center on interdis- ciplinary scholarly work, translational research, and, especially, cancer research. The top priority is to obtain National Can- cer Institute (NCI) designation for theWin- throp P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. One of many reasons this is crucial is because it will vastly expand access to promising clinical trials for Arkansans. I want to thank Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Legislature for their enthusiastic support of this effort. Northwest Arkansas is a critical area of focus because the population and its com- munities are growing so rapidly. To meet current and future health care needs of this region, we are working extensively to expand our leadership role in Northwest Arkansas in all of our mission areas. How would you characterize the relationship between the medical college and UAMS Medi- cal Center? UAMS Medical Center is a remarkable, multifaceted resource for clinical educa- tion and training of our medical students and resident physicians. Our college is “Medical educators have found that students learn more effectively when they are engaged in active learning methods such as team-based learning.”