HJAR Sep/Oct 2021

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  SEP / OCT 2021 27 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalAR.com value-based healthcare and quality improve- ment to the growing work we’re doing to improve patient and provider experiences and reduce healthcare costs in Arkansas,” said AHN Presi- dent and CEO Bob Sarkar. “She is truly a citizen diplomat, bringing some of the best insights and ideas in this field from around the world back here to benefit our state.” With the rising cost of healthcare growing as a concern for employers across Arkansas, AHN partnered with Arkansas Children’s Care Network and NextHealth Integrated Network to provide a healthcare delivery model designed specifically for employers. The model leverages technology and big data to preemptively identify high-risk and rising-risk patients and then connects them with a multidisciplinary care team of registered nurse health coaches, social workers, pharma- cists and others to proactively manage their care with an emphasis on preventive, rather than reac- tive, services. “The work accomplished by the team at Arkan- sas Health Network and CHI St. Vincent over these past few years shows what’s possible and we are just getting started as we build a better healthcare system for our state that others will want to emulate across the country,” said Maruf. “Their success so far is proof of what can be accomplished when you open your mind and rethink healthcare.” Maruf previously served as medical director for Centene/QualChoice Health Insurance based in Little Rock. She has also served as adjunct fac- ulty for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences with their residency training program. Maruf holds a medical degree from Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. She received an internal medicine fellowship from Michael Reese Hospital at the University of Illinois in Chicago and has an MBA degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Family Physician Joins Conway Medical Group, Graduate Medical Education Faculty Clark Trapp, MD, has joined the team at Con- way Regional Health System. Trapp is now see- ing patients at Conway Medical Group in Conway. Additionally, Trapp is practicing alongside Sarah Robertson, MD, Jeremiah Keng, MD, and Darren Freeman, MD, as a core faculty member for the Family Medicine Residency Program. “Conway Regional Family Medicine Program is dedicated to serving our wonderful community while providing the best training to family medi- cine residents possible. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to join this program in providing care to our community and teaching these future pro- viders of our community,” said Trapp. Trapp completed his family medicine residency training at UAMS West in Fort Smith. He has been practicing in the Morrilton area for nearly four years, serving as the vice chief of staff for CHI St. Vincent Morrilton. NIHFunding to Help ACRI, UAMS Collaborative Track of COVID-19 Variants Circulating in State A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded col- laboration between scientists at Arkansas Chil- dren’s Research Institute (ACRI) and the Univer- sity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) will help the Centers for Disease Control and Pre- vention (CDC) and the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) understand more about the variants of COVID-19 circulating in the state by increasing capacity for genomic sequencing, tracking and analyses of virus samples. The $770,000 NIH grant will be devoted to the collaboration between UAMS, Arkansas Chil- dren’s, Baptist Health and ADH. The Arkansas Sequencing (ArkSeq) Consortium, as it’s referred to, will be a source for samples from across the state to be used for sequencing COVID-19 vari- ants. ACRI will provide an additional $200,000, in part from Arkansas Biosciences Institute funds, to expand sequencing capacity. ACRI’s NIH-funded Center for Translational Pediatric Research (CTPR) and UAMS’s IDeA Net- work of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) will lead the collaborative efforts. The grant is awarded to Alan Tackett, MD, CTPR director, pro- fessor in the UAMS College of Medicine Depart- ment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and deputy director for the UAMS Winthrop P. Rock- efeller Cancer Institute, and Josh Kennedy, MD, associate professor in the UAMS College of Medi- cine Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology. Kennedy said the work will help the state under- stand which variants of COVID-19 are present in Arkansas and could even help identify new vari- ants. Data ranging from demographics to collec- tion dates, symptoms and vaccination status will all be essential to the project, which will result in actionable data provided to the CDC and ADH. “The big picture information that emerges from this type of detail can equip the healthcare com- munity to respond more quickly, ultimately saving more lives and preventing some serious compli- cations,” Kennedy said. “Combining the exper- tise and resources of several Arkansas health leaders will mean we help more people faster.” Today, Arkansas has sequenced fewer than 1,000 COVID-19 samples — a total of only 0.28% of all cases. That ranks the state 48th nationally for total samples sequenced. The scientists expect to yield eight times more sequences from Arkansas for national databases, also producing additional samples for future study. Kelley Awarded NYITCOM at A-State Chloe Vaught Memorial Scholarship Caroline Kelley, a third-year medical student at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State Univer- sity (NYITCOM at A-State), was awarded the inau- gural Chloe Vaught Memorial Scholarship. Vaught was a third-year medical student at NYITCOM at A-State when she died tragically on Sept. 29, 2020, at the age of 24. She was on track to earn a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree in 2022. The Chloe Vaught Memorial Scholarship was developed by community members who sought to honor and remember Vaught as an Clark Trapp, MD