HJAR Sep/Oct 2022

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  SEP / OCT 2022 15 that the evidence and scientific advances occur all the time, and things change. Medical professionals have to engage in active lifelong learning, because certainly what one learned in medical school, while true at the time, is not necessarily how one would practice today. We’ve had so many advances in the intervening 35 years. Within that context, thinking about approaches that make people feel better, that allevi- ate suffering, and that are really guided by, again, what a patient and their family mem- bers and their care providers view as most important in their lives is an important part of what we all do in medicine. I’ll share that I’m a huge believer in pet therapy. I have two therapy dogs myself. There is evidence around it, but I’ve also just personally observed how they uplift spirits, how they motivate patients, and, in a way, that is not always necessarily quantifiable. The same can be said of music therapy, of narrative medicine, of aroma therapy; so, I think all of us here at UAMS very much embrace things that make our patients feel better — things that uplift their spirits and help them every day. Editor How has mental health training changed for the student who is getting ready to enter the healthcare field and how you’re training them to deal with patients? Smyth I think there is much more integra- tion of behavioral health and what we his- torically have called the preclinical curricu- lum. I think there’s still more work that we could do on that front, understanding that behaviors are fundamentally underpin- ning so many different conditions. How we address that as physicians and healthcare providers is incredibly important. Being given tools and methods to be able to do that effectively is not anything that I learned when I was in medical school. For exam- ple, the concept of motivational interview- ing with patients and providing other tools like that to train doctors in interacting with patients has become much more integrated into the medical curriculum. I think there’s more work that needs to be done there. Again, when I talked ear- lier about how we really need to reenvi- sion some large parts of medical school curriculum, that’s part of what needs to be addressed. We need to be able to do it at an individual patient level, and we also have to figure out howwe engage with our com- munities around these challenges. Editor Are you guys also discussing the mental health or behavioral health of the students themselves — how to take care of themselves? Smyth We have absolutely phenomenal mental health programs for our students, our residents, and our faculty. In fact, I was just looking at data from a survey of our graduating medical students, and our students were about twice as likely as the national average to be very satisfied with the mental health services that they received as a student. The program includes both con- fidential screening and individual counsel- ing. It includes wellness and mindfulness programs that are available, again, to the students, to the residents, and the faculty. It really is a state-of-the-art program that ought to be a model for others. Editor If a bright, intuitive, qualified young person is vacillating between becoming an MD or a DO, how would you guide them? Smyth I have to answer that by just say- ing I’m so biased in my perspectives. The truth is, at the end of the day, an individual with an MD or a DO can practically do the same roles. The opportunities from a resi- dency and a career perspective really are very similar for both individuals with either an MD or a DO. What I’ll speak to in terms of MD physician training is that it really is built upon the principles of applying science to medicine. There’s an art of healing that you learn, and there’s a service to humanity that is upheld in the curriculum. It’s part of the requirements and the fundamental ele- ments of medical school culture, and I can’t imagine a more valuable thing to participate in. I’ll share that the opportunity to apply scientific advances, to improve an individu- al’s health, and to alleviate suffering is really, I think, one of our largest accomplishments as a society, and the opportunities to train to do that in a medical school and obtain an MD is a tremendous responsibility, but it is also an incredibly exciting career. Editor Switching gears to research and discovery, what are the top priorities for the college regarding research and discovery? Smyth As an institution obtaining National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation for our cancer center, it is clearly a top priority. Within the college this last year, we identi- fied four thematic areas that are creativity hubs of talent, where we are really trying to build out our teams of investigators based on very strong and long-standing research programs. Those four areas are in bone and muscle health and disease, cardiovascular disease across the life span, neurodegenera- tive disorders, and artificial intelligence. We have some investigators at Arkansas Chil- dren’s and in the USDA-funded nutrition center there that are doing really exciting work, even working with pregnant moms, looking before birth at long-term influences on cardiovascular disease. With AI, we’re really thinking about how we’re leverag- ing bioinformatics, digital capabilities, and promotingAI, from not just a research per- spective but also an education and a clini- cal perspective. My four top picks for research projects published last year include the use of oral immunotherapy to elicit remission of pea- nut allergy in children, the identification of an antibody that develops weeks after the initial COVID-19 infection and that can dis- rupt the immune system, increasing tumor susceptibility to drug therapy in patients with a particularly aggressive form of mul- tiple myeloma who carry a high-risk gene