LITTLE ROCK — Theresa Wyrick-Glover, M.D., has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) as hand surgeon and assistant professor in the College of Medicine's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

 

A native of Little Rock, Wyrick-Glover most recently was at Thomas Jefferson University/Philadelphia Hand Center, Philadelphia, where she completed an orthopaedic hand surgery fellowship. She received her medical degree and completed her residency at UAMS, where she received the Carl Nelson Resident Leadership Award.

 

Wyrick-Glover specializes in nerve injuries of the upper extremity including nerve compressions such as carpal tunnel and cubital tunnel syndromes. She also treats arthritic conditions of the elbow, wrist and hand. She offers treatment of traumatic injuries to the upper extremity as well as other complex reconstructive surgeries of the arm.

 

She is a member of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and the American Association for Hand Surgery, and she has completed research in the areas of brachial plexus surgery and distal radius fractures. Wyrick-Glover also has authored several textbook chapters on arthritic conditions of the upper extremity and has lectured at local, state and regional meetings on topics related to upper extremity surgery.

 

Magnolia — The Magnolia Hospital Board of Commissioners has named Margaret West as Chief Executive Officer. West joined Magnolia Hospital in 1986 as the Director of Nutrition Services, and assumed the position of Chief Ancillary Officer in 1998. She has served as Interim CEO since June of this year.

 

Margaret completed her undergraduate work at the University of Arkansas, and an internship at UAMS.

 

She received a Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from Louisiana Tech University. She is an active member of the American Dietetic Association, and member and past president of the Arkansas Dietetic Association. Locally, West is involved with the Columbia County Health Coalition, Magnolia Rotary, South Arkansas Women's Network, and Leadership Magnolia Alumni.

 

BENTONVILLE — Shamsul Alam, M.D., has moved his Benton County practice to a new location – 811 S.E. 28th St., Suite 7, in Bentonville. He will continue to see patients at his Washington County practice at 2422 North Thompson in Springdale (at the Northwest Senior Health clinic at the Schmieding Center on Aging) on Tuesdays from 1 - 5 p.m.

 

His Benton County clinic formerly was located in Northwest Medical Plaza at 2900 Medical Center Parkway in Bentonville.

 

Dr. Alam completed an Internal Medicine residency at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City and practiced for six years before serving a Nephrology fellowship at Medical University of Ohio in Toledo.

 

LITTLE ROCK — Russell D. Harrington Jr., president and CEO of BAPTIST HEALTH, has announced the appointment of Dr. Guy Gardner to the new position of chief medical officer for BAPTIST HEALTH.

 

Gardner has served as the medical director of BAPTIST HEALTH's Arkansas Health Group for the last eight years. Prior to that, he was a member of the Arkansas Otolaryngology Center and was a member of the professional staff of BAPTIST HEALTH Medical Center-Little Rock for 29 years. Gardner is board certified in otolaryngology/head and neck surgery and received his medical education and residency training at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

 

Arkansas Hospice is pleased to announce Dr. Susan Santa Cruz has joined its staff. Dr. Santa Cruz has been a physician in central Arkansas for more than 30 years and will be responsible for making pre-hospice hospital visits as well as home visits to Arkansas Hospice patients and families.

 

Two new family practice physicians have joined First Care in Jonesboro.

 

Dr. Traci Buxton moves to Jonesboro from Pocahontas, where she has been a staff physician at Pocahontas Family Medical Center since 2001. And Dr. Brooke Gibson is establishing practice after completing a family practice residency program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Area Health Education Center-Northeast at St. Bernards.

 

Buxton, who is practicing at the First Care/Acute Care Center at 333 Stadium Blvd., was born and grew up in Springfield, Mo. She earned a bachelor of science degree in biology at Lyon College in Batesville and her M. D. at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn.

 

After completing both a residency and internship at the University of Missouri-Columbia, she established her medical practice at Pocahontas Family Medical Center. She is board certified in Family Medicine and holds membership in the American Academy of Family Physicians.

 

Gibson is practicing at First Care/Matthews Clinic at 415 East Matthews Ave. Born in Arkadelphia, she earned her bachelor of science degree in biology and her M.D. at St. Matthews University School of Medicine.

 

She also is completing her master's degree in healthcare administration in public health through St. Joseph's College in Standish, Maine.

 

During the last year, Gibson served as chief resident at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Area Health Education Center-Northeast at St. Bernards Medical Center. She holds membership in the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Arkansas Academy of Family Physicians and the Arkansas Medical Society.

 

LITTLE ROCK — Internationally known University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) orthopaedic researcher Larry Suva recently became the inaugural holder of the Carl L. Nelson Chair in Orthopaedic Creativity, honoring the late surgeon's belief in a multi-disciplinary approach to bone research.

 

Suva, Ph.D., a professor in the departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Physiology and Biophysics in the UAMS College of Medicine, is director of the UAMS Center for Orthopaedic Research, which he envisioned and helped establish with then-Department of Orthopaedic Surgery chairman Nelson. Nelson, M.D., served as department chairman from 1974 until his death in 2005.

 

Suva, a native of Australia, has more than 20 years of internationally recognized research focused on the skeletal consequences of disease. This includes more than 90 scientific publications and five patents describing the skeletal complications of diseases including breast and prostate cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis.

 

Nelson was recruited to Arkansas in 1974 to build a strong Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and organize the orthopaedic training program, then in its infancy. During his tenure as chairman, the orthopaedic faculty grew from two to a team of 50 professionals and he personally oversaw the education of 122 orthopaedic surgeons – many of whom stayed in Arkansas to practice.

 

BENTONVILLE — Robert M. Miller, M.D., a board-certified Gastroenterologist, has joined the medical staff of Northwest Health System, practicing at Northwest Medical Center – Bentonville. Dr. Miller also has established a new clinic, Northwest Health Gastroenterology at Northwest Medical Plaza in Bentonville.

 

Dr. Miller received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville and then completed an internship, Internal Medicine residency and Gastroenterology fellowship at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

 

In practice since 1987, Dr. Miller comes to Northwest Health System from Mesquite, Texas, where he has been part of a group Gastroenterology practice. During his career, he has practiced in Texas, Arkansas (in Fort Smith) and Louisiana.

 

Dr. Miller is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology by the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a member of the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the American College of Gastroenterology and the Arkansas Medical Society.

 

LITTLE ROCK — Use of technology to improve data-gathering and sharing in clinical research put the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) among the nation's most innovative users of technology, according to the annual ranking by business technology magazine Information Week.

 

UAMS was ranked No. 23 in the 2009 InformationWeek 500 list revealed Sept. 14 at an awards ceremony during the InformationWeek 500 Conference in Monarch Beach, Calif. The publication ranked UAMS for the second consecutive year.

 

In the past year, UAMS began implementing information technology tools for participation in the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG), a network for connecting teams of cancer and biomedical researchers. The tools are intended to streamline the data-gathering process involved in clinical research and allow participating cancer centers to share that information more easily.

 

The UAMS IT research team developed and is in the pilot phase of implementing numerous Web-based clinical research tools. The tools cover each phase of research, including patient registration, a study calendar and event tracker to allow centralized collection, management and reporting for clinical trials.

 

Prior to this IT initiative, UAMS clinical trials were managed independently and data management was not centralized. In some cases clinical trials were previously managed with paper records, making it more difficult for large-scale trials outside the research institution. With the Web-based system, clinics and patients around Arkansas will have access to ongoing trials, thus improving access to new cancer treatments as they are being studied.

 

Earlier this year, the Hospitals & Health Networks magazine of the American Hospital Association publication has named UAMS Medical Center as one of the "100 Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems" for its use of technology.

 

UAMS Medical Center is one of only nine organizations in the United States to be named seven times to the "Most Wired" list in its 11-year history, and is the only hospital in Arkansas to be recognized in 2009.

 

InformationWeek has identified and honored the nation's most innovative users of information technology with its annual listing, now in its 20th year, and has tracked the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America's best-known companies. The list is unique among corporate rankings because it spotlights the power of innovation in information technology, rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders.

 

Additional details on the InformationWeek 500 can be found online at www.informationweek.com/iw500/.

 

LITTLE ROCK — Researchers at the Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center (ACNC) are examining how a mother's weight at conception may predispose her child to a life of obesity with a $1.6 million grant recently awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

 

The grant — funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, an institute of the NIH — will cover the four-part study over five years. The scientists are interested in finding out if the actions of the hormone insulin in a newborn are different if his mother is overweight.

 

Researchers believe that insulin behaves oddly in infants whose mothers are above normal weight range, leading to a greater deposition of fat rather than muscle as the child develops. The theory is that this interaction affects how quickly the children can burn off calories as they grow. Other factors such as palatable high fat diets and reduced physical activity may further impair insulin action.

 

The researchers, who are affiliated with the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), will also look at whether increased physical activity in overweight pregnant women might reduce the risk of obesity in their babies.

 

"We already know that a mother's weight during pregnancy can have long-term effects on her baby's health," said Kartik Shankar, PhD, DABT, lead investigator of the study for ACNC and an Assistant Professor in the department of Pediatrics at UAMS. "Now we're hoping to find out the underlying mechanisms and whether altered insulin-signaling is one critical trigger."

 

A study conducted two years ago at ACNC showed that a fetus that develops in an overweight mother can face a cycle of weight gain and increasing body fat throughout life. The study, "Maternal Obesity at Conception Programs Obesity in the Offspring," was published in the American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

 

Fort Smith — The Cancer Support Foundation Board of Directors has announced a change in the position of Executive Director of the Foundation. Mary Lee Frase has chosen to retire from her position as Executive Director effective October 16, and Martha Pendleton, Ed.D. has been selected to follow Frase in that position. The Cancer Support Foundation operates the Donald W. Reynolds Cancer Support House in Fort Smith.

 

Frase has been with the Foundation since February of 2005 after a 24-year career in broadcasting. According to Frase, "I have been one of the thousands who received emotional support from this organization during cancer treatment so I have had a personal passion for the work done here. As Executive Director, I developed a deep appreciation for the staff, board of directors and donors who contribute so much to serve so many."

 

Doug Babb, Cancer Support Foundation Board of Directors President, commented, "Mary Lee has served the organization with exemplary dedication for more than four years, but we feel very fortunate to have Martha Pendleton available to fill this important leadership role. Mary Lee was instrumental in selecting her replacement, as she knows in depth the skills required for the Executive Director's position. Martha brings her own personal understanding of the importance of support during cancer. Her family, like so many others, has been affected with this disease. She also brings experience in fundraising; grant writing, marketing, education and management. She has served as Director of Marketing at St. Edward Mercy Medical Center, Grants Coordinator for the Mercy Foundation, Site Director for John Brown University, and has taught for the University of Arkansas Fayetteville College of Education and Health Professions. She and her husband, Patrick, have two children."

 

Frase continued, "Martha will assume the Executive Director position on October 19, and I encourage our caring community to drop by and meet her. Retirement will be a new chapter for me, and I am fortunate to know that I am forwarding the Foundation to such capable hands."