Highlands Oncology Group Expands Clinical Trials
Highlands Oncology Group began doing clinical research in 1996 with Phase II - Phase IV clinical trials. The clinical research staff started small with one research nurse. The practice and research staff has grown over the past 11 years to include 6 oncologists, 2 nurse practitioners, and 7 full time research staff.
Highlands Oncology Group currently has 24 open clinical trials with 80-90 active patients enrolled. There are also 40 patients in follow up at any given time.
This year the physicians at Highlands Oncology group started a Phase I clinical trial program. Highlands Oncology Group is currently the only Phase I oncology site in the state of Arkansas .
The Phase I program has been open about 2 months and has 2 protocols open in colorectal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Kim Davison, RN, is the Phase I Clinical Coordinator and can be reached at 800-381-6939 x 143 and Wendy Parnell is the Director of Clinical Research and can be reached at extension x 144.
Tonya Estes Joins Samarion As Director Of Client Services
Samarion, a Ridgeland, Miss.-based healthcare technology company providing the nursing home industry with the unprecedented Enterprise Quality Improvement System, hired Tonya R. Estes as director of client services, effective Sept. 1.
Estes brings to the management team 16 years of nursing home industry experience. A graduate of McNeese State University licensed as a nursing facility administrator in 1992, she has served as marketing director and rehab administrator of St. Francis Nursing Home in Oberlin, La.; a healthcare consultant specializing in Medicare regulatory and compliance matters for The Broussard Group in Lake Charles, La.; and administrator and owner of The Gardens Assisted Living and The Guardian House in Lake Charles, La.
Peter Emanuel, M.D.,Named Director Of Arkansas Cancer Research Center at UAMS
LITTLE ROCK – Peter D. Emanuel, M.D., has been named executive director of the Arkansas Cancer Research Center (ACRC) at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He assumed his post July 1.
Emanuel served as acting director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) from 2004-2006. In addition, during his tenure at UAB he held the position of program co-leader for Experimental Therapeutics in the cancer center and deputy director in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. He also was a professor in the UAB Departments of Medicine, Genetics and Biochemistry.
Emanuel received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Ripon College in Ripon, Wisc. He attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, Wisc., and served his internship and residency in internal medicine at UAB.
He also completed a clinical fellowship and a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at UAB.
Harding Breaks Ground on $7.7 Million Health Sciences Center
SEARCY -– Harding University officials ceremoniously broke ground on the new $7.7 million center for health sciences recently. The center, scheduled for completion by fall 2008, will house the Physician Assistant Program and College of Pharmacy.
The $7.7 million, two-story facility will provide 35,800 square feet of space for administrative and faculty offices, conference rooms, laboratories, examination rooms, classrooms, and a student library.
The first class of the PA Program, which began June 2005, will graduate July 28, receiving the master of science in physician assistant studies. More than half of the 16 graduates are planning to practice in Arkansas once they complete the national certification examination. Fifty-six additional students are currently enrolled.
The College of Pharmacy — leading to the Pharm.D. — will open in fall 2008, contingent upon achieving precandidate status from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education
Highlands Oncology Group Announces Staff Achievement
Christie M. Hancock, APRN, BC, OCN©, Advanced Practice Nurse at Highlands Oncology Group passed the Advanced Oncology Certified Nurse Practitioner (AOCNP™) Examination recently administered by the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation (ONCC) in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are now 404 nurses nationally who hold the AOCNP™ credential, and Christie is 1 of 2 practitioners in the state of Arkansas.
Christie graduated with her Bachelors of Science in nursing from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, and her Masters of Science in Nursing from Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
Arkansas Awarded over $1.5 Million in Community Health Center Grants
LITTLE ROCK – In an announcement made by Health Resources and Services Administration Administrator Dr. Elizabeth Duke, Arkansas will receive grants totaling over $1 million dollars to create two new Community Health Center locations under President Bush’s High Poverty County Initiative. Two existing Community Health Center Organizations in Arkansas were awarded grant funds: Healthy Connections, Inc., based in Mena, received a grant award to establish a new location in Mt. Ida, Montgomery County; and, Community Clinic at St. Francis House, Inc., based in Springdale, received a grant award to establish a new location in Bentonville, Benton County.
The Arkansas Primary Care Association, Community Health Centers of Arkansas, Inc. (CHCA), also received a planning grant, worth $80,000, which will be used to plan toward the development of a health center in Lincoln County, one of the three eligible high poverty counties named in the President’s Poorest County Initiative.
In addition, a third Community Health Center Organization, White River Rural Health Center, Inc., based in Augusta, will receive over $316,000 (for the last quarter of 2007) with additional funding for FY 2008 to start a new health center location in Lake City, Craighead County. This health center will be Arkansas’ second Migrant/Community Health Center in the state. The other is located in Hope, Arkansas which is operated by CABUN Rural Health Center, Inc.
Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon Moody Joins UAMS
LITTLE ROCK – Marcus W. Moody, M.D., who specializes in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery as well as endoscopic sinus surgery, has joined the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
Moody was recruited to UAMS after recently completing a one-year fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Rousso Facial Plastic Surgery in Birmingham , Ala.
Moody received his medical degree in 2001 from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville , Tenn., and completed his residency in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina, in Charleston, S.C.
He is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and will spend four days each week in the clinic and operating rooms at UAMS and one day a week at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
UCA Instructor is State’s First Neurologic Clinical Specialist
CONWAY — Myles Quiben, of UCA’s Department of Physical Therapy, recently became the first Neurologic Clinical Specialist (NCS) in Arkansas. Quiben, who recently was certified as a clinical specialist in Neurologic Physical Therapy by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties (ABPTS) of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), is now one of 535 physical therapists certified in neurology in the United States.
Sherrill, ANP, Attends Medical Association Sessions
MOUNTAIN HOME — Lisa Sherrill, certified family nurse practitioner at the TerKeurst Urology Clinic, attended the annual meeting of the American Urological Association recently, where she completed symposia, scientific programs, and courses to receive 17 continuing medical education credit hours.
Among the courses she completed were: complicated urinary tract infections, overactive bladder, male lower urinary tract symptoms, prostate cancer, female urology, pediatric urology, and others. Mrs. Sherrill has been a certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Advanced Practice Nurse at TerKeurst Urology Clinic since 2006. She received her master’s degree in nursing at Arkansas State University in 2006.
New Study Finds Comprehensive Primary Healthcare ‘Pays Off ’
LITTLE ROCK – With health care costs, costs of healthcare coverage, and the number of uninsured continuing to rise, most Americans and Arkansans agree that it is important that solutions be found to create cost savings while assuring that the consumer receives local access to affordable comprehensive quality healthcare in the form of a “healthcare home.”
A new study, Access Granted: the Primary Care Payoff*, conducted by the National Association of Community Health Centers, the Robert Graham Center and Capital Link, confirms the cost effectiveness of the appropriate use of comprehensive primary healthcare.
Comprehensive Primary Healthcare includes prevention services, education, and comprehensive treatment and management of acute and chronic conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and depression.
Community Health Centers are a bright spot in the public health debate, providing comprehensive affordable high-quality care while controlling costs and generating money and jobs into the Arkansas economy, according to the newly released Report. With healthcare costs continuing to rise, the new study finds that nationwide, Community Health Centers save the health care system between $9.9 and $17.6 billion. In Arkansas, that number is $89 – 159 million (2006)**. In addition, in 2005 the Arkansas Community Health Centers had an economic impact of over $78 million and supported 1,068 full time equivalent jobs.*
Community Health Centers serve as ‘health care homes’ to nearly 120,000 Arkansans and allows many Arkansans the ability to receive locally comprehensive healthcare at an affordable cost. In one patient’s words, “If it weren’t for our Community Health Center, we would have to drive 50 miles to see a doctor. With gas prices so high, along with the costs of seeing a doctor and getting our medicine, we would not be able to go to the doctor. The ‘sliding fee’ the Community Health Center offers is a godsend.”
Blue & You Foundation and Arkansas Children’s Hospital Co-Fund Research to Prevent Childhood Obesity
LITTLE ROCK — Concerned about the struggle to keep the state’s youngest healthy and trim, the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas and Arkansas Children’s Hospital are partnering on a project to help the state’s researchers find solutions.
The organizations are co-funding two grants totaling $159,000 to assist Arkansas researchers looking for the best methods to reverse obesity trends. Each organization is contributing half the funds awarded to the researchers.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) are the recipients of the first grant, worth $50,000. ACHI Policy Advisor Ronald Kahn, M.D., and Carole Garner, M.P.H., R.D., L.D., an assistant professor in the department of Health Policy and Health Management in the College of Public Health at UAMS, will use the funds to review current research on evidence-based prevention of childhood obesity. The team will present a best practices report on their findings.
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is receiving the second grant, worth $109,000. Arkansas Advocates Executive Director Rich Huddleston and Director of Health Policy Rhonda Sanders will spearhead an evaluation of current Arkansas programs that are effectively preventing childhood obesity. The project will result in a clearinghouse of information on successful programs and practices, a potential resource for organizations that wish to implement similar programs.
The researchers will share their preliminary results in a statewide obesity conference to be organized by ACHI in May 2008. The summit’s goal is to have health professionals, educators, policy makers and parents incorporate these research findings into a new action plan for combating the crisis of obesity among the state’s youngest generation.
The grant-funded research begins this month, with final reports due in August of 2008. The grant opportunities were first announced in May, and the deadline for applications was July of this year.
Wendy Wiley Named Director of Medical Information at Conway Regional
CONWAY — Wendy Wiley has accepted the position of Medical Information Director at Conway Regional Health System.
Wiley, a Conway resident and native of Atkins, has 18 years of experience in the medical information field. She is a Certified Coding Specialist and a Registered Health Information Administrator.
This is her second stint in medical information at Conway Regional having worked as a coding supervisor from 1997 to 2000. She was also employed at Southwest Regional Medical Center in Little Rock for four years where she served as director of health information and privacy officer form 2002 to 2004. Wiley holds a bachelor’s degree in health information from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.
October 2007
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