Grand Rounds January on Arkansas Medical News Inc.

Grand Rounds January

UAMS Names Armstrong Dermatology Chair

LITTLE ROCK — Cheryl A. Armstrong, M.D., has been named chair of the Department of Dermatology in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

Armstrong joined the UAMS faculty in May 2008 as a staff physician and associate professor and has served as interim chair of the department since August following the death of John Ansel, M.D., the previous chair.

She sees patients at UAMS Medical Center and at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, where she is chief of the dermatology section.

Before joining UAMS, Armstrong was a staff physician at the Veterans Administration Eastern Colorado Health Care System in Denver and associate professor of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Colorado Denver.

The board-certified dermatologist received her medical degree from the Indiana University School of Medicine. She completed her residency at the Oregon Health Sciences University and a fellowship in dermatology research.

She became an associate professor with tenure at Emory University School of Medicine Department of Dermatology and received a joint appointment in the Department of Ophthalmology. Armstrong served on the faculty at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine before joining the faculty at the University of Colorado Denver.

Tobacco Settlement Funds Leverage $258 Million in Research Funding Through Arkansas Biosciences Institute

LITTLE ROCK – Tobacco settlement funds have been used to leverage more than a quarter of a billion dollars for research funding to Arkansas biomedical researchers in the past eight years, the Arkansas Biosciences Institute (ABI) reports.

Since 2002, funding from outside sources – including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture – totaled more than $258 million, or $3.03 for every ABI dollar given to researchers.

The ABI, in a recent report to a subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislature, noted the return on its research investment and other successes toward improving the health of Arkansans through new and expanded agricultural and medical research initiatives.

ABI funds have created new research laboratories, recruited scientists and brought new jobs to the state. The institute, a consortium that includes the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (UAF), the University of Arkansas – Division of Agriculture, Arkansas State University (ASU) and the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI), was created by the voter-approved Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act of 2000.

The entire ABI Report to the Legislative subcommittee can be found online at www.arbiosciences.org.

Arkansas Children's Hospital Opens New West Little Rock Clinic

LITTLE ROCK — Children who need outpatient services from Arkansas Children's Hospital now have more options than ever with the debut of a new state-of-the-art clinic facility in west Little Rock.

The new, $2 million ACH West Little Rock Clinic, located in the Bella Rosa Shopping Center at 16101 Cantrell Road, includes 20 exam rooms, a dedicated radiology suite, and physical and occupational therapy space. The facility was built to specifications for Arkansas Children's Hospital, and includes a bright, airy interior that is appealing to young patients. It spans 11,500 square feet, including a cast room for orthopedics and three waiting rooms for patients and families.

The new facility replaces older clinic space on Chenal Parkway, which ACH had outgrown as demand for outpatient services boomed. The new West Little Rock Clinic will include an additional 4,500 square feet of floor space, which adds eight exam rooms for evaluating and treating patients. Thousands of patients are treated every year at the hospital's off-site location. With this year's flu epidemic, the hospital is on track to treat children during 300,000 outpatient visits to clinics and the ER.

The special radiology suite and therapy spaces will allow families to use these services at a location that will be more convenient than traveling to the main hospital near downtown Little Rock. These options were not available at the previous West Little Rock Clinic facility.

Families can take advantage of a variety of outpatient services at the new space. Included is the Genetics Clinic, a program for children with rare genetic disorders, who will be seen on an outpatient basis exclusively at the new West Little Rock Clinic. In addition, the facility will host Fitness Clinic for children struggling with their weight, Asthma Clinic, Headache Clinic, Eating Disorder Clinic and Orthopedics Clinic.

Hogan to Lead New Division of Informatics at UAMS

LITTLE ROCK — William R. Hogan, M.D., has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) as director of the new Division of Biomedical Informatics in the College of Medicine's Department of Biostatistics.

The Division of Biomedical Informatics will identify innovative and efficient technologies to accelerate the pace at which researchers and clinicians create and use biomedical knowledge to improve health.

Hogan is a nationally known leader in interconnecting systems for electronic health records and the use of information technology to improve biosurveillance. He was previously an associate professor of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Hogan earned his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in 1993 and a Master's of Science in Intelligent Systems degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999. He completed an internal medicine residency in 1996 and a National Library of Medicine fellowship in Medical Informatics in 1999, both at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Hogan will also be responsible for carrying out the biomedical informatics goals of the recent nearly $19.9 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) UAMS received in July.

"The Clinic at Walmart" Operated by St. Vincent Health System Opens

Little Rock, AR – Walmart and St. Vincent Health System announced Little Rock's newest offering of health care services – "The Clinic at Walmart" operated by St. Vincent Health System. This convenient care clinic opened Nov. 16, in the Walmart supercenter located at 19301 Cantrell Road in Little Rock. The clinic will provide fast, affordable access to basic health care services such as check-ups, immunizations, screenings and minor injuries. The walk-in health clinic is the first to be owned and operated by St. Vincent Health System in an Arkansas Walmart, and is the first in the country for Catholic Health Initiatives, the sponsor of St. Vincent Health System. The clinic will be open for walk-in service Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. and Sunday 11a.m. until 5 p.m.

For busy customers who are seeking affordable, accessible health care, especially during evening hours or on weekends, clinics play a key role in the health care system. Ten to 15 percent of clinic customers surveyed said they would have used an emergency room had the clinic in Walmart not been available, while another five to 10 percent would have gone without treatment entirely, potentially leading to more serious complications down the road*.

The clinic is staffed with licensed health care providers, during convenient hours, including the weekend, so families can receive quality care without a long wait. It also helps ease the burden on emergency rooms, which aren't designed to treat everyday illnesses like sore throats.

In addition to enhancing the 'one-stop shopping' experience for customers, The Clinic at Walmart operated by St. Vincent Health System offers prompt access to affordably priced acute and preventive care for common health ailments treatable without urgent or emergency care, including sore throats, sinus infections, upper respiratory infections, earaches, bladder infections, insect bites and stings, cholesterol screening, blood sugar testing, drug screening and routine physicals.

UAMS-Led Nanotechnology Team Discovers How to Capture Tumor Cells in Bloodstream

LITTLE ROCK — A team led by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researchers on the cutting edge of nanotechnology has found a way to capture tumor cells in the bloodstream that could dramatically improve earlier cancer diagnosis and prevent deadly metastasis.

The discovery was published Nov. 15 in Nature Nanotechnology, a prestigious monthly print and online journal that provides a forum for leading research papers in all areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology. To read the abstract, visit http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nnano.2009.333.html.

Vladimir Zharov, director of the Phillips Classic Laser and Nanomedicine Laboratory at UAMS, said his team of researchers can inject a cocktail of magnetic and gold nanoparticles with a special biological coating into the bloodstream to target circulating tumor cells. A magnet attached to the skin above peripheral blood vessels can then capture the cells.

Zharov said that by magnetically collecting most of the tumor cells from blood circulating in vessels throughout the whole body, this new method can potentially increase specificity and sensitivity up to 1,000 times compared to existing technology.

Once the tumor cells are targeted and captured by the magnet, they can either be microsurgically removed from vessels for further genetic analysis or can be noninvasively eradicated directly in blood vessels by laser irradiation through the skin that is still safe for normal blood cells.

Zharov's team, which has recently been awarded more than $3.7 million in clinical nanomedicine-related grants, includes Ekaterina Galanzha, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UAMS Department of Otolaryngology; Evgeny Shashkov, Ph.D., a visiting scholar and laser physicist; Thomas Kelly, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAMS Department of Pathology; Jin-Woo Kim, Ph.D., a nano-biotechnologist at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville; and Lily Yang, Ph.D., a biologist from Emory University.

A second related discovery by Zharov's team was published in Cancer Research in October. It demonstrated that periodic laser irradiation of blood vessels decreases the level of circulating metastatic tumor cells more than 10 times and eventually led to an interruption of metastasis development in distant organs. To read the abstract, visit http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/69/20/7926?etoc.

The discovery highlighted in Cancer Research earned Zharov and his team a selection for Faculty of 1000 Biology, an award-winning Web site that highlights and evaluates the most interesting papers published in the biological sciences. Papers are selected based on the recommendations of more than 2000 of the world's top researchers.

The new discoveries can also be applied for early detection of cancer recurrence and for real-time monitoring therapy efficiency involving the counting of circulating tumor cells.

Most cancer deaths are the result of metastasis due to the spread of tumor cells from the primary tumor through the blood according to James Suen, M.D., chairman of the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute's Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery who said that the revolutionary discovery introduced by Zharov's team gives many patients hope in earlier cancer diagnosis and better treatment. The nanomedicine-based approach to read and treat whole blood in the body with nanotechnology seems to be universal, with further development holding the promise for the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases, including infections or cardiovascular disorders to prevent stroke and heart attack.

UAMShealth.com Web Site Nets Award for Use of Multimedia, Social Networking

LITTLE ROCK — UAMShealth.com, the patient-focused Web site of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), recently received a national gold eHealthcare Leadership award for the site's use of video, audio and other interactive applications.

The award in the category Best Web 2.0 (Rich Media & Social Networking) was presented based on the site's use of video, podcasts, interactive applications and social networking such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Platinum, gold, silver and distinction awards were handed out Nov. 4 in 12 categories during the 13th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference.

Introduced in January 2009, www.uamshealth.com includes several multimedia and interactive features allowing visitors to find health and wellness information. The site features a video library of health topics, podcasts of the weekly "Here's to your Health" radio series with UAMS surgeon T. Glenn Pait, M.D., and newsfeeds for subscribers and visitors to receive the latest in UAMS health, education and research news.

In addition, social network applications form new avenues for connecting to UAMS. More than 1,600 followers receive health tips and other information almost daily from @uamshealth via the micro-blogging service Twitter. Fans of UAMS can find regular news and health updates on the UAMS Facebook page (www.facebook.com/UAMShealth). On the UAMS YouTube channel, video clips document new medical treatments, stories of exceptional care at UAMS and other events.

Sites receiving the awards were selected from more than 1,100 entries representing hospitals, health systems, pharmaceutical firms and online health companies. The awards program was developed by eHealthcare Strategy & Trends, a leading Internet resource published by Health Care Communications, Rye, N.Y.