The Walmart Foundation awarded a $194,200 grant to help the state's medical school treat diabetes in Northwest Arkansas' Marshallese community.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest in Fayetteville opened its North Street Clinic, 1125 College Ave., in November primarily to offer diabetes testing and treatment for Marshallese patients. The grant allows the school to hire a registered nurse to coordinate patient care at the clinic. Faculty and student volunteers staff the clinic.
An estimated 10,000 Marshallese people live in Northwest Arkansas, and the diabetes rate among the Marshallese is one of the highest of any population group in the world. The school reports as many as 50 percent of the Marshallese living in Northwest Arkansas have or could develop diabetes.
The school began its outreach effort in 2013 and was awarded a $2.1 million grant last year from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study ways for teaching diabetes self-management skills in coordination with care provided through the North Street Clinic.
The school recently received a three-year, $2.99 million grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to further focus on health disparities in both the Marshallese and Hispanic communities of Benton and Washington counties.
NW News on 02/27/2015