Rural health a target of $24M UAMS grant; chancellor calls it 'big deal' for med center, state

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Chancellor Cam Patterson announces the grant Wednesday with Laura James, director of the Translational Research Institute at UAMS. Patterson called the award “a big deal” for UAMS and the state.
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Chancellor Cam Patterson announces the grant Wednesday with Laura James, director of the Translational Research Institute at UAMS. Patterson called the award “a big deal” for UAMS and the state.

A University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences division has been awarded a $24.2 million grant set to target the state's central health challenges, including the health of its rural communities.

UAMS officials on Wednesday announced the award to its Translational Research Institute from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

It will help the Translational Research Institute transform recent scientific findings into treatments and therapies, with a special focus on what may help rural Arkansas populations.

"This is a big deal -- not just for UAMS, but for the state of Arkansas," Chancellor Cam Patterson said.

He called the Clinical and Translational Science Award -- among the largest the health sciences center and medical school has received -- "a testament to the excellence of UAMS research."

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Translational Research Institute Director Dr. Laura James said at a news conference that the award "represents cooperation and collaboration. ... We, as an organization, have worked hard to get to this day."

With the grant, the institute can take on some of the state's most "pressing health issues," including diabetes, obesity, opioid addiction, chronic pain and mental illness, she said.

In practice, the award will fund 20 junior faculty members over two years, bring new clinical trials to the state, support pilot grants and start a training program on research commercialization at the business school at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

It also will build up research partnerships, including with Arkansas Children's Hospital, the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System and health outlets in the state's more remote communities.

Input from the latter groups will be key as research projects develop, said James, who also is vice chancellor for clinical and translational research.

"How can we develop those strategies, to better detect disease or to better treat disease, in those who do not live in close proximity to a hospital?" she asked.

Partnership with the veterans health care system could include studies using biomedical informatics, which is the use of powerful data tools to analyze and make sense of health information.

Officials thanked U.S. Sen. John Boozman and his staff, who they said were key supporters of the grant application.

Boozman said in a statement that the grant will help UAMS scientists "build on their successes and develop new therapies ... that will improve lives in Arkansas and beyond."

UAMS joins about 50 organizations as a recipient of the Clinical and Translational Science Award, which it first received in the amount of $19.9 million in 2009.

Roughly 60 faculty members and 100 staff members worked on a more than 1,000-page application for the grant announced Wednesday, James said.

She'd heard their approval chances were good after submitting the application, which went out in May of last year, but the official word came down Monday.

That day also was the first day of the fiscal year for state organizations.

Patterson said in terms of the health sciences center's financial position, the award boosts its external funding of about $170 million by more than 10%.

He said research under the grant will take the lab into neighborhoods, and turn neighborhoods into labs.

"The idea behind this grant is that we do a lot of discovery work, but we often don't do a good enough job of making sure those discoveries have an impact on communities," he said.

"For Arkansas, this award is significant because it will translate into improved health and treatment for people who live here."

A Section on 07/04/2019

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