UAMS Receives $3 Million NIH Grant to Address Feeding Practices at Early Child Care Sites

By David Robinson

LITTLE ROCK — University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researcher Taren Massey-Swindle, Ph.D., and a Louisiana Tech University collaborator have secured a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to address feeding practices at 80 early childhood care and education sites in Arkansas and Louisiana.

Massey-Swindle and Julie Rutledge, Ph.D., from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, found in prior studies that early childhood care and education settings frequently use inappropriate feeding practices such as hurrying children and encouraging them to eat more. Such practices contribute to eating less healthy foods, overeating and long-term food rejections.

A big part of the five-year, $3,043,419 grant from the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases is its “de-implementation” plans for eliminating inappropriate feeding practices.

UAMS Receives $3 Million NIH Grant to Address Feeding Practices at Early Child Care Sites

UAMS' Taren Massey-Swindle, Ph.D. (right), with her collaborator, Julie Rutledge, Ph.D., from Louisiana Tech University.

UAMS, AR Health Ventures Partner to Strengthen Diabetes Self-Management Education in Arkansas

By David Wise

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Office of Community Health & Research and AR Health Ventures are partnering with other institutions in the state to help rural, diabetic Arkansans better understand and manage their diabetes.

Funded by the U.S Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), the program — named Reaching Every Arkansan by Connecting Health (REACH) Resources to Reduce Diabetes Disparities — will improve access to diabetes self-management education and support for rural and underserved populations in 61 high-need counties in Arkansas. The REACH program will allow partners to support rural pharmacies in the development of such diabetes self-management programs and train community health workers to support diabetes patients.

The UAMS Office of Community Health & Research, AR Health Ventures, the Arkansas Community Health Worker Association and the Arkansas Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network support the program.

UAMS, AR Health Ventures Partner to Strengthen Diabetes Self-Management Education in Arkansas

UAMS Neurosurgeon’s Study on Breakthrough Treatment for Painful Diabetic Neuropathy Published in Diabetes Care

Erika Petersen, M.D.

By Linda Satter

Results of a 12-month multicenter randomized clinical trial led by Erika Petersen, M.D., a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), were published online Nov. 29 in Diabetes Care, highlighting the benefits of a breakthrough treatment for patients with painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN).

Petersen, director of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery at UAMS, was the lead investigator in the study that involved 216 patients at 18 centers in the United States. Johnathan Goree, M.D., an associate professor in the UAMS Department of Anesthesiology and director of the Chronic Pain Division, is a co-investigator on the study.

The study, for which UAMS began enrolling participants in 2018, examined results of high-frequency spinal cord stimulation therapy for patients with PDN, a chronic neurological condition that manifests as burning, excruciating, stabbing or intractable pain, or tingling or numbness. Specifically, the study compared the 10 kHz treatment plus conventional medical management to results of the conventional treatment alone, and found that the high-frequency therapy results in significant pain relief and neurological improvements in patients with persistent PDN.

https://news.uams.edu/2021/12/14/uams-neurosurgeons-study-on-breakthrough-treatment-for-painful-diabetic-neuropathy-published-in-diabetes-care/

UA, UAMS Researchers Awarded $10.8 Million Grant to Establish Metabolic Research Center

by Talk Business & Politics staff

A $10.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will enable an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Arkansas and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to address the role of cell and tissue metabolism in rare and common diseases such as cancer, diabetes, obesity and mitochondrial disorders.

The five-year award, funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, establishes the Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center as an NIH-designated Center of Biomedical Research Excellence. The award recognizes the university’s combination of expertise in advanced imaging techniques, bioenergetics and data science.

https://talkbusiness.net/2021/04/ua-uams-researchers-awarded-10-8-million-grant-to-establish-metabolic-research-center/