By Chris Carmody
LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has received a $5.5 million supplemental award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to fund training and outreach programs in rural and underserved areas of the state.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, awarded the money under its Value-Based Medical Student Education Grant. The supplemental funding brings UAMS’ fiscal-year award to $6.6 million and raises the overall grant award to nearly $19.6 million over four years.
UAMS will use the funding for projects intended to increase the number of primary care physicians practicing in rural and medically underserved communities in Arkansas.
Those projects include:
Renovation of training facilities for a primary care accelerated medical school track and four-year traditional medical school track at the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus in Fayetteville
The expansion of point-of-care ultrasound training for medical students with new equipment and fellowship programs for faculty members in six of the eight Regional Campuses and the Family Medical Clinic in Little Rock
The Medical Scholars in Public Health Postbaccalaureate Program for Arkansans from socially, economically or geographically disadvantaged backgrounds
Medical-student rotations in rural and underserved communities
Partnership programs from the UAMS Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Arkansas’ historically Black colleges and universities
Expansion of medical-school courses in primary care, behavioral health and lifestyle medicine in rural and underserved areas
Workforce mapping for rural primary care physicians — a new program that aims to improve training and care in rural communities
Upgrades to facilities and simulation equipment for the UAMS Simulation Center and the Northwest Regional Campus Simulation Center.
