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Message from the Executive Director

It was with a great deal of excitement that I accepted the position of Vice Chancellor for Regional Programs and Executive Director of the UAMS AHEC Program in the fall of 2007. I am very impressed with the strong support the AHEC Program enjoys from state legislators, the communities in which they’re based and the UAMS administration. The UAMS AHEC system is recognized nationally as one of the strongest. Filling Dr. Cranford’s rather large shoes will be difficult as during his leadership of the AHEC Program, he established an unparalleled record of accomplishment.

 I want to highlight some of the results from the 2006-2007 annual report to illustrate the positive effect the AHEC Program is having on Arkansas.

  • By 2007, the number of Family Physicians completing their residencies in the UAMS AHEC Program and establishing practices in Arkansas reached 613.

  • In 2006-2007, education was provided to 675 health professions students, 164 medical residents, and 513 junior high, high school and college students.

  • Our AHEC learning resource centers serviced 59,040 patrons during the 2006-2007 academic year.

  • 195,000 patient visits occurred in our family medicine clinics, emergency rooms, nursing homes, and regional hospitals.

  • Our continuing education programs serviced 25,256 patrons, whereas our public/consumer education programs serviced 29,883 patrons.

  • We are continuing to implement an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Practice Management system in all of our Area Health Education Center clinics.

  • The UAMS AHEC Foundation Fund achieved cumulative gifts and pledges totaling $2,824,678.

  • The North Central AHEC was created to become Arkansas’ 8th Area Health Education Center.

In order to continue this unparalleled history of accomplishment, I will be undertaking a strategic planning process over the next few months, as it is clear that supporters of our programs do not want us to rest on our laurels. Many supporters have challenged us to focus more on the health of Arkansans, since Arkansas ranks so low among the 50 states in many health outcomes. Given the growing shortage that’s occurring in many health professions, several stakeholders have asked us to increase our training of health care professionals in our AHECs, stimulating students to consider careers in rural health. Lastly, our family medicine clinics have been challenged to continue their modernization, not only through the use of an EMR, but through implementation of the “medical home”. This new concept is achieving importance among legislators nationally, and will challenge our AHECs to improve their clinic operations further.

I’m excited about the opportunities available to the AHECs and look forward to working with each center, our central office, and our many stakeholders to continue our record of accomplishment.

Mark B. Mengel, MD, MPH

Executive Director, Arkansas AHEC Program
Vice-Chancellor for UAMS Regional Programs

 

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences - Regional Programs

UAMSUAMS

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If you are experiencing technical problems with any of the Regional Program sites, or see an error, please contact our support center at 1-800-547-8680. Please record any error messages with the name of the page, date you saw the error, and a description of the error and  to us.