Rahn Throws First Pitch at 'Strike Out Stroke Night'

May 27, 2011 | A helicopter carrying UAMS stroke neurologist Salah Keyrouz, M.D., grabbed Arkansas Travelers fans' attention by circling and landing just outside Dickey-Stephens Park. Full Story

UAMS Telemedicine Stroke Program Saves Mena Woman
While suffering a major stroke at her home near Mena, Iva Sikes assumed the worst, not knowing that a UAMS-led telemedicine program would provide her a complete recovery.

Sikes, who lives alone four miles outside of Mena, was about to tend her flower garden June 1 when the left side of her body went numb, causing her to fall. Full Story

Telestroke - Stroke Assistance Through Virtual Emergency Support

Currently, many of Arkansas’ rural hospitals without the support of a neurologist often forgo administration of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), as they lack the staff resources to accurately identify and manage tPA candidates. Further, the window of time needed to affectively administer tPA is often lost when stroke patients are transported to a better-equipped, remote hospital.  As such, Arkansas’ stroke patients are missing out on a quality-of-life-saving drug that significantly improves the chances of recovery while reducing permanent, stroke-related disability and, quite possibly, mortality.  Arkansas SAVES will implement a stroke management system specifically targeting these shortcomings by increasing access to subspecialty expertise through telemedicine technology, thereby engineering a coordinated assessment and care-based plan for Arkansas’ stroke patients.

Arkansas Stroke Assistance through Virtual Emergency Support (Arkansas SAVES) presents an innovative solution to a complex, statewide problem.  Not unlike those programs described above, this initiative will lean upon the expertise of Arkansas’ neurologists, innovative telemedicine systems, and ground-breaking medications to treat Arkansas’ stroke patients.  Three rural hospitals and will be selected to participate in the Arkansas SAVES pilot project and neurologists at Sparks Health System and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  The pilot sites will be equipped with telemedicine technology, training for personnel, support for dedicated tele-stroke coordinator, and ongoing continuing education.  This hub and spoke model will allow for multiple sites to provide expert care to other areas of the state.  Following this pilot an additional spoke and hub sites will be added.