News from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 

Chancellor's Notes:
The Sky's the Limit

I. Dodd Wilson, M.D.
Chancellor
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

JAN. 11, 2001 | As Arkansas's only academic health center, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has a proud history of service to Arkansas through education, patient care, research, and specialized programs around the state.

Today, amazing biomedical research, remarkable innovations in health care, and the broad availability of distance learning promise that we will promote health and healing in Arkansas in the 21st century in ways that we can now only barely imagine. The sky is the limit in what UAMS can do for the people of Arkansas.

Since taking office as Chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, I have set eight goals for the institution:

1. Provide the best education possible for all of our students

Our educational mission is complex and diverse. UAMS has four colleges and a Graduate School and will soon establish a College of Public Health. There are 47 accredited residency programs in the College of Medicine. We have a moral imperative to be excellent in all of these areas, both for the safety of our patients and all of the patients whom our students will treat in the future, and for the teaching of excellence in care of patients to our students.

2. Become the leader in the mid-South for treatment of 10 serious illnesses

Many of our clinicians are world class. We already lead the region and possibly the world in several areas, including treatment of multiple myeloma, skull base neurosurgery, and treatment of deforming facial vascular lesions. We have a marvelous geriatrics program. Dr. Gazi Yasargil, a professor on our faculty, was named Neurosurgeon of the Century by the international Congress of Neurological Surgeons. During the next few years, we will strengthen and expand selected clinical programs so that we become the region's first choice for health care in those areas.

3. Improve the service by our hospital and outpatient programs to patients and referring physicians

Sometimes our service does not match the quality of our patient care. UAMS is committed to providing the service that those who use our facilities have the right to expect.

4. Finish in the upper half of U.S. academic health centers in funding for basic research

Basic scientific and clinical research at UAMS bring our teaching alive intellectually and, at the same time, enhance our patient care. We appreciate the voters' support of the CHART proposal that was on the ballot in November. That plan for spending Arkansas's share of the nationwide tobacco settlement will provide new funding for research at UAMS and a research building that can be the leverage for further advances at UAMS. During the last 15 years, UAMS, collaborating with Arkansas Children's Hospital and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, has seen dramatic growth in research funding. Breakthroughs that improve the public's health are occurring regularly at UAMS.

5. Launch 15 new companies through our biotech incubator program

Research is an economic engine. UAMS is taking part in the explosion of biotechnology through Arkansas BioVentures, a program of the College of Medicine's Biomedical Biotechnology Center. This incubator program facilitates the start-up of biotechnology-based business enterprises and enhances the growth of job opportunities in Arkansas. We hold about 50 patents and 25 licenses that generate royalties, and have started nine local companies. Through such spinoffs of companies from our faculty's intellectual property, we will continue to stimulate economic development for the state.

6. Change the health status of Arkansans for the better

We already are doing much for the people of Arkansas. We train many of the health care professionals who work in the state. We are a safety net for many Arkansans who do not have medical insurance. We teach courses through compressed video and over the Internet. We provide medical consultations over compressed video for doctors and their patients in remote areas of the state. We give summer workshops for K-12 teachers. We sponsor innovative programs like Arkansas CARES, which helps mothers who are struggling with drug addiction, and Kids First, which helps the development of very young children who are at risk of developmental disabilities. The list is much longer.

But we can do more. Working through the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, thanks to funding from the nationwide tobacco settlement, we are committed to improving the health status of Arkansans.

7. Make UAMS financially stronger so that we can invest in the future

Our finances are currently an impediment to our progress. Several factors have combined to stretch the UAMS budget almost to the breaking point:

First, the proportion of our patients who have no ability to pay hospital and clinic bills is high. Many are working adults who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but who do not get insurance benefits on the job and cannot possibly pay for private insurance. We treat as many of these patients as our resources allow.

Second, managed care contracts generate less revenue for us than the private insurance of the past.

Third, Medicare payments to hospitals have dropped since the U.S. Congress enacted the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. That law helped the federal government save money, but it has severely hurt teaching hospitals that used to rely on Medicare reimbursement rates to partially offset losses from indigent care.

We must improve our billing procedures to collect from every patient who has the means to pay. We also must make sure that we receive every dollar of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for which we are eligible. But to give UAMS a firm financial foundation, we also have cut spending and are looking for improved efficiency of our operations.

8. Increase philanthropic support for the institution

UAMS is no different than academic health centers around the country. The financial pressures I have described mean that private philanthropy must become a bigger portion of our annual revenue if we are to continue to serve Arkansas and to excel. We already have many generous supporters who have endowed programs and faculty positions and helped us build laboratories, classrooms, and clinic space. In the coming months we will announce new goals for private fundraising. Meanwhile, information about our current giving opportunities is available at www.uams.edu/advancement.

These are my goals for our academic health center. UAMS is a great institution with a great future. I am honored to serve Arkansas as Chancellor of UAMS at this point in its history. I will do my best to report UAMS's services, its promise, and its needs to the people of Arkansas.

Visit UAMS online at www.uams.edu.

08/04/03