DEC. 20, 2001 | Health care leaders in northwest Arkansas gathered last week at the Northwest Arkansas Area Health Education Center to chat with the Chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

The Northwest Arkansas Area Health Education Center (AHEC) hosted the reception for Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D.; Charles O. Cranford, D.D.S., vice chancellor for regional programs; and Sherrel F. Johnson, interim vice chancellor for institutional advancement.

Rick Guyton, Ph.D., director of the AHEC, said later that health care providers in the region were very pleased to talk with Chancellor Wilson.

”We really appreciate him coming up here and spending a couple of days with us in northwest Arkansas,” he said.

Steve Lampkin, chief executive of Washington Regional Medical Center, and Sen. David Malone of Fayetteville were among the guests at the reception, along with about 100 local health care professionals and supporters, including many AHEC employees.

The reception was a highlight of Chancellor Wilson’s two-day visit to northwest Arkansas to confer with health care leaders in the region. Dick Trammel of Arvest Bank, chair of the Development Committee of the UAMS Foundation Fund Board, organized the trip, which included meetings with hospital leaders and talks to several civic groups.

Trammel called the Chancellor’s visit an “awakening” to business leaders in the region who did not realize how important UAMS is to the health and economic prosperity of northwest Arkansas.

“They were just fascinated to learn that at least five people a day from Benton and Washington counties enter UAMS Medical Center as patients and that Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where so many of our children who are trauma cases or specialty cases go for treatment, is staffed by physicians from UAMS,” Trammel said.

Charles O. Cranford, D.D.S., vice chancellor for regional programs at UAMS (center), greeted AHEC supporters.

Jack Mitchell (center), administrator of Washington Regional Medical Center, showed Chancellor Wilson and Dick Trammel (right) the construction site for the center’s new hospital in Fayetteville.

Chancellor Wilson (left) conferred with Bill Bradley, chief executive officer of Northwest Medical Center at Springdale.