LITTLE ROCK – Gordon Low, an advanced practice nurse at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), has won a national award for his contributions to women’s health.
 

Low, of Little Rock, received the 2008 NPWH (Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health) Inspirations in Women’s Health Award at the Oct. 16 NPWH’s clinical conference in Seattle.

Low, who works with the UAMS ANGELS (Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Education and Learning System) Program, helped create and launch two unique programs that use telemedicine technology to improve access to care for rural Arkansas women and women in prison. Telemedicine provides live, two-way interactive video between a remote location and UAMS’ subspecialists. 

One of the programs at a community health clinic in Hope uses telecolposcopy to identify women at risk for cervical cancer. Once identified, these rural, impoverished women can qualify for a Medicaid-reimbursed treatment program. The prison program allows for prenatal care through an innovative blend of training, in-person guidance, remote subspecialty consultation and 24-hour-a-day triage support. The prevention and early diagnoses components of each program helps save lives and reduce health care costs.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has 2,652 students and 733 medical residents. Its centers of excellence include the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 10,000 employees, including nearly 1,150 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $5 billion a year. Visit www.uams.edu.