Joseph W. Thompson, M.D., Is New Director Of Arkansas Center for Health Improvement
| style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">LITTLE ROCK – Joseph W. Thompson, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is the new director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI).
Thompson is a pediatrician with a longstanding interest in health care policy. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine and an assistant professor and assistant dean pro tem for health policy studies in the UAMS College of Public Health.
ACHI is a health policy research center jointly operated by UAMS and the Arkansas Department of Health, and Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. Thompson will succeed founding director G. Richard Smith, M.D., chairman of psychiatry in the UAMS College of Medicine.
Thompson is a board-certified pediatrician and a graduate of Hendrix College, the UAMS College of Medicine and the School of Public Health of the University of North Carolina. He is the principal investigator in research on health insurance access in Arkansas, with external funding of more than $3.5 million. He has received honors and awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health.