UAMS Faculty, Alumni Inducted Into Medical Honor Society

By todd

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LITTLE ROCK – Two College of Medicine faculty members at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and an Arkadelphia physician were inducted April 7 into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, the only medical honor society in the world.


 


E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., dean of the UAMS College of Medicine; James Clardy, M.D., the College of Medicine associate dean for graduate medical education; and Mark Jansen, M.D., of Arkadelphia were inducted into the AOA organization during a banquet held at the Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock.


 


Each year the AOA chapter at UAMS selects a UAMS faculty member, two alumni members, three residents and a small number of medical students to join the organization based on professional accomplishments or academic achievements.


 


“Membership in Alpha Omega Alpha is meant as peer recognition of excellence academically and professionally,” said James Graham, M.D., an associate professor of pediatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine and acting secretary-treasurer of the AOA chapter at UAMS.


 


Alpha Omega Alpha is intended “to recognize and perpetuate excellence in the medical profession.” As stated in the society’s constitution, the organization’s aims “shall be the promotion of scholarship and research in medical schools, the encouragement of a high standard of character and conduct among medical students and graduates, and the recognition of high attainment in medical science, practice and related fields.”


 


Reece, a specialist in maternal-fetal medicine and an international expert in diabetes and prenatal diagnosis and therapy, became dean of the UAMS College of Medicine in January


 


2002. He received his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine, his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of West Indies and a master of business administration from the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University. Prior to his arrival at UAMS, Reece served as chair of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Temple University School of Medicine.


 


Clardy, also an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the UAMS College of Medicine, received his medical degree in 1986 from UAMS and joined the faculty in 1993. His research interests include schizophrenia, psychopharmacology, administrative psychiatry and psychiatric education.


 


Jansen is a board-certified family practice physician at the Arkadelphia Medical Clinic in Arkadelphia. He received his medical degree in 1981 from UAMS.


 


Other AOA selections included UAMS residents Allison Moss Johnson, M.D., of Fayetteville; Ashley Ross, M.D., of Little Rock; and Amy Warriner, M.D., of Little Rock; along with 21 senior medical students. Only the top 25 percent of the medical students in each class of about 150 at UAMS are academically eligible for selection.


 


UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has more than 2,200 students and 660 residents and is the state’s largest public employer with almost 9,000 employees. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $4.1 billion a year.


 


UAMS centers of excellence are the Arkansas Cancer Research Center, Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy and Jackson T. Stephens Spine and Neurosciences Institute.