Lee County Residents Invited to Discuss Health Care Needs at April 6, 7 Public Forums

By todd

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LITTLE ROCK – The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is inviting Lee County residents to share their thoughts about the area’s health care needs for children.


Bryan Burke, M.D., of UAMS’ Department of Pediatrics and the ANGELS program, will lead the public forums at the Lee County Health Unit in Marianna at 6 p.m. April 6 and noon April 7. Light meals will be served at each meeting, and small gifts of appreciation will be given to residents who attend.


ANGELS is the Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Education and Learning System, a cooperative program between UAMS, the state Department of Health and Human Services and the Arkansas Medical Society to improve prenatal care for high-risk pregnancies.


Conducted in collaboration with ANGELS, the health assessment is part of a grant project named Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) in Lee County that’s funded by the American Academy of Pediatrics. After identifying the needs, a report will be distributed detailing the results of the assessment. 


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 about 2,320 students and 690 medical residents. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with almost 9,000 employees, including nearly 1,000 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the VA Medical Center. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $4.3 billion a year.