Thaxton to Direct UAMS Division of Nuclear Medicine Imaging Sciences
| LITTLE ROCK – Paul Thaxton has been named director for the Division of Nuclear Medicine Imaging Sciences in the College of Health Related Professions at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
Thaxton, who has been an instructor in the UAMS program since 1994, is a certified nuclear medicine technologist. He will succeed Martha Pickett, who served as interim director for the division, which is in the Department of Radiologic Technology of the UAMS College of Health Related Professions. Pickett will remain on the faculty as an assistant professor.
Thaxton, a 1989 graduate of the nuclear medicine program at UAMS, is a member of the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists – Nuclear Medicine and the Society of Nuclear Medicine Technologist Section. In 2004, he was appointed by Gov. Mike Huckabee to serve on the Arkansas Medical Ionizing Radiation Licensure Board.
Nuclear medicine involves the use of radioactive tracers in studying a wide variety of normal and abnormal body functions and in treating certain diseases.
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 about 2,430 students and 715 medical residents. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 9,400 employees, including nearly 1,000 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. For more information, visit www.uams.edu.