UAMS’ Kohler Receives Leadership Award in Oregon

By todd

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LITTLE ROCK – Peter O. Kohler, M.D., the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) vice chancellor for the Northwest Arkansas region, was recently honored with a Lifetime Leadership Award for his work while president of the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).


 


The Oregon Health Forum presented the award to Kohler during its Dec. 5 awards dinner. Kohler, who retired from OHSU in 2006 after serving 18 years as president, joined UAMS in April 2007 to lead the effort to establish a satellite campus in northwest Arkansas. His career includes nine years, from 1977-1986, when he served as chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at UAMS. He served as interim dean for the UAMS College of Medicine in 1985-1986.


 


“Dr. Kohler’s legacy of leadership at OSHU cannot go unnoticed,” said the Oregon Health Forum in announcing the award. “His tenure as president helped catapult the institution to a free-standing corporation and expanded its research funding nearly seven-fold to $274 million a year. He also has been a longtime proponent of Area Health Education Centers, which seek to improve health care in underserved, particularly rural areas.”


 


For ten years, Oregon Health Forum has recognized outstanding leaders in health care and health policy who have shown a commitment to improving the health care of Oregonians.


 


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 2,538 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 9,600 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.