UAMS College of Medicine Appoints O’Donnell to Lead Urology

By todd

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LITTLE ROCK – Pat O’Donnell, M.D., a native Arkansan and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) graduate, has been appointed chairman of the Department of Urology in the UAMS College of Medicine.


 


O’Donnell is a 1972 graduate of UAMS and former chief of urology at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital at UAMS.


 


“It’s a wonderful homecoming and I’m privileged to return to the place that launched my career,” O’Donnell said. “I look forward to the challenge of continuing the tradition of clinical and academic excellence in the Department of Urology at UAMS.”


 


O’Donnell is a specialist in female incontinence and is the editor of two books and has had several articles and book chapters published on incontinence in women, voiding dysfunction in people of all ages and other research topics. He has led numerous National Institute on Aging (NIA) and VA Merit Review research efforts, and has served as a member of study sections for the NIA, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive Diseases and Kidney Diseases, and the VA Research and Development Program.


 


O’Donnell, a Benton County native, completed his internship and residencies in general surgery and urology at UAMS and a fellowship in female urology and urodynamics at the University of California Los Angeles Center for Health Sciences. After returning to Arkansas to lead urology at the VA, he became a UAMS associate professor and director of the Arkansas Center for Incontinence in 1984. He was promoted to professor and director of urological research in the Department of Urology at UAMS in 1989.


 


O’Donnell was appointed professor of surgery and director of the Cincinnati Continence Center, Cincinnati Potency Center and the Cincinnati Geriatric Urology Center at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in 1992. He’s also served as chief of surgery at the VA Medical Center in Fayetteville and director of the Eastern Oklahoma Continence Center in Tulsa, Okla. Most recently, O’Donnell was a professor of urology at Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine and director of the SIU Incontinence Center.


 


O’Donnell replaces Nabil K. Bissada, M.D., who was serving as interim chairman of the Department of Urology.


 


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 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 1,150 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. Visit www.uams.edu.