UAMS Celebrates Physical Therapy Students, Power of Therapy
| June 11, 2015 | UAMS welcomed the first 24 students to the Doctor of Physical Therapy program on its northwest Arkansas campus during a June 9 event that also reunited
(From left) Angel Holland, M.P.T., director of physical therapy clinical education, Lewis Epley, retired therapist Corrine Larson, and John Jefferson, Ph.D., chair of the UAMS Department of Physical Therapy, visit in the new rehabilitation clinic
a longtime program supporter with the therapist who helped him overcome polio-induced paralysis as a teenager.
Students in the program, based on the Fayetteville campus, will begin classes in the three-year doctoral degree program in August.
Underscoring the difference a physical therapist can make in a patient’s life, the event reunited Lewis Epley, Jr. and therapist Corrine Wulkan Larson of Florida. Epley is a founding UAMS Northwest Campus Advisory Board member and longtime advocate for creation of the UAMS physical therapy program.
“Reuniting Mr. Epley with the physical therapist who had such a healing and formative impact on him makes a powerful statement about what we hope to achieve in our physical therapy program,” said UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D. “We intend to graduate physical therapists with advanced technical skills as well as the ability to deliver patient- and family-centered care that will create the same kinds of positive and lasting outcomes.”
Epley, who had not seen Larson in more than 60 years, credited her for helping him find the determination and discipline to revive an arm paralyzed by polio. In 1953, the polio-stricken, 17-year old Epley was sent to the Children’s Convalescent Center in Jacksonville for treatment where she worked with him.
“Discovering that I had this strength and discipline at a young age was a defining moment in my life,” said Epley, a retired attorney and former chairman of the University of
(From left) Peter Kohler, M.D., vice chancellor for UAMS’ Northwest Arkansas Campus, Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D., John Jefferson, Ph.D., Corrine Larson and Lewis Epley
Arkansas Board of Trustees. “It made me the person I am today.”
Epley has served on a number of education, banking, business, nonprofit and corporate boards, including a 10-year term on the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees. Lewis also serves on the UAMS Foundation Fund Board.
Epley said he had tried several times over the years to find the therapist who had helped him but was unsuccessful.
It was during Larson’s first year as a physical therapist at the University of Minnesota Hospital that she accepted a temporary assignment from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, an organization that became the March of Dimes, to help set up a polio treatment program in Jacksonville. After her time in Arkansas, she joined the staff of the Minneapolis Curative Workshop where she started a home health program and began working with the staff of the Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute, a program dedicated to treatment methods the renowned Elizabeth Kenny used for polio, such as heat packs and careful exercise.
In 1966, Larson earned a master’s degree in public health and helped spawn Interstudy, a public policy institute within the American Rehabilitation Foundation. In 1973, she joined the Minnesota Department of Health and directed its Health Manpower Division until retirement in 1983.
“Corrine Wulkan Larson’s journey as a physical therapist — advancing the science and effectiveness of rehabilitation medicine — is truly inspiring,” said John R. Jefferson,
(From left) Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D., Fran Hagstrom, Ph.D., assistant dean for health professions at the University of Arkansas, and Peter Kohler, M.D.
Ph.D., chair of the Department of Physical Therapy in the College of Health Professions. “We are eager for our new students to begin charting their own paths this fall while increasing access to therapy and rehabilitative care in Arkansas.”
The physical therapy program, a part of the UAMS College of Health Professions, is the first UAMS program housed solely on the Fayetteville campus. Its academic facilities include classrooms and five teaching labs, led by the Schmieding Neurological Skills Lab, which will be used to teach evaluation and treatment of those with neurological disorders including developmental disorders, spinal cord injuries, stroke and conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Other teaching labs will focus on orthopedic and cardiovascular conditions and disorders that require physical therapy.
Program resources also include the Northwest Outpatient Therapy Clinic that opened on the UAMS Northwest campus in late 2014. In the 2,735-square-foot clinic, the staff of experienced therapists provides comprehensive physical, occupational and speech rehabilitation services, using top-of-line therapeutic devices.
Physical therapy students will gain hands-on therapy experience working with clinic patients under supervision of faculty and clinic staff.