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The generous gift from Mark and Patricia Harriman will primarily support The Orthopaedic and Spine Hospital, with the remainder helping support orthopaedic research.
Image by Courtesy Mark Harriman
Alumnus Gives $1 Million to Support Orthopaedics at UAMS
| The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has received a $1 million gift from Mark S. Harriman, M.D., to support the new Orthopaedic and Spine Hospital and the UAMS Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
The gift is primarily in support of The Orthopaedic and Spine Hospital and will be honored with the naming of a walking garden on the third floor for Mark and Patricia Harriman. UAMS broke ground on the $85 million hospital in April, which is expected to be completed in spring of 2023. Thirty percent of the gift will support orthopaedic research.
“The incredible generosity shown by the Harrimans will really make a difference for the patients and families at The Orthopaedic and Spine Hospital,” said C. Lowry Barnes, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. “The walking gardens will add a special touch, and we know that orthopaedic healing includes much more than just what occurs in the operating room. Dr. Harriman, as a retired orthopaedic surgeon, understands this very well. What we are doing in Orthopaedics at UAMS is dependent upon philanthropy such as this generous gift by the Harrimans.”
Harriman, an orthopaedic surgeon from Germantown, Tennessee, recently retired after a 41-year career. He made the gift in appreciation of his time as a student in the UAMS College of Medicine and to help advance orthopaedic medicine in Arkansas.
“I believe very strongly in a rigorous and comprehensive medical education, and I feel that those criteria were met for me at UAMS,” Harriman said. “When I arrived at Naval Medical Center San Diego after medical school graduation, I was very well prepared both academically and clinically for my surgical internship. Our gift to UAMS is given to honor the institution that trained me for that internship and a subsequent orthopaedic surgery residency. In keeping with my specialty, it is an honor to devote 70% of our gift to The Orthopaedic and Spine Hospital and the remainder to orthopaedic research.”
Harriman is a 1979 alumnus of the UAMS College of Medicine as well as a member of the Founders Society, the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, College of Medicine Dean’s Society and the Caduceus Club. After graduating from UAMS, he entered the U.S. Navy and completed his residency at Naval Medical Center San Diego. He met his wife there while she was a Navy nurse.
Once constructed, The Orthopaedic and Spine Hospital at UAMS will have four floors with more than 158,000 feet of space. It will be an extension of UAMS Medical Center and include 12 operating rooms for orthopaedics and spine surgery, private suites for patients, a pain management center, clinics for orthopaedics and physical medicine and rehabilitation, as well as space for resident education and faculty and administrative offices.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,275 students, 890 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###