UAMS Receives $75,000 Grant for Statewide Family Medicine Residency Learning Network
| A $75,000 grant from the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation will help the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) to develop an educational collaborative aimed at improving and unifying family medicine residency programs across Arkansas.
The three-year seed grant will help create the Arkansas Family Medicine Residency Network Educational Collaborative, a new initiative designed to strengthen connections between UAMS Family Medicine residency programs and standardize training and practices across the state.
The collaborative will include 11 UAMS-affiliated residency programs located in Little Rock, North Little Rock (joint program with Baptist Health), Batesville, Berryville/Eureka Springs, Crossett, El Dorado, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff and Texarkana.
“This is a huge opportunity,” said Shashank Kraleti, M.D., chair of the UAMS Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and director of primary care and population health clinical services. “For a long time, many of these programs functioned independently. Our goal is to improve communications across the board and standardize the processes, workflows and protocols across all of these different family medicine residency programs. Also, this will help create a network where if a program director needs support or help, they can reach out to someone else in the group for assistance.”
The initiative will focus on four main goals:
- Transforming the 11 UAMS Family Medicine residency programs into a cohesive, collaborative group.
- Designing a robust, shared training framework for all participants.
- Supporting practice transformation through educational collaboration.
- Building partnerships that produce measurable improvements in residency education and community health.
The grant will help fund a dedicated program manager and biannual meetings of residency program directors, with additional sessions including medical education and clinic leadership. Early accomplishments include standardized policies on continuing medical education, resident support and disciplinary processes, as well as consistent goals and objectives across the state.
“We’ve already made strong progress,” Kraleti said. “We’re addressing major priorities like the efficiency of electronic health records and appropriate evaluations for residents and faculty. The grant is going to accelerate all of that work.”