Marcia M. Smith Gives UAMS $250,000 to Create Fund for Excellence in Interventional Radiology
| LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) received a $250,000 gift from Marcia M. Smith to create the Phillip Lance Smith, M.D., Fund for Excellence in Interventional Radiology for the benefit of the UAMS Department of Radiology in the College of Medicine.
The gift was made in recognition of Smith’s late husband, Phillip Lance Smith, M.D., who graduated from the College of Medicine in 1966, and served on the UAMS faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Radiology. He also served as director of cardiovascular radiology at the Veterans Administration Hospital and Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
“I want to express my gratitude to Marcia Smith, as well as to her children, for honoring her late husband by supporting interventional radiology at UAMS, an area of medicine that Dr. Phillip Smith contributed so much to,” said C. Lowry Barnes, M.D., UAMS interim chancellor and professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation. “Dr. Smith was a trailblazer of interventional radiology in Arkansas and was instrumental in pioneering the field at UAMS. His legacy will live on through this fund that will benefit UAMS and our state for years to come.”
It is the hope of Marcia Smith and her children that the fund will be used to memorialize Phillip Smith’s legacy by supporting the recruitment, training and retention of interventional radiology technicians in the Department of Radiology’s Division of Interventional Radiology.
“I was very pleased to hear of Marcia Smith’s support for the Department of Radiology and College of Medicine,” said Steven Webber, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine and UAMS executive vice chancellor. “It is especially gratifying to know that Dr. Phillip Smith was an alumnus and faculty member in our college. This fund will build on what Dr. Smith has forged in the field of interventional radiology in Arkansas.”
After graduating from the College of Medicine, Smith completed his internship in medicine in 1967 and his residency in radiology at UAMS in 1970. In 1971, he was named a diplomate of the American Board of Radiology. Smith also served in the U.S. Air Force as chief of radiology services at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, Arkansas, and left military service at the rank of major. During his tenure at UAMS, he helped propel the emerging field of interventional radiology. In company with cardiologist James Whittle, M.D., Smith performed Little Rock’s first dilation of a coronary artery using a balloon-tipped catheter.
Phillip Lance Smith, M.D.
Smith is remembered for his special gifts in teaching and mentoring, giving his time generously and treating his patients, students and technicians with care and respect. He left UAMS as an associate professor in 1982 to join Hot Springs Radiology Services. He was named a fellow of the American College of Radiology in 1983. Smith served as chief of staff at St. Joseph’s Regional Health Center in 1989 and served as president of the Arkansas Radiological Society. He retired from the practice of medicine in 2011. He passed away Nov. 13, 2023.
“My husband is thankful for the medical education that he received from the College of Medicine and the Department of Radiology, believing that UAMS equipped him with the training and support to have a major impact on medicine in Arkansas,” said Marcia Smith. “We are hopeful that this endowment will offer support for medical professionals in the field that he loved for generations to come.”
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 3,553 students and 902 medical residents and fellows. It is the state’s largest public employer with about 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.###