Oct. 23, 2009 | University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D., highlighted “tremendous” growth in most all areas during the final State of the Campus report before his Oct. 31 retirement.

Preparing to step down following nine years as the institution’s top executive officer, Wilson reported Oct. 22 that UAMS is educating more students, caring for more patients, receiving more funding for research and reaching further across the state with its programs than ever before.

“I’ve always thought of UAMS as a real team and I liked how someone once defined it as ‘Together-Everyone-Achieves-Mission’,” Wilson said as he went on to tout successes in the UAMS education, patient care, research and outreach missions.

Among the highlights:

• 50 percent growth in student enrollment across the five UAMS colleges and graduate school between 2000-2009
• The first students arriving this year at the new UAMS-Northwest campus in Fayetteville
• Patient volume, as measured by annual inpatient discharges, on track to surpass 20,000 for the first time
• UAMS attracting patients from all over Arkansas, across the nation and from more than 50 foreign countries
• “Spectacular” growth in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding support for UAMS, from $3.2 million in 1985 to more than $54 million in 2009
• The largest ever research grant received – a five-year, nearly $20 million NIH grant in 2009 for quickly translating scientific discoveries into new medical treatments in the new Center for Clinical and Translational Research
• A growing network of Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) and Arkansas Aging Initiative Centers across the state
• Increasing use of telemedicine for outreach to rural areas through the ANGELS program

The growth in facilities, both on the main campus in Little Rock and around the state, during Wilson’s time as chancellor has been unprecedented in the institution’s 130-year history. From 2000-2009, more than $460 million in construction was completed, including the 540,000-square-foot hospital that opened in 2009 to replace an outdated 1950s-era facility.

Construction of a 12-floor, 300,000-square-foot expansion to the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute is slated to open its first phase in 2010 while plans are under way for a four-floor, 55,000-square-foot expansion to the Reynolds Institute on Aging.

Wilson expressed confidence at the future of UAMS.

“There are a lot of opportunities ahead to keep making a difference,” he said. “Whether it’s in clinical, education, research areas or service to the state, there are just so many opportunities and the whole goal is to just keep on going.”

As Wilson was wrapping up his remarks, Richard Wheeler, M.D., UAMS College of Medicine executive associate dean, approached him onstage much as he did in 2006, interrupting the State of the Campus. In 2006 it was to kick off a celebration marking Wilson’s 20 years at UAMS dating back to his arrival as College of Medicine dean in 1986. This time he started a parade of colleagues who came up to praise Wilson upon his retirement.

Kent Westbrook, M.D., distinguished professor of surgery in the College of Medicine, noted he’d been on campus since 1961 and seen many changes. He quipped that “I didn’t expect much” when Wilson was named chancellor other than a few years of success before leaving for another job.

“But you have been fantastic,” Westbrook said. “I appreciate all that you’ve accomplished and it is a great thrill to see what we’ve you’ve permitted us to become.”

Before thanking Wilson on behalf of everyone at UAMS, Wheeler had another gift. Saying he wanted to get something for Wilson to do in his retirement, he presented him with some yarn and crochet hooks and the start of “what could be a scarf by Christmas.”

The event culminated with a short video spoof turning the popular children’s character “Bob the Builder” into “Dodd the Builder” as a montage of campus construction photos were shown.

Wilson will be succeeded Nov. 1 by Dan Rahn, M.D., who will become UAMS’ fourth chancellor.