May 17, 2010 | For nearly 35 years, Whit Hall, M.D., has had a significant impact on not only the health of Arkansas’ babies and children, but on the lives of colleagues, medical students, residents and fellows.

In honor of his years of quality service to the medical profession, Hall was recently honored by the Arkansas Medical Society (AMS) with the 2010 Asklepion Award. Hall, a professor of pediatrics and vice chief of the Section of Neonatology and chief of pediatrics service at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), accepted the award at a luncheon during the AMS Annual Session held April 15-17 in Rogers.

“Dr. Hall embodies the values of medicine through leadership, excellence, service and integrity,” said Debra H. Fiser, dean of the UAMS College of Medicine. “He is a true leader in Arkansas medicine who is greatly impacting the health of its citizens and embodies all that the Asklepion Award symbolizes.”

Hall served as director of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at UAMS for 15 years before handing that duty to his longtime associate director last year to focus his efforts on telemedicine regionalization. Better outcomes for premature babies statewide are promoted through linking clinicians with award-winning telemedicine programs like the Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Education and Learning System (ANGELS) and Peds Place. Hall is currently leading UAMS’ efforts to place interactive telemedicine units in outlying nurseries to assist local physicians with low-birth-weight newborns and other medical emergencies.

A significant part of Hall’s legacy at UAMS came in January 2009 with the opening of a new 64-bed NICU in the UAMS Medical Center. His hands-on planning ensured the NICU was designed to enhance family-centered care and minimize harmful stimuli and stressors for premature babies to improve outcomes.

Hall and his wife, Lisa, were named in 2005 by U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder as Congressional Angels in Adoption, having adopted five children and also raising four non-adopted children.

Hall’s service to the community includes his work with the Ronald McDonald House Executive Board, the Executive Board of the March of Dimes and on the UAMS Parents and Friends of Children and Adults Board. He is past president of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Diabetes Association and helped establish the annual Tiny Hands Monster Bash, which raises money for the UAMS Family Home.

The Asklepion Award is presented annually to a physician who promotes the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health, who also embodies the values of the medical profession through leadership, service, excellence, integrity and ethical behavior.