Stroke Program

August 12, 2022

Piggott Man Remembers “Everything” About Stroke, Including Caregivers’ Kindness

Benjamin Waldrum

Tate and Cale

Freddie Tate, 85, of Piggott, worked around helicopters during his time in the U.S. Air Force, but it wasn’t until March 5, 2021, when he suffered a stroke, that he rode in one for the first time. “I spent four years in the Air Force and we had all kinds of helicopters, but I’d never…

June 3, 2022

Survivor Throws Strike Against Stroke, Says Family History “Number-One Thing”

Benjamin Waldrum

Ray Robinson III first pitch

Ray Robinson III normally doesn’t hesitate. When he stepped up to the mound at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock on May 19 for UAMS Strike Out Stroke night, Robinson immediately went into a pitcher’s windup and fired a ceremonial first-pitch strike across the plate as the crowd cheered. But in the early morning of…

May 21, 2021

Monticello Man Grateful for More Family Time after Stroke Recovery

Katrina Dupins

Bill Whiting, Monticello

Bill Whiting, 67, of Monticello doesn’t remember a lot about what happened to him on Aug. 9, 2020. But he does know he called his wife. “He was mumbling,” Mary Whiting said. “I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I told him I’m on my way home.” She arrived within 10 minutes to find their…

March 9, 2021

UAMS-Led Digital Health Stroke Program Helps Improve Arkansas’ Stroke Deaths Ranking

Ben Boulden

Freda Dodd of Marmaduke is one of thousands of stroke survivors treated through the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation's Stroke Program.

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas recently fell from seventh place to 13th place in the nation in the number of stroke deaths per capita, an achievement health officials credit in part to a statewide digital health program of stroke education and treatment led by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). In 2011, Arkansas was…

August 28, 2020

Trauma, Stroke Networks Unite to Teach COVID-19 Best Practices, Share Information

Ben Boulden

Jeff Halbert, director of UAMS Respiratory Care, discusses the use the high-flow nasal cannula on an All Sites Call.

As the COVID-19 global pandemic threatened Arkansas in March, many physicians and nurses in rural hospitals across the state had more questions than answers about the new disease. UAMS went to work to answer them. The service is dubbed COVID-19 ED2ED All Sites Calls. More than 1,100 of the state’s health care professionals have taken…

August 11, 2020

Timely Treatment Saves 27-Year-Old from Stroke

Ben Boulden

John Jansky, 27, credits the quick responses of the UAMS IDHI Stroke Program and Vital Link EMS of Izard County for his quick recovery from a stroke.

John Jansky was an unlikely candidate for a stroke. He does not smoke, have high blood pressure or any other contributing medical conditions. Jansky was also an unlikely stroke survivor because he lives in rural Pineville, Ark. – several miles from the nearest hospital. One Monday evening in December, Janksy got up from dinner with…

October 9, 2019

Digital Health Stroke Program Reaches Patient Care Milestone

Ben Boulden

More than 300 health care professionals gather to listen to presentations at the UAMS Institute for Digital Health's 2019 Stroke Program Conference.

Applause greeted Renee Joiner when she announced a long sought after achievement for Arkansas’ digital health stroke network — getting more than 50% of stroke patients from hospital arrival to treatment in 60 minutes or less. Along with many other speakers, Joiner, director of the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation Stroke Program, addressed…

May 3, 2019

FCC Commissioner Impressed by UAMS Digital Health Initiatives

Ben Boulden

May 3, 2019 | UAMS’ pioneering work in bringing health care to those who need it through digital health applications has drawn the attention of a top federal official who traveled from Washington D.C. to UAMS recently to see for herself. Jessica Rosenworcel, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, visited April 29 with UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA; guests of the university; and leaders of UAMS’ new Institute for Digital Health & Innovation, including institute director Curtis Lowery, M.D. “We are 46th out of 50 states in health outcomes,” Patterson said. “UAMS needs to change that for the better, and we won’t do it just by staying in Pulaski County.” Telemedicine allows health professionals to diagnose and treat patients not physically present by using telecommunications technology, such as live video. It allows UAMS to extend its presence beyond its main campus and regional campuses. The creation of the institute, under the leadership of Patterson and Lowery, was announced in February and builds upon several telemedicine programs already in place, including ANGELS for high-risk pregnancy, AR SAVES for stroke, STAR for rural School-Based Health Centers and more. The institute connects the majority of hospitals and clinics across the state with telemedicine through interactive video and other digital services. Lowery gave a brief presentation to Rosenworcel about the history of digital health and telemedicine at UAMS. Lowery, Tina Benton, B.S.N., and a small team of clinicians and staff in 2003 founded ANGELS to bring maternal-fetal medicine to women with high-risk pregnancies who did not live near such a specialist. ANGELS (the Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Education and Learning System) is an innovative consultative service for a wide range of physicians including family practitioners, obstetricians, neonatologists and pediatricians in Arkansas. An ANGELS obstetrician can talk to a pregnant mother via a live video connection and watch an ultrasound image of her baby from a local hospital so she can avoid traveling to Little Rock hours away. Lowery said the institute is doing a pilot study to see if ANGELS’ live video consultations can help during an emergency labor-and-delivery. “That’s the only way you’re going to do anything about it,” Lowery said. “By the time you transfer a mother from that smaller hospital, we might lose her because of excessive bleeding. I think in the next year we’re going to explore the idea of delivering blood by using drones. It could make a real difference when a hospital doesn’t have the blood for a massive loss.” Rosenworcel said she was intrigued by the idea of using drones to facilitate the transportation of blood and transplant organs. During her visit, she observed a live ANGELS consultation with a pregnant mother in another Arkansas town and toured the 24-hour call center that routes calls for ANGELS and other telemedicine programs like Arkansas Stroke Assistance through Virtual Emergency Support (AR SAVES). Renee Joiner, B.S.N., AR SAVES director, briefed Rosenworcel about the stroke telemedicine program. UAMS started AR SAVES in 2008 to provide telemedicine consultations with stroke neurologists at any time via live video. Through this service, almost 2,000 patients have received a clot-busting drug that often restores complete function to the patient. Arkansas recently fell to seventh in the nation in the number of stroke deaths per capita after many years in first place, a huge improvement credited in part to the efforts of AR SAVES. “I went down to Crossett on Friday and met a 27-year-old gentleman who had a stroke and went to the Ashley County Medical Center,” Patterson said. “He was treated through AR SAVES. Without this, he probably would have been a paraplegic and unable to work.” Rosenworcel learned about the trauma telemedicine program and the School Telemedicine in Arkansas (STAR) program, the first-ever effort to bring telemedicine care to Arkansas’ rural School-Based Health Centers. STAR two years ago rolled out the Healthy Now initiative for obesity reduction and prevention. Graduate students from the University of Central Arkansas and a UAMS nutritionist engage the students in one-on-one telemedicine encounters. “We piloted the program in the Magazine School District,” said Alan Faulkner, a program manager for the institute. “With two groups of participating students, 51% in one group reduced their weight, and 66% in another group reduced their weight.” Rosenworcel said she found those numbers to be very impressive. She was also given an overview of the Arkansas e-Link network by network director Roy Kitchen. The network was created from a $102 million grant awarded in August 2010 to UAMS and partner institutions through the federal Broadband Technology Opportunities Program Comprehensive Community Infrastructure grant. Led by UAMS, e-Link uses high-speed data transmission lines to connect about 400 community institutions for videoconferencing between medical professionals, patients and doctors and others along with the real-time exchange of patient data and readings. “Your approach has been great,” Rosenworcel said. “Instead of building a network and then finding problems to solve with it, you identified many real problems in public health and specific ways a digital health network can be used to solve them.” Rosenworcel especially enjoyed being able to meet an ANGELS patient via live video and observe the patient’s telemedicine consultation. “We are becoming one of the most connected states in the nation, and we believe with that we can use digital health to improve the health and quality of life of Arkansans,” Lowery said.

UAMS’ pioneering work in bringing health care to those who need it through digital health applications has drawn the attention of a top federal official who traveled from Washington D.C. to UAMS recently to see for herself. Jessica Rosenworcel, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, visited April 29 with UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D.,…

March 7, 2019

UAMS-Led Stroke Program Helps Lower Arkansas to Seventh in Stroke Deaths among All States

Ben Boulden

Renee Joiner, AR SAVES director, right, Sanjeeva Reddy Onteddu, M.D., AR SAVES medical director, and Ken Kelly, CEO of ProMed ambulance company in El Dorado, stand in October in front of Medical Center of South Arkansas, an AR SAVES network site.

Arkansas recently fell from sixth to seventh place in the nation in the number of stroke deaths per capita, a huge improvement that health officials credit in part to a statewide telemedicine program of stroke education and treatment led by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Only four years ago, Arkansas still was…

February 21, 2019

UAMS Establishes Institute for Digital Health & Innovation; Curtis Lowery, M.D., Named Director

Ben Boulden

Curtis Lowery, M.D., will lead the new UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has established the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation, and named Curtis Lowery, M.D., as its director.


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