UAMS RECEIVES $25.5 MILLION GRANT FOR DEPARTMENT OF GERIATRICS AND GERIATRICS CENTER BUILDING
Contact: Bonnie Brandsgaard, 501-686-8013
Embargo: For release Feb. 04, 1997, 11:00 a.m., CTZ
LITTLE ROCK, Ar -- Thanks to a $25.5 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will establish the new Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics and construct the Donald W. Reynolds Geriatrics Center.
Fred W. Smith, Chairman of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, explained that $10.5 million will be used to establish the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics in the College of Medicine and $15 million will build and equip the Donald W. Reynolds Geriatrics Center. He said, "As the second geriatrics department established in the United States, the new Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics is being funded over a five-year period through the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation's initiative on aging and quality of life program."
"This is the largest grant from a single-funding source ever given to a public institution of higher education in Arkansas," said UAMS Chancellor Harry P. Ward, M.D. "Arkansas has both the people and the programs to support the new Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics. One of the supporters is Senator David Pryor whose national leadership in health policy has brought public attention and concern to older Americans' needs. Statewide, our many physicians and health care professionals working in the six Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) will benefit from and contribute to the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics."
Ward added, "In the past decade, UAMS has increasingly emphasized the area of aging. Through our affiliation with the John L. McClellan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, UAMS established one of the first Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC) in the nation with funds provided by the Veterans Administration. Our emphasis on the study of aging is also a major educational concern of the UAMS colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy, and Health Related Professions."
The new chairman of the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics--David A. Lipschitz, M.D., Ph.D--said, "With this generous grant, we will train geriatricians to meet the overall physical and emotional health needs of older people. We will promote functional independence among the elderly, and we will show caregivers--many of them daughters and sons of aging parents--how to cope. Our health services research will help identify and solve quality-of-life problems for the elderly who are projected to reach 20 percent of the US population by 2020. In addition, we will address national health issues related to serving the 'baby boom' generation in the 21st century."
Mrs. Jo Ellen Ford, member of the UAMS Foundation Board and chairman of the Center on Aging Community Advisory Committee Board, said that UAMS now has the opportunity to better determine how best to care for older citizens. She said, "Just as children are not merely small adults, we developed our current specialized Department of Pediatrics that is appreciated by all Arkansans. With the same commitment, UAMS will show that older adults have catastrophic diseases with complicated medical problems, which require different approaches to treatment. The new Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics will bring together health care professionals in one place where complex equipment can be acquired and specialized skills can be pooled and developed."
During the grant presentation ceremony, I. Dodd Wilson, M.D., Dean of the College of Medicine and UAMS Executive Vice Chancellor, said, "With the high percentage of older persons living in Arkansas, the new Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics fits the profile of our population. We are fortunate to have the support of Robert Butler, M.D., who now is serving as a consultant to the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. Under Butler's direction, the only other geriatrics department in the country was established at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. We look forward to working with Steven L. Anderson, Chairman of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation's Committee on Aging and Quality of Life, as we establish milestones for the next five years ."
The newly adopted mission of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is to present grants to qualified charitable organizations in Arkansas, Nevada and Oklahoma. The Foundation's Capital Grants Program annually reviews organizations that demonstrate sustainable programs, exhibit entrepreneurial spirit, and assist those served to be healthy, self-sufficient and productive members of their communities. The Reynolds Foundation--with offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Las Vegas, Nevada--has assets exceeding $1 billion. According to the Foundation Center's ranking, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is among the nation's 30 largest.
Donald W. Reynolds was the founder and principal owner of Donrey Media Group which, at the time of his death in 1993, included 52 daily newspapers, 10 outdoor advertising companies, five cable television companies and one television station.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences--the state's only comprehensive academic health-sciences campus--provides medical training for an overwhelming majority of the state's health care professionals and is a center for health care research.
The Arkansas AHEC Program operates six training centers in El Dorado, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff and Texarkana with preceptorship programs in 80 other communities throughout Arkansas.
UAMS Medical Center is the patient-care network of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. UAMS Medical Center combines the resources of University Hospital, the Arkansas Cancer Research Center, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Ambulatory Care Center, and several other associated clinics, each of which embraces a wide array of medical expertise.
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