UAMS Receives $1.3 Million From Blue Cross Blue Shield Groups
by February 9, 2015 12:09 pm 206 views
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ (UAMS) will receive grants totaling $1.3 million from Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and its Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas.
The grants will endow a chair in primary care and expand dental and interprofessional education programs at UAMS.
A $1 million grant from Arkansas Blue Cross will establish The Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, George K. Mitchell, M.D., Endowed Chair in Primary Care that honors Mitchell — a UAMS graduate, Arkansas Blue Cross board member and retired president.
The chair holder, when appointed, will focus on innovations in primary care.
The Blue & You Foundation has awarded $150,000 grants each to the UAMS Center for Dental Education and to the UAMS Office of Interprofessional Education to expand interprofessional education and collaborative practice for students at UAMS.
“UAMS is fortunate to have the strong and continued support of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the Blue & You Foundation for programs that will improve health and health care in Arkansas,” said UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D. “Endowment of this chair significantly advances the ability of UAMS to focus on primary care education across the institution for the benefit of all Arkansans.
“At the same time, the Blue & You Foundation grants further strengthen our growing oral health care program and move us closer to giving all UAMS students more opportunities for learning side by side,” Rahn added.
“Arkansas Blue Cross is pleased to honor the work and legacy of our friend and colleague, Dr. George Mitchell, by endowing this chair at UAMS where he received his medical degree,” said Mark White, president and chief executive officer of Arkansas Blue Cross. “We believe this chair is an investment — not only in the good partnership between Arkansas Blue Cross and UAMS to provide quality health care for Arkansans — but also to ensure that the future of excellent primary health care is secure for all of Arkansas.”
Mitchell, who graduated with honors from the UAMS College of Medicine in 1956, was president and CEO of Arkansas Blue Cross from 1975 until his 1993 retirement. He was a co-founder and senior partner of the Little Rock Diagnostic Clinic prior to joining Arkansas Blue Cross as medical director in 1968. He served on the Arkansas Blue Cross board from 1964 to 1968 and from 1986 to the present in addition to being a current Blue & You Foundation board member.
“The Blue & You Foundation is pleased to continue its support of programs at UAMS that will have a direct impact on making Arkansas communities healthier,” said Patrick O’Sullivan, executive director of the Blue & You Foundation.