New UAMS NWA vice-chancellor Ryan Cork eyeing next 10 years for the region

Earlier this month, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) announced that Ryan Cork would take the helm as vice-chancellor of the medical school’s Northwest Arkansas campus on Sept. 1.

Cork, who has served as executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Council’s healthcare transformation division since 2021, highlighted his accomplishments in his recent role and outlined his expectations for the new UAMS role in a recent Talk Business & Politics interview.

Cork said when he started in 2019, the region of Northwest Arkansas was facing a critical shortage of medical school residency slots.

“We started in 2019, a published report highlighted the need for expanded specialty care, graduate medical education and a medical school. And those were our to-dos, if you will,” he said. “Washington Regional, UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Northwest, Mercy, Heartland Whole Health Institute all came together to… expand graduate medical education.”

“We’ve successfully lobbied and funded around 74 new medical residency slots in Northwest Arkansas,” he added.

But more will be needed as well as an expansion of services and specialty medical personnel. Cork said it will take a collective effort from all of the hospitals, clinics and medical education facilities in the region to meet the coming needs.

“I do not believe one institution will solve these challenges. It’ll be us collectively all together. I think UAMS will be a leader in that space with our other partners and, and Heartland Whole Health Institute as well. But that is where I see my greatest strength: in helping us pave and execute on the path forward to support our local Arkansans,” Cork said.

He believes that the investments being made now to grow a regional healthcare workforce and expand healthcare venues will be necessary to accommodate the fast-growing population in Northwest Arkansas.

“By probably the 10-year mark, maybe 10-plus, I think will be a good high-water mark for Northwest Arkansas. In terms of our population, we sit roughly at 500,000 residents now with an anticipated growth of a million. It’ll continue to be embedded at at UAMS to ensure that our workforce is adequate from doctors that you could see, from research that we’re doing, from educational opportunities that we have to be able to accommodate a million residents. Because if we do not do that work now, fast forward 10 to 15 years, we will be underwater in regards that we can’t catch up that fast,” he said.

You can watch Cork’s full interview in the video below.