June 04, 2010 03:13am EST 

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences was founded in 1879 by eight physicians. More than 130 years later, UAMS stands as Arkansas’ only academic health center as part of a statewide network of post-secondary education institutions. Hosting 2,775 students, 748 residents, and 1,150 faculty members, and a new 540,000-square-foot hospital, UAMS stands as one of the leading medical authorities in all of the state.
UAMS celebrated the opening of its new 10-level hospital on January 16, 2009. The building replaced most of the patient care services in the original 52-year-old UAMS Medical Center building. Costing nearly $200 million, the new building boasts state-of-the-art medical technology, larger all-private rooms and private rooms for infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. The new building, combined with an existing patient tower, gives UAMS Medical Center 333 adult beds and 64 newborn bassinets. The adjacent Psychiatric Research Institute, which opened a month before the hospital, adds 40 more beds for a total of 437 beds.
The new hospital houses the Emergency Department (with 31 private exam rooms and 3 trauma rooms), a clinical laboratory and the Radiology Department. Additionally, the facility provides more capacity for surgery, cardiology, and interventional radiology. Included in the new features and improvements in the facility are:
* Dedicated imaging services located in the Emergency Department, including an X-ray room and computed tomography (CT) unit.
* A rooftop helipad with a special elevator connecting directly to the Emergency Department, surgical floor and the labor and delivery unit.
* New operating rooms adjacent to existing surgical facilities, bringing the full capacity to 19 operating rooms.
* A new communications system that connects the operating rooms to pathology and other units on campus to allow sharing of images, voice and data for consultations during surgery.
* A NICU with private baby rooms with special lighting, noise and temperature controls to meet each infant’s special needs. Each patient room includes family space, allowing parents to stay with their child.
* Larger, private adult patient rooms featuring a sleeper sofa for family members, a 26-inch flat screen TV with pillow speakers and a private bath.
* Wireless Internet access throughout.
* A large lobby with a two-story ceiling that creates a welcoming atmosphere featuring pillars of Arkansas limestone, terrazzo floors and a Steinway grand piano.
Also in 2009 UAMS is celebrating 20 years of progress in its Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy. The institute was established in 1989 at UAMS and has brought hope to patients with multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells. In multiple myeloma, plasma cells (white blood cells that form in the bone marrow and produce disease- and infection-fighting antibodies) multiply abnormally and affect normal production of red and other white blood cells. The abnormal plasma cells, known as myeloma cells, prevent the normal production of antibodies, weakening the body’s immune system.
For the past 20 years, the institute has treated more than 9,000 patients that have come from every state and 50 countries. Included in their milestone achievements:
* Five-year survival rates at the Myeloma Institute are greater than 65 percent. The median survival for Myeloma Institute patients is 8.5 years.
* More than 8,000 blood stem cell transplants for treatment of multiple myeloma – a procedure pioneered at the Myeloma Institute and credited with leading to higher survival and remission rates
* Twenty-one percent of the 231 patients enrolled in UAMS’ initial multiple myeloma clinical trial known as Total Therapy 1 are still alive beyond 10 years, with some alive at 19 years
* Of almost 480 patients enrolled in a subsequent Total Therapy clinical trial initiated in 2003, 78 percent are alive
* Myeloma Institute researchers have identified different genetic types of the disease and have studied its cellular triggers to find out why some treatments work better than others for certain patients
* The Myeloma Institute recently achieved accreditation for its stem cell procedures (collection and transplantation) by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT), the national group that monitors cellular therapy
* The National Cancer Institute recently awarded a five-year, $19.5 million grant renewal to Barlogie and the Myeloma Institute to continue its research, marking the fourth, five-year renewal of continuous funding from the NCI.
The institute was also the first to use tandem bone marrow/peripheral blood stem cell transplants, perform transplants on an outpatient basis, safely transplant patients age 70 and above, and introduce thalidomide as anti-angiogenesis therapy. The institute treats more multiple myeloma patients annually than any other facility in the country.