Leading the Way

As the College of Osteopathic Medicine celebrates the 10th anniversary of the opening of its second location on the Jonesboro campus of Arkansas State University, the medical school also highlights recent accomplishments that will benefit patients locally, nationally, and around the world—nearly one-third of the way around the world, to be exact.

Read more about recent honors for the dean and a researcher at NYITCOM-Arkansas, along with a new partnership that will improve healthcare for underserved populations in the state and on the other side of an ocean.

Partnership in Guam Offers Medical Students a Rare Hands-on Experience

More than 7,000 miles from the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University (NYITCOM-Arkansas) sits Guam, a United States island territory in Micronesia, in the western Pacific Ocean. The small island of about 170,000 people does not have any medical schools, nor did it have any connections to medical schools in the continental United States—until now.

In a unique partnership with the University of Guam, Guam Memorial Hospital, and Guam Regional Medical Center, NYITCOM-Arkansas now offers first- and second-year medical training on the Jonesboro campus for students from Guam. As a reciprocal benefit of the partnership, third- and fourth-year NYITCOM-Arkansas students can do their rotations in Guam, where they receive a training experience like no other.

“Hospitals in the U.S. are crawling with medical students and other learners. In that scenario, you get pushed to the back as a third-year medical student,” says Shane Speights, D.O., site dean of NYITCOM-Arkansas. “But in Guam, medical students are treated like residents. They are the only learners there.”

One NYITCOM-Arkansas student has already completed a year of rotations in Guam, with opportunities to deliver babies, do ultrasounds, watch neurosurgeries, and more. “Even residents don’t get those experiences in the U.S.,” Speights says. “When you’re a medical student and get that experience for a year, that’s a huge advantage when applying to residency programs.” Three more NYITCOM-Arkansas students will begin rotations in Guam in August, and several students from Guam are currently studying in Arkansas.

Benefits of the partnership also extend to the broader community, both in Guam and in Arkansas. The state has the highest percentage of Marshallese—people from the Marshall Islands, also in Micronesia—in the United States, and this underserved population is one of the unhealthiest groups in Arkansas, largely because of cultural differences.

“In general, patients prefer to see a physician who can relate to them, who culturally understands them, who looks like them—someone they can have a relationship with,” Speights says. “But there are only two Marshallese physicians in the state.” Speights says that while many of the students from Guam will return to the island to help reduce the physician shortage there, he thinks some will remain in Arkansas to better serve patients with similar cultural backgrounds. Likewise, NYITCOM-Arkansas students returning from Guam will have a unique perspective, allowing them to better understand cultural contexts and provide quality care to Pacific Islander populations in Arkansas.

Site Dean Named to Arkansas State Board of Health

As a testament to Speights’ expertise and leadership at the medical school, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently appointed him to the State Board of Health. As a member of the board, Speights will help guide the practice of medicine and public health policy and initiatives in the state, which in turn will shape the future of NYITCOM-Arkansas, both in academics and in prominence.

As a born-and-raised Arkansan, Speights brings insight into the challenges that people living in rural areas face in accessing healthcare. Often, distance is a barrier, and he hopes to make a difference with his Board of Health seat.

“I was a paramedic before going to medical school, and it was not uncommon to take 20 to 30 minutes to get to the patient from the hospital,” Speights says. “That’s an hour round trip back to the hospital. This is an example where telemedicine can come into play; we can leverage technology in this state to provide more efficient, more cost-effective, and better care.” “This appointment from the governor is further acknowledgement of Shane’s commitment to public health,” says Nicole Wadsworth, D.O., dean of NYITCOM. “It will get the attention of future students and faculty, and it will help strengthen our partnerships in the state.”

Researcher Elected as American Heart Association Fellow

An NYITCOM-Arkansas researcher has also received a prestigious position in medicine: Viswanathan Rajagopalan, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences, has been elected a fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA) in recognition of his significant contributions to the body of research related to cardiovascular disease.

“Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States,” Rajagopalan says. “Many pathological conditions culminate in heart disease, despite advancements like newer drugs and devices. It’s very hard to contain this condition.”

He is currently in his third year of an AHA grant to study cardiovascular dysfunction. He is trying to answer two major questions: Is it possible to test for cardiovascular disease before it develops? And second, if cardiovascular disease has already developed, can we treat it before it’s too late? To investigate these questions, Rajagopalan is focusing on the role of noncoding RNAs, or ribonucleic acids, in cardiovascular, thyroid, and associated disorders.

“In the entire human genome, only 1 to 2 percent of DNA gets translated [coded] into protein; the rest is noncoding, with the majority of it serving as templates to generate RNAs. This genetic expanse is a treasure-trove with significant diagnostic and therapeutic potential,” Rajagopalan says. “In recent years, we are understanding that we can target noncoding RNAs to develop newer treatments for cardiovascular diseases.”

Using laboratory models, stem cells, patient samples, and multiple cutting-edge technologies, his team investigates abnormal noncoding RNAs—understudied molecules that help decide how genes function—as potential early warning signs of cardiovascular disease. Their research also explores whether blocking harmful RNA activity could lead to new treatments that help prevent or slow the progression of life-threatening conditions such as heart attack and other forms of cardiovascular, cancer, neurological, endocrine, gastrointestinal, and metabolic disorders in an integrative manner. “The heart is not working on its own,” Rajagopalan notes. “It’s interacting with the body’s gut, brain, hormones, and other systems.”

“As a fellow at the AHA, I’m happy that it gives us another avenue to support the mission of NYITCOM-Arkansas,” Rajagopalan says. “The Mississippi Delta region is significantly impacted by many kinds of chronic long-term health problems.”

“We’re so proud of all that Dr. Rajagopalan has done,” Speights says. “He is contributing to the body of evidence for heart disease and heart failure. We’re lucky to have him on campus.”

Wadsworth agrees: “This is a significant professional honor and a testament to the caliber of research he’s doing.”

In addition to expanding his research initiatives, Rajagopalan has also watched the growth of the medical school, where he has worked since its opening in 2016. In fact, the building was still undergoing renovation and construction when he moved to Arkansas from NYITCOM in New York. Now, NYITCOM-Arkansas has graduated its seventh class of new physicians.

“It’s very satisfying to have seen the first students graduating, and now hundreds of students have graduated over the years,” Rajagopalan says. “The transformation that has happened in the patient community is remarkable. I’m thankful to be part of the bigger mission of teamwork.”

“We’ve done a lot in 10 years, but we have never wavered from our mission to help address the physician workforce shortage in the Delta region,” Speights says. “Our primary goal is to graduate excellent students to practice medicine. That is our first focus. With that model in place, we can now look outward to see how we can support the communities in Arkansas and beyond.”

By Ashley Festa