NYITCOM-Arkansas Receives $1.5 Million Grant for Maternal Health Initiative

The College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University (NYITCOM-Arkansas) received a $1.5 million grant through the Promoting Access, Coordination, and Transportation (PACT) phase of the state’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP).

NYITCOM-Arkansas will utilize the funds to create the Mobile Health Unit Maternal Health and Education Access initiative, which will operate through the medical school’s Delta Population Health Institute (DPHI).

The program will extend NYITCOM-Arkansas’ clinical services focused on rural maternal healthcare access through mobile healthcare delivery, patient-centered transportation, telehealth-enabled specialty consultation, and obstetric workforce development to improve access to quality services for women in Mississippi and Poinsett Counties.

“We are so grateful to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her team for entrusting us with these funds that will make a significant impact in our ability to help mothers and children in the most medically underserved portions of our state,” says Shane Speights, D.O., site dean of NYITCOM-Arkansas. “We are humbled by the opportunity to serve through this initiative, and we’re excited to see the impact this work will have in areas where it is so desperately needed.”

NYITCOM-Arkansas will use a portion of the funds to purchase a Mobile Maternal Health Unit similar to the Delta Care-a-Van the DPHI has operated since 2019. The mobile unit will hold clinics throughout Mississippi and Poinsett Counties where new and expectant mothers will have access to care that has previously been unavailable.

Additionally, the medical school will purchase and staff two passenger transportation vehicles to help Northeast Arkansas residents travel to receive specialty care that is inaccessible in the state’s more rural regions. The program will also utilize telehealth visits to eliminate transportation barriers.

Since 2023, the DPHI has operated a Maternal Health Learning and Care Communities initiative, which was funded by the Arkansas Minority Health Commission. Through that program, the DPHI established footprints in Poinsett County and Mississippi County. Feedback the DPHI received through those programs helped shape the framework for the new initiative that received RHTP funding.

“Our previous efforts have provided valuable insight into the barriers that continue to affect maternal health across the Delta,” says Brookshield Laurent, D.O., associate dean for population and public health and executive director of the DPHI.

“These women frequently experience limited access to obstetrical providers, have transportation challenges, face long travel distances to specialty care, and there is a shortage of maternal healthcare services. This new initiative will address each of those areas and help prepare healthcare professionals to better respond to obstetric emergencies and provide quality care to postpartum patients. These significant needs bring tremendous opportunity, and we’re thrilled to be able to play a role in addressing them.”

NYITCOM-Arkansas has previously announced plans to open a family medicine residency program through the Mississippi County Hospital System in Blytheville, Ark. The program will heavily incorporate obstetrics training, and the residents and program faculty will be heavily involved in the newly funded maternal health initiative.

“Having medical students and residents in these rural communities will be vital to increasing access, and the training these doctors and doctors-to-be will receive will be invaluable to their education,” says Amanda Deel, D.O., associate dean of graduate medical education. “We’re training the next generation of physicians to be able to address these needs and also develop a passion for doing so.”

NYITCOM-Arkansas opened in 2016 through a private-public partnership between New York Institute of Technology on Long Island and Arkansas State University. NYITCOM-Arkansas was the second medical school established in Arkansas when it opened its doors 10 years ago.

The school was created with a pointed focus of training physicians to help address an ever-growing need in Arkansas and the greater Mississippi Delta region. NYITCOM-Arkansas also has a stated mission of leading health outreach and health education initiatives to help improve health outcomes that are among the poorest in the nation.

“Projects like the one we’ve announced today are at the core of who we are,” says Speights. “Our medical school is led largely by a group of Arkansans that are passionate about improving the quality and quantity of life in our state, and there’s no better way to do so than through groundbreaking initiatives like this one. We couldn’t be happier about the opportunity at hand.”

By Casey Pearce