UAMS’ Lowery Named Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology

By todd

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LITTLE ROCK – Curtis Lowery, M.D., a maternal-fetal specialist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), has been named chairman of the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.


 


Lowery, a professor in the department, served as the director of the department’s Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine since 1992. He assumed the chairman’s post July 1, said College of Medicine Dean Debra H. Fiser, M.D. He replaces Helen H. Kay, M.D., who is retiring.


 


Lowery joined UAMS in 1990 as an assistant professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. He has been the principal investigator on seven federal research initiatives and continues his research efforts through federal and state grants and contracts.


 


“Dr. Lowery has shown from the moment he arrived on campus that he is a medical innovator and a leader,” Fiser said. “Arkansas has benefited tremendously from his contributions, and I am excited that he has accepted the position as chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.”


 


While at UAMS, Lowery’s achievements include the creation of a cost-effective service to women with high-risk pregnancies who live in rural parts of the state. Known as ANGELS (Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Learning and Education System), the program is a partnership with the state Department of Human Services’ Medicaid program and the Arkansas Medical Society.


 


ANGELS allows UAMS’ maternal-fetal specialists to provide long-distance consultation and education with primary care doctors and their high-risk pregnancy patients. The program has saved the state millions of dollars by reducing the incidence and severity of complications at birth for high-risk pregnancies.


 


Lowery and ANGELS recently were named winner of the American Telemedicine Association’s 2007 President’s Award for Innovation, and ANGELS has been named by the Harvard University Ash Institute as one of the nation’s most innovative governmental collaborations.


 


In addition to ANGELS, Lowery developed and established the SARA (Squid Array for Reproductive Assessment) method and program. This instrument, the first of its kind in the world dedicated to maternal-fetal research, uses a unique scanning device that can detect fetal brain activity in response to flashes of light transmitted through the mother’s abdomen.  The device provides a non-invasive method of monitoring fetal brain and heart development.


 


Lowery received his medical degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, served his residency at the Charleston Area Medical Center in West Virginia, and his maternal-fetal medicine fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. 


 


UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,435 students and 715 medical residents. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 9,400 employees, including nearly 1,000 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $5 billion a year. For more information, visit www.uams.edu.