UAMS Hosts Lawmakers for Broadband Grant Update

By Nate Hinkel

 Curtis Lowery, M.D., talks with Rep. Mike Patterson prior to an overview given to a legislative panel on UAMS' $102 million federal broadband grant.

UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D., poses with the Joint Advanced Communications and Information Technology Committee of the Arkansas State Legislature.
Lowery told the committee he believes in the broadband buildout

 Lowery told lawmakers that an expanded network will give all people the same access to quality health care.

 

Feb. 14, 2011 | A joint state legislative committee met at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Feb. 14 to receive an update and status report on one of the largest federal grants ever received by an educational institution in the state and for its plans to implement the groundbreaking statewide broadband network.

Rep. Mike Patterson of Piggott, chair of the House Committee on Advanced Communications and Information Technology, told committee members and UAMS officials that the face of health care in Arkansas is about to change.

“We believe 100 percent in the excellent job UAMS is doing with implementing this grant and understand what is at stake for the people of this state,” Patterson said. “Many lives will be changed by having one of the best-connected health care systems in the country.”

UAMS hosted the joint committee Monday on campus as Curtis Lowery, M.D., the grant’s principal investigator and chairman of the UAMS Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, explained the grant’s potential reach while taking questions from the committee.

Last summer federal and state government officials, alongside leaders at UAMS and various integral state agencies, announced a $102 million federal grant to establish or upgrade broadband connections at 474 health care and education sites across the state.

The $102,131,393 grant was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and will allow the installation of fiber connections and bandwidth upgrades in all 75 counties and in 135 Arkansas communities, including 81 Arkansas hospitals, all two-year colleges, eight public libraries, all state human development centers, the state’s trauma network, the majority of community health centers, mental health clinics and home health agencies.

“I see firsthand how lives are changed by sharing knowledge through technology,” Lowery told the lawmakers. “An expanded network that allows us to do that on a very large scale will give all people the same access to quality health care. That’s kind of the whole idea behind this, and one that I believe in very much.”