Wonks at Work

The Russellville Fire Department’s EMS team recently became the first ground ambulance service in Arkansas to deploy blood supplies for use aboard select emergency vehicles. This pre-hospital blood program will allow trained first responders to begin blood transfusions for critically injured patients before they reach the hospital. To learn more about the program, we’re joined on this episode of the Wonks at Work podcast by Micah Piker, a firefighter, paramedic, and EMS service director for the Russellville Fire Department.

While much of the conversation around women’s health in recent years has focused on maternal health and the birthing journey, menopause has also been attracting renewed interest, both here in Arkansas and around the country. To learn more about menopause, perimenopause, and new insights for women today, we’re joined on this episode of the Wonks at Work podcast by Dr. Sarah Berg, an OB-GYN and the founder of the menopause education platform Selfority.

The health and well-being of a child are dependent not only on the medical care they receive but also their social needs, such as safe and affordable housing and access to healthy food. That’s why Arkansas Children’s and Legal Aid of Arkansas established the Medical Legal Partnership, an alliance of care teams, attorneys, social workers, and others working together to help children and families overcome those challenges. That includes providing free legal services to Arkansas Children's low-income patients and their families. To learn more about the Medical Legal Partnership in Arkansas, we’re joined on this episode of the Wonks at Work podcast by Laura Taylor, director of community impact at Arkansas Children’s, and Nikki Clark, the partnership’s supervising attorney at Legal Aid of Arkansas.

Farm Life: Mary Thompson by ACHI

Data can be a powerful component in strategies to improve public health and healthcare outcomes. Research, quality improvement activities, and program development and evaluation all require reliable data infrastructure. That’s why, more than a decade ago, our state established the Arkansas Healthcare Transparency Initiative, which includes an all-payer claims database, or APCD. To learn more about the role of APCDs and similar efforts underway around the country, we are joined on this episode of the Wonks at Work podcast by Kevin McAvey, managing director of Manatt Health in New York and a recognized expert on state data assets.

One of the best strategies for improving health outcomes involves prevention and addressing health issues before they escalate into a costly hospital stay, chronic condition, or something worse. Achieving that level of care at scale, however, isn’t exactly easy. It requires healthy systems that encourage things like regular preventive screenings, coverage options and policies that consistently support that level of care, and a workforce focused on preventive medicine. To learn more about efforts to develop that workforce, we’re joined on this episode of the Wonks at Work podcast by Dr. Bala Simon with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, which has received initial accreditation to form the Dr. Joseph H. Bates Preventive Medicine Residency Program.

Limited access to nutritious food can undermine patient treatment and recovery. That’s especially true for the often long and arduous recovery many cancer patients face. Vulnerable populations who struggle with social and economic challenges such as food insecurity are at increased risk. Now a program called “Hope for Cancer: Healthy Outcomes Through Produce Prescriptions and Education” is exploring whether healthcare providers can complement a cancer patient’s existing treatment by increasing access to healthy, fresh foods through food-as-medicine interventions. To learn more about the program, we’re joined on this episode of the Wonks at Work podcast by Dr. Pete DelNero with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

The research that helps drive health improvement and strong policy advancements in Arkansas doesn’t take place in a vacuum. It needs people committed to that work, the resources to fuel it, and the infrastructure to pull it all together and keep it moving forward. Just over 20 years ago, the Arkansas Biosciences Institute (ABI) was established as an agricultural and medical research consortium dedicated to improving the health of Arkansans. It is also one of the most prolific users of data in the Arkansas Healthcare Transparency Initiative, which ACHI administers on behalf of the Arkansas Insurance Department. To learn more about ABI and the roles data and research play in Arkansas, we’re joined on this episode of the Wonks at Work podcast by Dr. Robert “Bobby” McGehee, who recently retired after two decades at the institute’s helm.

Helping a community heal is hard work. That’s especially true when lives and families are disrupted by incarceration, dependency, the need for child welfare interventions, or other crises. Fortunately, there are people and organizations committed to making that healing possible. One of those groups is Restore Hope, an Arkansas-based organization that has developed a model to help families move from crisis to stability and onto careers using existing community resources. To learn about how it’s grown from serving a handful of Arkansas counties to locations across multiple states and parts of Canada, as well as what’s coming next, we’re joined on this episode of the Wonks at Work podcast by Paul Chapman, director of Restore Hope.

The Climb: Kira Kennedy by ACHI