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Rohit Dhall Appointed Chair of Neurology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has named Rohit Dhall as chair of the Department of Neurology effective July 1. Dhall joined the UAMS faculty in 2016 and has served as professor, vice chair for clinical research and director of neurodegenerative disorders in the Department of Neurology since 2021. He has directed the Cure PSP Center of Care at UAMS since 2017 and co-directed the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) Center of Excellence at UAMS since 2021. He also directs the Parkinson’s Foundation Comprehensive Care Center, which obtained that designation from the Parkinson’s Foundation Global Care Network under his leadership in 2022.
In addition to his leadership roles in neurology, Dhall has served as medical director of the Clinical Trials Innovation Unit, part of the UAMS Translational Research Institute, since 2019. He has been the faculty lead for the UAMS Clinical Research Services Center (CRSC) since 2022. He is nationally known for his expertise in designing and conducting clinical trials and has led or participated in more than 80 trials since 2006.
Dhall received his medical degree at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. He earned his Master of Science in Epidemiology at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, and then completed residency training in neurology and fellowship in movement disorders at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He was recruited to UAMS from the Parkinson’s Institute in Sunnyvale, California, where he served as director of clinical studies and director of the institute’s Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence. He previously directed the Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
Dhall succeeds Robert “Lee” Archer, who announced last year his plans to step down from the chair role to focus more on his patients. We wish him well in this next phase of his career!
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Announcing the AUPN Leadership Award
We are delighted to announce a new annual AUPN Faculty Leadership Award, which recognizes individual faculty members in each member department who have shown outstanding leadership skills. A single candidate from each department can be nominated by the chair, and nominations will be reviewed by the Awards Committee of the AUPN Council. To be eligible for this award, faculty must currently hold one the following leadership positions: Residency Program Director, Clerkship Director, Child Neurology Residency Program Director, Research Program Director, VA Chief, Vice Chair, or Division Chief. The award cannot be given to the same person twice within a 5-year span.
Chairs, please submit your nomination by December 31st, 2023. Awardees will be formally announced by April 30th, 2024. The awardees will be invited to accept their awards and a printed certificate during the AUPN Business Meeting/Awards Ceremony, to be held during the AUPN Satellite Meeting on Saturday, September 14th, 2024, in conjunction with the American Neurological Association (ANA) Annual Conference. Awardees will receive complimentary meeting registration to the AUPN Satellite Meeting.
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Past Presidents Interview with NeurologyLive
As part of our public outreach initiative in partnership with NeurologyLive, Marco Meglio of MJH Life Sciences moderated an on-line interview on August 2nd with three distinguished past presidents of the AUPN: Robert “Berch” Griggs (University of Rochester), AUPN president in 1995-96, Henry Kaminsky, (Georgetown University), AUPN president 2012-2014, and Clifton Gooch (University of South Florida), AUPN president 2021-22.
The questions covered a variety of topics including the history of AUPN, how residency has changed over years, strategies for teaching students and residents and for recruiting students into neurology, how to build high functioning and resilient departments, and emerging concepts in neurology care and training. Although the past presidents represented 3 different decades, many similar themes emerged. This interview will be released as a series of shorter videos focused on each question in the coming months. The first episode can be viewed here
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Leadership Minute
This month’s Leadership minute is entitled “International Physicians in Neurology.” Presented by Erica Schuyler (University of Connecticut) and introduced by David Standaert (Univ. of Alabama Birmingham), the brief program is a crash course on what you need to know about the issues faced by foreign-trained physicians entering our neurology training or practice workforce. Institutional advocacy for international medical graduates (IMGs) can improve recruitment and retention efforts, which can provide benefits both for patient care and for growth into global and diversified research networks. In this episode, Schuyler reviews the pathway for an IMG to train and work in the US, as well as ways to promote the career success and satisfaction of international physicians. Dr. Schuyler was a lead author of the AAN Graduate Education Subcommittee and Education Committee report on Immigrant Neurologists in the United States published in Neurology in 2020, and shares her expertise on this important topic.
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Virtual Office Hours
The next monthly AUPN Virtual Office Hours will be on Thursday, September 27th at 12pm PT/ 2pm CT/3pm ET, hosted by Gordon Smith (Virginia Commonwealth University). Dr. Smith is available to discuss issues including change management in a rapidly evolving environment, what to do when there’s too much to do, working with your Dean and health system leadership, alignment and collaboration with neurosurgery.
The October AUPN Virtual Office Hours will be on Monday, October 2nd at 8am PT/ 10am CT/11am ET, hosted by Alissa Willis (University of Mississippi Medical Center). Dr. Willis is available to discus issues including developing a strong residency program, navigating visa issues, & creating a pipeline of neurology engagement from high school to residency alumni.
If you’d like to attend either of these Office Hours, please see our website or email the AUPN Executive Office at neuro@aupn.org and we will send you a calendar invite and link.
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VA Chiefs Workshop: Clinical Trials at VA Hospitals
This year’s AUPN VA Chiefs Workshop, to be held on Friday 20 October from 3-5pm EDT is entitled “Clinical Trials within the VA: Feasible and Necessary.” The on-line symposium will be moderated by Vanessa Hinson (MUSC) with guest speakers including John Duda (Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center), Olga Brawman-Mintzer (Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center), Rebecca Walker (VA Puget Sound) and Colin Quinn (Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center).
Speakers will discuss the feasibility of conducting clinical trials within the VA health care system, as well as the role of VA affiliated non-for-profit research organizations and the VA Cooperative Studies Program. The program will also explore how to conduct industry-sponsored research within VA, and how best to facilitate Veteran trial participation with an academic affiliate, with the goal of encouraging investigators to conduct clinical research that includes veterans.
This program is complimentary to AUPN members, but registration is required.
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Stroke Neurologist Compensation Survey
Providing state-of-the-art care for stroke often requires 24/7 coverage by vascular neurologists, who represent a small subset of your faculty. When the in-house neurologist is not a vascular specialist, this may require a back-up call system for vascular neurology. How do/should we reimburse these faculty members for this extra effort?
Mohamad Koubeissi (George Washington University) is seeking your input regarding compensation for on call in-house neurologists and back-up vascular neurologists covering stroke. The survey will help him (and the rest of us) find out more about current practices at your institutions.
Please note that this survey is (1) anonymous, and (2) only takes 2 minutes to finish. I encourage you to participate – we will share the results in a future NeuroTransmitter article.
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Until next month,
L. John Greenfield, Jr, MD PhD
AUPN President
AUPN encourages you to forward this newsletter to other faculty in your department, or anyone else who might benefit from our programs.
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Open Neurology Leadership Positions
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