Jonesboro, AR – Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Thursday that New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University (NYITCOM at A-State) has received a $1.5 million grant through the PACT phase of the state’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP).
PACT is an acronym for Promoting Access, Coordination, and Transportation. NYITCOM at A-State 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 at A-State’s 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 Governor 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,” said Dr. Shane Speights, dean of NYITCOM at A-State. “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 at A-State 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, NYITCOM at A-State 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, and 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,” said Dr. Brookshield Laurent, NYITCOM’s 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 also 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 at A-State has previously announced plans to open a family medicine residency program through the Mississippi County Hospital System in Blytheville. 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,” said Dr. Amanda Deel, NYITCOM’s 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 at A-State opened in 2016 through a private-public partnership between New York Institute of Technology on Long Island and Arkansas State University. NYITCOM at A-State operates out of Wilson Hall on A-State’s Jonesboro campus and became just 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, and NYITCOM at A-State 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,” Speights said. “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.”
Sanders announced awards of $149.3 million Thursday at a press conference held at the Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock. The full list of awardees can be found here.
About NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University: New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University, located on A-State’s Jonesboro campus, is dedicated to improving access to health care for the underserved and rural populations in Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta Region. Arkansas annually ranks near the bottom of all states in population health status and also ranks near the bottom of all states in the number of active physicians per capita. NYITCOM at A-State was established in 2016 with the mission of meeting the need for more physicians in this medically underserved region.
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