Jim Clardy Appointed Director of UAMS Center for Graduate Medical Education

Dr. Jim Clardy

Dr. Jim Clardy has been appointed director of the Center for Graduate Medical Education in the Office of the Provost at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

UAMS said he will work in this newly created position to galvanize statewide actions to increase medical residency slots and to ensure and improve the quality of new and existing training programs throughout the state, according to a news release.

Dr. Molly Gathright will fill Clardy’s current role as associate dean for graduate medical education.

“It is imperative to increase residency positions in Arkansas to support the pipeline of educating and training physicians for our state and to address current and future physician shortages,” Dr. Christopher Westfall, UAMS executive vice chancellor and dean of the College of Medicine, said in the release.

UAMS has set a goal to increase residency positions in Arkansas by 100 slots over the next 10 years, with at least 50% of these spots in primary care.

The university is also working with numerous health systems and hospitals, communities and leaders to develop new residency programs.

A professor of psychiatry, Clardy first joined the UAMS faculty in 1993. He previously directed the Psychiatry Residency Program, and has served as associate dean for GME since 2004.

His national roles have included membership on the steering committee for the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Resident Affairs and the ACGME Institutional Review Committee.