Kyle Parker has always loved technology.
He created an artificial intelligence software application when he was in law school. Later, he served as vice chancellor of operations at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and created a searchable law information website called Loislaw.com, which grew into a publicly traded company.
He brought his faith in the benefits of technology to his latest project: the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine, the medical school that opened in August in Fort Smith. As CEO and president of the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, which operates the medical school, Parker took an active role in designing and outfitting it.
“When I went to law school, I was required to learn computers,” Parker said. “I fell in love with technology. I’ve stayed on top of the utilization of technology. By talking to people much smarter than I am in regards to technology, I knew pretty much what I wanted to happen.”
Parker is like a proud papa giving tours of the final product at the 102,000-SF college at Chaffee Crossing. The technological intricacies can be overwhelming to a novice, but the implications are clear: The medical school is wired to gladden the heart of a techno-nerd.
All of the classrooms and lecture halls are wirelessly connected to one another and can be accessed remotely. Parker said this makes it possible for students who can’t make it to class to watch lectures from their homes — “no more snow days.”
More than 45 miles of cable are capable of delivering 64K of video resolution, higher definition than the eye can detect, Parker said, and every lecture is recorded; the school has two $90,000 laser projectors and is also capable of having 3,000 simultaneous video conferences.
“If you expect the best out of your students, then you need to give them the best facility to do it at,” Parker said. “That is what I feel we have accomplished.
“I have no reservation in saying this is the finest medical school in the United States,” Parker continued, “whether it is D.O. [doctor of osteopathy] or M.D.”
Students First
The technology isn’t just for show or to publicize in the school brochure. Parker and Provost Ray Stowers explained how the technology is crucial for training future D.O.s, as doctors of osteopathic medicine are called.
The wireless connectivity and remote access capabilities allow professors to monitor students who are working as teams in a learning suite. The school has eight $250,000 robotic mannequins that can be programmed to exhibit medical problems for students to diagnose.
The mannequins also blink and “speak,” and speech can be programmed or controlled by a technician behind a one-way mirror. The technician can make the patient belligerent or profane or contradictory to make medical situations more realistic.
Stowers said the 3,000 video conference capability is an important curriculum factor. In students’ third and fourth years, they disperse to serve time in clinics and hospitals; the video conference capability will allow students working in southeast Arkansas the same access to lectures as a student who is working across the street from the school.
“At any given time we will have 300-plus students at community hospitals,” Stowers said. “All that education going out there, we have to disseminate it and get them a consistent experience. I would say one place we are cutting edge is our capacity to deliver a uniform curriculum in our third and fourth year.”
The tech-loving Parker said he understands that technology is, however wonderful, still just a tool.
“Technology can overtake some things, so we wanted to make sure to use technology to better their education,” Parker said. “This is all about trying to train the best physicians you possibly can. I want them to be the most well-equipped and trained physicians in the United States. This isn’t just about Arkansas.”
No Silos, Just Pioneers
The school accepted an initial class of 162. Parker said the school had allotted space for 150 students, but left leeway to compensate for future departures.
Arkansans accounted for 21 percent of the first class’s enrollment, and about 60 percent of students are from the school’s “mission” region of Arkansas, Oklahoma and parts of Missouri and Texas. That was important to Parker, who said one goal in creating the school was to address a physician shortage in that area.
Parker said studies have shown that physicians tend to stay in the area where they train and serve residencies, so bringing quality future doctors to the River Valley was an important step. The school involved the community in the application process, too, as local leaders participated in interviewing applicants.
Stowers said the first class has high academic and test results, but those statistics were not given to the people who were interviewing the applicants. Stowers, who previously started a school in Tennessee, said ARCOM was most interested in quality leaders and characters — pioneers interested in shaping the future of their medical school.
“At a new school you’re thinking you’re going to get the leftovers,” Stowers said. “What you find in our inaugural class is you get really good students because they are adventuresome. They want to be the first ones to set the rules in student government. They’re the leaders. They have that attitude of I’ll take on a new school, and I’ll shape it to make it better.”
That was the same attitude Parker and the school took in hiring faculty and for leadership positions.
Parker said he was adamant that incoming faculty have a heavy hand in the forging of the curriculum in concert with other faculty members to avoid “silos” of academia with one discipline isolated from the next.
An example of that is the school’s 7,000-SF biomedical research lab. Researchers of all stripes work in collaboration, mingling disciplines in the pursuit of education.
“One of the enticements we had for the faculty is they get to help create the curriculum,” Parker said. “They have ownership. They help to create this. It requires them to work together. The good news is you get to mold your own clay.”
Stowers said the school’s financial strength allowed it to bring in professors to teach. The school found that many professors relish the prospect of hands-on teaching without the distractions of doing research to obtain grant money.
Parker said the school’s mission was developed by the Degen Foundation, which created the school to make use of $62 million created by the sale of Sparks Health System of Fort Smith to Health Management Associates of Naples, Florida, in 2009.
“We came from the old Sparks Hospital, and the foundation would have never built this school if it was a money-based gain,” Parker said. “You see the first step in a long journey has been accomplished. You know what is ahead of you. You can’t help but have a tremendous feeling of pride. That is why I got into this in the first place.”
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