AR-IMPACT provides Arkansas physicians with assistance in helping their patients manage their chronic pain and reduce their dependency on opioid painkillers. Launched in 2018, AR-IMPACT is a partnership between UAMS, the Arkansas Medical Society, the Arkansas Academy of Family Medicine, the Arkansas Department of Health, and the Arkansas State Medical Board. It was also made possible through the generosity of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the Office of the State Drug Director.

AR-IMPACT relies on the live streaming network of the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation to provide consultations on chronic pain patients and offer recommendations to their health-care providers. The AR-IMPACT Speakers Bureau involves didactic education, with team members traveling to UAMS’ regional centers to present workshops on various topics related to pain treatment and opioid use disorder. Live CME credit is available through the Speakers Bureau.

Through the AR-IMPACT Learn on Demand Portal, all of our previous sessions have been archived and are being posted to the AR-IMPACT Learn on Demand platform for which you can continue to receive non-live CME credits. There are over 80 archived sessions posted to the accompanying link for which you can receive non-live CME credits: https://learnondemand.org/lms/arimpact.

The AR-IMPACT Online Forum is a means for practicing clinicians to obtain expert advice from our team via an online portal. The AR-IMPACT Telemedicine Consultation Clinic is a partnership with the UAMS regional centers for which the AR-IMPACT team provides case consultation for patients with chronic pain via telemedicine. This service is provided to patients and providers at the UAMS regional centers, with plans to expand this service to other clinics in the future.

The AR-IMPACT team includes Program Coordinator Corey Hayes, Pharm.D., Ph.D., a clinical pharmacist; Johnathan Goree, M.D., a pain management physician and assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology; Shona Ray-Griffith, M.D., an addiction psychiatrist and assistant professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology; Leah Tobey, D.P.T., a physical therapist and Masil George, M.D., a primary care physician who specializes in geriatrics and palliative care.