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STRONG MEDICINE Words Dwain Hebda images courtesy Arkansas Colleges of Health Education
FORT SMITH’S FIRST MEDICAL PRESENCE, surgeon Thomas Russell, arrived in 1817 with the original company of riflemen who founded the wilderness outpost that would grow into Arkansas’ second-largest city. One hundred ninety-seven years later, the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education stood its own post and looked out upon a different kind of frontier – one dominated by medical technology, shifting health-care policy and of late, a viral crisis of global proportions. Since that day in 2014, the challenging health-care landscape has been more fuel than damper for the group’s mission. Seeing the growth that the organization has enjoyed over the past six years, it’s obvious ACHE has tapped into a vein near the bursting point. “Our next year’s class is full,” says Kyle Parker, CEO. “We had over five thousand applications for one hundred and fifty seats. We give emphasis to our region and that would be not just Arkansas, but also contiguous states. Historically about sixtyseven percent of our kids are from this region.” Arkansas
Colleges
of
Health
Education
is
the
governing
organization for several medical schools. The first, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine, began teaching students in 2017, and was followed by a one-year Masters of Science in Biomedicine program in 2019. All told, the four-year medical school is home to six hundred students. DOSOUTHMAGAZINE.COM
