Baptist Health is now treating arrhythmias using robotic cardiac ablation surgery. Pouya Hemmati, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock, utilizes the Intuitive da Vinci robotic system when performing these minimally invasive heart surgeries.
Baptist Health also performs robotic cardiac surgery with a tandem two-surgeon approach.
Hemmati received a robotic surgical training at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and specializes in cardiovascular surgery.
By: Tess Vrbin - July 28, 2025 Arkansas Advocate
This story was updated at 11:18 a.m. on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 to include a statement from The Cigna Group.
A federal judge blocked Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation law regulating pharmacy benefit managers, stating in Monday’s order that it “likely violates” the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause and is “likely preempted” by a veterans’ health care program.
David Catlin, MD, is joining the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Department of Psychiatry as an assistant professor.
Baptist Health Community Outreach is holding two sessions of the Diabetes Education & Empowerment Program (DEEP) with the first starting in August.
The program provides hands-on and interactive diabetes education sessions open to those with Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. It will also discuss monitoring, complications, medications, and movement. Participants learn how to make healthier food choices together.
There will be two upcoming sessions of DEEP classes with each session lasting six consecutive weeks. They are as follows:
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) received a $720,702 gift from the trust of the late Frank Thelkeld, MD, to support key initiatives in the UAMS College of Medicine.
“UAMS is deeply thankful to be included in Frank Threlkeld’s legacy of generosity, a gesture that is especially meaningful considering that he was a graduate of UAMS,” said C. Lowry Barnes, MD, interim chancellor of UAMS. “Dr. Threlkeld’s memory will live on through the many initiatives that this gift will support.”
