A Mind for Medicine
Over the decade or so that Dr. Rohit Dhall has been affiliated with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, he has seen the neurology department grow into something of an overlooked gem in the region’s medical community.
“I’ve worked at multiple state universities, private entities, stand-alone research institutions, trained in Birmingham, Alabama, and before that at the University of Texas in Houston — big institutions. None of them had the imperative of providing the exceptional high-quality healthcare and building programs for the entire state as UAMS,” he said.
“I don’t think UAMS really talks about it enough, but what we’re trying to build for the entire state of Arkansas is every Arkansan getting exceptional healthcare, building the pipeline and getting the next generation of learners to be resourced to provide healthcare across Arkansas.”
Dhall’s clinical practice and research focuses on Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, Huntington’s disease, tremors and other neurodegenerative disorders. As the director of the Parkinson’s Foundation Comprehensive Care Center and the CurePSP Center of Care at UAMS, he also provides oversight and direction for UAMS’ outreach, education and support programs for more than 6,000 people living with Parkinson’s in Arkansas.
“My professional interests have been shaped by my core values of service, innovation, building relationships and integrity,” he said. “These have been the pillars for the overarching career goals that I’ve had, which are to advance the understanding of causes and cures of neurological disorders, provide high quality care to people that I take care of, and building the next generation of neurologists.
“My passion is building centers at the institutions I’m at — in this case, for the state of Arkansas — building our programs into exceptional centers of care so that we can provide the best quality of healthcare resource services to Arkansans. That, of course, segues into being able to provide the type of education to learners so they learn at the highest quality centers.”
After earning his medical degree at the All India Institute of Medical Science, Dhall obtained a Master of Science in epidemiology from the University of Texas at Houston School of Public Health and completed his internship in medicine at the University of Texas at Houston. He then went on to complete his residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, followed by a two-year fellowship in clinical movement disorders and deep brain stimulation at UAB.
Equally passionate about delivering exceptional care today and producing outstanding healthcare professionals of tomorrow, Dhall said his priority for the near future is to increase the number of neurologists practicing in Arkansas.
“Our biggest hill has been being able to provide access to quality care to Arkansans, and we won’t be able to do that unless we have a strong educational presence so that we have a secure pipeline of neurologists we’re training,” he said.
“In neurology, unfortunately, we are the bottom of the pile when it comes to the number of neurologists per capita. Across the 50 states, I think we’re 49th or so. It’s hard to bring people from outside. It’s hard to get them interested in staying in Arkansas, but we need to get our next generation of students and learners interested in neurology by recruiting from within our state. We’re gearing up to be able to do this sustainably for the foreseeable future.”
Dhall said one way to attract more into the field is to improve and enhance UAMS’ neurological research, which not only helps the education side stay ahead of the curve but further polishes UAMS’ reputation in the medical field overall.
“Neurology’s evolving at a tremendous pace,” he said. “We want our workforce, our faculty members, to be the ones involved and engaged in developing innovative new treatments because then our patients, the people that we’re caring for, are the first ones in the country to be able to receive those treatments. Increasing our research enterprise is another important part of our strategy.”
Photo courtesy of UAMS
SEE THE FEATURE BELOW AND IN OUR AUGUST 2026 ISSUE OF AY MAGAZINE
