Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Sept. 30, 2025 – A ribbon cutting was held Tuesday for a new Jonesboro clinic aimed at helping patients live longer, healthier lives.
St. Bernard’s staff and community members were in attendance Sept. 30 for the ribbon cutting for the new Longevity Center located at the Clopton Clinic at 300 Carson St. According to a news release, through this center, patients will have access to advanced testing to help create tailored care plans to support long-term health goals.
Barry C. Tedder, MD, FACC, FNLA, who leads the center, said its core mission is to increase the health span of patients who come in. He said people need to spend most of their health care on prevention.
“Once you have the problem, it’s harder to deal with, but if we start earlier and try to focus on the things that can prevent heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes, we’re just going to save a lot of money and heartache,” he said.
For those new to the center, Tedder said they go through a process to figure out how to combat a patient’s health concerns, starting with a review of the patient’s health.
“We’ll do blood testing and some other testing to try to figure out what their risk is of developing heart disease. We do focus a lot on cholesterol management to prevent heart attacks and strokes, we are looking at the risk of developing Alzheimer’s, so we do all similar things for that, but some other things too,” he said.
In addition to their current health status, Tedder said staff will also look at the health history within the patient’s family to determine if there are any notable patterns, adding that he thinks that’s what most people are concerned about.
“You have a family history of a heart attack at age 45, you better know what the risk is when you’re growing. You know you’re 30 years old, you should know what your risk is,” he said. “We get better outcomes if we keep the LDL particles and the Apo B down low for many years, instead of waiting, like we do now, to develop heart attacks, and then we start treating when we’re 50, 60, or 70. That’s late.”
Once staff receive this information, they come up with a plan to combat potential issues through a team-based approach.
“Using health coach Leslie Wester and my APN Sarah Thomas, we come up with an individualized plan that involves all of that, including thoughts on exercise, thoughts on improving diet, thoughts on sleep, thoughts on hormones, thoughts on street, as well as medical management for some of these problems,” he said.
A team-based approach helps create a more refined solution for a patient’s health, Tedder said, as it allows for simple changes at first, then if the problem is not better, the situation can be reevaluated, and more adjustments can be made.
“You get more people talking about it with different levels of expertise when we can eventually add a pharmacist that’ll help with compliance with medications and getting approval of drugs,” he said.
Beyond helping patients, Tedder said he hopes word will get around the Jonesboro community about the various ways to help keep healthy, emphasizing checking on one’s health before more issues arise.
“It’s never too late to start a preventative care plan to prevent the chronic diseases of aging, but certainly,the sooner we start, the better,” he said.
The Longevity Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. You can call 870-932-1198 or visit St. Bernards’ website for information on scheduling an appointment.
