The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents approved an ambitious plan in Tulsa today to incrementally increase enrollment in the Doctor of Medicine (MD) program in the OU College of Medicine at OU Health Sciences by more than 40% over the next five years – a strategic initiative designed to address the critical demand for additional health care professionals in Oklahoma.

On Friday, the University of Oklahoma College of Allied Health celebrated the opening of its new Interprofessional Sonography Laboratory, an advanced learning space made possible through a 10-year Value Partnership with global medical technology company Siemens Healthineers and through funding from the Presbyterian Health Foundation in Oklahoma City.

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing has partnered with New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing and the George Kaiser Family Foundation to explore strategies to decrease maternal and infant mortality through education and support. The coalition recently brought together various stakeholders at OU-Tulsa to discuss a successful and sustainable pathway to explore nurse-midwifery education and practice as one mechanism to address maternal and infant mortality in Oklahoma.

Research published Nov. 21 in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine demonstrates a three-fold reduction in a risky repeat surgery for patients with subdural hematoma, a pooling of blood between the skull and the surface of the brain. The reduced risk was shown in patients whose hematoma was removed through traditional neurosurgery and who also underwent a less invasive procedure known as embolization to block the artery supplying blood to the hematoma. The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine was one of 39 academic health institutions across the United States that enrolled patients in the EMBOLISE clinical trial.

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to engage with the descendants of American Indian individuals who were incarcerated at Fort Marion in Florida during the 1870s. Formerly known as Castillo de San Marcos, Fort Marion served as a government internment site for American Indians at least four times.