TULSA — OU -TU SCHOOL OF COMMUNIT Y MEDICINE
Yale, the OU Health Physicians clinic at 11th and Lewis, the Tisdale clinic in north Tulsa, and at Hillcrest Medical Center, where they will spend part of their time working in Labor and Delivery. Plans are underway to expand into other rural and tribal communities surrounding Tulsa. Didactic and simulation training will further immerse residents in obstetrics care for pregnant women with hypertension, preeclampsia, diabetes, substance use disorder, and other conditions that pose risks for both baby and mother. “This program is not a fellowship. This is additional training that provides residents with the confidence and skills to provide basic obstetric care, typically non-operative, when they leave residency,” Gold said. “Family medicine residents receive training in many different areas, but we want to provide them another layer of training in obstetrics, which is one of the highest risk areas of medicine. Some may choose to offer prenatal care only in their practice and work with a hospitalist group to deliver babies, and others will choose to deliver babies themselves. We want them to feel comfortable and competent to do all of that.” “In rural areas, residents will be exposed to a different type of care because they won’t have the same resources available to them as they do in urban areas,” said family medicine physician Viviane Sachs, M.D., associate principal investigator for the grant. “That can be challenging, but one of our goals is to give residents more tools to help patients in these populations.” Among those tools are telehealth and teleconsults, which have become much more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. While everything can’t be addressed virtually, much of the assessment, education and ordering of tests can be accomplished, and patients can go to labs near their homes for blood tests. If residents and attending physicians need additional help, they have 24/7 access to specialists on the Tulsa campus. “Five years ago, we would never have imagined that we could manage a pregnant patient through telehealth, but in many cases, we can manage conditions while the patient is in her own community and not send her to the hospital every time something comes up,” Gold said. “Our hope is that we can save the patient some travel while still providing a high level of care that will detect any problems right away.”
Audrey Corbett, M.D., is the new Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine.
Corbett Named Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs The OU-TU School of Community Medicine has named Audrey Corbett, M.D., as its new Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs. Corbett will also serve the clinical practice at OU Health Physicians Tulsa as Chief Medical Officer. James M. Herman, M.D., professor and Dean of the OU-TU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa, said Corbett is a proven leader, having previously served with distinction as an internal medicine hospitalist, a role she will continue periodically throughout the year. “Dr. Corbett brings fresh insights and energy to these important leadership positions. I extend my enthusiastic congratulations, with great confidence for our continued growth and success,” he said.
The program will also connect participating residents with the work of doulas and the care they provide throughout a pregnancy. In addition, community outreach will be incorporated, introducing residents to programs like the Take Control Initiative, which provides education and free clinical services for long-acting reversible contraception in the Tulsa area, and Strong Tomorrows, which provides services to expectant and parenting teens at Tulsa Public Schools.
Board-certified in internal medicine, Corbett earned her medical degree at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa, followed by internal medicine residency at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Before her arrival in Tulsa, Corbett was an instructor of hospitalist medicine, first with the University of Colorado, Aurora, then Beth Israel Deaconess/Harvard Medical School, Boston. In addition to her previous experience as an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Corbett has expertise in patient safety and has served on safety committees for the University of Oklahoma and St. John Medical Center, Tulsa.
“We really want to cover the full gamut of prenatal care,” Sachs said. “Not only by providing exams and tests at clinics in patients’ communities, but also education on how to have a healthy pregnancy. These opportunities will put our residents ahead of the game in obstetrics as they finish their training and begin their careers.”
Corbett has received numerous awards as a clinician and educator, and has significant contracts, grants and sponsored research projects. Her credits also include a lengthy list of abstracts and presentations to local, regional, national and international audiences as well as a volume of studies published in scholarly journals.
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