OU College of Medicine Magazine | Summer 2021

Unifying for the Future [ Spr i ng /Su m m e r 2021 ]

OU MEDICINE

Much has changed for the world and the OU College of Medicine since our last magazine reached you. The roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations is bringing us closer to pre-pandemic times once again. Our faculty, students and staff have all played a vital role in providing those vaccines to people working on campus, and to many others who live in our community and across Oklahoma.

Even though a good portion of our lives have been consumed by COVID-19 related needs, the work of the College of Medicine as a whole has not slowed down. In this issue, you’ll read about some of the exciting developments across our mission areas of education, research and patient care. Notably, I encourage you to read the story that is reflected on our cover about the OU College of Medicine, the University Hospitals Authority and Trust, and OU Medicine, Inc. merging hospitals, clinics, and faculty practice into one unified organization, OU Health. This is truly an exciting time as we create Oklahoma’s first fully integrated, comprehensive academic health system.

In our section on education, you’ll see photos from Match Day, which was held in person, outdoors, for students on both campuses. There is also a story detailing the college’s medical school readiness program, where we offer a free MCAT prep course, along with extensive mentoring, to nearly 150 Oklahoma college students from populations that are underrepresented in medicine. This is an important component of building diversity in our college and in our physician workforce.

Dean’s Message

Our sports medicine fellowship programs on both campuses are spotlighted in this issue for their 30 years of training physicians to care for athletes of all levels.

Graduates of the program work around the world in a variety of settings, and we feature two of them, along with our own Dr. Jim Barrett, the lead physician for the Oklahoma City Thunder and chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine.

The power of collaboration is seen in a story on Christian El Amm, M.D., who created a surgical visualization device in collaboration with the energy technology company Baker Hughes, our neighbor in the Oklahoma City Innovation District. Technology that Baker Hughes developed to create 3D reconstructions of rock specimens was used to develop a visor that allows Dr. El Amm to see both his patient and 3D data that he wants to superimpose on the patient.

In our research section, we’ve highlighted several projects from the college’s wide variety of investigations. Our work in geroscience continues to build with the renewal of a $5.3 million grant. An interdisciplinary group of researchers and clinician-scientists received a grant to establish standards of pain management for older adults that prioritize non-opioid medications. In addition, many of our researchers have participated in COVID-19 research in significant ways.

This has been a challenging yet fascinating time to work in an academic medicine setting. We have much to mourn as we emerge from a pandemic that took too many lives, yet we can take pride that our college has played a pivotal role in the medical response and associated research that has been lifesaving. I am more encouraged than ever about the future of medicine because our students strongly demonstrated during this time that they are willing to help however needed, and to do so with ingenuity and compassion. We are all fortunate to work in a field that can make such a positive difference in the lives of others.

John P. Zubialde, M.D. Executive Dean, OU College of Medicine

contents MEDICINE

University of Oklahoma College of Medicine

TABLE OF CONTENTS 7. Master Teacher Named Jeanne O. Hayes, M.D., MPH, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Assistant

Senior Vice President and Provost, OU Health Sciences Center Jason Sanders, M.D., MBA

Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the OU-TU School of Community

Executive Dean, College of Medicine John Zubialde, M.D.

13. Celebrating 50 Years

Executive Editor Jon Brightbill Associate Dean for Executive Affairs Assistant Vice President of Development, OU Health Sciences Center Stacey Maxon Editor/Feature Writer April Wilkerson Contributing Writer Valerie Pautsch Medicine is published twice a year by the OU College of Medicine. For more information or to submit news for the Class Notes section, contact: April Wilkerson, Editor april.wilkerson@oumedicine.com Medicine is online at

medicine.ouhsc.edu

Medicine in Tulsa, has been honored with the 2021 Stanton L. Young Master Teacher Award.

The PA program on the Oklahoma City campus is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The program is one of the original six accredited programs in the United States.

15. Among the Best The OU College of Medicine has been named one of the best medical colleges in the nation in several categories, according to the U.S. News & World Report 2022 Best Graduate Schools rankings.

16. Keeping Athletes Active Graduates of the OU College of Medicine’s primary care sports medicine fellowships provide care around the world in settings ranging from primary care clinics to Olympic sporting events to the NBA and the NFL.

20. Brachytherapy for Brain Tumor An OU Health surgical and medical team performed its first brachytherapy procedure for brain tumor, a process in which radioactive “seeds” are implanted around the edges of the tumor site after it has been removed.

24. Coping with COVID-19 An OU Health pediatric psychologist created an animated video, “The Martin Family Dinner,” that models healthy communication for families during an uncertain time.

31. The Biology of Aging The OU Health Sciences Center received a $5.3 million federal grant renewal to

The University of Oklahoma, in compliance with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, age, religion, disability, political beliefs or status as a veteran in any of its policies, practices or procedures. This includes, but is not limited to: admissions, employment, financial aid and educational services.

continue the work of the Oklahoma Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the

Inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies may be directed to: Bobby J. Mason, University Equal Opportunity Officer and Title IX Coordinator, 405-325-3546, BJM@ou.edu, or visit ou.edu/eoo.html.

35. E-cigarettes and Chemotherapy

Copies of this magazine were printed at no cost to the taxpayers of the state of Oklahoma.

Basic Biology of Aging.

34. Decreasing Opioids The OU Health Sciences Center received a $2.5 million federal grant to tailor methods of treating chronic pain to the older adult population – with an emphasis on decreasing the use of opioids – and to disseminate those best practices to primary care clinics across Oklahoma.

An OU College of Medicine researcher published a groundbreaking new study suggesting that when people use electronic cigarettes while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, they will likely receive much less benefit from the treatment.

41. The Science of Informatics © 2021 University of Oklahoma

Through the Department of Medical Informatics at the OU-TU School of

COVER PHOTO:

can improve health outcomes.

The OU College of Medicine faculty practice, the University Hospitals Authority and Trust and OU Medicine, Inc., are merging their hospitals and clinics into one unified organization, creating Oklahoma’s first truly integrated, comprehensive academic health system.

Community Medicine, more and more students are learning how informatics

The OU College of Medicine Alumni Association is on Facebook.

Like us at www.facebook.com/oucomalumni

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Syeachia Dennis, M.D., has been named Assistant Dean for Equity and Community Engagement for the OU-TU School of Community Medicine.

Dennis Named Assistant Dean for Equity and Community Engagement on Tulsa campus Syeachia Dennis, M.D., has been named Assistant Dean for Equity and Community Engagement for the OU-TU School of Community Medicine on the Tulsa campus. Dennis, an Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine, previously served as Director of Community Medicine Curriculum for the school.

Dennis earned her medical degree from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood, Illinois, and completed a family medicine residency at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Illinois. She earned a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.

In this new role, Dennis will work with faculty members, residents, students and staff to advance efforts that address social and structural determinants of health and their effect on the community’s patient population. She will focus on the development of anti-bias curriculum within the School of Community Medicine and core curriculum for medical students, as well as building strong collaborations with organizations committed to advancing health equity.

Her current projects include the Focus-Forward LARC (long-acting reversible contraceptives) project through the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, as well as collaboration with the Tulsa Birth Equity Initiative toward development of a residency community health longitudinal rotation and a preconception health project.

James M. Herman, M.D., Dean of the OU-TU School of Community Medicine, said: “Dr. Dennis brings significant depth of experience and extensive background to her work with the School of Community Medicine. This new role presents exciting opportunities to move us forward in our goal to eliminate structural racism. Together, our efforts toward equity and inclusion will resonate within graduate medical education. The strategic impact will serve to improve well-being across the OU-TU campus, the Tulsa community and across the state.”

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Dennis serves on the board of directors for the Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians and participates in the American Academy of Family Physicians Commission on Health of the Public and Science. She has presented nationally and internationally on historical trauma, and has taught graduate medical education courses focused on social determinants of health. She is published on the topic of racism as a social determinant of health for students in healthcare professions.

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“Professor Hattersley’s discoveries continue to propel us toward a cure. The goal – to conquer diabetes in this generation — is a step closer because of his relentless exploration,” said Jacob E. “Jed” Friedman, Ph.D., director of OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center. “Untold numbers of people throughout this nation and the world will benefit from Professor Hattersley’s brilliant work.”

Juleen Zierath, Ph.D., professor of physiology, Karolinska Institute, Sweden, and executive director of Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen, nominated Hattersley for the Hamm Prize. She said the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the damaging health consequences of obesity and Type 2 diabetes into sharp focus, showing that diabetes is more than a state of glucose dysregulation, but also a multifaceted syndrome.

Andrew T. Hattersley will receive the 2021 Harold Hamm International Prize for Biomedical Research in Diabetes.

Recipient Named for Hamm Prize in Diabetes Research Andrew T. Hattersley, DBE, FMedSci, FRS, has been named the recipient of the 2021 Harold Hamm International Prize for Biomedical Research in Diabetes. Hattersley is Professor of Molecular Medicine at University of Exeter Medical School in the United Kingdom.

The Hamm Prize recognizes and encourages lasting advances in the field of diabetes research. It is awarded to an individual who has either demonstrated lifelong contributions to the field or realized a singular advance, especially one that promotes curative potential. The honor includes a $250,000 award — the largest of its kind in the world — and will be awarded by OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Following his lead gift in 2007 to create Harold Hamm Diabetes Center, Hamm also provided the endowment to establish the prize. Provisions of the endowment include awarding the prize every other year in perpetuity. The endowment represents a unique private/public partnership that leverages philanthropic contributions as a catalyst for medical advances where needs are acute.

“Professor Hattersley has truly excelled, as evidenced by a clear, fundamental discovery of human genetics and developing paradigm-shifting clinical applications to improve the quality of life of people living with diabetes. That’s monumental,” Zierath said. “With his profound knowledge and clinical expertise in managing patients with monogenetic forms of diabetes, he’s also a global reference for diagnostic and therapeutic questions related to what we call MODY — mature-onset diabetes in youth — and neonatal diabetes. It’s a great illustration of understanding the genetic forms of some cases of diabetes and using it to personalize treatment and care for these patients. It’s an elegant display of clinical and experimental research.”

Hattersley’s career began as a research student working at Oxford. His early work at Exeter included establishing a lab that now leads the world in the study of MODY and neonatal diabetes research and diagnosis. Here, a major breakthrough occurred with genome-wide analysis; the collaborative approach paved the way to discovery of new susceptibility polymorphism, a predisposition for Type 2 diabetes.

For nearly three decades, Hattersley has continued to make fundamental discoveries in diabetes research in both basic and clinical sciences, and his prolific work includes more than 600 peer-reviewed publications. Directing his research into the area of monogenic beta-cell diabetes, Hattersley has pushed beyond gene discovery to explore development and function of the human beta cell, providing the clinical research that has become the basis of clinical care worldwide. One major advance has been the incorporation of beta cell science into patient treatment. Recent work has revealed new insights into the beta cell potassium channel.

Hattersley said the work of his research team in rare patients with genetic diabetes has shown that defining the cause of a person’s diabetes can lead to dramatic improvements in treatment, including thousands of patients coming off insulin therapy.

“This has led to testing for genetic diabetes throughout the world,” he said. “The challenge for future generations of researchers is to define the different subtypes of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and to develop improved treatment specific for these subtypes.”

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Morris Gessouroun, M.D., chair of the Department of Pediatrics, speaks during the grand opening of the Presti Clubhouse and Play Area.

Joining him, seated, are Sam and Shannon Presti.

Gift Transforms Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health In June 2019, Sam Presti, executive vice president and general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and his wife, Shannon, presented a generous gift that has had a transformative impact on Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health. The donation of $600,000 funded an array of renovations and technology upgrades, all serving to advance patient care provided at the nationally recognized children’s facility on the OU Health Sciences Center campus.

community was obvious early on. It was clear that he and Shannon wanted to reciprocate in a way that would benefit all Oklahomans irrespective of location, socioeconomic status or any other barrier. The Prestis have a vision for a strong children’s hospital that endures well into the future and understand that premier pediatric care has an essential aspect for all citizens of the state. We are so grateful for their generosity.”

Thanks to the family’s gift, two procedure rooms have been renovated. The advanced technology made possible by the gift elevates services provided at the Jimmy Everest Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Children and the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital.

OU Health Physicians pediatric cancer and blood disorder specialists at the Jimmy Everest Center are highly specialized and the only physicians caring for pediatric cancer patients in the state.

Interior amenities include an expanded east lobby with family-friendly seating areas and interactive playscapes.

Incorporating natural elements with play structures, these areas are highly appealing to children and families. New and improved outdoor seating areas accommodate patients and families, and also offer respite spaces for staff members Outdoor areas include playscapes that tie with the indoor space, a wagon trail and the official Presti Clubhouse and Play Area. Built just for children, this space fosters imaginative play and provides immediate opportunities for fun and fresh air.

Future plans will capitalize on the versatility of the space as an additional venue for events and activities outside the Family Resource Center.

The Prestis’ generosity also created a nurturing space in the east lobby of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, transforming both indoor and outdoor areas for patients and families to enjoy the Presti Clubhouse and Play Area. These amenities foster creativity and promote healing for patients during their stay.

An engaged part of the community and supporter of the mission of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, the Prestis approached hospital leaders in fall 2018 to explore ways the Presti family might make a positive difference for patients and families. Jon Hayes, president of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, said: “Sam’s resolute sense of gratitude to the

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Hayes said the most exceptional level of patient- and family-centered care is the highest priority for Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, and outcomes that improve the lives of children reach across the state and beyond. “The Presti family’s gift helps us make every patient and family’s hospital stay as comfortable as possible,” he said. “It will contribute toward improved recovery and support the healing process in tangible ways.”

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degree. She then completed her residency in pediatrics on the Oklahoma City campus and, later, earned a master of public health degree from the Hudson College of Public Health at the OU Health Sciences Center.

Hayes spent the first 15 years of her career in private practice settings in Tulsa while also volunteering as the pediatric provider at an area free clinic. A re-examination of her career goals after the unexpected loss of her husband to leukemia resulted in her pursuit of an academic career, specifically for the opportunity it provided to be involved in the education of students.

Jeanne O. Hayes, M.D., MPH

School of Community Medicine Associate Dean and Pediatrician Receives Stanton L. Young Master Teacher Award Jeanne O. Hayes, M.D., MPH, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa, has been honored with the 2021 Stanton L. Young Master Teacher Award.

The award, now in its 38th year, recognizes OU College of Medicine faculty members for excellence in teaching. It was established through an endowment made by the late Oklahoma City businessman Stanton L. Young. The award comes with a $15,000 cash prize, one of the largest in the nation for medical teaching excellence.

“We are grateful to have a faculty member like Dr. Hayes who embodies excellence in the mission of academic medicine,” said John P. Zubialde, M.D., Executive Dean of the OU College of Medicine. “She is universally admired by students, and her commitment to community medicine is evident in her everyday interactions with students and patients.”

Hayes was born and raised in a suburb of Chicago. Her father’s change of jobs moved the family to Texas, where Hayes earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Austin. She then began medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, completing two years. When her future husband matched for his residency in Oklahoma City, she requested a transfer to the OU College of Medicine, where she earned her medical

Hayes is known as a dedicated educator and mentor for medical and physician assistant (PA) students at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine. During her first eight years as faculty, she served as pediatric clerkship director, overseeing the clinical education of all medical and PA students in pediatrics. While in this role, she received two Crimson Apple awards and two Aesculapian awards, honors bestowed by students for teaching excellence to the faculty members who, in part, stir their thirst for scientific knowledge and passion for helping others. In addition, she was chosen by the Academy of Teaching Scholars to receive the Dewayne Andrews, M.D. Excellence in Teaching Award.

In her current role as associate dean, she oversees the functions of the Tulsa Student Services office, which includes admissions to the SCM track, and she has developed programming that helps students reach their potential as future physicians. The majority of her time is dedicated to providing academic and career advising throughout all four years of medical school, and mentoring students as they choose a career and go through the residency match process.

“In Student Services, the main goal is to support our students in any way we can to help them be successful in whatever career path they choose to take. I prioritize making myself available for when students need me,” she said. “I enjoy talking to the students and finding out who they are, what their dreams are and where they might want to end up one day.

Having these conversations with students is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job.”

Hayes continues to play a role in teaching and curriculum development at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine.

She teaches clinical reasoning and communication skills as part of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine I and II courses and, along with Michael Weisz, M.D., co-directs the Clinical Transitions course, which prepares second-year medical students to shift from their first two years of preclinical education and into the hospital wards and clinics of their third and fourth years.

In a nomination letter for the Stanton L. Young Master Teacher Award, a student wrote: “Any professor can effectively teach information, but only a select few are able to also establish the kind of relationship and rapport with students that she has. … She has worked tirelessly to maintain the quality of our education and experience. She has consistently worked for the students’ best interests, advocating for our clinical experiences while

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always ensuring our safety in clinical settings. … All of this she has done while continuing clinical and teaching duties. Since day one at SCM, I have thought she is superwoman, and this year has convinced me of that fact.”

Hayes is board-certified in general pediatrics and sees young patients in the General Pediatrics Clinic two half-days a week. She also provides clinical teaching for residents in the same clinic. She leverages her public health degree continually in her work, she said, as the principles of pediatric preventive medicine go hand in hand with the public health goal of maximizing the health potential of communities through the primary prevention of disease.

“I’m very excited to get started,” Baker said. “I believe the 14 years I’ve led our admissions process at the OU College of Medicine, in addition to teaching students and residents, will be helpful to the council.”

The Council on Medical Education assesses numerous aspects of medical education. Recent topics have included improving access for students and applicants with disabilities; the availability of child care for students and residents; and policies for accepting the training of international medical school graduates.

The recent change of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 to pass/fail rather than a scored test requires ongoing adaptation for medical education, Baker said. For years, residency program directors have used students’ scores on USMLE Step 1 to determine who is invited to interview for positions, an option that is eliminated with pass/fail.

“The challenge now is to establish a process for determining which students to interview,” Baker said. “Residency program directors will need look at each applicant holistically, but that’s difficult when you receive 400 applicants for 10 spots.”

In addition, the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) exam is being eliminated. Previously, medical students would travel to one of five places in the country to perform a complete history and physical exam on a standardized patient. However, nearly everyone passes the exam and the process is extremely expensive, Baker said, adding that the assessment is better managed within each college.

The council also will address changes brought about by COVID-19. The pandemic has been a time of challenges and sorrow, Baker said, but it also sparked innovation in medical education. Telehealth will likely remain a major part of clinical care, which means students will need to be taught skills for interacting with patients virtually. To teach hospital-based care, physicians in some areas of the country wore cameras as they rounded on patients, allowing students to watch the delivery of care remotely.

Sherri Baker, M.D.

Baker Elected to AMA Council on Medical Education

“There are some positives that came out of the pandemic from a medical education standpoint; we just need to figure out what these innovations are going to look like for the long term,” she said.

Sherri Baker, M.D., Associate Dean for Admissions for the OU College of Medicine and a pediatric cardiologist at OU Health, has been elected to the American Medical Association (AMA) Council on Medical Education.

Baker joins an elite group of 12 people on the Council on Medical Education who study and evaluate all aspects of the medical education continuum and recommend policies to the AMA’s House of Delegates. Baker was elected by nearly 600 physicians representing every state and medical specialty. She was nominated by the Oklahoma State Medical Association and is only the second person in Oklahoma to have been elected to a national position with the AMA. She will serve a four-year term.

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Similarly, the council will focus on how advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning will affect students’ future careers in medicine. In the not-too-distant future, physicians may no longer need to read an EKG or CT scan; instead, that will be done by artificial intelligence.

“I’d like to see medical education be more proactive – we know that today’s students are not going to be practicing medicine the way that we do today,” Baker said. “We have to be thinking about what they need to know when they’re practicing 10 years from now. Technology advancements are great, but we can’t lose the doctor-patient relationship. That’s something we need to teach – that technology should be used as a tool that gives you more time to spend with your patients.”

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The CHNC provides its members a comprehensive database of clinical outcomes and resource utilization for babies in the NICU. Hospitals leverage that data to improve the care of babies with conditions they may see only a few times a year. By sharing data and pooling resources, they create improvements that could not be accomplished by one hospital alone. The database also allows member hospitals to undertake quality improvement initiatives both locally and across the consortium.

“For example, we currently have a project in the CHNC looking at the factors that keep a baby in the hospital longer than anticipated,” said OU Health neonatologist Abhishek Makkar, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Section of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. “By looking at each center to determine our similarities and differences, we can adopt best practices.”

Patricia Williams, M.D., medical director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, is among the OU Health physicians working with The Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium.

Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health Joins Consortium for Neonatal Intensive Care Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health has joined The Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC), a collaborative of North America’s leading children’s hospitals that work together to improve care for infants who are critically ill.

Oklahoma Children’s Hospital (OCH) provides the state’s only Level 4 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the highest level of care for newborns. As such, OCH treats children with the most complex and rare diseases and conditions. Across the nation, these infants have an average 25-day hospital stay and require more resources than any other type of pediatric patient. By sharing data and best practices, CHNC members can improve the outcomes for these babies.

“When families bring their babies to Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, they expect that we will provide the most advanced treatments and comprehensive care,” said OU Health neonatologist Patricia Williams, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Section of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. “Through this consortium, we can collaborate with experts across the country and determine which practices are leading to the best outcomes for these babies with rare and complex conditions. That means families can receive the highest level of care without leaving the state or their support networks.”

All types of healthcare providers involved in an infant’s treatment – from physicians to surgeons and nurses to respiratory therapists – are part of the consortium’s efforts.

“It’s nice to be part of a group that opens the door for everyone to contribute,” said Trent Tipple, M.D., Section Chief of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. “Our interdisciplinary teams, including our trainees in medicine and nursing, are crucial for providing high-quality care.”

CHNC members represent the top neonatology programs in the United States and Canada. In some instances, the hospitals might be considered rivals, but for this effort, they are partners working collectively to advance treatments for the youngest and most critically ill patients.

“The CHNC allows us to benchmark our patient outcomes in real time,” Tipple said. “When you’re benchmarking care for complex conditions, it’s important that you’re benchmarking against the right comparisons. As peer institutions, we are the only hospitals in our areas treating infants with these complex conditions. It has nothing to do with competition and everything to do with outcomes.”

Oklahoma Children’s Hospital is one of 39 participating sites in the CHNC. Across the nation, NICU patients represent only 7-8% of the patient population for these hospitals, but because of their complex care needs and long length of stay, they comprise approximately one-quarter of the patient days and over 20% of the total inpatient charges of a children’s hospital.

By marrying pediatric outcomes to measures of resource utilization, the CHNC aims to both improve the quality of care as well as optimize expenditures in the care of medically complex infants.

“The CHNC is very excited to have Oklahoma Children’s Hospital join in our nonprofit’s mission to improve care for infants with complex and uncommon disease,” said Jacquelyn Evans, M.D., executive director of the CHNC. “Our database is now the largest of its kind for this unique patient population, and we are very proud of the passion and dedication of our interdisciplinary neonatal experts who contribute to CHNC’S mission by their rapid sharing of data and knowledge. We are confident Oklahoma Children’s Hospital’s participation in the CHNC will bring value both to the consortium and to the care of infants across the state of Oklahoma.”

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OU College of Medicine Names Three New Department Chairs The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine has named three new chairs of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, and Department of Anesthesiology.

Jim Barrett, M.D., has been appointed chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. He had been serving interim chair of the department since January 2020; prior to that, he served as vice chair from 2013 to 2020.

Barrett joined the OU College of Medicine faculty in 1991 and has served in several capacities, including director of the Primary Care Sports Medicine Program from 1991 to 2005 and director of the Family Medicine Residency Program from 2005 to 2018. He holds the faculty rank of professor and the Edith Kinney Gaylord Presidential Professorship. He has been extensively involved in curriculum development for the department and has mentored numerous students, residents and fellows.

Jim Barrett, M.D.

His dedication to sports medicine and family medicine extends beyond the campus. He is the team physician for the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team, and he was named NBA Physician of the Year for the 2019-2020 NBA season by the National Basketball Athletic Trainer’s Association. Barrett also serves as the team physician for the Oklahoma City Blue professional basketball team and the Oklahoma Dodgers baseball team. In the past, he served as team physician for Olympics and Paralympics events, the Oklahoma City Blazers hockey team, several Major League Baseball training camps, and numerous other sports events.

Raymond Michael Siatkowski, M.D., MBA, has been appointed chair of the Department of Ophthalmology. He will also serve as CEO of the Dean McGee Eye Institute.

Michael Siatkowski, M.D.

Siatkowski has been with the Department of Ophthalmology and the Dean McGee Eye Institute since 1999 and currently holds the faculty rank of professor and serves as Vice Chair for Academic Affairs and Residency Program Director.

He holds the David W. Parke II, M.D. Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology and is a David Ross Boyd Professor, the first ophthalmologist at OU to receive that title. He also is an adjunct professor in the Department of Pediatrics. Prior to arriving at the OU College of Medicine, Siatkowski served for seven years at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

In his clinical work at the Dean McGee Eye Institute, Siatkowski sees both adult and pediatric patients, focusing on pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, retinopathy of prematurity, neuro-ophthalmology, and adult strabismus.

Siatkowski teaches residents, medical students and graduate students and has received numerous teaching awards throughout his career. He is active in research and has published over 170 peer-reviewed articles, and has served as

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Kenichi Tanaka, M.D.

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editorial board member, editor and book reviewer for several journals and books. He has been honored by the American Academy of Ophthalmology with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kenichi Tanaka, M.D., M.Sc., has been named chair of the Department of Anesthesiology. He also holds the John L. Plewes Chair of Anesthesiology and the faculty rank of professor.

Tanaka comes to the OU College of Medicine from the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, where he served as Director of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology for six years. Prior to that, he held academic and clinical appointments at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania and at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

He has expertise in perioperative coagulation monitoring, blood conservation techniques, and bloodless surgery support, and he has led multidisciplinary cardiac surgery quality improvement projects. As Director of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology at the University of Maryland, he led a group of 10-12 diverse academic physicians, providing care to over 1,400 patients per year, including critically ill patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery and heart or lung transplantation.

Tanaka also is recognized in the diagnosis and monitoring of perioperative coagulopathy, treatment strategies, and clinical trials related to blood coagulation. He has published over 250 peer- and non-peer- reviewed articles, editorials and book chapters. He serves the Food and Drug Administration as a temporary voting member of the Blood Product Advisory Committee.

Project Trinity Aims to Better Understand Mental, Physical Health of African Americans The COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest in the United States have disrupted the economic stability and daily routines of African Americans in Oklahoma and across the nation.

This year, researchers at the TSET Health Promotion Research Center at Stephenson Cancer Center launched a statewide cohort study called Project Trinity to investigate how these socioeconomic factors affect the physical and mental health of African Americans.

Researchers fear that these disruptions not only cause a decline in mental and physical health, but may lead to detrimental health choices such as greater tobacco and alcohol use, sedentary behavior and poor dietary choices.

Adam Alexander, Ph.D., a health disparities researcher with a

Adam Alexander, Ph.D., leads the program Project Trinity.

specialty in tobacco research at the TSET Health Promotion Research Center, leads the program.

Alexander said Project Trinity aims to provide data and insights that can be used by policymakers, public health professionals and researchers in Oklahoma. This information can be used to inform public policy and research to promote health equity and to restore trust between African Americans, law enforcement and other public institutions. More broadly, the study will support grant applications that focus on reducing tobacco use, increasing physical activity, and addressing other modifiable health risk behaviors among African Americans.

Alexander believes that this study will “document and illustrate the harmful health and economic effects of the pandemic and unprecedented social unrest on the lives of African Americans in Oklahoma. Each African American adult who participates in this cohort study will contribute to the broader discussion about identifying policies and interventions that are needed to mitigate the secondary health and economic consequences of these traumatic events.”

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MEDICAL EDUCATION

Match Day 2021 On a beautiful spring day in Oklahoma, students from the Class of 2021 were able to safely hold their Match Day celebrations outdoors amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Students at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine celebrated on campus, while Oklahoma City students held their event at Scissortail Park.

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degree was converted to a master of health sciences degree, which has survived dramatic fluctuations in class size, from a low of 10 students (Class of 1986) to the present-day high of 50 students per year. New classroom facilities, ample and diverse clinical rotation sites, and integration within the OU College of Medicine also reflect the evolution of the program.

PA students cite their oath during the annual PA White Coat Ceremony.

Poised For Next Half Century: OU’s Physician Associate Program The physician associate program at the OU College of Medicine’s Oklahoma City campus is one of the oldest PA programs in the United States, graduating seven members of its first class in 1972. With a 50th anniversary looming, program leaders are planning for the historic event.

Established in 1970 through the leadership of A. William Horsley, M.D., and William D. Stanhope, P.A., the program was originally administered under the direction of the newly created Department of Family Practice, Community Medicine and Dentistry in Oklahoma City.

PAs fulfill a critical need in healthcare delivery and eliminate potential gaps in continuity of care. Like physicians, PAs may narrow the focus of their practices to any number of specialty areas, from primary care to an array of subspecialties in cardiology, surgery, oncology or pediatrics, to name only a few. “In short, there is a role for physician associate practice in every medical discipline,” said Bruna Varalli-Claypool, MHS, P.A.-C., associate professor, OU College of Medicine.

As part of a comprehensive healthcare team, PAs are inextricably woven into the fabric of healthcare services.

Licensed to provide care that includes diagnosis and treatment, PAs practice as part of care teams with physician collaboration.

According to the American Academy of Physician Assistants, educators and physicians in the mid-1960s recognized a growing shortage of primary care physicians. Using curriculum that successfully fast-tracked the medical training of military personnel in World War II, faculty at Duke University Medical Center assembled the first class of PA students in 1965. Four Navy Hospital corpsmen were the first graduates of that first-ever PA program in 1967.

The program at OU has grown its offerings and capacity throughout five decades, and is one of the original six accredited programs in the United States, with continuous accreditation since 1972. The original bachelor of science

While steeped in tradition, the program is more than prepared to provide an educational experience that keeps pace with every medical, scientific and technological advance. In the midst of ongoing and proactive change, the stability of the program at OU is a testament to strategic planning. The retention of active and seasoned faculty members is a factor that cultivates student engagement, involvement and leadership in the profession on state and national levels.

Throughout its long history, OU’s program has had historic influence in promoting educational excellence within the profession, creating greater opportunities for successful and rewarding careers. In addition, the program has fostered leadership at both local and national levels, with five graduates or faculty members having served as president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

Partnering with the Oklahoma Academy of Physician Assistants and the Texas Academy of Physician Assistants, OU’s PA program coordinated the first organized, statewide continuing medical education conference in 1974. A member of the 1972 graduating class, Earl Dunkleberger, P.A.-C., now retired, was one of the chief organizers of that inaugural event.

Sponsors optimistically anticipated 60 participants at most.

In fact, 276 PAs attended from such far-flung regions as Canada and Central America. Registration fees were directed to support local chapters and invest in the growth of future CME activities. For some time, PA chapters continued to share revenues earned through each event, and used the funds as seed money to sustain local chapters of the AAPA in Oklahoma and Texas. This practice also made it possible for other chapters to co-host CMEs and introduce additional PA-related offerings at the national level.

Varalli-Claypool said the program has made significant contributions that have resulted in a stronger healthcare workforce that serves residents in Oklahoma and beyond.

“Demand for this level of expertise and training is evident in the enrollment volume,” she said. “Each year, we interview at least 150 applicants for only 50 available placements. Since 1996, the average number of graduates annually is 50, and since inception, the program has graduated 1,772 PAs. That’s a legacy with lasting impact for improved health outcomes.”

“Those who choose to practice medicine as PAs embark not only on a demanding career path, but also on a calling to care that challenges them to bring the best they have to offer, continuously and consistently,” said Melody Yozzo, P.A.-C., recently retired program director. “The PA profession offers wide and varied avenues for contributions to the practice of medicine that are practical, meaningful and rewarding.

As we celebrate this momentous anniversary, we have every confidence that our efforts here today are essential to the future of healthcare and our providers are more than able to meet its challenges.”

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minorities can’t afford the price tag, and their MCAT scores often aren’t high enough to land them an interview for medical school.

The OU College of Medicine partnered with Kaplan, a leading MCAT prep company, to negotiate a price per student, Mickel said. The students took part in the program for free, meeting twice a week for three hours each time, to prepare for the exam and take practice tests. This spring, many of the participants took the MCAT, which has four major sections and takes over seven hours to complete.

Nasya Cooper, a student at Langston University, is pictured with Robert Salinas, M.D., Assistant Dean for Diversity for the OU College of Medicine.

Cooper recently completed the college’s new medical school readiness program.

College Builds Diversity Through Medical School Readiness Program Across the United States, there is a lack of diversity in medical schools and in the physician workforce. To break down some of the barriers that underrepresented minorities face, the OU College of Medicine recently completed its first medical school readiness program, an intensive five-month course that prepares college students to apply to medical school.

The program, called OU Med REV UP!, concluded in May and was comprised of 148 students from across Oklahoma who are interested in medical school. There were 42 students who are African American/Black; 32 who are Hispanic; 17 who are Native American; and 45 who designated other ethnicity/race.

The group included 95 females, 49 males, and two students who identify as gender non-conforming. Nine of the students identified as LGBTQ+. They represented 20 counties and 17 universities.

“This has been a really special opportunity,” said Natasha Mickel, Ph.D., Director of Multicultural Engagement for the OU College of Medicine. “Many minorities want to make it to medical school, but they don’t have the resources. This program helps them get to the point where they can apply to medical school.”

In particular, the program prepared them to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), which is a significant factor in medical school admission. MCAT prep courses are available, and statistics show that they improve scores, but they cost thousands of dollars, Mickel said. Many underrepresented

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In addition to the MCAT prep, participants received extensive one-on-one mentoring. Nearly 100 current OU College of Medicine students mentored each participant on steps to take as they prepare to apply to medical school.

During twice-monthly guided mentoring sessions, faculty members and residents talked to students about topics that ranged from creating a medical school portfolio to problem-solving skills to time management. Mickel led the mentoring sessions and guided students throughout the process.

By state law, at least 75% of each new OU College of Medicine class must be comprised of Oklahoma residents, heightening the need to train students who represent the diversity of the state. Underrepresented minorities who train at the OU College of Medicine are more likely to return to their communities to practice medicine, providing an important link to healthcare. In addition, studies show that health outcomes improve overall when the healthcare workforce is more diverse, Mickel said.

Nasya Cooper of Jenks, who is a biology major at Langston University, took part in the program as preparation for her goal of taking the MCAT in 2023, just before she graduates from college in 2024. Not only did the free program ease what would have been a very expensive process, but it provided materials and strategies that Cooper will continue to use over the next few years.

Cooper’s parents work in healthcare and have inspired her to enter the field as a means of improving the lives of others.

“I want to be a physician because we need more physicians in the medical field, but more importantly, we need more Black physicians,” she said. “Race-related health disparities attracted me to become a physician. The maternal and infant mortality rate within the Black community compared to other communities is incredibly alarming, and that is why I want to be an OB-GYN physician. As I matriculate through medical school and residency, I will do my best to embody the advocacy aspect of a physician because it is what every patient deserves.”

OU Med REV UP! was funded by a grant from the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), which awarded $4.7 million to the OU College of Medicine in 2019, followed by a $2.8 million supplement in 2020. The grant’s aim is to recruit, retain and admit students from rural, tribal and medically underserved areas. OU Med REV UP! will be offered again for the 2021-2022 academic year. For more information, visit the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement at medicine.ouhsc.edu.

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The OU College of Medicine’s rankings underscore its commitment to training the next generation of physicians who will care for patients across the spectrum of life, focusing both on the prevention and treatment of disease, as well as leveraging research to continually improve the standard of care, said John Zubialde, M.D., Executive Dean of the OU College of Medicine.

“We are excited about the U.S. News & World Report rankings because they reflect the hard work of our faculty and staff in educating the physicians of tomorrow,” Zubialde said. “Our ranking in primary care is particularly significant given the breadth of our college departments, which range from primary care to specialty care. Whereas many other medical schools have a singular focus on primary care, our primary care disciplines excel alongside our specialty programs because of the high caliber of our physicians and staff. Each day they are committed to training Oklahoma’s healthcare workforce.”

The OU College of Medicine ranks high among its peers across the nation.

U.S. News & World Report Ranks OU College of Medicine Among Nation’s Best The OU College of Medicine has been named one of the best medical colleges in the nation in several categories, according to the U.S. News & World Report 2022 Best Graduate Schools rankings. They include primary care education; most graduates practicing in primary care fields; most graduates practicing in rural areas; and most graduates practicing in health professional shortage areas.

The OU College of Medicine is the largest college within the OU Health Sciences Center and is at the center of OU Health, the state’s comprehensive academic health system. The rankings cite the OU College of Medicine as 51st in the nation for excellence in primary care education, which includes the medical specialties of family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics. The college ranks 60th in the nation for the number of graduates practicing in primary care fields; 44th in the nation for graduates practicing in rural areas; and 44th in the nation for graduates practicing in health professional shortage areas. In addition, the college ranks 74th for its research activity.

The rankings encompass 191 accredited allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in the United States, which grant M.D. and D.O. degrees, respectively.

The OU College of Medicine trains the majority of physicians in Oklahoma, including the most primary care physicians.

Many choose to practice medicine in rural and medically underserved areas of the state, where access to services is critical for improving health. The college is also committed to diversity among its students and future physicians – through the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement, students from underrepresented populations across Oklahoma are mentored as they prepare to apply to medical school. Many of those students will choose careers in primary care and will return to their communities to practice medicine.

The college’s ranking in research activity reflects the faculty’s ability to earn federal research grants. Faculty members across the college’s 21 academic departments regularly earn grants from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Health Services & Resources Administration, the U.S. Department of Defense, and others. In recent years, the college’s major federal grants include $11 million to create the Oklahoma Center for Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunity, a hub for research into many types of infections and the immune system response, as well as $38 million for suicide prevention research.

“Along with education and patient care, research is a primary mission of the OU College of Medicine,” Zubialde said. “Our faculty members’ success in earning federal grants signifies the value of their research and its potential to improve the practice of medicine. By training in that environment, our students understand that our role is not only to offer high-quality care to our patients, but to define the next standard of care through research discoveries.”

To compile its rankings, the U.S. News & World Report uses several indicators, including an overall quality assessment, students’ grade point average, score on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and college acceptance rates. It also includes a peer assessment score, a residency assessment score, and resources allotted to faculty. The data for the rankings come from statistical surveys of more than 2,012 programs and from reputation surveys sent to more than 20,500 academics and professionals, conducted in fall 2020 and early 2021.

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Seated left to right, sports medicine fellow Aaron Smathers, M.D., family medicine resident Samson Adewale, M.D., and sports medicine fellow Amanda Sadler, M.D., perform a bike fit exam on a patient.

Current sports medicine fellows Amanda Sadler, M.D., and Aaron Smathers, M.D., practice casting on each other.

Fellowships Equip Physicians to Treat Professional Athletes and Weekend Warriors Alike

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Brian Coleman, M.D., leads the sports medicine fellowship program on the Oklahoma City campus.

fellows have deepened their sports medicine knowledge and skill within a primary care approach that is important for professional athletes and weekend warriors alike. As with any medical discipline, sports medicine has changed with technological advances and new knowledge, but at its heart, the focus is on helping people stay active in the pursuits they love.

Across the world, in settings that range from NFL games and Olympic events to primary care clinics and orthopedic practices, graduates of the OU College of Medicine’s primary care sports medicine fellowships can be found.

“Whether our patients are professional or amateur athletes, getting active and staying active promotes good health,” said Jim Barrett, M.D., originator of the Oklahoma City fellowship and now chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine.

The fellowships, offered both on the Oklahoma City campus and at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa, are considered among the nation’s best. For some 30 years,

In Oklahoma City, the sports medicine fellowship is directed

by Brian Coleman, M.D., who completed his own fellowship

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“When they cover sporting events, our fellows are learning to think on their feet,” Coleman said. “The experience gained is one of confidence and the ability to handle whatever may come up. They also learn how to set up emergency plans and to know what the next steps are if something happens. They are also willing to put in extra time and energy for after-hours coverage because athletes don’t play sports from 8 to 5.

“However, the majority of our patients aren’t athletes per se – they are people who are trying to stay active and do the things they like to do,” Coleman said. “When people are injured, we try to modify activities in order to get them back to what they enjoy doing. ‘Rest’ is a relative term. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest, so we try to get people moving. It’s a fine balance.”

Jason Deck, M.D., leads the sports medicine fellowship program on the Tulsa campus.

On the Tulsa campus, Jason Deck, M.D., leads a one-year program that similarly splits its time between coverage of sporting events and patient care in the clinic. Fellows provide medical coverage for all athletic events at the University of Tulsa and Oral Roberts University, including traveling to away games with the TU football team. They cover the Tulsa Drillers, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ AA affiliate, as well as the Tulsa Athletic, a semi-pro soccer team. On the high school level, they cover Booker T. Washington High School, whose graduates have played in the NFL and NBA in record numbers. Fellows also coordinate and provide medical coverage at events like the Route 66 Marathon, Tulsa Tough, the Big 12 Wrestling Tournament and others.

“Hands-on experience is important for our fellows,” said Deck, who completed his own fellowship at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine. “If our fellow is at the game when someone tears their ACL, the fellow will be the one doing the exam and taking care of the patient. If they’re not at the game, the athlete is going to be sent to the ER, where someone else will do the initial evaluation and may or may not do the right thing. The same is true of concussions. Seeing those injuries first-hand and having a longer-term relationship with the athletes allows us to provide better care.”

Eric Sandoval, M.D., a Tulsa sports medicine fellow in 2016-17, is pictured with the mascot for Oral Roberts University, one of the local universities where fellows provide medical coverage.

in the program under Barrett. Two fellows are accepted each year, typically from a primary care residency, for the one-year program. Coverage of events gives the fellows hands-on experience in a variety of sports. Fellows provide medical coverage for the Oklahoma Dodgers, the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as well as the OKC Blue, the NBA’s minor league.

At the university level, they cover athletic events at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma City University and Oklahoma Christian University.

The also coordinate coverage and provide on-site care for amateur athletic events like the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and the Redman Triathlon. On campus, they see patients in a variety of clinic settings, where they interact with cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons, exercise medicine specialists, and providers in other healthcare disciplines.

Tulsa fellows also care for patients in the clinic. Exercise prescriptions are commonly used to help patients with medical issues like diabetes and high blood pressure.

The campus also has one of the only dedicated concussion clinics in Oklahoma, where they see patients from across the state, and a state-of-the-art facility where they can perform V02 max testing, gait analysis and more.

Much has changed in the field of sports medicine since the fellowships began, and much is on the horizon, such as regenerative medicine. One of the biggest changes in the past decade is the increasing use of ultrasound, both at sporting events and in the clinic. More accessible and less expensive than an X-ray or MRI, ultrasound allows physicians to see the joints, muscles, tendons and nerves.

“There’s no radiation associated with ultrasound, and it’s dynamic,” Deck said. “If you use an X-ray or MRI, you get an image of the patient in one position. With ultrasound, you can watch the patient move so that you can see what’s happening in real time, not just in one position.”

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Former sports medicine fellow Abhi Davlapur, M.D., tends to a mixed martial arts fighter during an event in 2019.

Tad Seifert, M.D., left, and Sean Cupp, M.D., 2000 graduates of the OU College of Medicine, provide medical coverage to the Cleveland Browns.

Oklahoma influence on the team. OU College of Medicine graduates Sean Cupp, M.D., and Tad Seifert, M.D., keep the team healthy and safe as lead medical physician and neurotrauma consultant, respectively.

Tulsa campus sports medicine physicians and faculty members Lamont Cavanagh, M.D., and Tommy Kern, M.D., work with a patient.

Concussions have been taken more seriously in the past decade as well. No longer do athletes simply “get their bell rung”; rather, physicians make decisions that allow the athlete’s brain to heal appropriately so they aren’t at risk for developing problems or for having a subsequent concussion.

Over the past year, COVID-19 has challenged sports medicine physicians in new and unexpected ways. Early in the pandemic, there was concern that athletes who got COVID-19 might face cardiac issues after infection. Although the risk now appears to be much lower than originally thought, the virus is still a daily concern and testing is conducted frequently.

Handling both the unforeseen and the routine is the role of a sports medicine fellow, no matter where they ultimately practice medicine. “Our fellowship provides that extra tool in the toolbox for what they want to do when they complete the program,” Coleman said.

College of Medicine Alumni Keeping Cleveland Browns Safe and Healthy Former OU Sooners football quarterback Baker Mayfield has made his mark in the National Football League since joining the Cleveland Browns in 2018. But he’s not the only

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Cupp has served as the Browns’ lead medical physician since 2014, and he is a sports medicine specialist for University Hospitals, Cleveland Medical Center, where he also serves as co-director of the UH Sports Medicine Institute. He is an assistant professor in the Division of Sports Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio.

He graduated from the OU College of Medicine in 2000, followed by his residency in family medicine at the University of Alabama Birmingham-Huntsville. He then returned home for his primary care sports medicine fellowship at the OU College of Medicine.

Seifert is one of the NFL’s unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants and is assigned to the Cleveland Browns for game-day coverage, acting as an impartial, independent evaluator for concussions. He has served in this capacity in the NFL since 2016 and has been assigned to the Browns since 2018. Seifert is the director of Norton Healthcare’s Sports Neurology Program in Louisville, Kentucky, and is a clinical faculty member with the University of Louisville’s Department of Sports Medicine. Seifert also graduated from the OU College of Medicine in 2000. He then completed his intern year at the University of Louisville, followed by his residency in neurology at the University of Texas and a fellowship in headache and facial pain at the Houston Headache Clinic.

Cupp and Seifert quickly formed a friendship during medical school because of their love of sports, especially Sooner football. They also realized that they had competed against each other at high school track meets – Cupp as a runner and pole vaulter in Watonga and Seifert as a mid-distance runner from Enid.

“Getting to see Tad on five or six Sundays each fall during Cleveland Browns games is great,” Cupp said. “We get to

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stand together the entire game and catch up with each other’s families, discuss Sooner football and try to keep up to date with mutual friends from our northwestern Oklahoma roots.”

Cupp said it has also been enjoyable watching the turnaround for the Cleveland Browns with Mayfield as quarterback. Last year, Mayfield led the Browns to their first 11-win season since 1994, their first playoff appearance since 2002, and their first playoff victory since 1994.

“Despite 2020 being extra challenging with COVID-19 and the day- to-day medical management that it brought to the team and my workday, it was very enjoyable to see the Browns finally have success after years of losing, always with the hope of rebuilding,” Cupp said.

Cupp has a thriving nonsurgical sports medicine and orthopedic practice, caring for athletes of all ages and specializing in joint preservation. He considers himself a clinician, he said, and constantly draws on the skills he learned at OU, both for his clinical practice patients and in his work caring for the Cleveland Browns.

“One of the best gifts that I received from my time at OU was communication and relationship skills,” he said. “I feel very comfortable talking to any patient about almost any subject and making them feel comfortable sharing their problems with me to create a good working relationship.

“The other gift that I received was the wonderful mentoring relationships that started as a first-year medical student and helped shape me over the course of the next four years, and some still today,” Cupp added. “I entered medical school wanting to be a sports medicine physician and thought the only way would be as an orthopedic surgeon. I met Dr. Jim Barrett in January of my first year of medical school while walking through a residency fair. Jim and I talked for a while and he shared with me his specialty of primary care sports medicine. I thought it was fascinating! At that point in time, I felt that was what I probably wanted to do. He soon became a mentor and helped shape me as a sports medicine physician and build the foundation of my career.”

Physician, Mentor, Leader: Barrett Elevates Sports Medicine in Oklahoma and Around the World Thirty years ago, Jim Barrett, M.D., arrived at the OU College of Medicine for his first faculty appointment, in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine.

Today, he is chairman of that department, serves as the lead physician for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and has trained sports medicine physicians who are practicing around the world.

Jim Barrett, M.D., who started the primary care sports medicine fellowship at the OU College of Medicine, is now chair of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. He is also lead physician for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Barrett began the sports medicine fellowship program on the Oklahoma City campus soon after his arrival in 1991 and served as director until 2005, when he took over as director of the family medicine residency program. Earlier this year, he was named chair of the department after several years of serving as vice chair then interim chair.

In addition to his academic work, Barrett has enjoyed a parallel sports medicine career through providing medical coverage for numerous professional sporting events and teams. He has served as team physician for Olympic and Paralympic teams, several Major League Baseball training camps, the Oklahoma City Blazers hockey team and much more.

His time with the NBA began with the Sacramento Kings during his fellowship at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento. When the New Orleans Hornets temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he became involved again and increased his work when the Oklahoma City Thunder became official. Last year, he was named NBA Physician of the Year by the National Basketball Athletic Trainer’s Association.

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“Dr. Barrett is a brilliant and dedicated family medicine physician with an extensive background in sports medicine, so it is no surprise that he was honored as the NBA Physician of the Year. He is especially deserving of such recognition because he combines excellent care with a focus on the safety of each and every Thunder player every time they step onto the court,” said John Zubialde, M.D., Executive Dean of the OU College of Medicine.

As the lead physician for a team of physicians that also includes an orthopedist and a cardiologist, Barrett attends every Thunder game to provide primary care support.

During games, he treats players for musculoskeletal injuries, concussions and lacerations, among other issues, and he is always available to provide medical consultation to the Thunder’s team of physical therapists, athletic trainers, and strength and conditioning coaches.

“It’s a team of doctors taking care of a team of athletes,” Barrett said. “We also take care of the coaches and staff because they need to be at the top of their game to help with the team.”

Although NBA players tend to be celebrities, Barrett’s job is to care for them as people. “Even though the players are in the spotlight, they are people with regular needs, and they need to be treated like people. That humanity is so important to them,” he said.

Barrett’s professional sports medicine service has allowed him to travel the world, particularly with Olympians, traveling to Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Mexico, England and many other places. He has learned the intricacies of numerous sports and the types of injuries athletes are prone to experiencing. On a trip to Australia with a women’s field hockey team, a sport he had never watched, he read a book and talked to coaches to understand the game. By the time they arrived, he understood how injuries might occur and could talk to players more fluently about what they should and should not do.

One of his most inspiring types of service has been working with Paralympic Athletes, he said. “They compete at the highest level. Whether they are in wheelchairs or have had amputations or other disabilities, they compete as strongly and equally as able-bodied people,” he said. “It’s a joy to work with those athletes.”

Barrett said he couldn’t do his work without the support of his family, who understand the long hours involved with sports medicine, as well as his “right-hand man” and current sports medicine fellowship director, Brian Coleman, M.D., who fills in at Thunder games.

Whether he is working with elite athletes or is helping everyday athletes overcome barriers like asthma or diabetes, Barrett is driven by his own love of sports and connecting people to the activities they enjoy and that improve health.

“One of the most important things we do is to listen to people’s stories and hear what their concerns are,” he said.

“We may assume what their concerns are, but we don’t always know. Listening to them and helping them find ways to stay active is key.”

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Tyler Gunter M.D.

OU Health Performs First Brachytherapy, Implanting Radioactive ‘Seeds’ Around Brain Tumor Site An OU Health surgical and medical team has performed its first brachytherapy procedure for brain tumor, a process in which radioactive “seeds” are implanted around the edges of the tumor site after it has been removed.

The surgery, the first known case in Oklahoma, treats the cancer internally, rather than from an outside radiation source.

It is an especially good option for patients whose cancer has been treated with multiple courses of radiation therapy.

Radiation therapy has a cumulative toxic effect on nearby tissue, making repeated treatments risky.

“The benefit of brachytherapy is that it allows us to be very precise with the radiation dose,” said neurosurgeon Chad Glenn, M.D., who performed the surgery and implanted the radiation seeds. “Although traditional radiation therapy is accurate and targeted, it can still spread to adjacent brain tissues or the scalp. Brachytherapy allows us to give a therapeutic dose of radiation but minimize the spread.”

Both the tumor removal and the implanting of the radioactive seeds are performed during the same procedure. Because the radioactive seeds have a short half-life, meticulous planning was necessary to ensure they were ordered, delivered and implanted at the correct time. Glenn’s colleague in radiation oncology, Tyler Gunter, M.D., helped to plan the surgery, using an estimated model of the tumor cavity to calculate the radiation dose and number of seeds needed, as well as ideal placement.

“Brachytherapy is an ideal technique to deliver a therapeutic dose of radiation to brain tumors that have been

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Neurosurgeon Chad Glenn, M.D., performed OU Health’s first brachytherapy procedure for brain cancer.

heavily treated in the past,” said Gunter, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology. “The dose to tumor cells adjacent to the sources is very high, while nearby uninvolved tissue receives a much lower dose, reducing the risk of side effects and complications. Because the dose near the seeds is so high, careful planning and placement is required to ensure a safe and effective treatment. The patient’s pre-treatment MRI is used to estimate the size of the area to be implanted with the radioactive seeds, and a computer program is used to determine the optimal spacing and to calculate the dose to the resection cavity and adjacent normal tissue.”

over about three months, like a time-release capsule, then become inert.

In the operating room, Glenn removed the tumor and sent a portion of it to pathologists to confirm it was malignant. Once that was verified, he began placing the radioactive seeds, which are similar to beads on a string, each about the size of a grain of rice. Glenn lined the edges of the tumor cavity with the seeds, maintaining an even spacing of a centimeter between each. The implanted seeds are considered permanent – they deliver radiation at decreasing doses

“It is very exciting to see the important step forward that OU Health’s Dr. Glenn and Dr. Gunter have made in making this leading-edge targeted internal radiation treatment available to their patients who are battling this difficult cancer,” said Isoray CEO Lori Woods. “We continue to strive to bring new brachytherapy treatment opportunities to the forefront to benefit patients and the medical professionals who care for them.”

“The patient is actually receiving treatment in the recovery room,” said Glenn, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery. “Normally, patients who have a brain tumor removed will receive treatment in three or four weeks once they’ve healed. This allows us to treat someone immediately.”

The radioactive seeds, called Cesium-131, or commercially known as Cesium Blu, are produced by the company Isoray.

It is the world’s only producer of Cesium-131 brachytherapy seeds.

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OU College of Medicine Physician, Educator Becomes the Patient: Deep Brain Stimulation Returns Quality of Life for People with Parkinson’s For years, life with Parkinson’s disease had been challenging but manageable for Steve Blevins because of the medications that kept his symptoms under control. But there came a time when the drugs weren’t working consistently and he found himself once again struggling with buttons, zippers, and other everyday movements that otherwise would be routine.

Andrew Conner, M.D.

That’s when he turned to deep brain stimulation, a brain surgery for Parkinson’s that has made major advancements in recent years. As it happens, Blevins is an internal medicine physician at OU Health, where neurosurgeons and neurologists are expanding a program that is vastly improving the quality of life for people with Parkinson’s. Since Blevins underwent the surgery – which involves placing electrodes deep into the brain – he has regained his quality of life.

“I’m very passionate about deep brain stimulation (DBS) for people with Parkinson’s because it dramatically helps with their motor symptoms,” said Andrew Conner, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, who performed the surgery on Blevins. “DBS does not slow the progression of the disease, but it returns function and quality of life for the vast majority of patients.”

Blevins was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 13 years ago after feeling fatigued, being unable to use his right hand to scrub his head in the shower, and having to use both hands to hold his toothbrush. For years, the standard drug combination of levodopa-carbidopa worked wonderfully, allowing him to continue his work as a doctor and medical educator. But eventually he began having “motor fluctuations,” in which his medications worked unpredictably and his symptoms returned. Increasing his dosage only caused more side effects, which can include nausea, vomiting and low blood pressure. He reached a point where medication itself was not providing the quality of life he wanted.

Steve Blevins, M.D.

“I had regressed to an earlier time when I couldn’t hold my right arm normally or use my fingers and hands properly,” Blevins said. “The volume of my voice became low, and I was walking on the sides of my feet instead of the soles of my feet. As my quality of life declined, I said, ‘It’s time to operate on me.’”

Treating patients with DBS requires physicians in two specialties: neurosurgery and neurology. As a neurosurgeon, Conner’s expertise is implanting the electrodes, a procedure that requires great precision to reach desired targets in the

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Faiza Butt, M.D.

PATIENT CARE

brain. After the surgery, the patient moves to the care of a neurologist, who programs the implanted device to achieve symptom control.

Once a patient is verified as a candidate for DBS, Conner determines whether the surgery will take place while the patient is awake or under general anesthesia, the latter being an option and preference for most people. In years past, surgery could only be conducted while a patient was awake so that the surgeon could find the correct targets for the electrodes. To do so, he would pass a small recording needle into holes drilled in the skull in order to listen – structures around the targets produce different sound patterns and reveal the correct locations. The patient had to remain awake because robust brain signals were required in order to hear the patterns.

Today, the target locations are confirmed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) while the patient is under anesthesia. After securing the patient’s head, the surgical team moves the patient in and out of the MRI scanner to find and confirm the two targets, called STN (subthalamic nucleus) and GPi (globus pallidus internus), which are responsible for movement control. Behind the hairline, holes are drilled, the openings a bit smaller than a quarter, and the electrodes are inserted to the target locations. Patients generally stay in the ICU a day or two before going home, but a week later they return for a shorter outpatient procedure to implant the battery pack. The battery is connected to the electrodes through extension wires and the pack is placed under the skin below the collarbone.

“DBS is a joint process with the neurologist. I implant the electrodes and the neurologist programs the device,” said Conner, who did his fellowship training at the University of California San Francisco, which pioneered the use of MRI-guided DBS. “Most patients receive extremely good benefits. It’s very gratifying to see them gain their function back.”

While medications for Parkinson’s help the brain to replenish its supply of dopamine, DBS works by using electrical signaling to stimulate the neurons that contain dopamine, thereby controlling a patient’s symptoms. Programming a patient’s DBS device is a meticulous and ongoing process, said OU Health neurologist Faiza Butt, M.D., who did her fellowship training with Conner and joined the team last year on the Oklahoma City campus.

She typically begins programming the patient’s device in her clinic within a month of surgery, adjusting the voltage, pulse width and frequency to address a patient’s specific symptoms.

DBS is often effective for patients with medication-resistant tremors; dyskinesia, or involuntary movements that they cannot control; and dystonia, in which muscles contract involuntarily, causing repetitive or twisting movements.

“DBS is a great treatment for patients when their medications are no longer controlling their symptoms sufficiently, or they are having severe side effects from the medication,” Butt said.

“Tremors in particular are notoriously difficult to control using medications. DBS gives patients control over symptoms that affect their day-to-day life.”

Andrew Conner, M.D., demonstrates where the battery pack is placed under the patient’s skin for deep brain stimulation.

Electrodes are inserted to target locations in the brain for deep brain stimulation.

Many patients who undergo DBS for Parkinson’s are able to significantly lower their medication dosage, said Syed Hussain, M.D., an OU Health neurologist in Tulsa. DBS is also a long-term treatment, only requiring new batteries from time to time. Because there are four points of stimulation on each electrode implanted on either side of the brain, there are numerous combinations to use, if needed, Hussain said.

“I have never had a patient reach a point where DBS is no longer beneficial,” Hussain said. “It works 24/7 and controls most symptoms, and many patients can reduce their medications once they reach a good setting. Some patients tell me after they’ve had DBS that it’s the first time they haven’t had to concentrate to see whether they’re shaking.

Their walking improves and comes naturally. They’re often able to resume hobbies with their families and friends. It can be like turning the clock back 10 years.”

As the second most common degenerative neurological disorder after Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s takes a toll on those it afflicts. Blevins is grateful to have his quality of life back and to have renewed vigor for his work, which involves teaching residents and enhancing the curriculum as Associate Dean for Medical Education in the OU College of Medicine.

“I’ve had a lot of improvements, for which I am very grateful,” Blevins said. “DBS is not curative for Parkinson’s, nor does it necessarily slow down its progression, but the benefits are tremendous.”

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In this scene from “The Martin Family Dinner,” family members talk about the ways COVID-19 changed everyday life.

Pediatric Psychologist Creates Animated Video to Help Families Cope With COVID-19 Pandemic When COVID-19 arrived, stress and anxiety were common reactions for children and the adults who care for them.

Knowing they would need some tools to cope with a global pandemic, an OU Health pediatric psychologist created an animated video that models healthy communication during an uncertain time.

In some ways, the work is not unlike what Noel Jacobs, Ph.D., does day to day with patients and families in the Pediatric Gastroenterology Clinic – helping them to understand, talk about and navigate life amid the uncertainty of sickness. With COVID-19, he inserted

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those same skills inside the story and dialogue of a family coming to terms with the upheaval of the virus.

The result is the animated video “The Martin Family Dinner,” which is designed to help children understand issues related to the pandemic and to help parents have supportive conversations with their children.

“In my work, and the work of all pediatric psychologists at OU Health, the most important goal we have is for kids to grow up healthy and empowered, and to give them tools for coping during the rough parts. In a sense, this animated video encapsulates that goal – for kids and families to get through

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The idea for the video sprang from conversations in the College of Medicine’s Collegiality and Well-Being Committee.

Jacobs developed the characters and wrote the script, and colleagues gave their feedback. Two recent OU graduates helped with the animation, and Green Pastures Studio in Oklahoma City hired voice actors, provided editing and helped with other details. The video has spread around the internet since it was released, and the American Psychological Association featured it in its Monitor on Psychology publication.

As the pandemic continued, children faced stressors far beyond the virus itself, Jacobs said. When schools shut down, children suddenly lost connection with the peers they’d been accustomed to seeing in person for nine months out of the year. Many parents experienced job loss and financial problems, leading to anxiety that their children absorbed.

“Adaptation is hard for everybody,” Jacobs said. “Sleep disturbance has been pretty common for kids, as well as changes in eating habits. Our habits are habits partly because our days tend to be similar in normal times. So when that changes, a lot of our habits change as well.”

The videos also address the fact that parents, too, have felt the emotional burden of COVID-19 and struggled for words to help their children process what was happening. “Just like adults did not easily have conversations with their co-workers and friends at first, families didn’t have many words to talk about this and to help kids express their feelings, or to plan what steps they would take as a family,” Jacobs said.

However, there have been silver linings for youth and families, he said. Children who experienced social anxiety or bullying at school received a reprieve. Teenagers often slept longer and better, and many families improved their eating habits because they were spending more time at home.

The animated videos have been so successful that Jacobs is planning to make more. He will again use the Martin family, but the next videos will focus on support and quality of life for kids with chronic health conditions. The topic is a perfect fit for his daily clinical work with OU Health Physicians and at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, where he works with young patients who have ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and liver disease, including seeing kids through the transplant process.

Noel Jacobs, Ph.D.

life feeling supported and feeling like they not only have a way to cope today, but also to have a good tomorrow,” said Jacobs, an associate professor in the Section of General and Community Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics.

In “The Martin Family Dinner,” one of the parents is a physician who cares for patients with COVID-19; the other parent is at home with their three children. To keep the entire family safe, the physician parent is staying apart and communicating virtually. The first part of the video focuses on information about the virus and hearing the kids’ questions and worries.

The second half delves into family communication and coping, while normalizing the emotional and social toll of the pandemic.

He also helps adolescents prepare for independent medical self-management as they move toward adult medical care.

Young people with chronic conditions have a higher likelihood of needing emergency care for events that could have been prevented, he said, and much of that is related to the handover of medical management from parent to child.

“We can provide these videos to new patients and families to help them realize that even though they’re new to the experience, many other families are going through it,” he said. “I’m excited to be using the format of animation to deliver information that is medically accurate and psychologically informed, with modeling of how families can support each other, whether it concerns a newly diagnosed health condition or a pandemic that all of us are facing.”

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Plastic and reconstructive surgeon Christian El Amm, M.D., demonstrates the surgical visualization device that he created in conjunction with energy technology company Baker Hughes.

Novel Collaboration Leads to Development of Surgical Visualization Device A conversation that began at the launch party for the Oklahoma City Innovation District led to a novel collaboration between the OU Health Sciences Center and energy technology company Baker Hughes. The result, an advanced surgical visualization device now being used in craniofacial reconstruction surgeries, embodies the purpose of the district — to convene people from Oklahoma’s diverse sectors to share their expertise and, together, create something new.

Representatives from Baker Hughes and the OU Health Sciences Center started talking that day in 2018 and soon began collaborating on a prototype device. The work leveraged augmented reality/mixed reality technology that Baker Hughes developed to create 3D reconstructions of rock specimens from computed tomography (CT) scans.

Such visualization is highly valuable to geologists and oil and gas companies as they determine where to drill oil wells.

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That capability caught the attention of OU College of Medicine plastic and reconstructive surgeon Christian El Amm, M.D., who envisioned a headset/visor that he could wear during surgery that would allow him to both see his patient as well as 3D data that was superimposed on the patient, such as CT scans and reconstruction steps he prepared for the procedure.

“This collaboration exemplifies what we do in the Innovation District,” said the district’s CEO and President, Katy Boren.

“We convene and introduce people across industries who normally would not know each other, and we provide them an opportunity to advance their discussions. From those conversations, new inventions are created, new companies are started, new patents are earned, and it grows jobs and our economy. That’s what we do every day – create interactions that allow innovations to spark and grow.”

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The Baker Hughes/OU Health Sciences Center collaboration has indeed flourished. Baker Hughes had advanced the technology to achieve mixed reality, which allows the person wearing the headset to see what is around him, as well as 3D images that appear as if they were part of real life. The technology became a virtual field visit for the oil and gas industry, providing extensive information about rock, like how porous it was.

“There were obvious analogies to the healthcare sector,” said Jeff Potts, Advanced Analytics Leader for Baker Hughes.

“We talked at length with Dr. El Amm and others from the OU Health Sciences Center and began a collaboration agreement. There were several key challenges that we needed to solve to move forward with a prototype that could be used in a surgical setting.”

During the year-long collaboration, the team created solutions for those challenges which, until that time, were unsolved.

Using artificial intelligence techniques, they “taught” the device how to recognize features of a human face, which was necessary to be able to superimpose 3D models on the patient in real time. The team also enhanced the accuracy of that process in order to meet the precision needed for surgery, and they enabled the device to track the surgeon’s instruments in real time.

Since the official collaboration ended, El Amm has continued to develop the device, with significant input from Mohammad Abdul Mukit, Ph.D., a graduate fellow in electrical and computer engineering on the OU-Tulsa campus. Notably, they have programmed the device to respond to voice commands. That allows the surgeon to keep his focus on the patient rather than turning away to look at a computer screen or clicking a mouse. They also developed “markerless tracking,” which allows the CT scan or other images to be superimposed using artificial intelligence instead of cumbersome markers to guide the way. El Amm compares the headset to what a fighter pilot wears – both need ready access to a lot of complex information, especially if they must make a split-second decision.

El Amm has begun using the device during surgical cases to enhance the safety and efficiency of complex reconstructions. Many of his patients come to him for craniofacial reconstruction after a traumatic injury; others have congenital deformities. Thus far, he has used the device during surgery on a patient who was born without his right ear. The system took a mirror image of the patient’s left ear, then the device overlaid it on the right side, allowing El Amm to precisely attach a reconstructed ear. In the past, he would cut a template of the ear and aim for precision using the naked eye.

In another surgical case, which required an 18-step reconstruction of the face, the device overlaid the patient’s CT scan on top of his real bones. “Each one of those bones needed to be cut and moved in a precise direction,” he said.

“The device allowed us to see the bones individually, then it displayed each of the cuts and each of the movements, which allowed the surgeon to verify that he had gone through all those steps. It’s basically walking through the steps of surgery in virtual reality.”

Mohammad Abdul Mukit, Ph.D., a graduate fellow in electrical and computer engineering on the OU-Tulsa campus, has made significant contributions to the development of the device.

The OU Office of Technology Commercialization is pursuing intellectual property protection for the invention.

In addition, El Amm has begun partnering with his colleagues in neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery and OB-GYN to develop further applications. The future is promising for a groundbreaking device that was launched from a conversation and a desire to collaborate.

“This was a highly complex and challenging project, which made it exciting for everyone involved,” Potts said. “We solved technical problems that no one else has, and we’ve done it right here in Oklahoma City. Our partnership was mutually beneficial, and it was only possible because the Innovation District provided the forum where we could discuss and collaborate.”

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With the merger, OU Health is the state’s first truly integrated, comprehensive academic health system.

University of Oklahoma and Hospital Partner Announce Merger Intent to Create New Health System Healthcare in Oklahoma will take a giant leap forward as the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine faculty practice, University Hospitals Authority and Trust (parent organization of OU Medicine) and OU Medicine, Inc. (hospital partner) announce the intent to merge their hospitals and clinics into one unified organization, creating Oklahoma’s first truly integrated, comprehensive academic health system.

“Bringing the strength of these equally powerful healthcare organizations into one structure with a singular CEO and one team will give Oklahoma the health system we need to improve our statewide health outcomes,” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. “This merger positions us to flourish and sets the stage for OU Health to be among the top tier of academic health systems across the country. The unification and structural change fully unleashes the talent and collaboration across our faculty practice, clinics and hospitals in order to deliver the best healthcare for Oklahoma.”

The merged organization will create a seamless experience for patients between clinics and hospitals, improve overall quality of care, bring research breakthroughs into care plans and improve Oklahoma’s ability to attract and retain the brightest minds across the national healthcare landscape.

As a result of the merger, the University of Oklahoma Health

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Sciences Center, through its new affiliation agreement with OU Health, is poised to dramatically increase its healthcare research activity and better meet the growing demand for educating and training more healthcare professionals in Oklahoma.

The merger is a natural evolution in a century-long relationship between the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and its hospital partner. University Hospitals Authority and Trust (UHAT) is the parent organization of OU Medicine, Inc. “In 2018 UHAT brought these Oklahoma hospital assets under local management and into a mutual affiliation agreement with OU,” said G. Rainey Williams Jr., Board Chair of University Hospitals Authority and Trust. “We quickly began plans to build success based upon our tightly woven relationship with the University of Oklahoma. OU and UHAT share a common commitment for the new OU Health to be a top-tier academic healthcare system marked by high-quality patient care, world-class training and innovative research.

Merging the hospitals and clinics into a unified health system allows us to accelerate the achievement of these missions.”

As part of the merger, the OU College of Medicine faculty practice will create a new clinic practice to deliver clinical care

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Two OU Health Physicians Clinics Earn Age-Friendly Certification Two OU Health Physicians clinics in Oklahoma City have earned Level 1 certification as an Age-Friendly Health System, an ongoing initiative designed to improve the care of older adults.

The Senior Health Clinic and the General Internal Medicine Clinic at OU Health Physicians received the designation from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which works to improve and sustain better health outcomes for people across the world. The four essential elements of an Age-Friendly Health System are known as the 4Ms:

The OU College of Medicine faculty practice, University Hospitals Authority and Trust, and OU Medicine, Inc. have merged hospitals and clinics into one unified organization.

within OU Health facilities, while continuing education and research activity within OU. This new clinic practice will formally merge with the hospital partner, a merger of equals, in order to unify the academic health system. The OU Health Board of Directors will be the single governing board of the health system and will consist of OU officers, UHAT Board Members and community leaders.

“This merger has long been envisioned for Oklahoma by both our hospital and clinic leadership,” said Jason Sanders, M.D., MBA, Acting Board Chair of OU Medicine, Inc. “We know that this is a giant leap forward for healthcare in our state.

Oklahomans will receive the ultimate benefit of this merger by having increased access — to the latest treatment therapies, to leading physicians, and to seamless patient care.”

A national search has commenced for the new OU Health CEO and is expected to complete in mid-2021.

A non-binding letter of intent (LOI) is in place between the organizations, and definitive agreements are expected to be reached in the coming months. The definitive agreements are subject to approval by the OU Board of Regents, UHAT Board of Directors, and OU Medicine, Inc. Board of Directors.

“Today is the dawn of a new era for healthcare in Oklahoma,” Harroz said. “It is an era where our researchers, physicians and team members merge together in order to bring Oklahoma’s healthcare to new heights. The healthiest states all have integrated academic health systems and the time is now for Oklahoma to have ours.”

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What Matters: Asking older adults what matters most to them and aligning care with those goals in mind.

Medication: Using age-friendly medications that do not interfere with what is important to the older adult.

Mentation: Preventing, identifying, treating and managing dementia, delirium, depression and other mental health issues.

Mobility: Ensuring older adults move safely every day and maintain their function for activities that are important to them.

“Asking our patients what matters to them sets the stage for the other three M’s and ensures that our care is patient-centered. We want to make sure that the care we provide helps people be as functional as possible, as independent as possible, for as long as possible,” said geriatrician Lee Jennings, M.D., Chief of the Section of Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine of the OU College of Medicine.

When patients are asked what matters to them, their answers vary but are often related to family activities. One patient, for example, said his main goal was to be able to walk to the baseball field to watch his grandson play. But his medical conditions still needed treatment.

“As physicians, sometimes we tell patients they should be on a particular medication because that’s what has been shown to benefit their condition,” said Brian Lich, M.D., an internal medicine physician and assistant professor in the Department of Medicine. “But the man watching his grandson play baseball wanted to be able to walk to the field without falling, without getting too short of breath, and without having to stop every few feet. That led me to consider which medications would be best for what he wanted to do. The 4Ms framework helps me and the patient to meet each other’s goals and expectations, as opposed to it being a one-way street where I’m telling them what to do.”

Another patient with a hip fracture wanted to ensure he could continue living on his own without needing help with daily activities like getting dressed or going to the bathroom, Jennings said. Physical therapy would be painful, but it was

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“It’s an opportunity to teach high-quality, patient-centered care of older adults.”

the best option for regaining his strength and mobility. “After talking through what was important for him, the patient understood that while the physical therapy would make him tired and hurt at times, it was important for the independence he wanted to achieve,” she said.

The care of older adults is often complex because they tend to have multiple conditions. A treatment for one condition may exacerbate another or cause an unwanted side effect, such as fatigue or sedation from a medication. Sometimes trade-offs must be made, but the 4Ms framework helps in decision-making. The approach also sets the stage for conversations about a patient’s wishes should their health take a turn for the worse.

Lee Jennings, M.D.

“When you’ve been talking to patients about what matters most to them, it’s more natural to have conversations about what kind of care or interventions they want if they get really sick,” Lich said. “Instead of asking them about whether they want to be resuscitated or intubated in a critical situation, without much context behind the question, we’ve been having conversations all along about what type of care will best help them meet their goals.”

The 4Ms framework is embedded in the electronic health record for OU Health Physicians, allowing physicians to track their patients’ improvement over time. Because the clinics are part of an academic health system, students and residents will learn about the 4Ms and carry them forward into their own careers.

“During their training, students and residents learn how to treat many different conditions, but by starting with asking the patient what matters to them, it highlights the best care for the patient,” Lich said. “It’s an opportunity to teach high-quality, patient-centered care of older adults.”

The OU Health hospital system, including the University of Oklahoma Medical Center and Edmond Medical Center, has also been named an Age-Friendly Health System, the first in Oklahoma to achieve the certification.

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Brian Lich, M.D.

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Left to right are several researchers in the Oklahoma Nathan Shock Center of Excellence: Bill Freeman, Ph.D., Holly Van Remmen, Ph.D., Benjamin Miller, Ph.D., Jonathan Wren, Ph.D., Rheal Towner, Ph.D., Ann Chiao, Ph.D., William Sonntag, Ph.D., and Arlan Richardson, Ph.D.

Oklahoma Geroscience Research Collaboration Continues with $5.3 Million Grant The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center has been awarded a $5.3 million federal grant renewal to continue a partnership with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the Oklahoma City Veterans Administration Medical Center on research into the biology of aging and the role it plays in the onset of diseases like cancer and diabetes.

The five-year grant is from the National Institute on Aging, a component of the National Institutes of Health. It funds the

Oklahoma Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, the only such program in Oklahoma and one of only eight in the United States.

“Aging itself is a primary risk factor for developing disease.

The field of research on aging – called ‘geroscience’ – aims to understand the process of aging and how it causes the increased incidence of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. We also study ways of slowing aging, which

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would have a dramatic effect on most age-related diseases,” said Arlan Richardson, Ph.D., director of the Nathan Shock Center and a professor of research in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, OU College of Medicine.

Oklahoma’s Nathan Shock Center is distinctive among its peers in that it is a collaboration between an academic institution, a private research institution, and a VA Medical Center. The Nathan Shock Center has been key in recruiting top new researchers, who are drawn to the extensive resources of the program, Richardson said. The Shock Center awards pilot grants to researchers, allowing them to further their investigations and apply for larger grants. Since the Shock Center began in 2015, it has awarded $400,000 in grants to researchers, mostly junior faculty members.

Researchers also have access to specialized equipment, including methods of analysis that are specific to geroscience.

Researchers are conducting a wide array of research into the process of aging itself and the role of aging in specific conditions. Holly Van Remmen, Ph.D., co-director of the Nathan Shock Center and a researcher at OMRF, focuses on sarcopenia, which causes a loss of muscle mass and function as people age. While not life-threatening, sarcopenia is common and significantly decreases quality of life. Van Remmen is moving closer to testing an intervention for the condition.

“In our research, we’ve come to understand that the muscle does not work alone. It’s the interactions between the muscle and the motor neurons that make the muscle move,” said Van Remmen, who holds the G.T. Blankenship Chair in Aging Research at OMRF. “The motor neurons are very sensitive to changes during aging, and when they start to degenerate, they also detach from the muscle, and that’s what leads to loss of muscle mass and function.”

Other researchers are focusing on the link between aging and cancer, including that of Stephenson Cancer Center researcher Deepa Sathyaseelan, Ph.D. As part of normal aging, people build up inflammation in their bodies, which creates a higher risk for age-related diseases like cancer.

Sathyaseelan is trying to block one of the cell signaling pathways that causes inflammation.

“Aging and cancer are interrelated – you cannot separate them because aging is the biggest risk factor for most cancers,” she said. “Rather than targeting individual diseases, if we can learn how to positively affect or slow down aging, we may be able to have an overall preventive effect on diseases.”

The VA Medical Center’s support of the Nathan Shock Center is important for its own patient population, 70% of which are over 50 years old, including veterans of the Vietnam War, many of whom are now over 70. Several researchers at the OU Health Sciences Center and OMRF also have research grants from the VA and use equipment funded by the VA. “The key part of the Nathan Shock Center is the collaboration of these three institutions. This work would not be possible by any one institution alone,” Richardson said. “This is an exciting time to work in geroscience research.”

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OU Health Research Furthers Fight Against COVID-19 Since COVID-19 arrived in the United States, OU Health has been a state and national leader in the rigorous research that has made vaccines and treatment advances possible.

As an academic healthcare system, OU Health brings many resources to the battle against COVID-19, from laboratory research to clinical trials to public health tools like epidemiology and disease surveillance.

“None of the current vaccines or therapeutics would ever have come to fruition had it not been for scientists who understand the mechanisms of the disease or clinical trials that help us identify better ways to treat patients,” said Jennifer Holter-Chakrabarty, M.D., a hematologist-oncologist at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center and a campus leader in COVID-19 research.

“This pandemic has served as an example of how quickly you can respond to something like COVID-19 when you already have a model where scientists and physicians are working together,” she added. “Because OU Health has researchers and clinicians across many specialties, we are able to contribute to the discoveries that are being made.”

OU Health is maintaining a biorepository of samples from patients who have been treated for COVID-19, allowing researchers to access those samples as they conduct studies, including one that is testing the ability of a sugar-based molecule to suppress inflammation caused by the virus. Patient samples are also used to study the length and quality of immunity in people who have had COVID-19, compared with immunity provided by the vaccine.

In addition, OU Health is participating in two national registries of COVID-19 patients that allow researchers and clinicians to study treatments and outcomes over time, so they can better understand the virus on a national scale.

“Because this is a new virus never before seen in humans, we have pooled our resources throughout the United States to collect data and find themes,” Holter-Chakrabarty said.

“This is not uncommon in medicine. It allows us to identify how certain patient populations are experiencing the virus, in ways that we may not have observed within our individual healthcare institutions.”

A related effort is Stephenson Cancer Center’s participation in a National Cancer Institute clinical trial on the effects of COVID-19 in people being treated for cancer. Of the 793 national locations for the trial, Stephenson Cancer Center is the top enroller of patients.

“When you are diagnosed with cancer, that’s frightening enough, but when you are diagnosed with COVID-19 in addition, we want to help you continue your cancer therapy, treat you for COVID-19, and look at the impact of both of them

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Scientists and clinicians at OU Health are leading numerous COVID-19 research projects, including maintaining a biorepository of patient samples.

in this patient population,” Holter-Chakrabarty said. “In this trial, we are collecting data for two years from patients with cancer who’ve had COVID-19. This will allow us to look for themes that emerge on a national scale and determine how we address them.”

Stephenson Cancer Center has initiated a related trial for its own patients undergoing treatment for cancer. Trial participants receive an app on their phones that prompts them regularly to answer questions about any symptoms of COVID-19 they may have. If the app’s algorithm determines they need to be tested for COVID-19, a test will be scheduled.

Patients who test positive receive oxygen and pulse monitors that will help their healthcare providers determine if they can stay at home or if they need to be treated at the hospital.

Other studies involve monitoring patients with COVID-19 for thrombotic complications, particularly deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and stroke. “Because some of these conditions have been associated with COVID-19, our public health researchers are following incidence rates of patients getting a clot in their arm or leg, a clot that moves to their lungs, or having a stroke,” Holter-Chakrabarty said. “Looking at surveillance data from various hospitals will allow us to see if any particular patient populations are more susceptible to these complications.”

Drawing on its wide range of research expertise, OU Health is also conducting studies on topics as varied as improving sterilization techniques for personal protective equipment (PPE); using artificial intelligence and bioinformatics to predict where future COVID-19 outbreaks will occur; and assessing the effect of social isolation during the pandemic on the rate of child maltreatment cases.

In addition, OU Health researchers are participating in the development of potential future vaccines. Because of its longtime relationship with pharmaceutical company Novavax, including ongoing research for vaccines against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Ebola Virus, the OU Health Sciences Center is playing a role in the company’s newly developed vaccine for COVID-19.

“We established biomedical research laboratory models to study the vaccine’s ability to produce an immune response,” said virologist James Papin, Ph.D., who is leading the study for the OU Health Sciences Center. “We’re contributing to the data that allowed Novavax to successfully move into Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials and, now, transition to Phase 3 trials. Hopefully, that vaccine will also receive Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration so that it can be added to current vaccination options, increasing the supply of vaccines and effectively increasing vaccination rates.”

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There are numerous reasons for limiting or avoiding opioid prescriptions in older adults, said co-principal investigator Steven Crawford, M.D., Senior Associate Dean for the OU College of Medicine. Metabolism slows as people age, which can increase the effects of opioids. Conditions like emphysema and sleep apnea complicate the use of opioids, Crawford said, and other medications may interact poorly with opioids. Opioids also cause constipation, which can affect the body’s systems and eventually lead to serious issues.

Through a federal grant, faculty members are working to decrease opioid use among older adults.

OU Health Sciences Center Receives Grant for Opioid Management in Older Adults Chronic pain can be quite common among older adults as they face conditions such as arthritis and neuropathy. Treating pain in older adults requires special considerations, however, especially when it comes to opioids.

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center recently received a $2.5 million federal grant to tailor methods of treating chronic pain to the older adult population – with an emphasis on decreasing the use of opioids – and to disseminate those best practices to primary care clinics across Oklahoma. The grant is from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the lead federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of America’s healthcare system.

In recent years, the OU Health Sciences Center has made significant contributions to the medical profession’s understanding of the risks and benefits of using opioids to treat chronic pain. However, much of that work has focused on the general population, rather than older adults specifically. This grant will allow physicians and researchers to concentrate solely on older adults, and to establish standards of pain management that prioritize non-opioid medications and treatments.

“The older population has a much different relationship with opioids than the younger population does,” said one of the grant’s three principal investigators, Zsolt Nagykaldi, Ph.D., Director of Research for the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine in the OU College of Medicine. “In the younger population, the No. 1 problem is typically misuse, while in the older population, the bigger problems are interactions between opioids and other medications and other health conditions, as well as a higher risk of falls.”

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However, there are many alternatives to opioids. Non-opioid medications may be an option, although care must be exercised with anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, which can damage the kidneys and increase the risk of internal bleeding, among other complications, Crawford said. There are many non-pharmacologic possibilities, such as physical therapy, topical agents, acupuncture, massage, meditation and exercise. Those are also important options if patients are decreasing their opioid use slowly over time.

“Regular physical activity is very important for managing chronic pain because pain gets worse if people sit for a long time,” said geriatrician and co-principal investigator Lee Jennings, M.D., Chief of the Section of Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine, OU College of Medicine. Jennings is also director of the Oklahoma Healthy Aging Initiative (OHAI), which provides gentle exercise opportunities and falls prevention classes (including via Zoom) across Oklahoma.

OHAI’s free programming will be emphasized as part of the overall program.

“It’s not easy to treat older adults with chronic pain, so this grant will allow us to help patients and their physicians to understand and have access to alternatives to opioids,” Jennings said. “It’s very important to have safe opioid prescribing practices and to make sure that patients understand the risks, but we have to think through other ways to manage pain. It’s not always possible to make someone totally pain-free, but we also don’t want to put someone at risk for a fall because they’re taking a medication that has a sedating effect. We want them to continue doing the activities that enrich their lives. We don’t want people to stop doing the things they enjoy because that can lead to social isolation and loneliness, which ultimately leads to poorer health.”

Because primary care clinics provide most of the care for older adults with chronic pain, the OU Health Sciences Center will be working with up to 50 clinics across Oklahoma.

Community panels, comprised of both patients and clinicians, will provide insight into the needs specific to each area. The OU Health Sciences Center has an extensive network of relationships with rural clinics across the state to share best practices and provide hands-on assistance; this grant will enable further outreach on a topic that’s important to many Oklahomans.

“New medical guidelines, if they follow the natural course of things, can take years to become wedded into the practices of clinics,” Crawford said. “This type of program allows us to accelerate that process by working with clinics to improve the quality of life for their patients.”

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A study by Lurdes Queimado, M.D., Ph.D., suggests that e-cigarette use may decrease the benefit of chemotherapy.

OU College of Medicine Researcher Publishes Major Study on E-cigarette Use and Chemotherapy Resistance An OU College of Medicine researcher has published a groundbreaking new study suggesting that when people use electronic cigarettes while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, they will likely receive much less benefit from the treatment.

quit smoking instead of immediately switching to e-cigarettes,” said Queimado, Director of Basic and Translational Research for the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery in the OU College of Medicine, and a TSET Research Scholar at Stephenson Cancer Center.

Lurdes Queimado, M.D., Ph.D., published the study in Scientific Reports, a Nature Research publication and one of the world’s leading journals. While much is known about the harmful effects of tobacco smoking, including during cancer treatment, researchers have less knowledge about e-cigarettes, also called vapes. Queimado’s study is the first in the world to show that e-cigarettes, like regular cigarettes, can prevent chemotherapy from working as well as it should. The study was conducted in vitro, or in laboratory experiments, but the study’s measures are predictive of a patient’s response to cancer treatment.

Her next step is to conduct a similar study in patients at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center who are being treated for head and neck cancers and cervical cancer.

Queimado’s experiments focused on head and neck cancer cells that were treated with a common platinum-based chemotherapy called cisplatin. In the models of e-cigarette use, far fewer cancer cells died after the standard dose of cisplatin. Queimado’s hypothesis was that the nicotine in e-cigarettes caused the resistance to chemotherapy, just as it does when people smoke tobacco. That was true, but she also found that other chemicals in e-cigarettes contributed to therapy resistance as well.

“When patients are diagnosed with cancer and are still smoking tobacco, they often ask, ‘What if I switch to e-cigarettes during chemotherapy?’ Until now, we have not known whether that would be a good option. What this study tells us is that, while e-cigarette vapors have fewer toxins than smoke, at least during cancer treatment patients should use all other smoking cessation tools to help them

“We don’t know yet what those compounds are, but we know that e-cigarettes contain chemicals that are not present in tobacco, and their effects when inhaled are poorly characterized,” she said.

For oncologists, the implications of the study are significant.

Studies show that over 60% of lung and head and neck cancer patients continue to smoke tobacco during their treatment, which has a host of negative implications. Now it appears that switching to e-cigarettes isn’t the best alternative during cancer treatment; rather, patients should first take advantage of all other smoking cessation aids.

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“Smokers and e-cigarette users who are unwilling or unable to quit during cancer treatment may need higher-than-standard cisplatin doses to receive the same therapeutic benefit as those who don’t smoke or use e-cigarettes,” Queimado said. “Because chemotherapy drugs like cisplatin have major side effects, higher doses might not be possible because they would be too toxic for the patient. Hence, other drugs might need to be considered for these patients.”

Study Demonstrates Importance of Prompt Surgery for Patients With Breast Cancer

Use of e-cigarettes has increased dramatically since the product hit the U.S. market in 2007. They are often advertised as a smoking cessation tool or as a safe alternative to combustible smoking because they contain fewer chemicals. However, e-cigarettes face very few restrictions or regulations, prompting the urgent need for researchers like Queimado to discover more information about their health effects.

According to a new study by researchers and clinicians at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center, the time between a person’s diagnosis with breast cancer and surgery to remove the tumor is much more important than previously understood.

The study, published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology, provides evidence of importance to physicians and patients alike: Waiting more than two months to have breast cancer surgery may lead to a larger tumor size and spread of the cancer to the lymph nodes.

In previous studies, she showed that e-cigarette vapor not only damages DNA, albeit less than tobacco smoke, but it also reduces a person’s ability to repair DNA. Last year, she received a $2.25 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study cancer risk in young adults who use e-cigarettes.

“We have known for years that head and neck cancer patients who continue to utilize traditional tobacco products after treatment have twice the rate of recurrence, and because of this we strongly encourage tobacco cessation and have resources available to help our patients quit,” said Greg Krempl, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery in the OU College of Medicine. “E-cigarettes have been proposed as an assistance for tobacco cessation, a stepping stone toward abstinence. Dr. Queimado’s work suggests that for cancer patients who are undergoing certain chemotherapy, this may not be the best option for assistance in tobacco cessation. Her lab has shown vaping causes damage that might result in cancer formation, and has now shown, for the first time anywhere in the world, a possible ‘side effect’ of vaping during treatment that may reduce the effectiveness of cancer treatment and could ultimately compromise our chances of curing patients. While more studies are needed to confirm this effect in humans, a conservative approach now is to make patients aware of this potential risk when discussing tobacco cessation.”

In addition to federal grants, Queimado’s research has received significant local support. She is director of the Tobacco Regulatory Science Lab at the TSET Health Promotion Research Center, a Stephenson Cancer Center program funded by the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET). She has also received bridge grant support from the Presbyterian Health Foundation (PHF) and holds the Presbyterian Health Foundation Chair in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, and her work has been funded by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST).

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To conduct the study, the research team analyzed seven years of patient outcomes from the National Cancer Database.

They intentionally chose an early-stage breast cancer, called T1N0M0, which is known for its small tumor size and good prognosis. Although many factors influence when surgery is scheduled, the team was searching for the answer to a specific question: What is the safe amount of time to wait before having the tumor removed?

“The field of medicine does not really have specific guidelines about how long is a safe window of time,” said Stephenson Cancer Center researcher Takemi Tanaka, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Pathology. “We wanted to know the time frame of when the disease progressed.”

The answer was, in part, surprising. Researchers discovered that patients with a hormone receptor-positive breast cancer who didn’t receive surgery until 61 to 90 days after diagnosis were 18% more likely to have their tumor size upstaged (changed to a more serious stage) compared to patients who received surgery within the first 30 days after diagnosis. For patients with hormone receptor-positive cancers who waited beyond 90 days for surgery (a small fraction of patients), there was a 47% likelihood of tumor size upstaging compared to patients who underwent surgery within 30 days. The time frame for lymph node status, which indicates localized spread of the cancer, was also significant.

After 91 days, patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer were 35% more likely to progress from no cancer in the lymph nodes to having cancerous nodes removed during surgery.

The surprising element was the hormone receptor positivity status. Generally, patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer (meaning the cancer uses estrogen or progesterone to grow) have better outcomes than those with hormone receptor-negative breast cancers, because their growth rate is known to be much slower. “It takes many years to develop breast tumors,” Tanaka said. “For a slow-progressing tumor like hormone receptor-positive disease, the speed of disease progression in a range of 60-90 days after diagnosis was much faster than we thought,

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Results of a study by Stephenson Cancer Center researchers and clinicians reveal the importance of not delaying surgery for breast cancer.

and a concept of a safe time window is becoming more crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Two-thirds of breast cancers are estrogen-positive; that’s the most common form of breast cancer,” said William Dooley, M.D., surgical oncologist at Stephenson Cancer Center and a professor in the Department of Surgery. “It is that subgroup of breast cancer where we’ve been able to avoid chemotherapy in the majority of cases by giving anti-estrogen therapy over the past 15 to 20 years. That’s why those patients were thought to have a better prognosis. As this study demonstrates, that may not quite be true – we still need to remove the tumor fairly promptly. Unfortunately, over the past two decades, the time between diagnosis and surgery has actually increased each year.”

For patients with hormone receptor-negative breast cancers, the research team also observed a time-dependent disease progression trend, although it was not statistically significant.

“When we find breast cancer, we need to act with deliberation moving forward, and make sure there aren’t barriers to having care done,” Dooley said. “The most important thing for patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer is that the cancer be removed completely. Other parts of the treatment may be less time-dependent, but removing the tumor needs to be first and foremost in everyone’s mind.”

The research team is continuing the study to determine the long-term effect of surgical delays on survival, as well

as potential causes of delay, including barriers to care among marginalized populations. They are also investigating biologic explanations for disease progression before surgery.

The study is an interdisciplinary project that involves students, post-doctoral fellows and professionals from several disciplines, including Tanaka’s basic science/epidemiology research expertise and Dooley’s clinical focus. Three students have driven the project, including OU College of Medicine students Natalie Hills and Rachel Davis, and Macall Leslie, a data analyst in Tanaka’s lab who is graduating soon with a master of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University.

By analyzing patient outcomes in the National Cancer Database, the researchers had access to about 70% of the U.S. population with a cancer diagnosis. Because the database contains information only from facilities accredited by the Commission on Cancer, the 30% of diagnoses that are uncaptured likely represent patients who are treated at under-resourced facilities and potentially experience greater delays. In addition, American Indians are not well-represented in the database.

“We are greatly concerned about those medically underserved populations this study did not catch,” Leslie said.

“It is important that healthcare professions highlight medically underserved populations who are likely to have greater trouble accessing care in a timely manner.”

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to the body’s other organs. In scientific terms, the tumor cells transition from an epithelial to a mesenchymal phenotype.

“That transition means the tumor cells are doing everything they can to avoid the surveillance of the body’s immune system, as well as chemotherapy and other therapies,” Li said. “They become more evasive and are able to penetrate the blood vessels, which permits them to go anywhere in the body.”

Several things occur during the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. The cells are shape-shifters, taking the form of a square in the primary cancer site, but switching to a spindle shape that helps them to sneak away and begin to metastasize. The cells’ growth also slows, allowing them to “fly under the radar” of the immune system.

Courtney Houchen, M.D.

“This is important because when tumors are in the form of epithelial cells, they are easier to kill with chemotherapy,” Li said. “But when they switch to mesenchymal cells, they become resistant to treatment. Tumor cells are very smart and are like creatures with multiple faces. That’s why we are looking for the right moment to target them with different strategies.”

More than 60% of patients with pancreatic cancer experience metastasis within the first 24 months after surgery. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition is increasingly recognized as a major component of that spread, Houchen said.

“Once a patient has metastatic disease, no therapy can extend life more than six to eight months,” Houchen said.

“It’s clear that metastatic spread has to be stopped if we’re going to improve survival rates. This study helped us to understand the role of ZIP4 in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Somewhere in that shape-shifting process is where we need to intervene to stop the metastasis.”

Min Li, Ph.D.

Research Sheds New Light on Pancreatic Cancer Metastasis With an overall survival rate of 9% for those diagnosed, pancreatic cancer remains exceedingly difficult to treat.

However, the patient’s primary tumor typically isn’t what leads to death – it is the cancer’s ability to evade detection and metastasize to other organs.

A team of researchers at the OU College of Medicine has published a new study in the journal Gastroenterology, the world’s leading publication on GI tract disease, that sheds new light on the ability of pancreatic cancer cells to spread throughout the body. Understanding why metastasis occurs is crucial for developing a therapeutic strategy to stop the spread.

The study, led by scientist Min Li, Ph.D., and physicianscientist Courtney Houchen, M.D., centers around ZIP4, a protein that transports zinc throughout the body. While zinc is important for good health, too much of the heavy metal causes problems. In the new study, researchers found that when ZIP4 is overexpressed in patients with pancreatic cancer, it essentially prompts the tumor cells to transform themselves in a manner that allows them to stealthily travel

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This publication is the third in the past three years in the journal Gastroenterology for Li and Houchen’s research team.

Each study has focused on a different role for ZIP4, which serves as a “master switch” for several things to occur in pancreatic cancer. In their first publication, they demonstrated that ZIP4 plays a role in the onset of cachexia, a musclewasting condition that affects at least 80% of people with pancreatic cancer. The next publication focused on how the overexpression of ZIP4 causes pancreatic cancer cells to be more resistant to chemotherapy.

“People diagnosed with many other types of cancers have seen an increased survival rate in the past 30 years, but that’s not the case with pancreatic cancer,” Li said. “We are making progress because our research is truly a group effort; no single person could do this. We have many talented people in our lab. I think we’re entering a different phase where we can soon start developing a drug to specifically target the process involving ZIP4.”

Li and Houchen’s research has received significant federal funding from the National Institutes of Health, as well as local funding in the form of a team science grant from the Presbyterian Health Foundation and support from the Department of Medicine in the OU College of Medicine, where both hold faculty appointments.

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The OU-TU School of Community medicine has earned designation as a Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery testing center.

OU-TU School of Community Medicine Receives Surgical Specialty Certification The OU-TU School of Community Medicine recently gained designation as a Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) testing center for the American Board of Surgery. FLS certification is similar to Basic Life Support certification (BLS) in that it is a necessary component toward eligibility for board certification. The OU-TU School of Community Medicine is the only site in Oklahoma with this distinction.

The certification is also a milestone toward recognition as a Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery center. FES certification is another component for board eligibility in surgical practice.

Because they are essential in building and maintaining excellent surgical residency programs, the designations play

a vital role in the academic mission of the school. These certifications make it possible for physicians in OU-TU School of Community Medicine programs to attain their certifications locally. Currently, residents in the OU-TU School of Community Medicine obstetrics and gynecology programs may also work toward certification at the school.

By earning certification, the OU-TU School of Community Medicine is featured as an active FLS Test Center on the FLS website. FLS certification makes additional resources available to institutions, including didactic curriculum, instructional videos, administrative guides as well as assessment tools and online test modules.

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At Bedlam Clinic, third-year medical students in the School of Community Medicine work in interprofessional teams with nursing and social work students, and with physician, pharmacy, social work, nursing and physician assistant faculty.

OU-TU School of Community Medicine Expands Efforts to Grow Primary Care Services The OU-TU School of Community Medicine continues building partnerships and implementing initiatives aimed at filling Oklahoma’s growing void in primary care services, particularly in tribal, rural and medically underserved communities. The effort is funded by a multimillion dollar grant from the federal agency Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Since the original $4.7 million award in 2019, the college received a $2.8 million supplement. Both campuses are participating in the program made possible by the grant, with significant collaboration because many goals are interdependent. The program is led by co-principal investigators James Herman, M.D., Dean of the OU-TU School of Community Medicine, and Steven A. Crawford, M.D., Senior Associate Dean of the College of Medicine.

The program focuses on enhancing the primary care experience for current medical students, as well as creating a statewide outreach program to cultivate interest in healthcare professions among younger students. The efforts aim to repair a “leaky pipeline” that contributes to the formation of “primary care deserts” in non-urban communities across the state, said Tulsa project lead Frances Wen, Ph.D., a health services psychologist and professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Students in medical education programs form the pipeline that ensures a flow of well-prepared medical professionals, able to meet healthcare demands in a region or community. However, while students’ interests may initially be aligned with primary care/ family medicine models, many ultimately go into specialty practice for a variety of reasons, creating the “leak” that drains the primary care workforce.

“There is an urgency about our work, which seeks to lay the foundation for outcomes that may not be realized for a decade or more,” Wen said. “To provide an exceptional medical

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education is only one step toward meeting the growing demand for primary care providers. We must also cultivate a certain mindset. We’re looking for people keying on this aspect of their future professional lives.”

Strategic community partnerships are playing a major role in the effort. School of Community Medicine students are taking part in two-week or four-week rotations in primary care at the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. “The Muscogee (Creek) Nation has built beautiful clinics for one-stop healthcare services — dental care, eye care, consultations on diet and nutrition that interrupt the cycle of diabetes, lab work and more.

Working within this sophisticated multiprofessional, team-based environment is excellent training that shows what high-quality primary care really looks like,” Wen said.

Wen is hopeful for another HRSA grant that would grow a partnership between the SCM family medicine residency and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Other partners include the Chickasaw Nation, Comanche Nation, Variety Care,

Frances Wen, Ph.D.

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Hillcrest Health System, George Kaiser Family Foundation and Physician Manpower Training Commission. Similar student opportunities are underway for Oklahoma City-based students.

SCM students are also taking part in an expanded curriculum that includes the courses Lifestyle Medicine and Health Promotion I and II, in which they learn how food and exercise can promote better health for their patients. They spend time in a culinary medicine setting to learn how to make healthy foods appropriate for specific medical conditions, like diabetes.

Students also learn that many of the health problems they encounter in patients are related to lifestyle and behavior.

In turn, patients’ behaviors may be related to a history of trauma and the early use of tobacco and alcohol. Mental health services, which are increasingly being integrated into primary care settings, can help patients develop prevention and behavior change skills and make better-informed lifestyle decisions.

“As family health history influences individual health, historic trauma also has direct impact on lifestyle choices,” Wen said.

“We’re working to build a trauma-informed workforce, which includes building greater awareness and teaching specific communication techniques to open conversations.”

Addressing the shortage of primary care services also means building relationships with much younger students, particularly those from tribal, rural and medically underserved areas. Toward that end, the HRSA grant supported the creation of a statewide outreach program. Its initiatives expose students to community health needs with the intent to foster interest in primary care as early as kindergarten and continuing through 12th grade, while another follows students into college years. Community clinicians are also being recruited to serve as mentors, sponsors and referral sources to OU’s outreach and recruitment events. In addition, tribal partners have established youth camps that spur interest in primary care careers.

The final step in this strategic progression is to close the pipeline, Wen said, citing residency programs, at OU and within other systems, that train in primary care. “The idea is that new M.D.s in residency tend to remain in these communities, becoming part of a statewide network we call the Primary Care Pathways Network — graduates giving back by investing in the health of entire communities.”

She added: “If we are to effectively address chronic health disparities, we must do much more than simply encourage medical students to choose residencies and careers in primary care. The HRSA grants are invaluable in supporting our efforts to innovate and implement strategies for future success.”

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $7,530,860 with 10% financed with nongovernmental sources. The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. government.

Medical Informatics: Looking to the Future in Medical Education “Medical informatics, as the name suggests, is a cross-disciplinary specialty that focuses upon information management to improve clinical quality and patient outcomes,” said Blake Lesselroth, M.D. “Technology can be an important part of the solution, but healthcare is a humanistic endeavor. The information needs of the practitioner, patient and health system should guide our work.” Lesselroth, Vice Chair of the Department of Medical Informatics and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine, is an experienced clinician and informatician who believes that exposing learners to informatics can improve their practice and community health outcomes.

Lesselroth’s areas of expertise include clinical decision support, quality improvement methods, and human-computer interactions. His vision and work are closely aligned with those of Juell Homco, Ph.D., MPH, the department’s Director of Research and Community Analytics. Homco leads OU-TU’s Business Intelligence team and guides the department’s research portfolio.

Under the leadership of Chair David Kendrick, M.D., MPH, Lesselroth and Homco guide the department’s education and scholarship efforts.

Fundamentally, the science of informatics is about creating learning health systems — responsive and community-centered healthcare processes and solutions.

While medical informatics may conjure thoughts of high-tech, low-touch activities, the science is transforming healthcare by magnifying its person-centered impact. Therefore, Lesselroth and Homco work with experts from a wide range of backgrounds, including medicine, public health, computer science, engineering, design, and the humanities.

On a global scale, every academic pursuit was altered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many at OU, the Department of Medical Informatics quickly adapted and embraced virtual platforms to support health professional education. “As the pandemic grip tightened, we were able to take on additional students who could not participate in traditional clinical rotations,” Lesselroth said. “As a result, more students are becoming fluent in the science of informatics.”

Typically, their students learn the practical role for informatics through lectures, mini-preceptorships and mentored projects.

Homco explained: “During the electives and selectives, we work with learners to identify projects that match their skills, interests and career goals. This may be one of several reasons why students have been very successful with scholarship. We saw many projects become publications, poster presentations at national conferences, many held virtually.”

Lesselroth credits Homco for establishing a successful program before he arrived at the School of Community Medicine. Originally, rotations were designed for medical

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Collaborating on a medical informatics/internal medicine project are, from left to right: Audrey Corbett, M.D.; Juell Homco, Ph.D., MPH; Blake Lesselroth, M.D.; and medical student Auston Stiefer.

students. Recently, they were expanded to include physician assistant students and residents. “It’s particularly exciting that we’re teaching medical students from both campuses,” Lesselroth said.

The department also is working with other educators to insert health systems science in existing curricula, including a new course titled Health Systems Science in Practice. The course incorporates didactics, skills labs, simulations with standardized patients, quality improvement workshops, and experiential practicums at the Bedlam Clinic and other student-led continuity clinics.

“Our goal is to ensure students are prepared to succeed in an environment that is data-rich. Healthcare professionals may find themselves left behind, unable to participate meaningfully in conversations about how measures are designed, how we gather and interpret data and, finally, how we apply it to transform patient care. Dr. Homco’s efforts focus on empowering our learners to do that,” Lesselroth said.

With the COVID-19 pandemic came a heightened focus on telemedicine, which also has a place in the curriculum of the Department of Medical Informatics. A grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funds several of the department’s educational initiatives, including health systems science modules and an evolving telemedicine curriculum.

“Teaching about telemedicine will help future clinicians use the technology effectively,” Lesselroth said. “We can improve access to care, particularly for rural communities. We can also learn more about the patient’s home environment and social determinants of health, an area where Dr. Homco’s research is on the forefront.”

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He cited important differences in a virtual appointment format.

“Many assume a webcam and a smartphone is all it takes – and everybody has that. Even if that were true, there are other barriers: Do patients have a data plan? Do they have internet availability? Are they in a safe and private place where communication is possible? So, ‘webside manner’ and telemedicine safe practices are skills we must teach and model. The activities funded by the HRSA grant will help ensure our graduates leave this institution able to deliver high-quality and person-centered telemedical care.”

Lesselroth said traditional medical systems often don’t meet the needs of vulnerable populations. “We have a severe access-to-care problem in the United States,” he said. “In a largely rural state like Oklahoma, there are many obstacles to good health, including poverty, housing instability, and education inequality. When thinking about telemedicine, we need to think carefully about technology infrastructure and how to make it available. Otherwise, the expansion of telemedicine can increase this access-to-care gap.”

For Medical Informatics as a whole, Lesselroth calls it both a technical science and a social science. “Informaticians think about technology the way an artist thinks about a canvas. A canvas is an ideal support for a great painting. However, most artists don’t spend their time stretching canvases. Instead, they focus on the paint, technique and subject. In informatics, the technology is often the canvas; the computer, the software and the internet — these are the support. How we use information to improve patient care is the artistic process.

It requires vision, expertise, and an understanding of the audience,” he said. “It isn’t enough to understand the technology. We must understand the end user, the environment of practice, and the needs of our community.”

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School of Community Medicine Welcomes New Physician Leader Specializing in gastrointestinal surgery, Timothy Nelson, M.D., has joined the OU-TU School of Community Medicine as professor and chair of the Department of Surgery. Nelson is recognized not only for his surgical skills, but also for his administrative and teaching abilities.

Nelson comes to Tulsa from his most recent post at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. At UNM, Nelson was a professor and Chief of the Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery within the Department of Surgery, as well as director of the surgery residency program. Nelson fills the position previously held by Tony Howard, M.D., MBA, who retired Feb. 1, 2021.

Nelson said he was attracted by the community medicine model in Tulsa, with a focus that is deliberately intense and two-fold. “It’s not only our impact on a community, but also how community impacts us,” he said. “Community medicine speaks to commitment — being in the community more proactively.”

Although the community medicine approach to care isn’t considered rare, the OU-TU program is uncommon in the way it functions within the whole. “Many institutions have a long history that includes a community medicine track, but I don’t know another school so committed to the concept that they actually embed it in their names,” Nelson said. “The difference, I think, is the intensity of the work, actually going out into the community – structuring care for more meaningful engagement. There’s initiative to listen, work with and be part of community, not keeping our distance.”

Community medicine also represents a fundamental shift in the education and training of new physicians, Nelson said.

Traditionally, medical practices establish clinical locations, with patient access based on times and places. “We’ve always made the patient come to us, as if we’re doing the patient a favor. Everything we can do to accommodate patients is what we should do, and the School of Community Medicine has taken that to the next level with more direct engagement in the community,” he said. “The question we must be asking is not simply ‘How do we serve patients?’ but also, ‘How can we interact positively to make the community of Tulsa, eastern Oklahoma, the United States and the world better places?’”

Nelson said that physicians, and perhaps especially surgeons, are characteristically results-oriented: patients show improvement in a matter of days, perhaps weeks or a few months. “But in this endeavor, we have to work like crazy to establish what we want, and be patient with the fact that results won’t come as quickly as we’re accustomed to,” he said. “We have a lot of faith and hope because we know it will come true. We just don’t know when. You just don’t quit. The people of eastern Oklahoma deserve the excellence we can offer. It keeps me excited about coming to work every day.”

Timothy Nelson, M.D.

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FACULT Y ACHIE VEMENTS

Faculty Honored With Campus Awards At the spring 2021 OU Health Sciences Center Faculty Awards Ceremony, OU College of Medicine faculty members were honored with a variety of awards for their excellence in academic medicine: Regents’ Awards: Regents’ Award for Superior Teaching Teresa A. Scordino, M.D., Department of Pathology Regents’ Award for Superior Research and Creative Activity Yun-Zheng Le, Ph.D., Department of Medicine President’s Awards:

Christopher Candler, M.D., Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, received the David L. Boren Professorship.

David L. Boren Professorship Christopher Candler, M.D., Ed.D., Department of Medicine and Executive Dean’s Office George Lynn Cross Research Professorship Min Li, Ph.D., Department of Medicine William E. Sonntag, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Presidential Professorships: Edith Kinney Gaylord Presidential Professor Nelson Ivan Agudelo Higuita, M.D., Department of Medicine Annie Moreau, M.D., Department of Ophthalmology Presbyterian Health Foundation Presidential Professor Michael H. Elliott, Ph.D., Department of Ophthalmology Rajagopal Ramesh, Ph.D., Department of Pathology University Hospitals Authority and Trust Faculty Excellence Professor Lieschen Quiroz, M.D., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Teresa Scordino, M.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology, was honored with the Regents’ Award for Superior Teaching.

Provost’s Awards: Research-Senior Faculty Stavros Stavrakis, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Medicine

Ramesh Honored by AIMBE Rajagopal Ramesh, Ph.D., OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center researcher and professor in the Department of Pathology, has been elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Ramesh was elected for outstanding contribution in clinical translation of cancer gene therapeutics using biological and synthetic materials. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top 2% of medical and biological engineers in the country.

Rajagopal Ramesh, Ph.D.

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FACULT Y ACHIE VEMENTS

College Presents Rader and Tow Humanism Awards Each year, the OU College of Medicine recognizes excellence among faculty and residents with the presentation of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award and the Lloyd Rader Award.

The Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award is given to a faculty member who demonstrates excellence in promoting scholarship, encouraging high standards of care, and integrity and commitment to compassionate care of patients and to the art and science of medical practice.

This year’s recipient is Dale Bratzler, D.O., MPH. Braztler is a professor in the College of Medicine and is professor and chair of the Department of Health Administration and Policy in the Hudson College of Public Health. He also serves as OU Health Chief Quality Officer and OU’s Chief COVID Officer.

Paul McGaha, M.D., accepts the Lloyd Rader Award from Elisa Crouse, M.D., associate dean for Graduate Medical Education.

In a letter of support for the award, the writer said: “2021 is a year that I hope bestows accolades on those who ‘carried us through’ 2020. For me, in 2021, there is no one who has better portrayed the compassionate, scientifically proficient physician on the Health Sciences Center campus than Dale Bratzler.”

The Lloyd Rader Award, named for the man who served as director of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services from 1951-1982, recognizes outstanding achievements in residency, both clinical care and medical research. This year, the Lloyd Rader Award was presented to two residents: Rufei Lu, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Pathology, and Paul McGaha, M.D., M.Sc., from the Department of Surgery.

Lu has been a major contributor to the campus and to the state during COVID-19, working with his colleagues and researchers at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) to create a new PCR test for COVID-19, which was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization. On his own time, he created a laboratory information system that manages 92,000 COVID-19 testing results. During his pathology residency, he has completed nine publications and given 12 presentations, and his peers say Lu “consistently goes above and beyond” and demonstrates “selfless service to patient care.” Lu has been accepted into a neuropathology fellowship at the University of California-San Francisco.

McGaha has been a prolific researcher with 28 publications and 26 presentations during his surgery residency. In his publications, he has modeled interdisciplinary and interprofessional work through the involvement of multiple residents and faculty members, as well as collaborators across several disciplines. Those nominating him called him a role model who is “humble and effective.” He is headed to a pediatric surgery fellowship at Washington University-St. Louis.

Rufei Lu, M.D., Ph.D., accepts the Lloyd Rader Award from Elisa Crouse, M.D., associate dean for Graduate Medical Education.

Dale Bratzler, D.O., MPH, accepts the Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from Executive Dean John Zubialde, M.D.

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FACULT Y ACHIE VEMENTS/ALUMNI

Class of 2024:

• Aesculapian Award for excellence in teaching the preclinical sciences: Mary Moon, Ph.D., Department of Cell Biology On the Tulsa campus, students presented Crimson Apple Awards. Honorees were:

Janelle Whitt, D.O., was honored with the Community Medicine Leader Award.

Students Honor Faculty for Excellence in Teaching Each spring, OU College of Medicine students on the Oklahoma City campus and at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa honor faculty members with a variety of awards in recognition of their excellence in teaching.

The 2021 Edgar W. Young Lifetime Achievement Award was presented on the Oklahoma City campus to Molly Hill, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

The award was presented by the 2020-2021 Student Council on behalf of the student body to recognize Hill’s longtime dedication to teaching and mentoring the next generation of physicians.

On the Tulsa campus, Janelle Whitt, D.O., in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine received the Community Medicine Leader Award. The award recognizes Whitt for exemplifying the mission of the School of Community Medicine as evidenced by teaching, scholarship, and community service.

On the Oklahoma City campus, each class presented Aesculapian Awards. Honorees were: Class of 2021:

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Aesculapian Award for excellence in teaching clinical sciences: David Kelley, M.D., Department of Family and Preventive Medicine Aesculapian Award for excellence in teaching clinical sciences as volunteer faculty: Elizabeth Rainwater, M.D., family medicine

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Preclinical faculty: Teresa Scordino, M.D., Department of Pathology Volunteer faculty: Lisa Bull, M.D., dermatology Residents: Barrie Kaiser, M.D., Department of Pediatrics, and Raye Reeder, M.D., Department of Family and Community Medicine Clinical faculty: Karl Hoskison, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Evening of Excellence, Alumni Day Returning Soon The OU College of Medicine Alumni Association’s two signature events – Evening of Excellence and Alumni Day – are resuming after being postponed because of COVID-19.

Evening of Excellence will be held on Jan. 27, 2022.

The gala, during which the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Medical Service and the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Community Service are presented, raises funds for seed grants for researchers. Over the 36 years of the event, it has raised $5.7 million. The Alumni Association has awarded $3.6 million in seed grants to 162 researchers, who use the funds to further their investigations and apply for federal grants.

For more information about Evening of Excellence, visit medicine.ouhsc.edu/alumni/eoe.

Alumni Day 2021 will be held in person on Oct. 1. All alumni are welcome, and class reunions will be held for those who graduated in years ending in 0, 5, 1 and 6. Activities on campus will be held during the day, and the dinner and awards ceremony will be in the evening.

Class of 2022:

• Aesculapian Award for excellence in teaching clinical sciences: Mark Allee, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

• Aesculapian Award for excellence in teaching the third-year clerkship: Courtney Bisson, M.D., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Class of 2023:

• Aesculapian Award for excellence in teaching the preclinical sciences: Chris Brasel, Ph.D., Department of Family and Community Medicine

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Physician-scientist Stavros Stavrakis, M.D., Ph.D., who has received grant funding from the College of Medicine Alumni Association, speaks during a past event.

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ALUMNI

Honorees for 2020 will be recognized. They are:

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Robert N. Cooke, M.D., Class of 1980 — Physician of the Year Award in Private Practice Woody Jenkins, M.D., Class of 1990 — Physician of the Year Award in Private Practice Bonnie Miller, M.D., Class of 1980 — Physician of the Year Award in Academic Medicine George Thompson, M.D., Class of 1970 — Physician of the Year Award in Academic Medicine Hanna Saadah, M.D. – Friend of Medicine Award

Registration will open this summer. The Alumni Association is also seeking alumni who want to connect with classmates ahead of the reunion, as well as nominations for 2022 honorees.

For more information, email oucomalumni@ouhsc.edu or medicine.ouhsc.edu/reunion.

OU Health trauma surgeon Roxie Albrecht, M.D., was honored during the 2019 Evening of Excellence.

At the 2019 Evening of Excellence, Toby and Tricia Keith were recognized for their support of families and children who are undergoing treatment on campus.

Fifty-year recognitions will resume during Alumni Day this fall.

The Alumni Association plans to continue campus tours during Alumni Day in October.

In Memoriam Edward Wayne Allensworth, ’61 M.D., Vinita, Oklahoma Larry Amstutz, ’78 M.D., Billings, Montana Michael Anderson, ’79 M.D., Yukon, Oklahoma L.V. Baker, Jr., ’55 M.D., Elk City, Oklahoma Duane Alfred Barnett, ’52 M.D., Dallas, Texas William Blanchard, ’55 M.D., McAlester, Oklahoma John Blaschke, ’50 M.D., Oklahoma City Aaron Vance Brainard, ’99 M.D., Gilbert, Arizona Claude Brown, ’53 M.D., Albuquerque, New Mexico Orby Lee Butcher, ’55 M.D., Oklahoma City Dale Butler, ’65 M.D., Roseville, California Martiece Carson, ’84 M.D., Albuquerque, New Mexico Frank Chapman, ’61 M.D., Bristow, Oklahoma Marvin Childress, ’45 M.D., Goldthwaite, Texas Ted Clemens, ’52 M.D., Oklahoma City Bruce Collier, ’71 M.D., San Francisco, California Jerry Cotner, ’59 M.D., Dallas, Texas Laurie Shoffner Coyner, ’98 M.D., Eastborough, Kansas Earl Sanders Elliott, ’73 M.D., Nichols Hills, Oklahoma Robert Endres, ’48 M.D., Tulsa, Oklahoma Robert E. Engles, ’54 M.D., Durant, Oklahoma John Patrick Evans, ’63 M.D., Edmond, Oklahoma Jerry Gilbert, ’75 M.D., Ada, Oklahoma Joseph Harroz, ’56 M.D., Oklahoma City Lloyd Hummer, ’57 M.D., Manhattan, Kansas George William Ingels, ’61 M.D., Norman, Oklahoma John Albert Kienzle, ’58 M.D., Shawnee, Oklahoma Tracy Kobs, ’57 M.D., Fort Worth, Texas Joseph Antony Kopta, ’62 M.D., Edmond, Oklahoma Timothy Krahn, ’87 M.D., Memphis, Tennessee Elton Wilmot LeHew, ’68 M.D., Naples, Florida Max Lorenz, ’62 M.D., Kennesaw, Georgia Leslie Lucas, ’87 M.D., San Antonio, Texas Clarence A. Martin, ’63 M.D., Neosho, Missouri Ray V. McIntyre, ’51 M.D., Kingfisher, Oklahoma Ralph McLaury, ’67 M.D., Baton Rouge, Louisiana Lawrence Merritt, ’61 M.D., St. Petersburg, Florida Ray Miller, ’45 M.D., Okmulgee, Oklahoma Dan Miller, ’69 M.D., Muskogee, Oklahoma Charles Morgan, ’56 M.D., Fort Gibson, Oklahoma Ronald North, ’67 M.D., Lubbock, Texas Robert L. Overacre, ’85 M.D., Little Rock, Arkansas Robert Gentry Perryman, ’46 M.D., Tulsa, Oklahoma Robert Quinn, ’66 M.D., Castle Rock, Colorado Lee Rittenhouse, ’78 M.D., Nichols Hills, Oklahoma Ernest G. Shadid, ’55 M.D., Norman, Oklahoma Kenneth Roger Shryock, ’71 M.D., Reno, Nevada William H. Simon, ’54 M.D., Enid, Oklahoma Ronnie Smalling, ’86 M.D., Springfield, Missouri Jack Spencer, ’54 M.D., Edmond, Oklahoma Jodie Stark, ’58 M.D., Tulsa, Oklahoma Philip Stephenson, ’58 M.D., Tulsa, Oklahoma Robert Stobaugh, ’60 M.D., Bradenton, Florida Christopher Bryan Teter, ’77 M.D., Tulsa, Oklahoma Richard Winters, ’53 M.D., Poteau, Oklahoma

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University of Oklahoma College of Medicine P.O. Box 26901 Oklahoma City, OK 73126-0901

Plastic and reconstructive surgeon Christian El Amm, M.D., wears the surgical visualization device that assists him during complex facial reconstructions.