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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.”
[ S p r i n g /S u m m e r 2 0 21 ]
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