PATIENT CARE
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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