Message From The Provost

OU Health Sciences prepares health care professionals and scientists to meet tomorrow’s most complex health care needs through research, discovery, and interdisciplinary education experiences. The campus is a premier health care training institution for nearly 3,700 students; 97 post-doctoral researchers; and 874 residents and fellows, graduating physicians, biomedical and clinician scientists, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, allied health professionals, and public health leaders. Researchers at OU Health Sciences have the largest portfolio of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in the state and commercialize new treatments and diagnostic tests, utilizing state-of-the-art research facilities such as the University Research Park and Stanton L. Young Biomedical Research Center. The Stephenson Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated cancer center in Oklahoma and provides care for 1 in 5 of all Oklahomans diagnosed with cancer. It has ranked in the top 10 nationally for patient enrollment in NCI National Clinical Trial Network treatment trials since 2014.

OU Health Sciences in Oklahoma City is located one mile south of the state capitol and is a founding partner with the University Hospitals Authority and Trust of the academic health system, OU Health.  The latter includes OU Health Partners, OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center, Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health, and OU Health Edmond Medical Center, as well as numerous clinics located in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and other sites across Oklahoma. The University combines efforts with OU Health as the only research-driven healthcare system in Oklahoma, with treatment options and expertise found nowhere else. The OU Health Sciences - OU Health partnership is active in Tulsa, including through OU’s School of Community Medicine and other Health Sciences programs that have academic and clinical affiliations with the Hillcrest, St. Francis, and St. John health systems. The University has additional affiliations with the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Oklahoma City and other hospitals, clinics, health departments, and healthcare facilities across the state, including in Norman, Bartlesville, Weatherford, Duncan, and Lawton.

OU Health Sciences has contributed to Oklahoma’s history and growth for the past 125 years. The College of Pharmacy dates before statehood to 1893 and awarded degrees to OU’s first two graduates; the College of Medicine began training in 1900 as a two-year pre-clinical school and in 1910 merged with the Epworth Medical College in Oklahoma City to become a four-year school. The Graduate College, originally a shared college with the Norman Campus, was established at the Health Sciences in 1990. The Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing began classes in 1911; and the College of Allied Health and Hudson College of Public Health opened to their first students in 1967. The College of Dentistry was founded in 1971, with an added location on the OU Tulsa campus in 2022.

Scientists, scholars, and clinicians at OU Health Sciences deliver health care solutions through bench-to-bedside-to-community research and through training the state’s most comprehensive and skilled health workforce. OU Health Sciences is an essential partner for the State of Oklahoma to improve health outcomes and drive economic growth and diversification.