https://medicine.ouhsc.edu/about Parent Page: About id: 21454 Active Page: Strategic Plan id: 36463 Portal ID: 248

Our vision is to be a top-tier, research-intensive college of medicine.

VALUES – INSPIRE

Innovation
Nurturing
Service
Partnerships
Integrity
Results-Driven
Excellence

PILLAR 1. Education

Attract and empower learners seeking innovative education and training in a highly engaging, supportive environment.

Strategy 1.1: Recruit, retain, and develop exceptional students, trainees, and faculty educators to meet Oklahoma’s healthcare workforce needs.

Tactics:

For Students

  • Position OU College of Medicine as a national leader in medical and PA education. 
  • Implement the new, innovative UME curricula to meet the needs of OU College of Medicine students as well as the Oklahoma and U.S. workforce needs.
  • Adjust class size of the medical and PA programs to align first with the State of Oklahoma workforce demands and secondly with national demands.
  • Expand scholarships to attract and retain high achieving students and students interested in targeted areas. 
  • Determine mechanisms to reduce student debt.
  • Bolster graduate student and post-doctoral fellow education and training, in coordination with the OU Graduate College.
  • Enhance medial and PA student pipeline development programs (e.g., high school, etc.); coordinate with successful efforts already underway through OU. 

For Trainees/Fellows

  • Expand GME slots to better align with the State of Oklahoma workforce demands as well as with national workforce demands. Utilize the results of the innovative OU College of Medicine workforce analysis underway.
  • Collaborate with OU Health and other key clinical partners to standardize onboarding approaches for clinical training across clinical sites.
  • Develop clinical electives in targeted areas. 
  • Develop mechanisms for tracking graduates and coordinate with alumni association.

For Faculty Educators

  • Incentivize, recognize and reward medical and PA faculty educators.
    1. Establish an endowment to support faculty educators. 
    2. Ensure faculty promotion criteria are tied to concrete, standardized metrics for faculty educator efforts. 
    3. Assess mechanisms to incentivize and recognize non-College of Medicine health educators in the community. 
  • Foster greater connections between educators across campuses. 
  • Leverage the Academy of Teaching Scholars to advance faculty educator development. 
  • Ensure balance of OU Health clinical requirements with UME, GME, and PA education requirements.

Strategy 1.2: Deliver transformative, innovative education that equips learners for an evolving healthcare landscape.

Tactics:

Medical Education & Curriculum

  • Continue striving towards delivering a world-class curriculum through active learning modalities and/or online platforms. 
  • Build and implement mechanisms to measure student competencies that satisfy the requirements of LCME, GME and ARC-PA.
  • Grow and revitalize dual-degree and interdisciplinary programs including MD/PhD and MD/MBA programs, aligned with future healthcare and biomedical research leadership needs.  
  • Leverage on-campus partner institutions to enhance interdisciplinary education (e.g., Allied Health Sonography).
  • Utilize innovative artificial intelligence tools to enhance educational experiences and training.

Educators

  • Engage a core group of faculty educators to ensure consistent, high-quality instruction.  
  • Continue with 3-year curriculum implementation currently underway.
  • Review and assess faculty contracts to ensure educational efforts are encouraged, appropriately documented, and in alignment with OU Health and OU.
  • Investigate the creation of an Institute of Medical Education to serve as a catalyst strengthening departmental collaboration, elevating teaching excellence, and continually evolve curricular design.

Strategy 1.3: Build a scalable educational infrastructure that supports learners’ success and belonging.

Tactics:

  • Ensure high-quality UME, GME, and PA teaching space and infrastructure to support projected student and trainee enrollment growth and provide a supportive and flexible learning environment.
  • Extend student learning communities into clinical education.
  • Address operational infrastructure gaps.
    • Revitalize the Office of Medical Education (OME).
    • Modernize IT systems.
  • Secure philanthropic funding for scholarships. 
  • Increase opportunities for student and trainee research experiences. 
  • Develop robust relationships between OU College of Medicine, OU School of Community Medicine (SCM) and PA programs.
  • Strengthen the relationship between OU College of Medicine, the VA, and other educational partners to help elevate the VA and other key partners as a primary sites for student and trainee education.

Strategy 1.4: Expand and align Undergraduate Medical Education (UME), Graduate Medical Education (GME), Physician Associate (PA), and continued professional development as a cohesive clinical training pipeline.

Tactics:

Students and Trainees

  • Accelerate workforce readiness through new targeted three-year UME tracks. 
  • Address faculty teaching demands given clinical productivity expectations, in coordination with OU Health and other stakeholders.
  • Align UME, GME, PA, and graduate education with the State of Oklahoma and US workforce needs.
  • Develop and refine the role of faculty educators.
  • Develop a centralized approach for expanding GME slots across clinical departments.
    • Expand GME slots to accommodate the growth in OU College of Medicine medical students and to recruit and retain graduates for GME training.
    • Utilize the results of the innovative OU College of Medicine workforce analysis underway.
    • Align program expansion with health system and institutional priorities.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

  • Develop high quality, highly responsive continuing professional education programs aimed at OU College of Medicine faculty development across the tripartite missions.
  • Provide and promote high quality, highly responsive Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs.

PILLAR 2.  Research

Significantly grow the research enterprise, radically elevating its impact on health.

Strategy 2.1: Foster a dynamic and collaborative culture of research excellence

Tactics:

Strengthen research collaborations in all regards:  across OU College of Medicine departments, and with OU Health, OU, and community and external partners.

  • COM Departmental Collaborations.  Ensure all clinical departments incorporate research as a key component of being the destination of choice and only academic health system in Oklahoma.
    • Increase collaborations between clinical researchers and basic scientists.
    • Develop departmental research collaborations centered around disease models, technology, imaging, data science, and informatics.
    • Build upon shared research resources in the basic science departments.
    • Regularly hold research meetings and retreats.
  • OU Health Collaborations.  Collaborate with OU Health to deepen its research footprint with access to research-driven, excellent care and clinical trials.
  • University of Oklahoma (OU) Collaborations.  Bolster multidisciplinary, collaborative, high-impact team science across the University of Oklahoma.
    • Align with the research priorities in the OU Lead On, University Strategic Plan.
    • Strengthen collaborations with researchers across all OU colleges.
    • Leverage OU Profile and Academic Analytics to identify matchmaking opportunities.
    • Hold interdisciplinary seminars, meetings and joint research retreats.
  • Community and External Partner Collaborations.  Strengthen research collaborations, externally.
    • Foster research collaborations and engagement with community partners, such as the VA and tribal nations.
    • Pursue strategic industry partnerships.

Strategy 2.2: Build the research talent pool through recruitment, retention, and development of exceptional faculty, staff, students and trainees.

Tactics:

Faculty Recruitment Tactics

  • Strategically recruit and retain high-profile, well-funded “superstars” to grow the research enterprise and attract philanthropic support.
  • Align faculty recruitment and cluster hires with strategic priorities of OU College of Medicine.
  • Establish a clear pathway for training towards becoming an outstanding faculty researcher. 
  • Develop an enhanced pathway to recruit, retain, support, and develop physician scientists from undergraduate to post-doctoral fellow to faculty.

Graduate Student / Post-Doctoral Fellow Recruitment Tactics

  • Enhance and institutionalize research training programs to ensure consistent, high-quality development of research skills across all levels.
  • Grow and revitalize the MD/PhD program; build towards a formal MSTP program.
  • Create a pipeline for the MD/MS program.
  • Provide opportunities for medical students and residents to engage in research in targeted areas and with basic science and clinical departments.

Retention/Development Tactics

  • Recognize, reward and incentivize productive and high-achieving faculty across the research continuum; ensure a standardized protocol for this process.
  • Ensure continued resources and recognition for current OU College of Medicine research teams and actively promote their accomplishments.
  • Provide professional development, mentoring, and clear career pathways for all. 
  • Enhance research training, and career development for students, trainees and early career faculty; leverage the OSCTR.
  • Ensure supportive research infrastructure and standardized processes are in place for all to thrive at OU College of Medicine.

Strategy 2.3: Strengthen the research infrastructure to compete at the level of top-tier, research-intensive colleges of medicine.

Tactics:

  • Transform the OU College of Medicine research organizational structure to strategically drive sustained research growth and success.
  • Appoint an OU College of Medicine Vice Dean of Research to provide leadership and oversight for the college’s research initiatives and infrastructure, working with the OU Vice President for Research and Partnerships.  
    • Assemble a skilled, efficient and service-oriented research administration team. 
    • Develop an organizational structure that provides state-of-the-art research cores to OU College of Medicine researchers. 
    • Increase access to technological cores necessary to conduct research including sequencing, imaging, flow cytometry, epigenomics analytics, and data science support including bioinformatics, biobanking, and biostatistics.
    • Strengthen and integrate OU College of Medicine research IT infrastructure.
  • Expand infrastructure to support innovative clinical research and clinical trials including data coordinating centers, central IRB, and biobanking.
  • Develop modern research facilities and space that will facilitate collaboration, foster innovation and support research across the continuum. 

Strategy 2.4: Develop a robust clinical research and clinical trials enterprise.

Tactics:

  • Foster a culture across OU College of Medicine, OU Health, and our clinical affiliates that supports and encourages clinical research and clinical trials.
    • Encourage enrolling patients in clinical trials.
    • Partner with OU Health to expand clinical trials operations.
    • Utilize the electronic medical record (EMR) to identify prospective patients for clinical trials.
  • Increase access to and awareness of clinical trials and innovative therapies, ensuring availability for all Oklahomans.
  • Expand infrastructure to support innovative and accessible clinical research and clinical trials.
    • Strengthen biorepository, imaging, data warehouse, and clinical genomics/genetics capabilities.   
    • Modernize digital tools to effectively identify patients for clinical trials, including the use of the EMR. 
    • Develop capacity to serve as a central or single IRB for multisite clinical trials.
    • Establish a master IRB for biobanking with opt-out consent to drive efficiency and recruitment.
    • Improve efficiencies for both the IRB and the Office of Research Administration.
    • Tap into the research resources offered through the Oklahoma Shared Clinical and Translational Resources (OSCTR), including the shared pool of clinical research support. 
  • Strengthen clinical research skills of clinical track faculty, residents and fellows.
    • Embed research competencies and innovation into clinical faculty development and continuing medical education programs.

Strategy 2.5: Grow and diversify the research funding portfolio.

Tactics:

  • Increase extramural funding.
    • Grow the cadre of well-funded, research-intensive faculty. 
    • Increase large, high-impact, collaborative team science awards including PPGs.
    • Target large interdisciplinary, disease-specific awards including NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center designation, Diabetes Research Center, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, etc.
    • Expand structured training and career development funding through growth in NIH training, fellowship and career development awards (T, F and K awards).  
    • Increase the number of Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grants. 
  • Strengthen relationships with foundations to secure increased support for research through targeted proposals and partnerships.
  • Actively engage the OU Foundation to strategically grow philanthropic support.
  • Enlarge all endowments to support research.
  • Grow technology transfer and commercialization.
  • Pursue industry sponsored research and partnerships. 

PILLAR 3.  Clinical Care

Partnering with OU Health, be the destination of choice for delivering the highest quality, multidisciplinary health care in the State of Oklahoma and beyond.

Strategy 3.1: Expand and grow clinical programs to increase patient access to outstanding, comprehensive care across the State of Oklahoma and beyond.

Tactics:

  • Improve access to care; launch and expand access improvement initiatives across ambulatory, in-patient, perioperative, and imaging services including the clinical partnership network.
  • Support the delivery of evidence-based, high-quality care.
    • Launch evidence-based Clinical Pathway across service lines.
    • Improve preventative screening in adult and children’s services.
  • Provide evidence-based services and clinical practices that achieve optimal health outcomes.
  • Increase community-based, low acuity hospital admissions at Edmond Medical Center.
  • Grow advanced, subspecialty destination programs with robust research and academic components that only an academic health system can deliver upon.
    • Acute/Critical Care
    • Adult Cardiovascular
    • Cancer
    • Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases
    • Neurosciences
    • Pediatrics
  • Strategically position other interdisciplinary reputational programs that elevate prominence.
  • Grow telemedicine/telehealth services to improve access to care, particularly important in development of our clinical networks and rural partnerships with tele-neurology and tele-stroke.
  • Develop research-driven metrics to deliver unsurpassed quality outcomes.
  • Implement quality improvement initiatives aimed at advancing OU Health’s adult, children’s, oncology, and ambulatory service lines into the top quartile of Vizient Quality and Accountability rankings.
  • Execute targeted performance improvement strategies to elevate OU Health to a 4-star CMS rating.
  • Expand clinical trials, research, and training programs in concert with subspecialty program expansion in the region and across the State.

Strategy 3.2: Develop a robust, statewide clinical partnership that integrates the tripartite mission across multiple specialty areas.

Tactics:

  • Expand strategic alignment, communication and transparency across internal and external partner institutions.
  • Strengthen clinical alignment and strategic direction across College of Medicine clinical departments and across practice sites. 
    • Improve decision-making agility across entities to capitalize on emerging opportunities.
    • Create opportunities and incentives that reward unified, enterprise-level decision-making.
    • Ensure alignment across OU College of Medicine departmental strategic plans.
  • Develop affiliated relationships and partnerships that improve health.
    • Expand the primary care referral network and bolster tertiary/quaternary referrals. 
    • Boost our presence in, and engagement with, our community in designing programs and services that meet local and state health needs.
    • Form partnerships and affiliations with community partners in underserved areas.
  • Strengthen the VA partnership across the research, education and clinical care missions.  
  • With OU and OU Health, develop a clinical partnership with Oklahoma’s tribal community encompassing workforce development, research, education and clinical care.
  • Establish, enhance and refine partnerships in Tulsa between the School of Community Medicine and other strategic collaborators.
  • Expand state-wide health educational and screening activities.

Strategy 3.3: Be the State leader in innovative clinical technology and new models of care.

Tactics:

  • Translate research excellence towards developing innovative clinical technologies and innovative new models of care.
  • Drive innovation in clinical information technology, artificial intelligence, robotic- and image-guided technology to enhance patient care. 
  • Develop a nimble innovation governance structure that fosters the application of innovative and differentiating technologies and discoveries into patient care.
    • Identify and address barriers to innovation such as technology transfer, IP ownership, and conflict of interest.
    • Facilitate credentialing and privileges that will foster nimble, innovative research and discovery in the clinical setting.
  • Position targeted subspecialty programs as national and global leaders in innovative technology and new models of care. (Note: the following are all metrics in OU Lead On)
    • Attain NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center status for the Stephenson Cancer Center.
    • Advance the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center as a national leader within NIDDK Diabetes Centers.
    • Establish a Neuroscience Center and secure a transformative naming gift. 
    • Be a leading member in NIH’s national stroke network. 

Strategy 3.4: Strategically highlight and position OU College of Medicine faculty as the providers of choice.

Tactics:

  • Position OU College of Medicine faculty as the clinical providers of choice for:
    • OU and OU Health faculty, staff, and their families, across all campuses.
    • Regional collegiate and professional athletics teams.
    • New and existing local industry and corporations.
  • Elevate the patient and family experience across OU College of Medicine clinical practice sites.
  • Be the employer of choice for OU College of Medicine students, residents, and fellows.
    • Strategically track alumni after graduation.
  • Identify and address programmatic and workforce needs to enhance patient access and ensure no resident needs or wants to leave Oklahoma for care.
  • Explore the development for insurance plan discounts for OU faculty and employees when utilizing OU College of Medicine and OU Health as a provider. 
    • Ensure all OU College of Medicine and OU Health providers are included as providers of Garner Health.

Strategy 3.5: Lead in developing the healthcare workforce for Oklahoma and the nation

Tactics:

  • Utilize results of the OU College of Medicine workforce analysis to guide workforce development.
  • Strengthen the healthcare professionals' pipeline to address our top workforce needs.
    • Intentionally develop workforce that aligns with educational and research needs.
    • Attract and develop students from underserved areas.
    • Promote careers in health and healthcare with high schools and earlier; leverage the OU pipeline mechanisms successfully in place.
    • Understand and address the growing workforce needs of the health system.   
  • Lead the development of innovative non-MD training pathways for healthcare provider and allied health professionals. 
  • Provide a seamless network of clinical training sites across clinical practice sites.
    • Develop partnerships with community practice sites for clinical rotations and to strategically place graduates.
  • Right-size GME slots and clinical clerkships to accommodate growth in the OU College of Medicine medical students class size.
  • Provide outstanding continuing education opportunities for current health professionals in the State of Oklahoma and beyond. 
  • Create innovative, interprofessional education (IPE) and learning opportunities with other OU colleges.

PLATFORM A.
People & Culture

Ascend as ONE – unified by our people and culture, where all are valued and thrive.

Strategy A.1: Foster a bold, visionary culture fueled by shared aspirations and purpose.

Tactics:

  • Develop a leadership framework that engages, recognizes and rewards leaders who actively cultivate a visionary, inclusive, and collaborative culture.
  • Enhance transparency and accountability in decision-making and processes at every level of the  organization. 
  • Commit to unwavering dedication to the core values in the new OU COM strategic plan; clearly communicate expectations and behavioral standards in support of the new core values. 
  • Ensure a respectful and supportive work environment that is collaborative, communicative, and advances working together. 
  • Create a compelling narrative and consistently share success stories. 
  • Align shared aspirations and purpose with our partners.

Strategy A.2: Be the destination of choice for outstanding faculty, staff, students, and trainees.

Tactics:

  • Establish effective mechanisms for onboarding, orientation, and development to set up every member of the OU College of Medicine community for success. 
  • Recruit, retain, and develop the best faculty, staff, students, and trainees in accordance with national benchmarks.
  • Ensure a contemporary, integrated, supportive infrastructure and standardized processes are in place for all to thrive at OU College of Medicine.
  • Provide professional development, mentoring, and clear career pathways for all.  
  • Actively celebrate excellence in performance, achievements, awards and milestone anniversaries. 
  • Implement a comprehensive marketing and recruitment strategy with OU Health aimed at attracting top talent.
  • Recognize and publicize nationally, OU College of Medicine as the State of Oklahoma’s only comprehensive academic health system.
  • Foster relationships and teamwork across the organization. 

PLATFORM B.
Prominence 

Propel the identity, reputation and performance of OU College of Medicine.   

Strategy B.1: Elevate OU COM as a national leader in student-centered, career-focused education.

Tactics:

  • Position OU College of Medicine as a national leader in innovative education.
  • Promote interdisciplinary, interprofessional learning opportunities with other health professions through OU colleges.
  • Expand student services to support larger class size and individualized advising. 
  • Continue to increase faculty mentorship for personalized career guidance for students, trainees, and junior faculty. 
  • Develop a faculty recognition program that rewards excellence in student engagement and career mentoring. 
  • Actively host and/or participate in national initiatives, consortia and conferences on innovation in medical education.   

Strategy B.2: Significantly raise OU College of Medicine’s national research prominence and ranking.

Tactics:

  • Promote OU College of Medicine’s unique value proposition of translating discovery into clinical practice and improving health with profound population health benefits. 
  • Relentlessly and proudly tell our research and discovery stories through a dynamic multimedia marketing campaign aimed at increasing the national and international perception of College of Medicine.
  • Celebrate and promote faculty awards and achievements; communicate both internally and externally.
  • Increase scholarly output and peer-reviewed publications, including publications in high-impact journals.
  • Increase the number of faculty members elected to prestigious organizations (e.g., National Academy of Sciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, etc.) and peer-reviewed journal editorial boards.
  • Within each department, target professional societies that recognize outstanding research for membership.
  • Increase and promote the number of national awards received by College of Medicine faculty.

Strategy B.3: Strengthen OU College of Medicine’s position and identity as the academic health system for the State of Oklahoma and beyond.

Tactics:

  • Foster public trust and understanding of the vital importance of an academic health system.
    • Craft clear, compelling messaging to highlight the full value of the tripartite mission—education, research, and clinical care—for both internal and external audiences.
    • Lead as the largest provider of healthcare information for the region by developing a joint digital newsroom.
    • Build trust with key stakeholders by deepening our engagement statewide.
  • Grow reach and footprint of patient populations.
    • Activate new patient acquisition programming.
    • OU Health with OU College of Medicine: launch two fully integrated, comprehensive clinical service line campaigns reflecting the full tripartite mission within the service.
    • Develop and promote highest quality clinical services that lift the health of all Oklahomans.
  • Develop and execute a joint OU Health and OU College of Medicine marketing and branding plan as well as a communication plan that promotes the value proposition of OU Health and OU College of Medicine.
  • Pursue a philanthropic naming opportunity for the OU College of Medicine.
  • Cultivate philanthropic support that is aligned with targeted clinical programs.

LEAD ON, UNIVERSITY

The OU College of Medicine's Strategic Plan is in support of the University of Oklahoma's Strategic Plan. This renewed plan reaffirms our commitment to the highest levels of academic excellence, research innovation, student success, and service to our state and beyond. As part of this vision, we are advancing efforts to lift the health of Oklahoma, leveraging our world-class academic health system and cross-campus expertise to improve health education, research, care, and outcomes. The future of OU has never been brighter.

Read more about OU’s Strategic Plan