The University of Oklahoma offers the opportunity to train in obstetrics and gynecology at the state’s flagship academic medical center, within a department that has trained physicians for Oklahoma for more than six decades. At OU Health, residents care for women across every stage of life. They see routine prenatal care and deliveries, and they also see the most complex obstetric and gynecologic conditions, referred from across Oklahoma and the surrounding region. Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health serves as the state’s tertiary care center for obstetrics and as a statewide neonatal-perinatal referral center. It has a Level IV NICU, the largest and highest-level in Oklahoma. Our residents learn to manage the patients other hospitals transfer out.
The breadth of care across OU Health creates an exceptional environment to learn obstetrics and gynecology. Residents train alongside maternal-fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists, obstetric anesthesiologists, gynecologic oncologists and surgeons from across the medical center. In the Prenatal Diagnostic Center, the STAR prenatal program for patients with substance use disorder, and the high-risk antepartum unit, residents gain experience that prepares them for any practice setting they choose.
The Resources of an Academic Department
One of the greatest strengths of training at OU is the depth of expertise within our department. Residents rotate through eight clinical divisions:
- General Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Maternal-Fetal Medicine
- Gynecologic Oncology
- Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery
- Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility
- Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery
- Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology
- Lactation
Four of these divisions offer their own fellowships, in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Gynecologic Oncology, Urogynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Residents therefore have subspecialty mentors and early exposure to every career path in the field.
That expertise extends into the operating room. Over the past two decades our department has grown significantly, bringing greater volume and complexity to our surgical caseload. Because more cases are available than residents could perform, we can steer residents toward complex procedures, building a strong surgical skill set rather than simply a high case count. Our faculty brought vNOTES to Oklahoma, performing the state’s first vaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery in 2024. OU Health is also the only program in the state offering the da Vinci SP single-port robotic system. Gynecologic oncology training takes place at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center, Oklahoma’s only NCI-designated cancer center and a national leader in clinical trial enrollment.
The depth of expertise is matched by a strong commitment to teaching. Our faculty are invested in residents’ growth as clinicians, surgeons and scholars. [Add: faculty development, simulation curriculum, graduated surgical autonomy, mentorship structure.] Training also extends beyond the academic center. [Add: community or affiliated sites, if any, and what residents gain there.
A Tradition Built Over Generations
Our residency may be one of the most established in the region, but it has never stood still. In 1961, James A. Merrill, MD, joined the department and built a culture centered on resident education. He believed residents should have the opportunity to present their research and share their work with their peers and faculty. In 1974, the department established its own Resident Research Day, which grew into Tiger Day. More than fifty years later, every resident still completes a mentored research project and presents it at Tiger Day, critiqued by a nationally recognized visiting professor.
Dr. Merrill’s legacy lives on in more than research. Known throughout the department as “the Bengal Tiger,” he inspired the renaming of the Society of Former Residents to the Bengal Residents of Obstetrics and Gynecology (BROG) Society. Today every graduating resident receives a Bengal Tiger pin, a lasting connection to a community of OU-trained physicians practicing across Oklahoma and the nation. [Add: number of alumni, or the share practicing in Oklahoma.]
Being part of OU Obstetrics and Gynecology also means sharing in a responsibility to our state. [Add one line on Oklahoma’s maternal health needs and the department’s role in meeting them.] We want residents to bring their ideas, interests and perspectives to the program and help carry its traditions forward. Our responsibility is to give them the clinical breadth, surgical experience, mentorship and educational foundation they need to become outstanding obstetrician-gynecologists, and lifelong members of the Tiger family.