Across large areas of Oklahoma and the nation, primary care clinics are a lifeline, providing care for people who otherwise would have to travel many miles to see a doctor. To increase access to vital health care, the National Institutes of Health announced an ambitious new initiative to integrate NIH-funded clinical trials into routine patient care in medically underserved areas like rural Oklahoma and within Tribal nations.

Five researchers at the University of Oklahoma have been named to Clarivate's 2024 "Highly Cited Researchers" list based on their production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations. The 6,886 researchers on this year’s list are from universities, research institutions and commercial organizations and account for 1 in 1,000 of the world’s researchers and represent those whose work is at the leading edge of their discipline.

According to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States, Indigenous mothers, or those who self-identify as American Indian, Alaskan Native, or Native American, are three times more likely to die during or following pregnancy as non-Hispanic White mothers, and more than 90% of those deaths are preventable. The Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing at the University of Oklahoma is organizing data to attempt to change these trends.

Doris Benbrook, Ph.D., a Presbyterian Health Foundation Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, has been named Associate Director for Translational Research at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Center in Oklahoma.

The Harold Hamm Diabetes Center (HHDC) at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences will gain a new deputy director, Matthew Potthoff, Ph.D., effective January 1. Potthoff will also hold the title of Harold Hamm Endowed Chair in Clinical Diabetes Research and professor of biochemistry and physiology, with a secondary appointment in the division of neurology in the OU College of Medicine.