About Research at OUHSC

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center is the leading healthcare research institution in Oklahoma. At the OU Health Sciences Center, research is an extensive, collaborative and multidisciplinary endeavor in which hundreds of investigators are working toward a shared goal: to advance the knowledge that improves the lives of people in Oklahoma and beyond.

Cutting-edge research takes place within all seven colleges at the OU Health Sciences Center, with community partners in Oklahoma and across the world, and as part of OU Health, Oklahoma’s only comprehensive academic healthcare system of hospitals, clinics, and centers of excellence. Strategic research areas are cancer, diabetes, neurosciences/vision, infectious diseases, and geroscience, but the breadth and depth of our research enterprise extends to every aspect of individual and community health. Projects are often interdisciplinary, bringing together researchers from historically unrelated fields to seek discoveries based on common themes.

OUHSC Strategic Plan: Please click here for the OU Health Sciences Center Strategic Plan.

The OU Health Sciences Center is home to nationally recognized scientists and clinicians conducting innovative studies across a continuum of research types.

Basic Sciences

Research, often laboratory-based, that advances our understanding of how the human body works when it is well and when it is sick.

Translational

Research that takes discoveries made in basic science laboratories and investigates ways to translate them into treatments.

Clinical

Research, often in the form of clinical trials, that directly involves patients to test the safety and effectiveness of a treatment.

Population Health

Studies that focus on factors influencing the health of specific populations of people.

Dissemination and Implementation

Research that focuses on how to best apply and maintain scientific advances in the real world.

Community-Based Participatory

Research in which academic investigators, community members and organizations are equal partners in projects, often ones that seek solutions for healthcare disparities.

Researchers at the OU Health Sciences Center, located both on the Oklahoma City and Tulsa campuses, are consistently well-funded. Funding from the National Institutes of Health, considered the key benchmark for research productivity and reputation on campus, comprises more than half of overall funding. The OU Health Sciences Center is also home to the largest and most advanced biomedical infrastructure in Oklahoma.

Our researchers at the OU Health Sciences Center are courageous in asking complex questions in order to solve complex problems, and they are driven by a spirit of discovery and innovation. Above all, they are dedicated to making discoveries that translate to hope, healing and well-being for people at home and around the world.