OU-Tulsa

The Blue Zones Project will present a series of events here in Tulsa this week, and so, on this edition of ST Medical Monday, we listen back to a Blue Zones-related interview from our archives. In 2016, we spoke with one Tony Buettner. Several years ago, Tony's brother Dan executed the original Blue Zones study, and then wrote a bestselling book about same.

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we revisit an interview that first aired in April with Dr. Daniela Lamas, author of "You Can Stop Humming Now: A Doctor’s Stories of Life, Death, and In Between." Per Publishers Weekly: "In this ruminative account of treating patients, Lamas, a pulmonary and critical care doctor at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, analyzes how the critically ill manage life during and after treatment. She meets people who are neither bitter nor sorrowful about their conditions, but are constantly aware of their precarious states....

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, and we are discussing the same with Dr. Nelson Royall of The OU-TU School of Community Medicine. Dr. Royall only recently joined the OU-TU team, and indeed only recently arrived here in Tulsa. As noted at his online OU-TU bio: "Dr. Royall serves as a liver, pancreas, and biliary surgeon within the Department of Surgery.

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we learn about the newly renovated Tandy Family YMCA (at 5005 S. Darlington Avenue). This impressive new facility, per the YMCA of Greater Tulsa website, "is a YMCA for the next generation. More than 110,000 square feet dedicated to the pursuit of healthy living and community-building [comprise] this state-of-the-art facility...[which was] built on the grounds of the 50-year-old Thornton Family YMCA, one of the anchors of midtown Tulsa.

On this edition of StudioTulsa Medical Monday, a discussion of trauma-informed therapy. Our guest is Dr. Sara Coffey, who works in the OU-TU School of Community Medicine's Department of Psychiatry as an assistant professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. We speak her about her wide-ranging efforts to treat kids for various kinds of trauma -- how she helps kids regulate their emotions, articulate their feelings, feel better overall, deal with all sorts of issues, and understand that the trauma at hand isn't their fault.

What is meant by the term "placebo effect"? What exactly is being described, and how is it brought about? And is this term a medical reality? Does it actually -- that is, scientifically -- exist? On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we hear from journalist Erik Vance, whose writing has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, Scientific American, and other publications.

Recently, Tulsa's St. John Health System and the Tulsa Cancer Institute joined forces to become the Oklahoma Cancer Specialists and Research Institute (or OCSRI). Our guest on StudioTulsa Medical Monday is Suanne Gersdorf, who became the chief executive officer of OCSRI about a year and a half ago.

What, exactly, is a brain concussion? What causes one -- and what is happening to one's brain when a concussion occurs? Also, are concussions actually happening more often these days, or are medical and neurological professionals simply more sensitive to them -- or more aware of them? On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we speak with Dr. Eric Sherburn, who is on the faculty of the OU-TU School of Community Medicine, where he serves in the Department of Family Medicine and Sports Medicine.

What do we mean by the phrase "public health"? What exactly does this term refer to? What sorts of treatments, goals, activities, and populations does it cover? On this edition of our program, we speak with Dr. Bruce Dart, who is Executive Director of the Tulsa City-County Health Department -- and who's also a Visiting Associate Professor at the OU-Tulsa College of Public Health. Dr.

On this edition of ST, we speak with Dr. Lawrence Aber, the Willner Family Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University, where he is also a University Professor. Dr. Aber is an internationally respected expert on child development, poverty, psychology, and how all of these relate to social policy.

On this edition of StudioTulsa on Health, we learn about the Blue Zones Project.

We're probably all aware of the much-publicized "online predators" who go after children these days on the internet, preying on innocent kids by way of trickery and violence. But these crimes, while obviously sick and deplorable, are over-hyped. How did this pervasive over-hyping come to be, and why does it persist? On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with Dr.

On this edition of ST, we learn about a locally based conference on the prevention of child sexual abuse, which is happening today and tomorrow (the 8th and 9th) at the OU-Tulsa Schusterman Center (at 41st and Yale). "Shifting Child Sexual Abuse Paradigms" -- hosted by the nonprofit Empowering Adults-Protecting Children, Inc. -- will bring together a range of experts who work every day in this regard with children and families throughout Oklahoma.

Our guest on StudioTulsa is Dr. Erik Vanderlip, who is the George Kaiser Foundation Chair in Mental Health and an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medical Informatics at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine at OU-Tulsa. Board certified in both Family Medicine and Psychiatry, Dr. Vanderlip also has a degree in public health and health services research, and he specializes in caring for medically and psychiatrically complex individuals.

On this edition of ST on Health, Dr. Bryan Vartabedian is our guest. He's widely considered one of the most influential voices in American health care when it comes to social technology and its relationship with medicine, and he'll be leading a free-to-the-public workshop this afternoon (Tuesday the 14th) at the Perkins Auditorium on the OU-Tulsa campus (at 41st and Yale). The workshop is called "The Public Health Provider." As Dr.

We speak by phone with the Emmy Award-winning, Cincinnati-based documentary filmmaker Rachel Lyon, whose films have appeared on CNN, PBS, BBC, the History Channel, and elsewhere. Lyon's newest film, "Hate Crimes in the Heartland," will be screened here in Tulsa on Thursday the 5th at 5:30pm; this screening is part of a free-to-the-public panel discussion happening at the Perkins Auditorium on the OU-Tulsa campus (at 41st and Yale).

In late October, Dr. Gerard P. “Gerry” Clancy was selected as vice president for health affairs and dean of The University of Tulsa's new College of Health Sciences. Dr. Clancy is our guest on this edition of ST. He has served as president of OU-Tulsa for the past eight years, and his tenure here at TU will begin on January 1st, when the newly created College of Health Sciences officially begins operations.

On this edition of ST, we speak with Dr. Deborah Leong, professor emerita of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver, where she taught for more than three decades. Dr.

On this edition of ST on Health, we learn about Narcan, a/k/a Naloxone, which is a well-known and widely used opioid antagonist --- meaning, it's a drug that works to quickly block the effects of heroin, morphine, and similar opiates/sedatives. Narcan is thus administered in many instances where a person is experiencing (or has just recently experienced) a drug overdose; in this way, Narcan, which was originally developed in the 1960s, is thought to have saved some 50,000 lives nationally.

This edition of SToH presents an interesting discussion about the "food insecurity" affecting so many Native American individuals, families, and communities today, here in Oklahoma and all over the nation. Addressing this insecurity --- and the serious and widespread health issues stemming from it --- is no easy task, and we meet a locally based public-health researcher, filmmaker, activist, and advocate who's taking a deliberately multifaceted approach in doing so. Dr.

On this edition of StudioTulsa on Health, we hear from two doctors who are both highly accomplished and longtime advocates of public health, which has been defined as (per Wikipedia) "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations public and private, communities, and individuals." The health of a given culture or society, in other words, rather than any one individual's health or well-being.

On this edition of ST on Health, we welcome Dr. Lamont Cavanagh, a Tulsa-based family physician who specializes in sports medicine, and who also works as an assistant professor at the OU-Tulsa School of Community Medicine. Moreover, Dr. Cavanagh spent five years as an U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, and he's now chief of aerospace medicine for the 138th Fighter Wing of the Oklahoma Air National Guard.

When medical experts, analysts, and researchers speak of "health care transformation" --- and the phrase has become increasingly common in certain circles --- they're referring to ongoing efforts to improve health outcomes, increase access to health/medical services, and enhance the way(s) in which care is delivered. Such efforts are meant to better connect scientific discovery, health care delivery, and reimbursement for health services. It's all about patient-centric care --- and much of it, as with so many things in our world today, comes down to technology.

Our ongoing StudioTulsa on Health series continues as we present an interesting discussion with Dr. Jennifer Clark, the Division Director of the Center for Palliative Care at OU-Tulsa's School of Community Medicine, where she is also an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. Dr. Clark, who additionally serves as the Palliative Care Medical Director at Hillcrest Medical Center here in Tulsa, talks to guest host John Henning Schumann about what palliative care is, and what it isn't.

On this edition of ST on Health, guest host John Henning Schumann speaks with Dr. David Kendrick of OU-Tulsa. Dr. Kendrick is the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center's Assistant Provost for Strategic Planning, an associate professor of internal medicine and pediatrics, and a Kaiser Chair of Community Medicine at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine at OU-Tulsa. (You can read his full bio here.) Dr.

The decision last month by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the Affordable Car Act (or ACA) has opened up new avenues of opposition --- or, as some states would have it, new grounds on which to reject the law. In its momentous decision, the Court said basically that any state could opt out of the law's expansion of Medicaid with no penalties to its existing programs. Under the ACA, the federal government will help states expand their coverage of Medicaid patients to 133% of the poverty line.

Last week, the nonprofit John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation released a survey of Tulsa residents' views on race relations. This survey was called for, and completed, before the recent (and perhaps racially motivated) shootings in North Tulsa in the pre-dawn hours of Good Friday --- but it's hardly surprising that, given the shocking tragedy of those violent acts and the coincidental appearance of this new survey, people throughout our community are speaking about issues of race with a candor that seems, in many cases, as rare as it is welcome.