There is a critical need for more doctors in rural Oklahoma and on tribal lands. Thankfully, there is now a unique solution that will lead the nation in innovation and scope. For the first time in U.S. history, a Native American tribe is partnering with a top-ranked medical school to create the nation’s first tribally affiliated medical school.
The Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation is set to open in 2020 in Tahlequah. The new medical school will be accredited by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation as an additional location of the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine in Tulsa.
Rural Oklahoma and tribal citizens share a common problem — access to doctors. The vast majority of the Cherokee Nation’s 14-county jurisdiction is in rural Oklahoma, miles from primary care doctors, far from most specialists and certainly not close to any medical schools. Often, rural citizens must overcome significant obstacles to seek quality health care. They have to travel great distances, incur costs and take time off work. These barriers prevent rural and tribal citizens from seeking care in a timely manner, contributing to the health care disparity facing rural Oklahoma.
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Oklahoma has poor health status. We rank nationally in the bottom 15th percentile for overall health. Seventy-six of Oklahoma’s 77 counties are health professional shortage areas. Some counties have zero doctors, some only one and most have fewer than ten. There is a strong correlation between access to primary care physicians and health outcomes.
Providing superior health care is a top priority in the Cherokee Nation. The tribe already operates the largest tribal health system in the United States, with an integrated system of eight ambulatory health centers, a hospital and a 469,000 square-foot outpatient health facility currently under construction, set to open in 2019. However, recruiting physicians to practice in northeast Oklahoma continues to be a perennial challenge for the Cherokee Nation.
A new medical school in Tahlequah will have a tremendous impact in addressing the physician shortage and improving the health of rural communities in northeast Oklahoma. We expect to train up to 50 new physicians a year for a combined potential total enrollment of 200 medical students. Our shared vision is to recruit students from rural Oklahoma, educate and train them in rural Oklahoma and plan for them to practice medicine ultimately in rural Oklahoma. By combining our collective strengths and assets, the Cherokee Nation and OSU will create a sustainable rural physician workforce for Oklahoma.
Like Veterans Affairs hospitals, the Cherokee Nation health system is a closed system, meaning it serves a single population — in this case, Native Americans. That means many of the patients exclusively utilize the Cherokee Nation health care system from birth to death and can be monitored for their long term health. This new partnership will allow for groundbreaking research on health issues affecting Native American populations: data analytics, population health, precision medicine and epigenetics. The list of potential research collaboration is endless. Lives will be made better because of discoveries made possible through this partnership.
OSU and the Cherokee Nation share a passionate and compassionate mission to care for rural and tribal people in northeast Oklahoma. The new OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation will be the first-of-its-kind educational model. Oklahoma will lead the nation in adopting an innovative solution to address the physician shortage and health challenges facing rural and tribal populations in America. We are proud to bring this distinction to Oklahoma and to establish the nation’s first tribally affiliated college of medicine.
Bill John Baker is principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. Dr. Kayse Shrum, D.O., is president of Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences.
