OSU marks the start of work on a medical school expansion in Tulsa.
The 84,000-square foot Tandy Medical Academic Building is the latest project an Oklahoma medical school is embarking on to address a physician shortage. Nearly one-fourth of the building will be a hospital simulator.
OSU Center for Health Sciences President Kayse Shrum said lifelike mannequins will breathe, bleed and much more.
"Our birthing mannequin will even be able to give birth to an infant mannequin or simulate a breach delivery," Shrum said. "Our emergency room mannequin can undergo cardiac arrest or suffer severe hemorrhaging."
According to OSU, many of its medical school graduates remain in the state, with half practicing in rural or underserved parts of Oklahoma.
"Just in Tulsa alone, we have 467 alumni physicians practicing and another 143 in our residency and fellowship programs, so that's over 600 OSU-trained physicians that are making a difference in this community," said OSU President Burns Hargis.
"We know that OSU has taken a lead role in meeting healthcare needs in Oklahoma, and that's what this is all about," said Paul Giehm with the Tandy Foundation, which donated $8 million to name the building. "We want to train physicians that are going to learn here and stay here and practice medicine here."
In 2012, the American Medical Association ranked the state 45th in active physicians per 100,000 residents.
