OU Earns Accreditation for Emergency Medicine Residency

OKLAHOMA CITY – The new Emergency Medicine Residency Program at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City has received initial accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), allowing the program to begin recruiting its first class of residents.

The residency will last four years and have six residents per class, beginning in July 2027. The program’s development follows the establishment of the college’s Department of Emergency Medicine on the Oklahoma City campus in 2025.

“We are excited to receive initial accreditation and to begin recruiting residents who will serve as the next generation of emergency medicine physicians for Oklahoma and beyond,” said Azeemuddin Ahmed, M.D., MBA, professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the OU College of Medicine and Clinical Service Chief of Emergency Medicine at OU Health. “The arrival of residents will enhance the great emergency care that our patients already receive.”

Emergency medicine is inherently multidisciplinary, as physicians must be prepared for any type of emergency, from traumatic injuries to complex illnesses. Residents will spend time in the emergency departments at OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center and Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health, both with Level 1 Trauma Centers, the highest designation verified by the American College of Surgeons. Residents will also provide care at OU Health Edmond Medical Center and at OU Health’s freestanding emergency departments across the metro area.

In addition, they will rotate through adult, pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, and they will deepen their learning about procedures, anesthesia and sedation, emergency ultrasound and more. Residents will also have their choice of elective courses, including hospice and palliative medicine, sports medicine, radiology and neurology. They will participate in Journal Clubs to stay current with the latest medical literature, and they will conduct research to advance the field of emergency medicine.

“This is truly a multidisciplinary program, and the entire OU Health Campus will be involved in the training of our residents,” Ahmed said. “We are grateful for our colleague departments that have been welcoming and are committed to training our residents in their disciplines. This has been a team effort, involving physicians and physician leaders, university and health system leaders, and our Graduate Medical Education office. Everyone involved understands the responsibility we have to train our residents to uplift the health of our state.”

Beyond technical skills, emergency medicine physicians must be comfortable with uncertainty, flexible, physically and mentally agile, and embody the characteristics of kindness and compassion, Ahmed said.

“They will exemplify the mantra of emergency medicine, which is that we take care of anyone with any issue at any time,” he said. “When people need us the most, we want to have produced the best physicians who will be there, oftentimes on our patients’ worst day.”

Residency Program Director Lauren Evans, M.D., an associate professor of emergency medicine at the OU College of Medicine, said residents will learn from experts in many areas of healthcare while developing the knowledge and skills needed to care for patients in some of their most challenging moments.

“Our residents will have an extraordinary range of clinical experiences, from caring for critically ill adults and children to gaining experience in a variety of emergency care settings,” she said. “That breadth will help them develop the versatility that is so important in emergency medicine.”

Ian Dunn, M.D., executive dean of the OU College of Medicine and Chief Physician Executive for OU Health, said the residency program marks a milestone for the College of Medicine, OU Health and the state of Oklahoma.

“Together with the existing program at the OU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa, this new residency strengthens OU’s commitment to educating physicians who will serve communities across Oklahoma,” Dunn said. “Expanding emergency medicine training in Oklahoma City gives us another important opportunity to prepare physicians for the unique and critical role they play in our healthcare system.”

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About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university with campuses in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and healthcare needs of the state, region and nation. In Oklahoma City, the OU Health Campus is one of the nation’s few academic health centers with seven health profession colleges located on the same campus. The OU Health Campus serves approximately 4,000 students in more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs spanning Oklahoma City and Tulsa and is the leading research institution in Oklahoma. For more information about the OU Health Campus, visit www.ouhsc.edu.