Harold Hamm Gives OU Record $150 Million for Health Care
Harold Hamm Gives OU Record $150 Million to Expand Oklahoma Health Care and Diabetes Research
Harold Hamm has committed $150 million to the University of Oklahoma, the largest single gift in the university’s history, to expand medical research, train more health care professionals and improve access to specialized care across the state.
The university announced that its Oklahoma City Health Campus will be renamed the Harold Hamm Health Campus at the University of Oklahoma. The gift includes $50 million for the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center and $100 million for the broader Health Campus, bringing Hamm’s lifetime giving to OU to nearly $250 million.
Harold Hamm $150 Million Gift Will Expand OU’s Health Campus
The gift comes as Oklahoma faces persistent public health challenges and a need for more doctors, nurses and other health professionals, particularly in communities where specialized care can be difficult to access.
OU’s Health Campus includes six health professions colleges, the university’s Graduate College and more than 4,100 students. According to the university, the campus educates 80% of Oklahoma’s health care workforce.
The new funding is intended to expand that training capacity while supporting the recruitment of researchers and the facilities they need to pursue medical discoveries.
The investment also supports OU’s Project 200 research recruitment initiative , an effort to bring more than 200 researchers to the university. Of those positions, 150 are planned for the Health Campus, with research priorities including diabetes, metabolic disease, cancer and neuroscience.
The university’s clinical partner, OU Health, provides more than 1 million patient visits annually. University leaders say bringing additional scientists and physician-researchers to Oklahoma could create more opportunities for clinical trials and advanced treatments.
“Our goal is simple: turn what we learn in the research lab into better care at the bedside,” said Jonathan W. Curtright, president and CEO of OU Health.
$50 Million Will Advance Harold Hamm Diabetes Center Research
The diabetes investment builds on a relationship that began in 2007, when Hamm’s lead gift helped establish the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center .
Hamm, who was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in his 50s, has spent nearly two decades supporting research into the disease and efforts to improve treatment.
According to OU, National Institutes of Health research funding associated with the diabetes center has grown from $5 million to $33 million since its founding.
The newly announced $50 million is divided between research leadership and infrastructure. $30 million will support Dr. John P. Kirwan, the center’s new executive director, and his priorities for advancing diabetes research. The remaining $20 million will support capital improvements and research infrastructure.
Kirwan joined OU this month as executive director of the center, vice provost for diabetes programs and Chickasaw Nation Endowed Chair in Diabetes Research.
The center’s work focuses on preventing and treating diabetes, reducing complications and pursuing discoveries that could eventually lead to a cure.
For Oklahoma patients, the goal is to connect laboratory research with clinical care so that new approaches to managing the disease can be studied and, when proven effective, made available through treatment.
OU Plans to Recruit Researchers and Train More Health Professionals
The remaining $100 million will support the broader Harold Hamm Health Campus, including health professions education, researcher recruitment, laboratory resources and other infrastructure.
OU reports that its overall research activity has increased more than 70% over the past six years. The Health Campus has also surpassed 4,000 students for the first time and earned its first national Top 100 ranking for National Institutes of Health funding.
Those developments provide the foundation for the university’s next phase of expansion, but the effect of Hamm’s gift will depend on how the funding is invested and how successfully OU recruits and retains health professionals and researchers.
The university’s Health Campus brings education and research together with clinical training, creating opportunities for students and researchers to work alongside health care providers.
For Oklahoma, the potential impact reaches beyond the renamed campus. Training more health professionals could help address workforce needs, while expanded research capacity could give patients additional opportunities to participate in clinical trials and receive specialized treatment closer to home.
Hamm said he hopes the investment helps make Oklahoma a place where major medical discoveries occur.
“My hope is that this gift will help make Oklahoma a place where the next great medical breakthrough happens,” Hamm said.
SOURCE/University of Oklahoma
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