Richard Lofgren

The OU Health Board of Directors on Feb. 4 announced Richard Lofgren, MD, MPH, FACP, as CEO of OU Health, Oklahoma’s only integrated, comprehensive academic health system.

Lofgren comes to Oklahoma from UC Health in Cincinnati, where he has served as president and CEO since 2013. His executive experience in healthcare spans more than 40 years and includes leadership roles at University HealthSystem Consortium, University of Kentucky, Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Pittsburgh. Lofgren will be onsite in Oklahoma City beginning in mid-March. A continuity and transition plan between OU Health and UC Health begins immediately.

Lofgren will fill OU Health’s inaugural CEO position. The new position was created as part of a historic merger in July of 2021 making OU Health Oklahoma’s only fully integrated, comprehensive academic health system. Lofgren is a national thought leader within academic healthcare, and is an expert in health system transformations and redesign, with a track record of uniting hospitals, clinics and centers into a single health system with a unified purpose.

As CEO of OU Health, he will lead the overall health system and report directly to the OU Health Board of Directors. He will be responsible for the strategic vision, clinical and operational direction, strategic growth, quality and safety, financial performance, and ongoing integration of OU Health.

Lofgren earned his medical degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He completed an internal medicine residency and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, serving as chief resident during his final year.

Lofgren has worked in accelerated leadership roles over the course of his lengthy career, most recently as the president and CEO of UC Health, the affiliated academic health system of the University of Cincinnati.