OKLAHOMA CITY- (KOKH) -- Through the 25 in 25 initiative, the Musculoskeletal Consortium of Oklahoma has an ambitious goal: to bring the sooner state from its 49th healthcare ranking to 25th by 2050. Dr. Keley Booth told FOX 25 the reason for the current ranking is wide-ranging.
"We really look at these three sectors of influence on quality of life and what it's like to be an Oklahoman: health, education and economics as all inter-related," he said.
From a purely health perspective, Keley said these are some key areas Oklahoma can improve in: "Infant birth mortality, the rate of smoking in Oklahoma, avoidable deaths; our suicide rate is unacceptable."
For Dr. Rodolfo Alvarez-Delcastillo, a big sector where healthcare in the state is lacking in is efficiency.
"A lot of the times, these patients that have situations with their limbs are treated in a silo manner, they're treated by a pediatrist, and then they're treated by a winker specialist and they're treated by a vascular surgeon. But all in its own siloed way through appointments that can take 4-8 weeks to achieve," he said.
Victor Flores with the Oklahoma Tribal Finance Consortium said a meeting of the minds is crucial.
"Coordination, collaboration is key," he said.
Which is what Booth said is going to happen in frequent sessions to elevate Oklahoma in certain health metrics.
"There are 50 metrics in that report that I mentioned that came out in June that ranked us 49th. We're gonna allocate 40 hours of our groups time per metric to study, analyze and impact. And that's on average because some of the metrics will need more hours," he said.
Booth said one of those metrics that will need more attention in those sessions is breast cancer screenings, which Oklahoma currently ranks very low in.