In 1967, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education authorized the College of Allied Health. The College was activated in February 1970 to consolidate and coordinate existing programs on the OU Health Sciences Center campus and to further develop programs to meet allied health resource needs in Oklahoma. It serves as the academic unit for eleven diverse health science professions, post professional, and graduate degree programs. Its professional-entry educational programs prepare students to join a multidisciplinary health care delivery system focused on the well-being of citizens of Oklahoma. Four of the eleven professional entry programs are the only programs in Oklahoma: Audiology, Nuclear Medicine, Occupational Therapy, and Radiation Therapy. College pass rate on professional entry Boards/Licensure examinations in the eleven professional-entry programs is 94.3%. Through its graduate programs, the College prepares future leadership, faculty, advanced practice clinicians, and researchers for the professions and Oklahoma.
The College is authorized to offer twenty-one programs: eight baccalaureates, twelve at the master or doctoral level, and one certificate program. Diagnosis of disease and disorders, wellness and prevention, therapeutic and rehabilitative services, health care administration, and allied health professions education encompass the spectrum of professional programs in the College of Allied Health. Faculty offer continuing education programs for practitioners in Oklahoma and region, and faculty development seminars for clinicians involved with professional-entry programs in the College. The College extended its accredited professional-entry programs in Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy to the OU branch campus in Tulsa in 1998. In 2002, the College offered OU's first web-based graduate degree program in Rehabilitation Sciences and in 2003 its first post-professional web-based undergraduate degree program in Radiation Sciences. The professional-entry accredited program in Sonography was extended to the OU-Tulsa campus in Fall 2006 and from Fall 2007-Spring 2017, the professional-entry accredited program in Radiography was extended to the OU-Tulsa campus.