Charles Oakes


About Health Care Solutions, Inc. and
Dr. Charles G. Oakes

Charles Oakes began his consulting career in 1962 by designing health care systems while on the medical school teaching and research faculty of the University of Tennessee. An early product was the ambulatory care segment of the four-state Mid-South Regional Plan, which continues to this day. It is a cooperative effort among regional medical centers, small rural hospitals, physician offices, and diagnostic centers.

Health Care Solutions, Inc., as a corporate entity with national scope, began in 1976 following Dr. Oakes’ four-year association with Duke University Medical School’s Department of Community Health Sciences. In all of his management consulting and research efforts, he has applied his training as a behavioral scientist, counselor, and gerontologist, which were acquired during graduate studies at the University of California (Berkeley), and Stanford and Emory Universities. He has long been a student of classical literature.

The company won 32 federal grants in five years in the 1990s to design and implement regional health care systems. These included large regional hospitals, small rural hospitals, nursing homes, area agencies of aging, senior citizens centers, patients’ families, and churches—a total systems approach—directly benefiting more than 45 thousand older adults.

In the late 1990s, Dr. Oakes’s interest in the design of health systems turned to applying exercise science to systems of personal fitness, physical conditioning, and wellness. He is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine and other organizations representing exercise physiology. While the company meets the needs of adults of all fitness levels, it focuses on special populations--chronic diseases, physical limitations, older adults, and caregivers. His pioneering work in behalf of persons with multiple sclerosis, one example of his systems approach, has received national attention in medical publications and through national television networks. He is the recipient of many research grants, honors, and awards.