An accomplished neurosurgeon and health care executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience, Dr. Caple Spence has excelled at INTEGRIS Health since 2023. He lends his expertise in neurosurgery and complex reconstructive spine surgery as a neurological surgeon, a neuroscience section chief, and as chairman of the neurosurgery department at an Oklahoma-based nonprofit health system. Across these roles, he displays his passion for bridging clinical excellence with strategic health care leadership to improve patient outcomes and organizational performance.

Attributing his success to his education and upbringing in New York, where he had early exposure to robust health care systems and experienced doctors, Dr. Spence earned a Bachelor of Arts in physiological psychology from New York University in 1991 and a Doctor of Medicine from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 1995. Degrees in hand, he completed a residency in neurological surgery at the George Washington University and a postdoctoral fellowship in complex reconstructive spinal surgery at the University of South Florida.

Dr. Spence launched his career as the co-medical director of neurosurgery at the Iowa Spine and Brain Institute from 2005 to 2008, already understanding ideal standards and the direction to take. He subsequently served as an advisory board member of the North American Spine Society Journal for eight years; as the co-medical director of neurosurgery at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital from 2010 to 2016; and as a neurosurgeon through his own practice from 2008 to 2022. Understanding that many people in resource-limited areas receive delayed diagnosis and outpatient care, he is strongly driven to provide easier, better access to serious medical care, especially neurosurgery, in rural regions like Oklahoma, where health care shortages are common. From 2015 to 2025, he was recognized as a “Top Doctor in Oklahoma” by Oklahoma Magazine and received an “Outstanding Leadership” award from the OK Neurosurgical Society.

In 2022, Dr. Spence bolstered his credentials with an MBA to gain skills that help him address problems more broadly from a business perspective and implement solutions collaboratively and effectively. In addition, he spent a year as a clinical assistant professor at OU Health—emphasizing the importance of mentorship and guidance to success—served as president of the OK Neurosurgical Society from 2023 to 2024, and has been an editorial board member of the Journal of Neurological Surgery Reports since 2023.