Dr. Tanaka received his doctor of medicine degree from Keio University, Tokyo, Japan in 1992. After 2 years of Anesthesiology residency at Keio, he moved to the United States. In 1998, he completed his Anesthesiology residency at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and subsequently pursued a fellowship in Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta Georgia. He has also obtained a Masters in the Science of Clinical Research from the Graduate School at Emory University. Dr. Tanaka is a diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology. He has served on the faculty at Emory University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Maryland.

Before joining the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Dr. Tanaka served as Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Director of Cardiovascular Anesthesiology at the University of Maryland.  Dr. Tanaka comes with a track record in key clinical research areas including: Patient blood management and bloodless surgery, pre-clinical and clinical hemostatic intervention, coagulation monitoring device development, pharmacologic and investigator-initiated pediatric anesthesia industry studies, and computational modeling of perioperative coagulopathy and hemostasis. He also brings an unparalleled focus on service and quality improvement in the operative and perioperative space.  Dr. Tanaka currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Cardiothoracic Vascular Anesthesia,  British Journal of Anaesthesia, and the Anesthesia and Analgesia to name but a few. He was recently appointed as Co-Chair of the Scientific and Standardization Subcommittee on Perioperative & Critical Care Thrombosis and Hemostasis.