In an article about a study that found patients often waited days or weeks for insurers to respond to prior authorization requests before largely receiving approval for eye injections for retinal disease, Zachary Kroeger, M.D., says the study shows that “increased administrative costs due to prior authorizations are directly increasing health care costs, not reducing them.”

In a story about the Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue’s decision to stop having its ambulances provide inter-hospital transfers, Robert Duehmig says, “I think it’s something hospitals and EMS services are going to have to continue to look at and figure out what that solution’s going to be."

Two years since the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and nearly 50 years of federal abortion protections, patients seeking abortions in Oregon have increased by an estimated 40%. Alyssa Colwill, M.D., says, "For individuals undergoing obstetrical care in Idaho, we are the nearest state that can provide emergency services. Prior to the Dobbs decision, it was rare that anybody from Idaho was transferred to Oregon."

KGW-TV profiles one of Eric Roeland, M.D.’s, patients in the “symptom science” program that aims to treat difficult side effects often associated with cancer treatment. Roeland says, “This type of management focuses on patients as people and not just tumors, and trying to balance

Three residents are beginning their family medicine training with Central Oregon’s first-ever graduate medical education program, the joint OHSU-St. Charles Three Sisters Rural Track Program, which brings residents to OHSU for its first year and St. Charles Madras for its final two years. One of the residents is Callie Krewson, D.O., who was born and raised in Bend and says, “I want to give back to the community that raised me.”

OHSU partners with Duke University and University of Colorado (Aurora) on a study that found twice-daily use of a mindfulness mobile phone application helped reduce depression in discharged patients who had received intensive care while they were hospitalized.

Mark Pennesi, M.D., Ph.D., discusses how an experimental, CRISPR-based gene editing treatment improved vision for many clinical trial participants with an inherited form of blindness at the Retina International World Congress.

STAT News reports on new research that pinpoints protein changes in cerebrospinal fluid highly associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease, creating potential to foster new treatments and earlier intervention. Joseph Quinn, M.D., says this work isn’t the first to hunt for patterns within large numbers of Alzheimer’s-associated proteins, but “it does have the potential to give us new insights into some of the biology underlying Alzheimer’s disease.”

Following the end of Roe v. Wade, a study finds deaths of infants in Texas increased by 13% in 2022, driven by fatal birth defects. Maria Isabel Rodriguez, M.D., says, “As a doctor, these moments are both haunting and heartbreaking. In a post-Roe America, options depend on where a person lives and what their resources are.”

Three residents are beginning their family medicine training with Central Oregon’s first-ever graduate medical education program, the joint OHSU-St. Charles Three Sisters Rural Track Program, which brings residents to OHSU for its first year and St. Charles Madras for its final two years. One of the residents is Callie Krewson, D.O., who was born and raised in Bend and says, “I want to give back to the community that raised me.”