John P. Campbell M.D., provides outside commentary on a clinical trial that found an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injection is as effective as the traditional treatment for retinopathy of prematurity, laser therapy, saying the finding is “reassuring,” but adding “there are remaining questions regarding long-term visual outcomes that hopefully larger studies will help answer.”

In a story about Portlanders who work on Christmas, Shana Kusin, M.D., explains why she often volunteers to work on the holiday: “We always joked that all the Jewish doctors and nurses are at the hospitals during Christmas. I feel almost a moral obligation to be there, because for so many of my colleagues, it’s critically important for them to have it off.”

First-year medical student Tyria Heath is recognized by the Future Clinicians Scholarship Program, which supports diverse health care leaders in the United States. Heath says the scholarship “tells me that I do belong, and not only that, but I also have people who are here to support” them during their medical education journey.

Maria Rodriguez, M.D., says Oregon was one of the first states to adopt a policy allowing pharmacists to offer birth control in 2016, and that “the public health side of things is expanding access to birth control, especially for populations who face barriers to birth control.”

Research by Jessica Macdougall, M.D., and others find adolescents with food allergies benefit from education about how to treat an allergic reaction, read food labels, the impact of alcohol and drugs on allergies, preparing for college, medical care and more. Macdougall says, “Most of these teens have not had to use an epinephrine auto-injector on their own or have not had an anaphylactic reaction requiring treatment in many years, which then leads to anxiety around allergic reactions and use of the epinephrine auto-injector.”

Research by Vijayshree Yadav, M.D., finds people with MS may have reduced fatigue if they also eat foods low in fat, saying: “We are able to show that dietary changes can play a significant role in symptom management in people with multiple sclerosis.”

Research led by Vijayshree Yadav, M.D., suggests people with multiple sclerosis could benefit from a low-fat diet to improve the fatigue that’s a debilitating, and often-underappreciated, symptom of the condition: “Fatigue is very disabling for these patients. There is no FDA-approved drug for fatigue, but we know that fatigue greatly affects their quality of life."

A study led by Dan Hoover, M.D., finds nearly half of people who use illicit drugs in rural areas have been recently incarcerated: “You have a reachable time in jails, and most jails are not providing this kind of addiction care. In a broader sense, our correctional institutions have a mandate to rehabilitate people who have entered the system — and treating addiction is a huge part of that."

Susan Hayflick, M.D., Ph.D., is part of the care team treating young Wisconsin twins who have a severe form of an atypical case of a rare genetic disease called Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration, or PKAN, which Hayflick says “affects a deep structure in the brain that is important for controlling movement.”

An interview with Ben Hoffman, M.D., regarding the overwhelming surge of young children seriously ill with RSV requiring hospitalization last winter and the current shortage of the new RSV vaccine: “The promise of nirsevimab is that [overwhelming surge] should never, never happen again.”