The OHSU Foundation will receive grant funding from the Pacific Power Foundation to support the On Track health and science pathways outreach program which provides hands-on education aimed at helping Native American students in Klamath County discover biomedical career paths.

Perimetrics, Inc. -- an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) dental diagnostics company -- announces that aJack Ferracane, Ph.D., has joined their newly formed Clinical Advisory Board consisting of industry leaders in general dentistry, endodontics, periodontics and prosthodontics.

A joint OHSU-University of California Davis program designed to encourage more medical residents and physicians to work and learn in rural and underserved communities is mentioned in a story exploring the unique challenges of physicians who work in rural areas.

A story from The Atlantic about the decriminalization of drugs in Oregon cites the Substance Use Disorder Services Inventory and Gap Analysis compiled by the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health.

A multi-center study led by Geolani Dy, M.D., seeks to better support transgender patients before they undergo gender-affirming vaginoplasty by evaluating how a virtual peer support program can prepare patients for surgery. Dy says: “The support of loved ones can help any patient recover after surgery. We know that peer support can be particularly helpful for those receiving gender-affirming care."

In a story exploring how chosen support systems often step up to help when LGBTQIA+ community members experiencing health challenges who aren’t close with blood relatives, Kristin Cloyes, Ph.D., says creating families of choice can help anyone needing help for any kind of care.

A report on the Louisiana legislature enacting a statewide ban on most gender-affirming care for minors cites a state report that was co-written by OHSU Center for Evidence-Based Policy and found few Louisiana minors covered by Medicaid received gender-affirming treatment between 2017 and 2021.

In a story about how extreme heat and climate change affect human health, Leah Werner, M.D., says the 2021 heat dome that hit Portland was “absolutely catastrophic” and advocates for a new approach to health care called precision ecologic medicine, which involves incorporating climate, social and economic data into electronic health records so providers can better care for patients whose health is more vulnerable to extreme climatic events.

In a Lund Report story on how the COVID-19 pandemic handed profits to companies serving the Oregon Health Plan, John McConnell, Ph.D., says: "Maybe the good part is that CCOs survived (the pandemic). But there’s discomfort when you see a lot of taxpayer money sitting in (CCO) reserves. We don’t see what it’s going toward.”

Hector Olvera Alvarez, Ph.D., uses virtual reality to mimic the visual experience of being in nature and has found that while there are some health improvements associated with experiencing nature via virtual reality, the health benefits are greater when one is exposed to real nature.