The United States is seeing an increase in reports of candida auris, an often drug-resistant fungal pathogen. OHSU has a strong protocol of infection prevention and control to minimize the risk of spreading pathogens in the hospital, including C. auris.

In a segment from OPB, Karen Bos, M.D., M.P.H., discusses The Bridge Clinic at OHSU, a partnership with Lifeworks NW and OHA which provides outpatient community-based mental health services for youth in need of urgent care.

An effort started by the John Day Elks Club has led to more than 16,500 handmade quilts being donated to the OHSU Casey Eye Institute. Franny White says: "The lovingly made quilts comfort young patients before surgery and provide reassurance that OHSU Elks Children’s Eye Clinic surgical patients are in good hands."

Jordan Anderson, D.O., and Jennifer Arnold, B.S.N., RN, discuss long COVID. Anderson says many patients with the chronic condition are also dealing with mental health challenges: “Oftentimes, the situations that people are in with long COVID are very difficult and challenging, which can contribute to depression. The most important thing that I’ve been able to do for the patients that I’ve seen is to listen and validate them.”

The New York Times interviews Ximena Levander, M.D., about a proposed DEA rule requiring in-person visits after 30 days for people prescribed medication-assisted therapy for substance use disorder through telehealth, including in rural parts of Oregon, several hours away from the nearest clinic. She says, “Where are these people supposed to go? There aren’t primary care or addiction doctors that are available to see people within the first 30 days.”

OHSU is supporting the development of a coordinated care organization serving Coos and Curry counties, called Community Health Assessment for Advanced Health.

In a BusinessWire press release announcing results from a phase 1 clinical trial from SQZ Therapeutics, Richard Maziarz, M.D., says: “Although early in this trial, we have observed good tolerability among the patients, the confirmed complete response observed in this patient demonstrates the potential of the investigational therapy’s intended immunotherapy mechanism.”

Gordon Mills, M.D., Ph.D., provides an outside perspective on a new proteomic workflow for measuring the response of protein post-translational modifications to different drugs. Mills says: "This really adds to RNA data and other proteomic data — which is much more sparse than this — to really understand how drugs work, what their targets are, and how cells adapt to the stress of drugs. I think it’s a major new resource that will be used extensively.”

In an article from Spectrum News, Katharine Zuckerman, M.D., shares insight on the global rise in autism diagnoses: “The prevalence increases we’re seeing in the U.S. are mirrored in other countries to some extent as well. This is a good sign that the pretty significant efforts that pediatricians and public health people and communities are doing towards improving awareness, reducing stigma, improving screening and referring at-risk kids to services are working.”

An article from the The New York Post warns of THC’s negative effects on fertility, referencing a study from Adrienne Hughes, M.D., which confirms an upward trend in marijuana abuse exposures among youth.