Matthias Merkel, M.D., Ph.D., and David Zonies, M.D, M.P.H., M.B.A., say OHSU and other Oregon hospitals are better prepared for a potential surge of COVID patients this fall, including possibly accepting patients from other states, as needed.

At the Women in Medicine Summit, Avital O’Glasser, M.D., discusses how perioperative medicine has adapted amid the pandemic, and the intersection of academic medicine and social media.

A study co-authored by Donald Sullivan, M.D., recommends more research into less invasive ventilation: “More hospitalized patients are using non-invasive ventilation toward the end of their lives, even though there isn’t a lot of evidence that clearly lays out the therapy’s pros and cons.”

Melissa Haendel, Ph.D., and Anita Walden, Ph.D., describe the National COVID Cohort Collaborative data platform, a centralized database of U.S. COVID patient information that enables secure data-sharing among researchers investigating the pandemic.

Chris Stauffer, M.D., describes the benefits of psilocybin therapy.

As COVID-19 safety precautions and understanding of the virus continue to improve, cancer centers across are seeing more patients; Kiri Cook, M.D., says: “The landscape has definitely changed; although we’re all still dealing with a lot of uncertainty, we seem to have found a steady state in terms of our ability to care for patients with adequate infection control. “With respect to social connection, though, patients and providers are both still struggling.”

Rebecca Silbermann, M.D., discusses the phase 3 CASTOR trial on relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Donna Hansel, M.D., says if you must see friends and family over the holidays, do it outside while wearing masks and practicing physical distancing: “Different tests have different rates of false negatives. Some of these rapid antigen tests, for example, it’s pretty clear that if you’re negative by one of those tests … we really do need to follow you. It’s not a guarantee that you are negative."

Jack Ferracane, Ph.D., is the first editor of the American Dental Association’s new peer-reviewed, open-access journal spanning basic and clinical sciences to advance research in oral health.

In an article about a man who was reinfected with a slightly different variant of the coronavirus, Bill Messer, M.D., says: “This isn’t a case of the second virus escaping the immune response to the first virus.”