Research

By Bob Applegate Did you know: OHSU was not the first medical school in Oregon? In fact what became OHSU was started 125 years ago by dissident faculty who left Willamette University School of Medicine. The land OHSU sits on was originally going to be developed by a local shipping company until they figured out it sat on steep slopes. Instead, the company donated it to their company surgeon, who, incidentally, was also the dean of the University of Oregon … Read More

By Jackie Wirz, Ph.D. OHSU is filled with all sorts of brainy people, ranging from your local faculty superstar who is a prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator to hardworking students who won their first major grant to fund their graduate research.  Speaking of students, OHSU is home to more than 2,800 students enrolled in 42 different academic programs.  That’s a lot of brain power!   For one of those programs, 2013 marks a significant anniversary: … Read More

By Jackie Wirz, Ph.D. For those of you who don’t know me, I am an uber nerd. I love graphs, am conversant with Star Trek and Star Wars, and was even a Mathlete in high school. (Amazingly enough, I did have a date to junior prom, but in all honesty I probably would have been happier if I stayed home and watched the X-Files.) I lean towards quantitative science, and have always found comfort in … Read More

By Jackie Wirz, Ph.D. Any of you ever watch The Big Bang Theory? For the uninitiated, The Big Bang Theory is a sitcom that documents the lives of physicist Sheldon, fellow physicist Leonard, aerospace engineer Howard and astrophysicist Rajesh. Okay, that sounds far less humorous than the show actually is – trust me when I say it is hilarious. Or maybe that’s just my geek showing… In any case, one of my favorite Big Bang … Read More

Written by Roger Chou, M.D. About 20 percent of patients with HIV infection (equaling about 250,000 persons in the United States) are not aware that they are infected. This means that their immune systems are slowly breaking down over time and they are a source of infection to others.  A new draft statement by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), based on a scientific review performed at the Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center here … Read More

By John McConnell, Ph.D. Figuring out a way to control the growth in health care costs is one of the most critical challenges facing our generation. Health care costs are at the core of the long term debt questions for the federal government and recent budget shortfalls here in our own state. As a health economist, this is both daunting and exciting – and I think OHSU can play a significant role in finding answers. … Read More

Written by Jackie Wirz, Ph.D. There are many things that inspire me here at OHSU; most recently, I’ve been utterly amazed by the social behavior of drunk prairie voles. Wha….? Okay, a little clarification is needed here: I recently had the privilege of attending the dissertation defense of Allison Anacker, a Behavioral Neuroscience Graduate Program student. I have written before about the amazing scholarship that our students produce, specifically in the form of the blue-bound … Read More

As a runner and as the associate director of community engagement at OHSU, I couldn’t ask for a greater opportunity to share OHSU’s commitment to health and community than the half marathon announced last week by the creators of the iconic Hood to Coast Relay. It’s going to be a fantastic run on a beautiful course–and it’s going to help advance OHSU’s mission of teaching, healing and discovery. OHSU is going to join with the … Read More

Written by Jeff Gold, M.D. One of my passions has been to better understand the role Electronic Health Records (EHRs) play in the delivery of care in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Health record softwares are very powerful and contain a lot of information and data. Through my past role as an ICU director and my current role as a professor and program director for critical care fellowships, I’ve observed many situations where a clinician … Read More

Written by Jackie Wirz, Ph.D. What’s on your must-read list? High on mine is Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves by Harvard professor George Church. It hit shelves in the traditional paper and ink format on Tuesday, Oct. 2. Yet Dr. Church has carried billions of copies of his book stored in a small test tube that he carries around in his pocket since last spring. How is this possible? Dr. Church … Read More