Division of Infectious Diseases

Bacteria

The Division of Infectious Diseases is part of the Department of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.  We are a group of academic physicians, allied health professionals and nurse practitioners specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases and related disorders.

We also offer a fellowship training program to those seeking a career in Infectious Diseases.

ID Faculty Spotlight

Poornima Ramanan, MD and family

Poornima Ramanan, MD

Tell us a little about your time at OHSU and your interests in ID?

I joined the Infectious Diseases faculty at OHSU in 2022 after moving from Denver.  I am thrilled to be part of such a wonderful and collegial division. My clinical interests include managing infectious complications in patients with compromised immune systems.

What are you currently working on?

I see patients in clinic as well as round on the inpatient transplant infectious diseases service. I am working with the fellowship leadership on improving the clinical microbiology rotation experience for our fellows.

What about outside of work?

I love spending time with my spouse, three boys and two puppies. They keep me busy but also sane and grounded when it matters the most. We enjoy long car drives, spending time at the beaches on the Oregon Coast, exploring various Forest park trails outside our home and cuddling up on the couch on lazy, rainy evenings watching family movies. When I get some time to myself, I like trying out new recipes in our recently remodeled kitchen, painting on canvas, reading (mostly fiction) and sometimes binge-watching shows on Netflix and other platforms. Since spring arrived, I am also working on a few landscaping projects in our garden and hoping not to kill any plants.

What do you like about living in Portland?

I have traveled half-way across the world from India and have lived in and traveled to many cities within the United States.  The natural beauty of this place is absolutely breath-taking to me – be it the stunning mountains, the beautiful beaches with their rock formations, the tall evergreen trees reaching out to the skies or the plentiful water bodies. It feels so rejuvenating to be surrounded by lush rain forests. I haven’t heard louder chirping of birds elsewhere. People here are also super nice.

Services

The Division of Infectious Diseases clinic offers these services and more to those referred by a health care professional:

  • Consultation and treatment for adults with infectious diseases
  • Consultation and treatment for transplant recipients and other immunocompromised hosts with infection
  • Consultation and treatment of orthopedic and neurosurgery infections in multidisciplinary surgical-ID clinics
  • Management of patients on home IV antibiotics with orthopedic and neurosurgery infections

A message from the Division

We in the Division of Infectious Diseases are committed to taking concrete steps to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are saddened, horrified, angered, and galvanized by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, among the countless others driven by racism. These, along with the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black, Indigenous, Latino/LatinX, and other people of color, have compelled us to heighten our focus on structural racism, disparities, and inequities, and their relation to our clinical, research, and educational missions. We acknowledge the systemic failures that have brought us to this point and that it is our responsibility to develop and implement long-overdue measures aimed at correcting those failures. 

As a Division, we stand against racism in any form and we stand with those in our community who have suffered the effects of marginalization and discrimination. With intention, we will work to ensure that our clinical, educational, and research activities reflect the values of diversity, inclusion, and equity we espouse. We pledge to do our fullest in support of OHSU’s goal of combatting structural racism and becoming an anti-racist institution (OHSU standing up against structural racism). We support the response to the death of George Floyd from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the HIV Medical Association (HIVMA) (IDSA/HIVMA statement) that structural changes, including within the healthcare system, are urgently needed to eliminate racism and health disparities.

Over the coming months, we will develop and share our specific plans to those ends. Through this work, we will add our voice to the larger effort of moving towards a more equitable and just society.