For nearly 10 months, Oregonians have endured the impacts of a global pandemic, devastating wildfires and social unrest. From the need to physical distance, wear face coverings and frequently wash our hands to feelings of uncertainty, social isolation and profound loss, 2020 has taken its toll.
Despite all of this, OHSU employees and learners have risen to the many challenges we’ve faced over the course of the year and deftly adapted to fulfill our missions of patient care, education and health sciences research.
In 2020, OHSU dramatically expanded telehealth services, allowing more people to access care virtually. Our clinical and logistics teams implemented the metro-area’s only low-barrier COVID-19 testing sites, hosted a special wedding and introduced clear face masks to allows babies in our neonatal intensive care unit the ability to bond with their parents. Notably, in March, OHSU completed its first heart transplant since the university’s Heart Failure and Transplant Program reactivated in August 2019.
At the beginning of the pandemic, OHSU researchers were quick to donate resources in support of the health care mission and quickly focused their efforts on better understanding the virus and studying possible treatments, including AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
An outpouring of support from the community also contributed to our COVID-19 efforts, including custom-designed face shields from Nike.
More than 1,200 students graduated from OHSU education programs this year, with a 100% residency match rate across the School of Medicine. And, as COVID-19 gained a foothold in Oregon, OHSU students volunteered to provide childcare services, sew masks and assist with statewide contact tracing efforts.
Importantly, 2020 also marks a shift in OHSU’s approach to addressing structural racism with a commitment to becoming an anti-racist, multi-cultural university.
While much work remains, we pause to acknowledge the innovation, achievement and collaboration that took place at OHSU, and across Oregon, over the past year.
COVID-19 response
- Cardiovascular intensive care nurse Ansu Drammeh, R.N., B.S.N., is the first OHSU health care worker to receive the Pfizer BioNTEch COVID-19 vaccine, and Ryan Thrower, D.M.D, is the first dental resident to administer a COVID vaccine in the U.S.
- OHSU launches an in-house COVID-19 testing lab; expands capacity to process more than 3,000 tests per day
- OHSU becomes only Oregon-based site for Phase 3 COVID vaccine clinical trial by AstraZeneca, Oxford University
- Through the support of the Morris-Singer Foundation, OHSU establishes a statewide COVID-19 hotline and telemedicine services for primary care
- The COVID Capacity Center, housed in OHSU’s Mission Control Center, monitors COVID diagnoses and 90% of hospital beds across Oregon
- OHSU researchers sequence and compare genomes to learn how COVID-19 spreads in Oregon and worldwide.
- Data scientists in OHSU’s Business Intelligence unit use numbers and advanced analytics to help “flatten the COVID-19 curve”
- OHSU team designs low-cost ventilators using 3D-printing technology
- OHSU, UO launch study to learn how the novel coronavirus is dispersed in the air and onto surfaces in the hospital setting
- OHSU expedites promising new technologies to tackle COVID-19
- Hillsboro Medical Center community outreach program works to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among vineyard, winery workers
- OHSU joins clinical trial to help determine whether convalescent plasma is effective in fighting infection caused by the novel coronavirus
- New initiative, led by OHSU, will screen wastewater in four Portland neighborhoods to discern early signals of the novel coronavirus
- OHSU offers the area’s only low-barrier, drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites
- The Oregon ECHO Network at OHSU offers weekly video chats to help primary care providers statewide tackle COVID-19
- OHSU Knight Cancer Institute awards $200,000+ to COVID-related projects around the state
Accolades
- US News and World Report: OHSU Hospital No. 1 in Oregon; OHSU Doernbecher is among nation’s best children’s hospitals
- OHSU named LGBTQ HealthcareEquality Leader for eighth time
- OHSU recognized as Cardiac Center of Excellence
- OHSU selected by the American Society of Surgeons to help assess hospitals’ ability to provide the highest standards of surgical care
- AstraZeneca selects OHSU Knight Cancer Institute as global ‘partner of choice’
- Kelsey Priest, Ph.D., in the OHSU School of Medicine M.D./Ph.D. program named STAT’s 2020 Wunderkind
Accomplishments
- OHSU dramatically expands its ability to provide health care through telemedicine
- OHSU completes first heart transplant following the reactivation of the university’s Heart Failure and Transplant Program in August 2019
- OHSU Health implements Virtual ICU; Health system also establishing an emergency critical care network
- FDA grants breakthrough status to artificial intelligence algorithm, developed at OHSU, that can detect a potentially devastating cause of childhood blindness
- OHSU research informs NIH panel on achieving equity in preventive health services
- Hillsboro Medical Center opens Level 2 NICU
- OHSU, Ionis Pharmaceuticals to develop drugs for ‘undruggable’ cancer targets
- OHSU establishes research center for botanical dietary supplements
- First medical residency program in the works for Central Oregon
- OHSU, PSU students support physical, mental well-being of senior Asian American community members
- OHSU Foundation announces new board members
- OHSU Doernbecher patient first to receive trial therapy for rare, devastating form of epilepsy
- New Elks Children’s Eye Clinic building opens to patients; Casey Community Outreach Program’s mobile eye clinic celebrates 10 years
- First CRISPR gene editing within human body performed at OHSU
- Innovative scientific discoveries from OHSU researchers may help to prevent or improve treatment for conditions including, but not limited to: traumatic brain injury or disease, cognitive function, Hepatitis B, various genetic disorders, cancer, hair loss, ADHD and more
- Medical students create video to focus on racism in health care
- OHSU expertise informs legislation to ease access to mental health care
- OHSU partners with hospitals, health systems to grow state’s residency slots by 100
- Neurosurgeons at OHSU pioneer brain implants to treat debilitating tremor
- Oregon Addiction Medicine Fellowship gets federal backing
- OHSU ophthalmologist chosen to lead National Eye Institute
- Scientific first: RNA repair shows promise in reversing mutations underlying a neurological disorder
- OHSU researchers receive national grant recognition for research, work tied to alcoholism, brain development, childhood health outcomes, leukemia, heart disease, pregnancy and more
- OHSU structural biologist elected to National Academy of Medicine
- Acclaimed OHSU HIV researcher appointed to COVID-19 vaccine review group
- OHSU physician honored for co-invention of eye-imaging technology
- OHSU executive chosen as special adviser to Oregon’s COVID-19 vaccination implementation
- NIH selects OHSU to coordinate national neuroscience research involving marmosets
- Investigational blood test could detect many types of cancer with one blood draw
- OHSU study informs national recommendations for early detection, treatment of unrecognized anxiety disorders in females
- OHSU members deliver donations to Oregon families impacted by wildfires
- New algorithm, developed at OHSU, uses artificial intelligence to help manage type 1 diabetes
- Scientists at OHSU help to develop new vaccine that holds promise in fighting diarrheal disease
- Lego-inspired bone and soft tissue repair with tiny, 3D-printed bricks
- New injection could prevent HIV in nonhuman primates
- OHSU gynecologic oncologist named a scholar of the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, advances work examining human papilloma virus infection in Native Americans
- Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU unveils new virtual video tour
- OHSU establishes NIH-funded botanical research center to study dietary supplements that could help maintain bran health, function in aging