New robotic assistant technology enables neonatologist providers from OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital to support neonatal care at Adventist Health Tillamook.

Students from the OHSU School of Nursing-affiliated group Nursing Students Without Borders promote childhood health care by providing health assessments of teddy bear “patients” at the Safeway Providence Festival of Trees in Medford. Student Sara Grubb says the recommended treatment for most of the stuffed bears was “more cuddles and hugs.”

OHSU patient Sharol Lucey has lived 26 years with the same donor heart, making her one of the region’s longest-living heart transplant patients. Lucey, who has developed a friendship with the family of her heart donor, Steven Haugen, says: “Heart transplants are a blessing with a very dark cloud. Both Steven’s mom and his two sisters have expressed to me that it’s a little bit of a ray of sunshine coming through, seeking the good that his donation has done in someone else’s life.”

In an American Academy of Dermatology article on a promising new model for melanoma treatment in the form of a personalized vaccine, Elizabeth Berry, M.D., says: “This is an exciting, groundbreaking time. We’ve known for decades that melanoma is immunogenic, and the Holy Grail has been to develop some sort of vaccine against melanoma. Researchers have been trying to do this for decades, and it has not been successful until now.”

Christopher Fox, M.S.N., RN, is leading a two-year study to evaluate health outcomes for 125 patients who receive treatment through the OHSU Tele-PreP Program, which seeks to improve patient access to highly effective, HIV-preventing medications. Fox says, “People who have an increased risk for HIV also often face challenges accessing health care, and some health care providers don’t prescribe PrEP because they mistakenly assume a patient doesn’t need it. Telemedicine — which enables patients to receive health care from the comfort and safety of their own homes — can help overcome these barriers.”

Two novel monoclonal antibody therapies appear to have a significant impact on disease severity in patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis. Eric Simpson, M.D., says “The speed of onset was rapid, with clinical improvements seen as early as week two.”

Atul Deodhar, M.D., discusses current treatments for axial spondyloarthritis, including tumor necrosis factor inhibitors: “For many years we only had physical therapy and NSAIDS, but we now have better drugs like biologics that I truly believe have changed the course of disease.”

Emily Skogrand, Pharm.D., shares considerations for increased alcohol consumption around the holidays: “With alcohol, any of the depressants, any opiates, any barbiturates or benzodiazepines, can be very dangerous. The risk of harm is so much greater.”

Collections from this year’s Doernbecher Freestyle auction are now available nationwide for purchase.

Katie Drago, M.D., notes the most common cause of trauma injuries at OHSU is falling, and 75% of those falls tend to happen with people over the age of 65: “Falling is not a normal part of aging — it is not inevitable. There are lots of things people can do to reduce the risk.”