A new study led by Jane Zhu, M.D., suggests Medicaid reimbursement for the same mental health treatment varies dramatically among U.S. states. Zhu says: “Our study confirms that some states are setting these reimbursement rates quite low, which has implications not just for provider acceptance of Medicaid insurance but also the extent to which they see Medicaid patients."

The Food and Drug Administration authorizes marketing for new treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee, based on nationwide clinical trials, including at OHSU. Dennis Crawford, M.D., says, “Quite frankly, there hasn’t been a substantial development for the treatment of this ubiquitous disease for more than 50 years."

One Community Health, in collaboration with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, is recruiting volunteers in the Columbia River Gorge for the Pathfinder 2 early cancer detection study. Laura Ferrara, who works for the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network, says: “For years I have dreamed of increasing access to highly innovative clinical trials in the gorge and I'm living the dream working on this one."

A segment from KATU-TV highlights the impact made by Child Life Specialist Jess Calvert, who supports young patients before surgery. She says: "We are the emotional first responders in a medical situation… the ultimate goal is to, through these interventions, have children develop skills, coping skills that they can take into their next encounter.”

Research by Michael Klein, M.D., and others has identified rare genetic variants that may be involved in developing age-related macular degeneration and could be used to develop new therapies.

Parents of a young boy with a rare genetic condition are given a diagnosis at OHSU: the boy's unique hair is the result of uncombable hair syndrome, a condition that affects the shape of hair shafts on the scalp.

A four-month-old born with a congenital heart defect has undergone more than ten open heart surgeries.

In a Renal & Urology News story on extended lymph node dissection during radical cystectomy for bladder cancer, Mark Garzotto, M.D., said trials such as this one are important because in clinical practice there is so much variation. He says: “Having high-quality trial data for surgical interventions is the best path forward to uniformly improve clinical care."

General contractor Skanska said this week that it signed a $111 million contract amendment with Oregon Health & Science University for an ongoing hospital expansion project.

While describing how a 16-year-old girl was able to see snowflakes for the first time after participating in a clinical trial for a gene therapy designed to treat a rare form of inherited blindness, Paul Yang, M.D., Ph.D., says “As a physician-scientist who works to develop and bring new treatments to patients, it’s an honor to be among the first who get to witness signs of clinical success like this.”