An opinion piece by Allessandra Colaianni, M.D., M.Phil., which advocates for medical professionals employing humor: “Becoming a medical professional doesn’t mean amputating your sense of whimsy, or diluting your personality, or abandoning the parts of you external to medicine that make you a whole person. Medicine as a profession must become more diverse, more accepting, more humane, and more cognizant of the humanity of its practitioners.”

In an op-ed, Paul Mitchell, M.D., encourages community members and health care providers to address vaccine hesitancy with parents in Oregon, which led the nation for kindergarteners receiving nonmedical vaccine exemptions in 2018: “Although difficult, these conversations can be a powerful tool to ensure more Oregon children are protected from COVID."

Andy Paulson, R.N., explains why he’s staying in nursing despite the challenges of working during the pandemic: “I do feel honored that I get to work there … It doesn’t even feel like a job. It just feels like a place where I get to go help.”

A Nature Communications study by Henrique von Gersdorff, Ph.D., Benjamin Zemel, Ph.D., and Claudio Mello, M.D., Ph.D., describes how specialized neural cells trigger complex songbird learning also resemble a type of neural cell associated with fine motor skill development in humans.

Research by Joan Teno, M.D., finds patients admitted to nursing facilities who were documented as being diagnosed with dementia had better long-term outcomes.

Judith Guzman-Cottrill, D.O., speaks about the importance of COVID-19 booster shots to help protect individuals and limit virus spread during the holiday season.

OHSU La Grande nursing student Kristen Hunter is among the volunteers helping prepare the Union County Warming Station to open.

Local family allows OHSU to study the brain of a child who died from an unexplained seizure.

Peter Graven, Ph.D., says: “Unfortunately, none of this stuff is certain. So you want to minimize your risk as much as you can. But there again, you can have a good bit of faith in the science of the vaccine.” Carlos Crespo, Dr.P.H., says he’ll minimize COVID risks by gathering with a small group of local relatives who will travel by car.