Some good news in The Oregonian today when it comes to employment in the state:

According to the article:

The state’s jobless rate slid to 8.5 percent in April, officials said Tuesday, and payroll employment jumped by 2,300, seasonally adjusted. Oregon also gained 1,200 jobs in March, instead of losing 300 as initially estimated.

As for OHSU, we’ve witnessed pretty strong job increases despite the weakened economy of the past couple of years:

A few stats:

• In July 2000, OHSU had 10,037 employees
• In July 2005, that # was 11,307
• In July 2009, when the national economy was severely in the tank, our staffing was 12,547
• As for now? We have just under 14-thousand employees

For many of us, it’s exciting to work for an organization that improves health while bringing jobs to the region.

Coming up on the next edition of The OHSU Effect: Inside Health &Science on KXL Radio…

We’ll talk to an OHSU researcher who thinks the secrets to battling some diseases and locating new biofuels can be found deep out at sea.

We’ll hear about promising research to combat the worldwide epidemic of AIDS.

and we’ll discuss who should consider surgery as an option for obesity.We’ll also hear from a patient who made that choice and how it changed her life.

Join us at 8 a.m. this Saturday on KXL 101.1 FM.

It’s Research Week at OHSU and I think we’re all pretty aware of the health benefits of medical research. We write about them all the time on this blog.

However, some of the side-benefits may actually surprise you.

For instance, did you know that research funding creates jobs and brings millions of dollars in state? In fact, according to a recent report by the American Association of Medical Colleges, the total economic impact of medical research in Oregon in 2009 was over 606 million. Here’s a link to the full report.

In Oregon, these research dollars create jobs at the university. They also create jobs in the city and in the region. That’s because OHSU buys products from local vendors. We hire local companies to provide services. In addition, income taxes from our employees flow back to the state.

While the goal of research should always be to cure and treat disease, boosting the economy isn’t a bad side-effect is it?

OHSU President Dr. Joe Robertson

What does last weeks’s Medicaid agreement mean to OHSU?

Several reporters we spoke with asked us that very question.

In one case, OHSU President Dr. Joe Robertson spoke at length on the issue.

Here he is on KXL Radio:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Coming up on the next edition of The OHSU Effect: Inside Health & Science on KXL Radio:

They are some of the most important people in the hospital for patients and families in great need. But they aren’t doctors or nurses…we’ll meet them.

Fertility issues can take a huge mental toll on couples who want to begin a family. We’ll tell you what OHSU can do to assist.

Then, we’ll give you an insider perspective on an important but rarely discussed aspect of medical education. We’ll lean about body donation from OHSU’s program director. We’ll also hear from a student who tells us about lessons learned in gross anatomy.

Finally, we’ll talk about a women’s health issue many women are afraid to discuss…

Join us at 8 am this Saturday on KXL 101.1 FM.

Yesterday I shared OHSU’s reaction to this major news headline:

Today, OHSU was proud to join Governor Kitzhaber, legislators, health systems and others to discuss the achievement and answer questions from the press.

A few comments from OHSU President Dr. Joe Robertson in this Portland Business Journal article:

“This is a seminal plan: Oregon was the birthplace of health reform in the mid-1980s,” said Dr. Joe Robertson, OHSU’s president. “Now, we’ll shape the next iteration of health care.”

Robertson explained CCOs as well as anyone I’ve ever heard. As providers work together on treatment plans, “It changes the relationship between them from a vendor relationship to a partnership,” he said.

A few more photos from the event here.

OHSU neurology professor Fay Horak has recently won a prestigious honor — for something she did almost three decades ago.

In recognition of its 125th birthday, the American Physiological Society identified the most highly cited articles published in its Journal of Neurophysiology since 1900.

The society separated its list into the top 10 articles for 1900-1924, 1925-1949, and each of the last six decades. An article that Horak co-authored in 1986 — her first published paper as a post-doctoral fellow — made the journal’s top ten list for 1980-1989.

The article’s topic was in an area that Horak has built a world-renowned career on — how the brain controls human balance. The article, written with co-author Lew Nashner, showed how people balance themselves when they walk by using one of two strategies (ankle strategy or hip strategy) or a combination of the two. Horak’s study also showed that the strategies were not reflexes but learned with practice.

“Our finding of stereotypical balancing strategies has been extremely useful for clinicians as well as game changing for understanding how the brain controls balance,” Horak said.

Horak co-authored the article when she was with the Neurological Sciences Institute of  Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center. She joined OHSU in 1999.

Horak’s lab is considered the world leader in studying how the brain controls balance, and she is known internationally with more than 200 publications and numerous awards.

Her lab has developed methods for clinicians to test balance in Parkinson’s disease as well as physical therapy techniques and exercise programs to treat or prevent balance and walking problems. She has studied Parkinson’s disease for more than 25 years, much of it in collaboration with the OHSU Parkinson Center of Oregon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A map highlighting blocks 23 and 27

In the future, most OHSU outpatients may enter a new “front door” to OHSU.

On Thursday, a deal for OHSU to purchase two additional blocks of property in Portland’s South Waterfront District was finalized.

A ground-level view of the property

From an OHSU press release:

OHSU has no immediate plans for development on the parcels at this time, but it expects to construct new outpatient facilities on the land to both replace aging patient care areas on OHSU’s Marquam Hill Campus and in response to expanded need.

and

“The Center for Health and Healing, which is connected to the OHSU Marquam Hill Campus via the Portland Aerial Tram, has allowed us to move several outpatient clinics closer to downtown Portland,” saidMark Williams, associate vice president for campus development at OHSU. “Doing so has improved access for patients and reduced traffic congestion on Marquam Hill. We look forward to a future with additional OHSU patient facilities in South Waterfront.”

The full details are here.