Oregon Health & Science University

The Willamette University School of Medicine, OHSU's earliest predecessor, was founded in the 1860s in Salem, and was relocated to Portland in the 1870s.[11] In 1915, Willamette University and the University of Oregon merged their medical programs to form the University of Oregon Medical School, and in 1919 the school moved to its present location on Marquam Hill in Southwest Portland. The Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company donated 20 acres (8.1 ha) and C.S. "Sam" Jackson, publisher of the now-defunct Oregon Journal donated the remaining 88 acres (36 ha) to the school two years prior to the move after the property had been deemed unsuitable for the construction of a railroad yard.[12]

Over the next forty years, the school diversified its educational offerings to include nursing and dental programs,[13] and expanded with facilities built during this time on Marquam Hill, including the Multnomah County Hospital, the Doernbecher Children's Hospital, and an outpatient clinic.

In 1955, Oregon state senator Mark Hatfield co-sponsored a bill to extend the medical school with a teaching hospital, and in 1974 the State of Oregon merged the institutions located on Marquam Hill into the University Hospital independent of the University of Oregon. Hatfield's continued support of medical research in Oregon in general and the hospital in particular was recognized by the institution in 1998 with the dedication of the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, and the creation of the Hatfield information wall on permanent display in the lobby of the main hospital.[14] In 2008, Governor Kulongoski released an executive order designating the Mark O. Hatfield Chair of the OHSU Board of Directors to commemorate Hatfield's commitment to the institution.[15]

The Oregon Graduate Institute merged with OHSU in July 2001, with OGI becoming the OGI School of Science and Engineering, one of four schools within OHSU at the time. The Oregon Health Sciences University name was modified to the Oregon Health & Science University. The merger was funded in part by a $4 million grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, earmarked to help launch a new biomedical engineering program at the School. The OGI School of Science and Engineering was renamed the Department of Science & Engineering within the School of Medicine at OHSU in 2008. OHSU vacated the OGI campus in Hillsboro in 2014, and its programs were moved to the Marquam Hill complex.[16]

The main OHSU campus sits atop Marquam Hill

On October 29, 2008, OHSU announced its largest philanthropic gift up that time: a $100 million gift from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny Knight. The gift went to the OHSU Cancer Institute, renaming it the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.[17] Five years later, in 2013, Knight announced his intention to donate an additional $500 million to OHSU specifically for cancer research if the university could match it over the subsequent two years.[18] The challenge motivated Columbia Sportswear chairwoman Gert Boyle to donate $100 million in 2014.[19] On June 25, 2015, OHSU met the $500 million matching-donations goal, and Knight met with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America that morning to announce his matching $500 million donation, bringing the total to $1 billion raised.[20]

OHSU remained Oregon's only medical school until 2011, when College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, Northwest opened in Lebanon, Oregon.[21][22]

The world's first in-vivo use of the Crispr-Cas9 DNA editing tool was conducted in 2020 at the Casey Eye Institute at OHSU. The procedure is intended to reverse a genetic mutation causing Leber congenital amaurosis, a form of inherited blindness.[23]

The main campus, located on Marquam Hill (colloquially known as "Pill Hill") in the southwest neighborhood of Homestead, is home to the university's medical school as well as two associated hospitals. The Oregon Health & Science University Hospital is a Level I trauma center and general hospital; Doernbecher Children's Hospital is a children's hospital which specializes in pediatric medicine and care of children with long-term illness. The university maintains a number of outpatient primary care facilities including the Physician's Pavilion at the Marquam Hill campus as well as throughout the Portland metropolitan area.

Physicians Pavilion at Marquam Hill campus

A third hospital, the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center[26] is located next to the main OHSU campus; this hospital is run by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and is outside the auspices of OHSU. A 660 feet (200 m) pedestrian skybridge connecting OHSU Hospital and the VA Medical Center was constructed in 1992.[27]

Additionally, the Portland Shriners Hospital for Children is located on the OHSU campus. The university also had a campus in Hillsboro, at the site of the former OGI.[28] This campus specialized in graduate-level science and engineering education and is located in the heart of Oregon's Silicon Forest. Since 1998, the university has controlled the Oregon National Primate Research Center, located adjacent to OGI in Hillsboro.

Center for Health and Healing at the South Waterfront campus

With the Marquam Hill campus running out of room for expansion, beginning in 2003 OHSU announced plans to expand into the South Waterfront District, formerly known as the North Macadam District. The expansion area is along the Willamette River in the South Portland neighborhood to the east of Marquam Hill and south of the city center. The Center for Health & Healing earned LEED Platinum certification in February 2007, becoming the largest health care center in the U.S. to achieve that status. As part of the continued expansion of the South Waterfront, on June 26, 2014, OHSU opened the Collaborative Life Sciences Building (CLSB). The building cost $295 million to construct,[29] and houses OHSU School of Dentistry and Dental Clinics, Portland State University classes and Oregon State University's Doctor of Pharmacy program.[30] In April, 2018, CLSB was renamed to the Joseph E. Robertson, Jr. Collaborative Life Sciences Building (RLSB).[31] As existing surface streets were deemed insufficient to connect the South Waterfront campus to the Marquam Hill campus, the Portland Aerial Tram was built as the primary link between them and opened December 1, 2006. Controversy surrounded the costs of the tram,[32] which nearly quadrupled from initial estimates. Construction of the tram was funded largely by OHSU ($40 million, 70%), with contributions from the city of Portland ($8.5 million, 15%) and developers and landowners in the South Portland neighborhood.[33]

On January 8, 2008, OHSU announced that it will establish a research institute at the Florida Center for Innovation at Tradition in the Tradition community in Port St. Lucie, Florida.[34] The institute eventually will employ 200 workers. Institute scientists will study infectious diseases of the elderly, AIDS and other infectious diseases and viruses. OHSU will work out of the adjacent Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies until its own center is completed. A $117.9 million financial incentive package from the state of Florida secured OHSU's commitment.

The Oregon Health & Science University Foundation[44] is a 501(c)(3) organization that exists to advance OHSU's mission through philanthropy. The Doernbecher Children's Hospital Foundation[45] merged with the OHSU Foundation in 2021.

• Esther Choo, Emergency physician, president of the Academy of Women in Academic Emergency Medicine[50]
• Mustafa Culha, Chemistry professor, and research group founder[51]
• Brian Druker, Physician, co-developer of Gleevec and director of the Knight Cancer Institute
• Suzanne Fei, Computational biologist, Bioinformatics & Biostatistics Core Director[52]
• N. Gregory Hamilton, Psychiatrist
• Matthew Keeslar, Physician Assistant Instructor of Urology, School of Medicine. Former professional actor (Waiting for Guffman, Scream 3, Frank Herbert's Dune)
• John Kitzhaber, Physician, longest-serving governor in Oregon's history[53]
• Muriel Lezak, American neuropsychologist and author
• Owen McCarty, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering
• Bita Moghaddam, Ruth Matarazzo Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, author
• Bud Pierce, Physician and politician[54]
• Lendon Smith, OB/GYN, pediatrician, author, and television personality
• Shoshana R. Ungerleider, Internal Medicine Physician, film producer[55]
• Melissa Wong, Cancer stem cell biologist
• D. George Wyse, Expert in cardiac arrhythmias

• Art collection of Oregon Health & Science University
• Marquam Nature Park

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Oregon Constitution/Article XI-L

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