Treva Lind

Caitlin Quaempts, a new Spokane medical school graduate, has lined up a family medicine residency this June for a path she hopes leads back to the Yakama Nation. After her three-year residency in Klamath Falls, Oregon, she'd like to be a family practice doctor for tribal members – just as her father has. She is a Yakama direct descendent of her dad, Rex Matthew Quaempts, a longtime family doctor for Indian Health Services. Another classmate, Lili Szabo, recently matched to a Spokane internal medicine residency with Providence Sacred Heart, and she hopes to remain here. Both Quaempts and Szabo are among a 2024 class of 60 graduates from the University of Washington School of Medicine's Spokane site. They celebrated "match day" on March 15 for their selections into medical residency programs.

A Spokane nonprofit wants to hear from K-12 teachers about what resources they need in classrooms for students with dyslexia. Two free workshops – one in Coeur d'Alene and another in Spokane – are scheduled in April for educators to give input or ask questions about the learning disorder. The INW Dyslexia Alliance started its program, Champions for Dyslexia, to foster networks and support for educators. By fall, it will form parent-caregiver groups.

A researcher in pivotal sleep studies is scheduled to speak Tuesday night at Gonzaga University about why enough nightly slumber ties into brain wellness. Jeffrey Iliff, a sleep researcher at the University of Washington School of Medicine, plans to share new findings and advice on how to ensure the right type of sleep that's needed for the brain to function at its best. For audience questions, he'll be joined later by Dr. Don Howard, a Providence sleep medicine specialist and pulmonary doctor. The 6 p.m. Next Generation Medicine lecture, hosted by the UW School of Medicine and GU health partnership, is scheduled at the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center.

Before pickleball, racquetball bounced to the heights of popularity in sports. The fast-paced game boomed in the 1980s and into the 1990s, but then faded from the limelight. That doesn't mean racquetball has vanished in the Spokane area, said longtime player Rich Carver. Carver expects 100 enthusiasts will join a May 17-19 racquetball tournament at the Spokane Club. He estimates about 150 people in the area play regularly.

As pickleball's popularity has exploded the past five years – especially in the 50 and older crowd – the number of pickleball-related injuries also is rising. Problems include sprains, fractures and overuse issues such as elbow tendinitis.

Don Duffy is leaving the Panhandle Health District, which covers five North Idaho counties, after a decade and three years at the helm during COVID-19. Panhandle Health has broad services: Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer water quality protection, nutrition services and operation of primary care clinics – one each of its counties. Duffy was the district's incident commander during the pandemic. Duffy said he didn’t choose a briefly-held masking mandate its board of health implemented that was largely ignored by the public. In hindsight, he thinks more focus should have gone toward vulnerable seniors in health care facilities. Leaving May 24, Duffy plans to run a medical consulting practice.

Hoa Tran, 57, was abandoned as a baby and raised in Vietnam. After searching most of her adult life for her parents, she got a DNA match a year ago, leading her to Spokane.

PasstoPass helps people who have Parkinson's disease stay active outdoors by matching them with a support hiker, encouraging their use of trekking poles – and with some help from llamas. 

Nearly 30 years ago, Catherine Shields delivered a new care model of nurse-midwives supporting women in labor and delivery at MultiCare Deaconess Hospital. 

Moving here from San Diego in 2019 just before COVID, Chris Kelly didn't know many of Spokane's landmarks or its roads when he most needed those bearings. Now 53, Kelly felt sudden chest pains in March that proved to be a heart attack. He's since recovered after a stent procedure, but on that day, Kelly didn't realize the severity of his condition. He's now quick to urge people to do what he should have: Seek a ride to emergency care and ask for directions.

A downtown Spokane site has joined a statewide drug-checking network aimed at reducing overdoses. It's also a glimpse into what's new in illicit drug supplies. In recent months, fentanyl powder has shown up as a substance more potent than fentanyl pills. Hints showed last summer of the powerful veterinary sedative xylazine, sometimes mixed with illegal fentanyl. Compassionate Addiction Treatment, a barrier-free drug treatment center, began nearly a year ago to test small samples of drugs, anonymously and voluntarily given by people who come to the center. The statewide network is led by the Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute at the University of Washington.

Christian music radio station KEEH-FM has sent a signal from Spokane for 30 years, but a 2016 rebrand as Shine 104.9 has led to both wider audience and expansion. As Shine, the station sought to broaden connections with local churches and nonprofits in sharing events and doing interviews with regional leaders. In recent years, Shine also has steadily climbed toward the top in Nielsen ratings among Spokane-area radio stations.

Watching the TV cartoon "Bluey" in a waiting room, 3-year-old Karl Hadley reluctantly walked away Wednesday for yet another of his frequent visits with a Spokane cardiologist. But surprises awaited him in the exam room: Balloons and a toy, Bluey's Family Home, complete with its dog figurine. Dr. Carl Garabedian watched along with Karl's parents Randy and Brenda Hadley as the boy played briefly until his routine checkup began. The gifts marked a milestone for the child three years ago, when Karl at 5 weeks received a liver transplant on Valentine's Day at Seattle Children's. A virus infection had caused his liver to fail. Karl still has ongoing health issues from an unrelated congenital heart defect, called pulmonary vein stenosis, which means progressive narrowing of veins. Since his birth Jan. 5, 2021 in Coeur d'Alene, he has spent most of life in hospitals or visiting them for procedures, both because of the initial liver failure and his heart condition.

Maddy Reyes will wear red Friday, although her color choice might lean toward crimson. A Washington State University sophomore on the school's cheer team, Reyes knows what it's like to have heart issues as a survivor of a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. Friday is the American Heart Association's national Go Red for Women day.

A Spokane clinic designed for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, has received designation as a certified treatment center of excellence. The ALS clinic is at Providence St. Luke's Rehabilitation Medical Center through its physiatry and neuromuscular services. It’s the region's first clinic to get the ALS Association's certification, according to Providence Health. Previously, the closest certified centers were in Seattle and Portland. ALS causes progressive degeneration of motor nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain, leading to weakness and eventually loss of control with muscles that can affect walking, chewing, swallowing, speaking and breathing.

With 100 years of Spokane history, a statewide nonprofit that shifted away from mainly adoptions to child and family services has a new name: Akin. Founded in 1896, it was first Washington Children's Home Finding Society and then Children's Home Society of Washington. Known here for 70 years at the Galland Hall on the South Hill, the region's branch moved in 2004 to the Galland-Ashlock Family Resource Center in Spokane Valley. The Akin name nods to kin or kinship care among families and emerges from a Jan. 1 merger with the Seattle-area Childhaven, an early 1900s agency that first helped single parents with daycare until it transitioned to childhood well-being programs. In Spokane, modern Akin services include child and family counseling, early learning and developmental support for infants to preschoolers, parent education and other family programs.

In its first 15 months, Maddie's Place has cared for 61 infants experiencing withdrawal from drug exposure before birth. Its caregivers learned about another 63 drug-exposed babies in Spokane who didn't go there in that period. Leaders seeking state Medicaid funding for Maddie's Place think the numbers far exceed estimates. A new WSU study will look at its health outcomes and tap Spokane providers about insight into the real numbers in Spokane County. 

Under broadening research, doctors have more reasons to tell patients to spend time in open spaces regularly for better mental health. Now, a statewide study suggests that even small differences in having available urban green spaces and access to waterfronts have ties to improved self-reported mental health among people ages 65 and older, according to Washington State University researchers, who say this also might help offset dementia.

Kootenai Health enters 2024 with big changes, including its Jan. 1 transition from a public hospital district to a private nonprofit to operate Coeur d’Alene’s 397-bed hospital, two rural facilities and more than 20 clinics.

Cutting out booze improved Bailey Bowerman health, but unexpectedly, she also noticed her feelings of anxiety drop significantly. She and her friend recently launched Diversion Events, a business that scheduled its first gathering with mocktails, DJ music and dancing.

MultiCare clinical psychologist Kimberly Chupurdia agrees with recent reports on higher rates of depression among teens – and for some – suicidal thoughts. A Washington state report in 2023 cites that more youth are reporting mental health issues. Chupurdia thinks factors include lingering effects from COVID shutdowns and an uptick in social media use. Some teens have had difficulties transitioning back into social structures, even in recent months, she said.

In mid-December, the Safe Passage Children's Advocacy Center received accreditation from the National Children's Alliance under its standards for best practices. The Coeur d'Alene facility provides support, interviews and exams for child victims of sexual and physical abuse, and family support. Nationwide, centers follow standards in response to allegations by using evidence-based practices and coordination with local agencies for investigation, prosecution and treatment. The center serves North Idaho and conducts 250 forensic interviews a year, working with children ages 3 to 17, and a small number of adults with cognitive disability.

Becky Hammill believes in mental health recovery that taps trained peers with similar experiences. She also backs the power of respite care, letting someone hit a pause button if life gets overwhelming. At the helm of Passages Family Support for more than 20 years, Hammill is the founding director of that nonprofit, which for Spokane County provides various mental health services mainly for state Medicaid-eligible residents. She has advocated to grow certified peer counseling and to build a Spokane respite house with trained staff support for people who fall in a gap for mental health services – needing more than outpatient services but not quite behavioral health care in a hospital. Now, Hammill can say both became reality, and she's just overseen the newly-built facility for adults called Termonn, Gaelic for sanctuary, opening by Dec. 31 on the Passages campus.

A new study adds a twist to how much sleep boosts our health.