GUILDERLAND — Alyssa Grogan, of Guilderland, earned a Ph.D. in molecular medicine from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She successfully defended her thesis, “Investigating the pathophysiological significance of obscurin immunoglobulin domains lg58/59 in the heart.”

An important need — health care in the rural Helderberg Hilltowns — was filled because it was clearly defined. A brave woman, backed by her family, stepped forward to take a risk because she cared about the people she had treated. A community, led by a modest man with great energy and dedication, rallied others to the cause in an organized and positive way. So now the old doctor’s office in Berne has opened as a new medical practice.

Resolve that this is not the end of an era of excellent care in the Hilltowns. Berne must find an independent doctor who cares.

BERNE — Patients in the Hilltowns are wondering where they will go for medical care after learning that a decades-old doctor’s office, now known as CapitalCare Family Medicine Berne, will be closing.

Training began for nine members of Helderberg Ambulance to act as “vitalists” and conduct medical exams for homebound patients, who will also be communicating with a physician over a video feed.

Two women — both retired local doctors — believe terminally ill patients should have more control over how and when to die. They are fighting for state laws that would allow that.

A first-in-the-nation program to provide no-cost or lower-cost naloxone at pharmacies across New York began on Aug. 9, according to a release from the governor’s office.

Local doctors say they have never heard of a practice being shut down as abruptly as Hedy Migden’s when St. Peter’s Health Partners fired her on July 5; one called it “patient abandonment.”

Kristin Mack, who found Berne in her search for a rural practice to begin her career as a doctor of osteopathy, said her native community in West Virginia has many similarities with the rural Hilltowns.

DELANSON — This year, Art Ogsbury’s daughters heard him give a blessing before the family’s Thanksgiving meal for the first time.