Primary Care Today

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Primary care practices are environments with deeply emotional caregiving relationships, but communicative barriers between clinicians and patients make some important conversations difficult to approach on both ends. The patient advocate is an emerging role to help bridge these communicative divides in general practice. How can these care navigators facilitate better health outcomes, and what do clinicians need to know to support this cause? Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Pamela Wilson, leading expert in the caregiving industry and author of The Caregiving Trap: Solutions for Life’s Unexpected Changes, to discuss the benefits of patient advocacy in primary care.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP On the subject of smoking, health risks differ from one form of smoking product to another. Yet these differences aren't always well understood by health professionals. Is there such a thing as a "safe" tobacco alternative, or is smoking cessation the only viable choice for risk reduction?Joining Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss the literature on tobacco harm reduction, as well as review the broadening spectrum of smoking formulations, from cigarettes to smokeless tobacco products to e-cigarette devices, is Dr. Brad Rodu, Endowed Chair in Tobacco Harm Reduction Research from the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Guest: Tina Kaur Thethi, MD, MPH, FACE Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Tina Thethi, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the section of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Tulane University Health Sciences Center. The two discuss pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment options for obesity, with an eye on longer term management strategies to curtail the development of diabetes after lifestyle modifications fall short of target goals.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr Ken Yeager, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Ohio State University School of Medicine. Dr. Yeager examines how physicians can help their patients handle the stress of a "24-hour news world" with depictions and images of disasters coming into their homes every day.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Joining Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss clinical approaches to endemic fears and anxieties spread by acts of mass violence and terrorism, both abroad and within the U.S, is Dr. Arthur Caplan, Professor and founding Director of the Division of Medical Ethics in NYU Langone Medical Center’s Department of Population Health.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Joining Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss updated considerations and approaches to the pre-participation physical exam is Dr. Mark Mirabelli, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Orthopedics, Family Medicine, and Physiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY. Dr. Mirabelli is a medical consultant to regional professional and college sports teams. He also serves as the supervising physician for University Sports Medicine athletic trainers at several area high schools. Their discussion centers on the most vital health concerns for young athletes, from cardiac screening protocols to asthma maintenance to concussion assessments.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Shoulder pain is one of the most common presentations in primary care, but the most proper workups to determine causes and develop effective treatment plans are not universally known. Joining Dr. Brian McDonough to update clinicians on common shoulder injuries, the patient histories that often correspond with them, and best treatment practices for each problem, is Dr. Kelton Burbank, orthopedic surgeon and the Worcester Medical Center in Worcester, MA. Dr. Burbank is the orthopedic consultant for the UMass-Amherst men’s hockey team and the Massachusetts representative to the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. He is also president of the New England Orthopedic Society.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Eric Edmonds, co-director of 360 Sports Medicine and one of two fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeons at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego with subspeciality certification in sports medicine. Dr. Edmond is also an associate clinical professor at UC San Diego, where he is actively involved with the education of pediatric orthopaedic fellows, residents from UC San Diego, the Navy and the Air Force, and UC San Diego medical students.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Marcy Lake, faculty member of the Kaiser Permanente Family Medicine Residency Program in Portland Oregon and author of a recent article in American Family Physician devoted to disorders of the pituitary gland. Their discussion tours diagnostic considerations toward the workup of pituitary diseases, and emerging treatment paradigms for clinicians at general, endocrinology, and surgical levels of care.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Liz Joy, President-Elect of the American College of Sports Medicine, President of the Female Athlete Triad Coalition, and Adjunct Professor of Family & Community Health at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Their discussion centers on health maintenance for female athletes and the special factors that must be considered to care for this unique patient population.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. John Ely, Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Dr. Ely has written numerous articles addressing the top questions surfacing in general practice. He joins Primary Care Today to focus on perhaps the most common question asked between colleagues in family medicine: "What is this rash?"

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Gregory Weinstein, Professor and Vice Chair and the Director of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery. He is the Co-Director of The Center for Head and Neck Cancer in The Department of Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The two discuss a dramatic rise in HPV-related cancers over the past decade, and what clinicians need to be aware of in assessing their patients for these indidious diseases.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Amy Price, staff physician in the Department of Family Practice at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Dr. Price authored an article titled "Bipolar Disorders: A Review" in American Family Physician, journal of the AAFP. She explains the keys to recognizing, diagnosing, and treating bipolar disorder in primary care settings.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP How can pharmacy practice inform the primary care and family medicine communities about approaching challenging diabetes cases? Christa George, Pharm.D, Associate Professor in the departments of Clinical Pharmacy and Family Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, joins Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss Type 2 Diabetes from the unique vantage point of the pharmacist.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) bring unique challenges to the primary care practice environment and require personalized therapeutic approaches to address both psychiatric and somatic health issues. Dr. Jill Fenske, Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, joins Dr. Brian McDonough to guide clinicians toward a better understanding of this complex disorder with multiple varied manifestations.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Jonathan Firnhaber, Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at East Carolina University School of Medicine, to provide top recommendations for prevention, assessment, and treatment of skin cancer at the primary care level.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Gail L. Torkildsen, staff ophthalmologist at Andover Eye Associates and one of the leading Dry Eye Principal Investigators in the world. Dr. Torkildsen has served as P.I. on over 20 client-sponsored Dry Eye studies since 2002. In this discussion she takes listeners on a tour of common eye problems faced in primary care, and how clinicians can better prepare themselves to address issues such as Meibobian gland disorders, blepharitis, dry eyes, and conjunctivitis with greater confidence.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Tina Thethi, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the section of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Tulane University Health Sciences Center. Dr. Thethi provides the inside scoop on diabetes topics of particular interest to endocrinologists in practice today, from pre-diabetes management to continuous glucose monitoring to novel drug research and development.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP A clinical pearl in the arena of eye care is that serious eye problems tend to manifest serious symptoms and signs, which makes vision loss one of the key findings in a diagnostic workup. Yet vision testing is commonly neglected in primary care practice even when patients present with eye-related complaints. What are the most important steps a clinician can take when assessing eye problems, and where does the primary care practitioner fit into the ophthalmologic care continuum? Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Sumitra Khandelwal, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Baylor College of Medicine, to examine the top issues in eye care for generalists and ophthalmic specialists.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP From patient consultation services to remote physician visits, telemedicine is rapidly gaining a foothold in clincial practice. But what are the potential gains vs pitfalls for integrating these technologies at the primary care level? Dr. Mark Seraly, practicing dermatologist and founder of DermatologistOnCall.com, joins Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss clinical, operational, and financial trends in telemedicine today.