In this episode, Maria Chao, DrPH, MPA, and Jesse Wennik, NP, join host Dr. Sherri Eldin to discuss their research study titled, “Social Support in Group Medical Visits for Chronic Pain in Primary Care,” which found that through deliberate facilitation and peer exchange, group medical visits mobilize four reinforcing forms of social support as core therapeutic processes and may serve as a model of biopsychosocial chronic pain management in primary care.

About the study: More than one in five U.S. adults lives with chronic pain. Isolation and stigma can make it worse, and primary care visits are often too short to address all needs. Group medical visits allow multiple patients with a common condition to receive medical care alongside health education and peer support. This study examined how group medical visits facilitate four types of social support: emotional, appraisal, informational, and instrumental. Qualitative data were collected within a randomized trial at San Francisco safety-net clinics. Patients were assigned to group visits consisting of 12 weekly two-hour sessions of clinical care, pain education, mindfulness, gentle movement, and discussion. Groups were co-faciliated by primary care and behavioral health clinicians and a movement and mindfulness instructor. Researchers observed 16 sessions with 26 patients and held two focus groups and 12 interviews. Most patients had low incomes; half identified as Black or African American, and average pain was 7.7 out of 10. Patients reported all four types of social support. The nonjudgemental space and trust built within the group encouraged emotional support, such as removing shame over late arrivals or absences, and also from naming and discussing grief. Facilitators gave appraisal support by disclosing their own setbacks and peers offered affirmations that encouraged self-compassion. Informational support came from the curriculum and from peers, who traded tips like using frozen water bottles for plantar fasciitis. Instrumental support included peers bringing food to share and facilitators referring participants for counseling and other care. 

Link to full, open access study: https://www.annfammed.org/content/24/5/422

Supporting Resources: 

Detailed information on the ongoing randomized controlled trial: Group-based Integrative Pain Management in Primary Care Safety Net Clinics 

Brief video on the integrative pain management program (IPMP) at the Tom Waddell Urban Health Clinic: https://vimeo.com/306277769 

Public box folder with publications on integrative pain management programs: https://ucsf.box.com/s/dqn10t4n5f6tqxuonwmj68uzlhqz9hy6

Dr. Teal Benevides and Dr. Michael McKee join host Dr. Sherri Eldin to discuss their research brief, “Fall-Related Emergency Department Visits Among Adults With and Without Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities or Cerebral Palsy” (https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.250058).

Dr. Benevides and Dr. McKee explain their findings that adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) or cerebral palsy (CP) were more likely to visit the emergency department for a fall-related injury than adults without these conditions, and that this risk appears at earlier ages than is seen in the general population. They also discuss the barriers these populations face in accessing preventive care, and what primary care clinicians can do, from earlier fall risk screening to multidisciplinary care and medication review, to reduce falls, morbidity, and mortality in these patients.

Teal Benevides, PhD, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA, is a professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health Sciences in Augusta University’s School of Public Health. She has a passion for describing, understanding, and addressing disparities among individuals on the autism spectrum and those with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.

Dr. McKee is an Associate Professor and board-certified in family medicine with an expertise in disability health. His research focus includes health disparities for individuals with various disabilities, health information accessibility, health literacy, and telemedicine applications. 

The video interview will be available on the Annals of Family Medicine YouTube channel. As usual, the audio-only episode will also be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and the Podbean App, as well as on the Annals of Family Medicine website.

In this episode, authors Dr. Seth Hunter and Chaplain Dustin Hite join host Dr. Sherri Eldin to discuss their Innovation in Primary Care article, “Leveraging the Role of Chaplaincy to Enhance Care for Patients With Opioid Use Disorder,” by April D. Newton, PT, DPT, PhD, Dustin Hite, MDiv, Seth Hunter, MD, and Maeg Sauers, Ann Fam Med 2026;24. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.25048.

In this episode:

In this episode: Many patients in early recovery face emotional distress and social isolation. To address these unmet needs, the Buprenorphine Clinic at Indiana University (IU) Health Primary Care in Indianapolis integrated a chaplain trained in recovery coaching into its interprofessional collaborative care team. The chaplain provides non-clinical, whole-person support, helping patients explore meaning, process emotions, and identify personal strengths. This role supports patients regardless of spiritual beliefs and complements the medical management of OUD by addressing emotional and existential concerns.

Dr. Eldin is joined by her very own co-workers: the invaluable staff that is the driving force behind Annals of Family Medicine. Listeners can look forward to hearing about the team’s respective roles, their work at NAPCRG (including their acclaimed conference workshop), and the opportunity that the Annual Meeting provides to further foster relationships with authors and researchers at all stages of their careers.

Sign up to be a peer reviewer with Annals of Family Medicine by clicking the link here! 

Episode #10 is a relaxed and informative conversation between Dr. Eldin and Dr. José Rodríguez, who stepped down as an Associate Editor for Annals of Family Medicine earlier this year. In this episode, they discuss the fun of attending NAPCRG, the importance of keeping the joy alive in one’s work (and what to do when it’s gone), and the road that led Dr. Rodríguez to his new position as the Frank S. Royal Professor and Chair of Family & Community Medicine at Meharry Medical College.

Resources Mentioned: 

In this first episode of the 2025 Live from the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) conference series, we interview Dr. Felicity Goodyear-Smith. She received her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Auckland, where she now serves as Professor and Goodfellow Postgraduate Chair of General Practice and Primary Care. A prolific author with more than 360 peer-reviewed publications, 11 books, and 30 book chapters, she joined the Annals of Family Medicine Editorial Advisory Board in 2024 and has delivered several NAPCRG plenaries, including this year’s. Recorded the day before her plenary, the episode previews the talk she and her research collective were about to give, which tells the story of a Pacific co-design research journey that began with a 2016 PaCE workshop and led to the formation of a Pacific community group and a Pacific Practice-Based Research Network in South Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Guided by Pacific research frameworks such as fa’afaletui and the Fonofale model of holistic health, their work involves community groups in every step of the research process and includes projects addressing gout and rheumatic fever.

Resources Mentioned: 

NAPCRG's PaCE (Patient and Clinician Engagement):

https://napcrg.org/programs/pace/

"View from the Canoe: Co-Designing Research Pacific Style" 

https://www.annfammed.org/content/18/2/172

"Travelling companions: a story told by a patient and her doctor":

https://bjgp.org/content/68/671/282

or

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6002010/

Joseph Tuala RNZ article w/ news segment video:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018686731/nz-s-heart-breaker-rheumatic-fever-rates-on-the-rise

Fa'afaletui: A Pacific Research Framework:

https://journals-sagepub-com.revproxy.brown.edu/share/2X7Q2ZPPTNV99BMSRYWM?target=10.1177/1558689820985948

In this episode, researchers Arch G. Mainous III, PhD, and Frank A. Orlando, MD, discuss their recently published study, “Body Mass Index vs Body Fat Percentage as a Predictor of Mortality in Adults Aged 20-49 Years." The study found that body fat percentage is a stronger predictor of 15-year mortality risk among U.S. adults than body mass index (BMI). Although BMI is widely used in clinics as the standard measure of body composition, it can potentially misclassify muscular individuals as overweight and miss cases of "normal-weight obesity," masking serious metabolic and heart disease risks. The study findings support reexamining how body composition is measured in clinical settings.

Other studies mentioned in the episode:

2016 study: "Prevalence of Prediabetes and Abdominal Obesity Among Healthy-Weight Adults: 18-Year Trend

2022 study: Body fat and risk of all-cause mortality: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

In this episode, researchers Ann Sinéad Doherty, PhD, and Emma Wallace, PhD discuss their recently published study, “Prescribing Cascades Among Older Community-Dwelling Adults: Application of Prescription Sequence Symmetry Analysis to a National Database in Ireland.” The study identified five potential prescribing cascades in Ireland’s national population of older adults, highlighting yet another contributor to potentially inappropriate prescribing.

Primary care improves the health of communities and decreases health inequities, yet workforce shortages have worsened in the United States. This study, titled "Neighborhood Determinants of Primary Care Access in Virginia," aimed to identify geographic disparities of the primary care workforce in Virginia and identify factors associated with primary care physician (PCP) access. In this episode, authors Hannah Shadowen, third-year medical student, and Alexander Krist, MD, MPH discuss the study in detail. 

Researchers used the 2019 Virginia All-Payers Claims Database to identify PCPs and the number of patients seen by each physician. They then measured how many PCPs each census tract could reach within a 30‑minute drive, flagging tracts with too few as having poor access. Associations between PCP access and predisposing (age, race), enabling (income, insurance), need and structural (rurality, segregation) factors were assessed. 

Main Results: 

Authors Shiying Hao, PhD, and Neil Kamdar, MA, discuss their original research study titled "Utilization of Treatment for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea and Practice-Level Variation in Treatment in the Primary Care Setting Using the American Family Cohort.” They talk about barriers to guideline adherence for chlamydia and gonorrhea treatment across primary care practices and recommend efforts to develop management plans for better quality of care.