Clinician's Roundtable

The largest health problem in our country is a physician shortage, says guest, Dr. George Sheldon, Professor of Surgery at The University of North Carolina. There are 26% fewer surgeons today than in 1998. Why the shortage? In this segment host Dr. Bill Rutenberg explores with our guest many contributing factors and some solutions to the physician shortage problem. Learn how the physician gap will be filled and why a primary care directed health system may not be dependent on doctors in the future.

Do you believe that if a patient is worried that they are developing Alzheimer's that it can't be dementia? What do you do when a high functioning patient complains of being unable to remember names? Say, "Me too!"? Perhaps we all have a thing or two to learn about working up forgetfulness. Host Dr. Leslie Lundt welcomes Investigative journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin to discuss some of the interventions for patients with midlife forgetfulness.

The late Yale neuroscientist Patricia Goldman-Rakic said that working memory is the mental glue that links a thought through time from its beginning to its end. What happens when this system goes haywire? Investigative journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to discuss the frontal lobe overload.

Anyone older than forty knows that forgetfulness can be unnerving, frustrating and sometimes terrifying. Investigative journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin embarked on a three year journey to revive her brain using the latest that science has to offer. She joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to discuss what she learned.

Your patients' mothers continue to play a constant role in their lives, no matter how old they are. What are the types of mothering styles and how do they influence our psychology? Clinical psychologist and author of The Mother Factor, Dr. Stephan Poulter joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to describe how mothering styles may affect patients' current lives.

Mothers have gotten a bad rap for everything, from schizophrenia to breast cancer. What are the realties and misperceptions about mothers? Author of "The Mother Factor", Dr. Stephen Poulter, joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to give the audience a quiz on what we know about mothers and their impacts on daughters and sons.

You may remember the work of Dr. John Bowlby from your first psychology class. He taught us about attachment theory and how important bonding is. Today's guest helps us to understand how the type of attachment that our patients had with their mother may impact their current lives. Dr. Stephen Poulter, author of "The Mother Factor", joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to discuss maternal attachment.

Dr. Jeffrey Kaye, professor of neurology and biomedical engineering, and director of the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology at Oregon Health and Science University, provides his perspective on where recent advances in technology will guide health care for the elderly over the next several years. Dr. Danny Petrasek hosts.

Our best evidence suggests that nursing homes and other assisted-living facilities will likely not be able to keep up with the demands of our rapidly aging population, which today stands at more than 40 million, a number that is expected to more than double by 2050. As a result, a premium is being placed on new remote monitoring devices that allow medical professionals to track patients for medical data from the comfort of patients' own homes, thereby allowing more elderly patients to live independently for longer. Dr. Jeffrey Kaye, professor of neurology and biomedical engineering, and director of the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology at Oregon Health and Science University, joins host Dr. Danny Petrasek to project where recent advances in these technologies will guide us over the next several years.

Who chooses to participate in Oregon's Death With Dignity Act? What's their education level? What type of diagnosis is required? How does religion come into play? In further exploring Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, epidemiologist, Dr. Katrina Hedberg, from the Oregon Department of Human Services addresses the facts and figures with your host, Dr. Michael Greenberg, including the rights and regulation of those physicians writing the lethal prescription.