Clinician's Roundtable

If you have a patient who suffers from hypoactive sexual desire disorder, you may want to consider helping their libido with testosterone. One recent study showed improvement in women who used a testosterone-only patch without estrogen. Even though the patch is not FDA approved at this point, it could be an alternative in the future. Dr. Margery Gass, an associate professor of clinical obstetrics at the University of Cincinnati talks with host Dr. Lauren Streicher about her recent research and what can be done to boost a woman's libido before and after menopause.

It seems these days patients know more about the benefits of Vitamin D than their physicians. Doctors are soaking up the information and making sure their patients are taking the proper levels of Vitamin D. Dr. Michael Holick, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics and director of the Bone Health Care Clinic and the Heliotherapy, Light, and Skin Research Center at Boston University Medical Center, joins host Dr. Lauren Streicher to discuss the proper dosage, risk factors, geographical factors and benefits of Vitamin D.

Impulse control disorders have become increasingly reported in Parkinson's Disease patients. Dr. Matthew Menza, professor of psychiatry and neurology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to explore the etiology of impulse control disorders in the general population and in Parkinson's patients. Are impulse control disorders more common in Parkinson's patients, or are we just identifying them more readily? What can we do to help these patients?

Depression is present in as many as half of the one million people with Parkinson's disease in the United States. What evidence-based treatments should we be using? Host Dr. Leslie Lundt welcomes Dr. Matthew Menza, professor of psychiatry and neurology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, to talk about his work on diagnosing and treating depression in Parkinson's disease patients.

Why is healthcare been such a growing area for organized labor to expand? From home health care workers and registered nurses, and even doctors, organized labor is finding an important audience in the medical care field. Keith Kelleher, president of SEIU Healthcare of Illinois and Indiana tells host Bruce Japsen about the labor movement among health professionals.

Following the historic election of Barack Obama, one of the new president's longtime allies in organized labor now has a key voice in the nation's economic recovery and the healthcare debate. Keith Kelleher, president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare of Illinois and Indiana, talks with host Bruce Japsen about the seat at the table SEIU will have when the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress push a stimulus package that could make strides to expand medical care for more Americans while benefiting doctors and other providers.

Host Dr. Bruce Bloom welcomes Dr. Berish Rubin, professor in the department of biological sciences and head of the Laboratory for Familial Dysautonomia research at Fordham University in Bronx, New York. A genetic condition, symptoms include inability to swallow, respiratory congestion, poor muscle tone, and delayed developmental milestones. Dr. Rubin reports on the latest research and how close we are to finding a cure.

In only three months' time, researchers Dr. Berish Rubin and Dr. Sylvia Anderson and their team uncovered the genetic cause of familial dysautonomia (FD). Dr. Rubin, professor in the department of biological sciences at Fordham University, joins host Dr. Bruce Bloom to share his story and the research that led them to identify the gene mutation responsible for FD, a variation most often found in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. They also discuss symptoms a clinician can use to diagnose FD, common treatments and the future direction of FD research.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB) has been present in the human population since antiquity. Today over 2 billion people have been exposed. What can we learn form this remarkably resilient bacteria, and how do we address the formidable challenge of treating drug resistant strains? Dr. Jeffrey Cirillo, associate professor of microbial and molecular pathogenesis at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, examines tuberculosis from molecular to organ-specific levels and outlines the emergence of multidrug resistance across the world. Hosted by Dr. Mary Leuchars.

Robotic appendages assisting in surgery that allow procedures to be performed on a patient by a physician on the opposite end of the globe, and machines that kill cancer cells on a molecular level--these are just two of the medical advances that are already beginning to revolutionize medicine. Dr. William Hanson, director of the surgical intensive care unit at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and author of the book The Edge of Medicine, surveys the technologies that will soon change the physician's landscape. Dr. Lee Freedman hosts. What ethical concerns will some of these new developments present?