Critical Care

Host: Janet Wright, MD

Guest: Mark Hlatky, MD

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators, or ICDs, can be life saving for patients after myocardial infarction, but are also costly and may not be appropriate for all of the hundreds of thousands of patients who have had MI. Which subsets of patients might benefit most from ICDs, and might prophylactic use of ICDs early after MI reduce the risk of cardiac death? Dr. Mark Hlatky, professor of medicine and professor of health research and policy at Stanford University School of Medicine, weighs the comparative-effectiveness research on the efficacy of ICDs for patients early after MI, versus waiting a few months before implanting ICDs or trying other forms of therapy. Outside of implantable devices, what else can physicians do to reduce the risk of death after MI? Hosted by Dr. Janet Wright.

Produced in Cooperation with

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD

Guest: Thomas Kirsch, MD, MPH

Triage isn't the only issue facing healthcare professionals during the acute phase of responding to a disaster: there are also the challenges of limited resources and staffing, as well as the mental and physical preparedness of the medical response team. Dr. Thomas Kirsch, co-director of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, assistant professor and the director of operations for the department of emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response, describes his on-the-ground experiences during the first few months after the Haiti earthquake and reflects on the acute phase of the response there. What are some of the lessons learned from Haiti that we can apply to future crises, and what parts of the response were effective? Our guest also discusses the need for ethical training for disaster response teams. Dr. Maurice Pickard hosts.

Host: Anthony Alessi, MD

Guest: Mill Etienne, MD, MPH, CPH

Host Dr. Anthony Alessi interviews neurologist Lt. Cmdr. Mill Etienne, MD, at St. Damien's Pediatric Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Hati. Dr. Etienne is a Hatian-American physician in the United States military, stationed on the USNS Comfort. They discuss Dr. Etienne's work providing medical care, in addition to translation services and cultural sensitivity training for the staff on board the Comfort, and lessons he has brought from the American Academy of Neurology's Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum (which trains selected members to be effective advocates for patients at the local, state, and national levels.) At the end of the interview, find out how you can still help in Haiti.

Host: Porter Storey, MD

Guest: Russell K. Portenoy, MD

More than half of the United States’ large hospitals have a palliative care team. What constitutes good palliative care? How do specialist palliative care and generalist care differ? Tune in for an exploration of the best practices in the treatment of patients with serious or life-threatening illness, with host Dr. Porter Storey and Dr. Russell Portenoy, chairman of the department of pain medicine and palliative care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York.

Series Produced In Cooperation With

Sponsored By

Host: Janet Wright, MD

Guest: Michael Mooney, MD

Therapeutic hypothermia is a relatively new treatment option for patients who suffer cardiac arrest, that can significantly improve neurologic outcomes. What factors determine the success of cooling therapy for cardiac arrest, and what resources does the procedure require? Dr. Michael Mooney, Director of Interventional Cardiology, Minneapolis Cardiology Associates, at Minneapolis Heart Institute / Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minnesota, explores the indications for therapeutic hypothermia with host Dr. Janet Wright. Might therapeutic hypothermia be approached with a strategy similar to initiatives aimed at reducing door-to-balloon time for ST-elevation MI?

Guest: Thomas Krueger, MD

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Host: Michael Greenberg, MD

It is a long way from the tranquil hills of Tennessee to the war-torn streets of Nigeria, Darfur or Sri Lanka, but that path is the one chosen by surgeon Dr. Thomas Krueger. Dr. Krueger served overseas on four missions with Doctors Without Borders, the international medical organization, and has plans to go abroad again. He is also featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary on the organization, Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders. In this discussion with the Second Opinion Live hosts, Dr. Krueger speaks about what he learned, how he helped, and why this service was important for him to perform.

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA

Guest: Kevin Chung, MD

Guest: Charles Thompson, PA-C, RN

The U.S. Army Burn Center at Brooke Army Medical Center, Ft. Sam Houston Texas, is one of the five busiest burn units in the country. These patients are out of the ordinary. They are military men and women who have been burned over at least 20 percent of their body while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Kevin Chung an intensivist at the unit and PA Charles Thompson join host Lisa Dandrea Lenell to talk about the process of moving patients from the battlefield to the burn unit, how burn wounds are treated and the emotional toll that it takes on the medical professionals treating these patients.

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA

Guest: Kevin Chung, MD

Guest: Charles Thompson, PA-C, RN

It takes a team of specialists, social workers, PAs, nurses and therapists to care for the burn patients at the US Army Burn Unit in Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Every day more than 30 medical professionals make rounds checking on the critically injured at the unit. Dr. Kevin Chung, intensivist at the burn center, and PA Charles Thompson explain to host Lisa Dandrea Lenell the mutli-disciplinary team approach that is used to treat more than 500 patients a year.

Host: Steven Edelman, MD

Guest: Irl Hirsch, MD, MACP

Lowering blood sugar levels in critically ill patients is a widely embraced practice. But according to the results of the NICE-SUGAR study, lowering blood glucose levels in ICU patients may not be safe. Join host Dr. Steven Edelman and his guest, Dr. Irl Hirsch, professor of medicine and the Diabetes Treatment and Teaching chair at the University of Washington in Seattle, as they discuss the results of the NICE-SUGAR study and its implications for treating critically ill patients.

Host: Charles Turck, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP

Guest: Nancy Toedter Williams, PharmD

For patients who are unable to receive nutrition or medications orally, enteral feeding tubes offer one alternative method of delivery. Successful administration through a feeding tube requires awareness of potential problems with drug efficacy, adverse symptoms or a clogged tube. Dr. Nancy Toedter Williams, associate professor of pharmacy practice at Southwestern Oklahoma State University College of Pharmacy, talks with host Dr. Charles Turck about the key considerations when administering medications through a feeding apparatus.