General Medicine and Primary Care

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD

Guest: Elaine Birchall

Although hoarding was only recently added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, understanding what exactly this disorder it and how it impacts approximately 21 million Americans is essential. So to help shed light on this often-overlooked disorder, Dr. Maurice Pickard is joined by Elaine Birchall, co-author of Conquering the Clutter: Strategies to Identify, Management, and Overcome Hoarding.

Host: Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D.

Critical medicine shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for drugs required to support patients on mechanical ventilation, is the focus of this episode of The Drug Report. Pharmacist Dr. Linda Bernstein describes the urgent appeals made by major healthcare organizations, related reports highlighting the serious impact of these shortages on fill rates for critical medicines, and progress being made at the federal level to remedy the situation.

Published April 21, 2020

Host: John Russell, MD

The practice of quarantining ill patients goes back much further than you may realize. Tune in as Dr. John Russell walks us through the history of quarantines going all the way back to the year 1200.

Published April 21, 2020

Host: Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D.

Join pharmacist Dr. Linda Bernstein as she outlines the United States Health and Human Services’ authorization of licensed pharmacists to order and administer FDA-approved COVID-19 tests as well as the priority patient testing categories as set forth by the U.S. Public Health Service.

Published April 21, 2020

Host: John Russell, MD

Throughout history, diseases have acquired names from geographical landmarks, the name of the organism, the anatomy impacted, and even the media. But some naming conventions have resulted in negative consequences, which is why the World Health Organization established best practices for naming novel diseases in 2015.

Here to walk us through those guidelines and to give us a brief history of how some well-known diseases—including the COVID-19 pandemic the world is currently facing—gained their name is Dr. John Russell.

Published April 21, 2020

Host: Paul Doghramji, MD

Guest: Maria Escolar, MD, MS

Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a rare genetic disorder that when left untreated, can have severe and even fatal consequences. Here to review the available treatment options for these patients is Dr. Maria Escolar, the Director of the Program for the Study of Neurodevelopment in Rare Disorders and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Host: Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D.

The Centers for Disease Control provided a guidance for pharmacy staff to minimize their risk of exposure to the COVID-19 virus and reduce customer risk during the pandemic. Pharmacist Dr. Linda Bernstein presents highlights of the guidance that offers recommendations on ways to minimize viral exposure when medication dispensing along with methods to minimize patient-to-patient contact.

Published on April 17, 2020

Host: Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D.

Pharmacist Dr. Linda Bernstein highlights the key points of a New England Journal of Medicine article that given the available evidence, the authors and multiple specialty medical societies believe that—despite theoretical concerns and uncertainty pertaining to the effect of RAAS inhibitors on ACE2 and its potential relationship to COVID-19 severity—RAAS inhibitors should be continued in patients who are otherwise in stable condition who are at risk for or are being evaluated for COVID-19. Abrupt withdrawal of RAAS inhibitors in high-risk patients, including those who have heart failure or have had myocardial infarction, may result in clinical instability and adverse health outcomes.

Published April 17, 2020

Host: Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D.

The American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists (ASHP) recently published recommendations for prescribers, pharmacists and patients when considering the proper use of experimental treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inappropriate prescribing of experimental treatments “just in case” or for patients not at high risk of severe illness may lead to insufficient supplies of critical medicines that are needed to treat other patients who depend on these medicines.

Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D., reports on this important guidance designed to limit drug shortages and the worsening of existing shortages that can occur when practitioners and patients stock up and hoard their medication supplies.

Published April X, 2020

Host: Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners recently announced it was launching an international clinical trial with the goal of generating significant worldwide data from thousands of patients to find the most effective treatments for COVID-19. Pharmacist Dr. Linda Bernstein brings you an update on the WHO SOLIDARITY trial, which will offer clinicians simplified procedures to enable even overloaded hospitals to participate.

Published April 17, 2020