General Medicine and Primary Care

Host: Renée Simone Yolanda Allen, MD, MHSc., FACOG

Mid-level providers such as nurse practitioners help fill gaps in health care coverage across the country. Yet while NPs have the ability to work independently in a variety of ways including administering treatments, providing consultations, and authorizing use of medical equipment, several practice barriers impede their efforts to provide highest quality care.

Host Dr. Renee Allen chats with Patrick Washington, a board-certified nurse practitioner in Family Medicine, about the roles NPs play in the healthcare industry and ways to overcome practice obstacles in the era of health care reform.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

In a survey released by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), nearly half of men reported that their health was "good" or "excellent." This marked a dramatic increase in health perceptions from men over the past decade, despite the fact that more men now live with chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes than ever before. What does this discrepancy between perceptions and realities tell us about the state of health care for men in America?

Joining Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss special considerations and primary care priorities for men is Dr. John Meigs, practicing generalist and President-Elect of the AAFP.

Host: Shira Johnson, MD

Opiate addiction is rapidly becoming one of the biggest health crises in the United States today. Opiates have killed more than 28,000 people in 2014 and opioid deaths outnumber motor vehicle accidents and gunshot fatalities.

Dr. Shira Johnson talks with Dr. Kenji Oyasu, the Executive Medical Director for Brightside Clinic in Northbrook, Illinois. They discuss common misconceptions about medically-assisted treatments for opiate addiction.

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO

Addictions to opioids have soared since the 1990's. It's now estimated that as many as 36 million people worldwide abuse opiods. The medical community not only assumes the heavy responsibility of confronting this epidemic in clinical practice, but also shoulders a significant amount of blame from the general public for overprescribing opioid medications. Where should clinicians on the front lines of care start to address both the clinical priorities and the encumbent social responsibilities of opioid abuse?

Dr. Anita Gupta, Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the Division of Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology at Drexel University School of Medicine, joins Dr. Jennifer Caudle to discuss the call to action for safer pain management in this era of prescription drug abuse.

Host: John Russell, MD

Have you ever wondered what that 1 outlier would say when you see commercials and products boasting that 9 out of 10 doctors recommend something? Dr. H. Eric Bender, co-author of the book 1 Out of 10 Doctors Recommends: Drinking Urine, Eating Worms, and Other Weird Cures, Cases, and Research from the Annals of Medicine, provides real answers that you wouldn't have even thought possible.

Entertaining and informative (and sometimes just plain gross), 1 Out of 10 Doctors Recommends examines the strangest and most unusual medical practices, including: drinking your own urine to fight infection, using live eels to relieve constipation, and licking a patient's head to diagnose Cystic Fibrosis.

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO

Mood tracking, a novel integration of technology with psychiatric care to track mental status changes over time, has the potential to fundamentally change how clinicians treat behavioral health disorders. Will smartphone apps become the vehicle for this technology to the wider masses?

Dr. Adam Kaplin, Principle Psychiatric Consultant to the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis and Transverse Myelitis Centers of Excellence, is the founder and inventor of Mood 24/7, a mobile app that allows people to record their mood daily and share this data with their health care providers to provide better accuracy in reporting mood symptoms. He joins Dr. Jennifer Caudle to discuss the emergence of mood tracking portals such as Mood 24/7 and the ways they can transform mental health care.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr. Charles Pollack, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Director of the Jefferson Institute of Emerging Health Professions at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine. Dr. Pollack's team recently formed the Center for Medical Cannabis Education & Research, tasked with providing expert-developed, unbiased information to clinicians and patients about the medical uses of marijuana and cannabinoid-focused therapies.

The two discuss current clinical recommendations for cannabis based on the available research, and where the benefits and risks collide amidst mass public interest.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

Egg freezing, also known as oocyte cryopreservation, has gained rapid popularity as patient populations have broadened. Once intended almost exclusively for cancer patients undergoing aggressive chemotherapy treatments, more and more healthy women are choosing this resource to expand their reproductive options later in life.

Dr. Lisa Ashe, internist and medical director for Be Well Medical Group in Alexandria, VA, speaks with Dr. Brian McDonough about her personal experience with egg freezing from three simultaneous vantage points: physician, patient, and minister.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

In the aftermath of mass violence, from September 11th to the Paris attack to the Orlando shooting, fear and confusion often dominate the public consciousness. Unfortunately, most clinicians are not trained in tactical medicine to respond in times of crisis such as these. But a small subset of survuval medicine experts are working to change this pattern.

Dr. Brian McDonough speaks with Dr. Joseph Alton, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of OB/GYN, and author of The Survival Medicine Handbook: A Guide for When Help is Not on the Way. The two discuss key survival and disaster response considerations for clinicians caught in violently dangerous situations.

[Read the Article]

According to a new study, eating a diet that includes more plant-based protein is associated with a lower risk of death, while eating more animal protein is associated with a higher risk of death, especially among adults with at least one unhealthy behavior such as smoking, drinking alcohol, being overweight or living a sedentary lifestyle.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital examined how each protein source influenced long-term health. They looked at more than 131,000 adults participating in two long-running national health studies. Participants provided 25 to 30 years of detailed data on diet, lifestyle, and medical conditions. Researchers reviewed detailed food questionnaires that were sent to the participants every four years.

They found that higher intake of animal protein was positively associated with mortality and that the association was higher among adults who lived an unhealthy lifestyle. Substituting plant protein for animal protein, especially processed red meat, was associated with lower mortality, suggesting the importance of protein source.

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