Second Opinion LIVE!

Currently more than 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, a number that could triple by 2050 unless advances are made in early detection, treatments and prevention. Second Opinion Live hosts Dr. Michael Greenberg and Dr. Matt Birnholz discuss the many benefits for patients who receive an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, one of which is the ability to participate in a clinical trial, with guest Dr. Shellie Williams from The University of Chicago Medical Center and the Alzheimer's Association.

Our Second Opinion Live hosts also discuss the latest national survey on the state of American Health with Dr. Reed Tuckson from the United Health Foundation.

Broadcast Funding for this program was provided in part by the Alzheimer's Association and its free nation-wide Alzheimer's clinical trials matching service - TrialMatchTM.

Dr. Glenn Geelhoed is a marathoner, photographer, and big game hunter, who has been on over 200 international medical missions to developing countries, and helped broker peace between warring Sudanese tribes. He talks with Second Opinion Live hosts Dr. Michael Greenberg and Dr. Matthew Birnholz about what he has learned from his patients in the poorest parts of the world about doing more with fewer resources. Plus: medical oddities, and conflicting research on sodium.

Dr. Matt Birnholz hosts this program solo, as his co-host, Dr. Michael Greenberg, recovers from knee surgery. This week, Dr. Birnholz considers what the physician learns when he finds himself in the position of the patient. This week's program includes an interview with Dr. Alan Roberts, author of the memoir Hot Flashes in a Cold World: My Struggle to Be a Husband a Doctor and a Man in the Face of Prostate Cancer. Also: Dr. James Levine joins us to talk about his inactivity studies at the Mayo Clinic; plus, the Brain Observatory at UCSD, and more.

Pink ribbon campaigns have been highly successful in rallying recognition and funding around breast cancer. But our guest thinks the cheerful image of such campaigns whitewashes realities of the disease, both in terms of statistics and patient experiences. Plus: Warnings about the drug cocktail known as “bath salts,” and a novel innovation for biomarking GI ailments with color.

This rebroadcast of the March 30th program continues analysis of the health issues in Japan following that country’s magnitude 9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear crisis, with a focus on two key healthcare issues— radiation danger and mental health. Our guests include an American radiation epidemiolgist and psychiatric epidemiologist, and a psychiatrist working in Japan with the Japanese Society of Neurology and Psychiatry, the equivalent to the American Psychological Association.

This program was originally broadcast live on March 16, 2011, and focuses on putting into context the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent ever-changing nuclear crisis in Japan, from a healthcare perspective. Our guests discuss by phone the current medical needs, disaster management issues, and the Japanese healthcare system's readiness. Donations can be made to the relief effort through a variety of organizations, including the Japanese Medical Society of America, at www.jmsa.org.

Hosts Dr. Matt Birnholz and Dr. Michael Greenberg talk to Dr. Sanjiv Chopra, faculty dean of continuing medical education at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the book Doctor Chopra Says: Medical Facts & Myths Everyone Should Know, about medical research that changes so fast even physicians can't keep up. And, "Jeopardy!" contestant Ken Jennings said that he, for one, welcomed "our new computer overlords." What about a computer physician's assistant? Dr. Birnholz caught up with Dr. Herbert Chase, professor of clinical medicine in biomedical informatics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, who is teaching IBM's "Watson" computer how to help doctors. Plus: Bodily fluids in the news.

Second Opinion Live looks at the future of robotics in medicine, with Dr. Joseph Kim; the naming of famous murmurs; and the pioneering work of endoscopist Dr. Chevalier Jackson, the subject of author Mary Cappello's book Swallow: Foreign Bodies, Their Ingestion, Inspiration, and the Curious Doctor Who Extracted Them (The New Press, 2010).

Dr. Anthony Alessi reports from Haiti, making his fifth trip there to mark the one-year anniversary of the magnitude 7 earthquake that precipitated a massive humanitarian and health crisis in that already-beleagured country. Also, Robert Egee, vice president of public policy and advocacy at the Azheimer's Association, introduces the recently signed landmark National Alzheimer's Project Act. Gary Epstein sits in for the vacationing Dr. Michael Greenberg, alongside host Dr. Matthew Birnholz.

This week's guest is Dr. Anthony Atala, who oversees the world's largest lab devoted to bioengineering body parts, from inkjet-printed hearts to tiny livers, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He gives us an update from the cutting edge of medicine. Also, we get to the bottom line on how to protect your earnings in the coming tax year. And we talk with Dr. Marya Zilberberg about her recent article on The Healthcare Blog on medical testing and an approach toward a "less is more" philosophy of patient care.