Surgery

Host: Shira Johnson, MD

Physicians spend their entire careers striving to heal sick patients. But when these care providers become patients themselves, the abrupt reversal of roles can make for difficult adjustments.

Host Dr. Shira Johnson sits down with Dr. John Mulligan, VP for Emergency Room Physicians Medical Group and a practicing emergency physician, to share his experience, takeaways, and advice for transitioning from doctor to patient.

Host: Rebecca Kaplan

Guest: Michael E. Kwiatt, MD

When should surgery be considered as a treatment option for patients with Crohn’s or colitis? Host Rebecca Kaplan of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation is joined by Dr. Michael Kwiatt, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Cooper University Hospital in New Jersey, to discuss when to consider surgery. Additionally, he will touch on the common surgical complications and differences in surgical approach for patients with respective diseases.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Harold Mondschein

The surgical field is always being improved by cutting edge technology, but the processes used to connect surgical centers to hospitals lack innovation. Dr. Matt Birnholz sits down with Harold Mondschein, CEO and Co-Founder of Medtel Inc. to discuss methods of improving surgical outcomes by capturing structured data. Through better analytics, healthcare providers can better coordinate surgical care while reducing costs and inefficiencies.

Vedolizumab as Induction and Maintenance Therapy for Crohn's Disease in Patients Naïve to or Who Have Failed Tumor Necrosis Factor Antagonist Therapy.

Sands BE1, Sandborn WJ, Van Assche G, Lukas M, Xu J, James A, Abhyankar B, Lasch K.

BACKGROUND:

Vedolizumab is a gut-selective α4β7 integrin antagonist for the treatment of moderately to severely active Crohn's disease (CD). Aims of this study were to characterize the efficacy and safety of vedolizumab induction and maintenance therapy in patients who were naïve to tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonist therapy (TNF-naïve) or who had discontinued TNF-α antagonist therapy because of inadequate response (i.e., primary nonresponse), loss of response, or intolerance (collectively classified as the TNF-failure population).

METHODS:

Post hoc analyses of the efficacy data for 516 TNF-naïve and 960 TNF-failure patients from the GEMINI 2 and GEMINI 3 trials were evaluated at weeks 6, 10, and 52 and included clinical remission (CD Activity Index [CDAI] score ≤150), enhanced clinical response (≥100-point decrease from baseline in CDAI score), durable clinical remission (remission at ≥80% of visits), and corticosteroid-free remission. Adverse events were summarized for the TNF-naïve and TNF-failure subgroups by treatment received.

RESULTS:

Among patients who responded to vedolizumab induction at week 6, 48.9% …

Host: Lea Ann Chen, MD

Guest: Miguel Regueiro, MD, AGAF

Recorded on location at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s Annual Meeting in Orlando, host Dr. Lea Ann Chen, Assistant Professor of Medicine at New York University, discusses surgical indications for the IBD patient with Dr. Miguel Regueiro, Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

Host: Caren Heller, MD

Guest: Adam S. Cheifetz, MD

Severe ulcerative colitis continues to cause frequent medical emergencies requiring hospitalization for optimal management. Host Dr. Caren Heller, Chief Scientific Officer at the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, discusses several medical rescue therapies for severe ulcerative colitis in the hospital setting with Dr. Adam Cheifetz, Associate Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Host: Andrew Wilner, MD, FACP, FAAN

Guest: Steven Neal, MD

Dr. Andrew Wilner chats with Dr. Steven Neal, board certified ENT surgeon and Fellow of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Neal is a Clinical Instructor at the Oregon Health Science Center in Portland, OR, who also serves on the faculty of the Art of Rhinoplasty Course in San Francisco, CA. He teaches a seminar called "Aesthetics Boot Camp for Surgeons." and has taught hundreds of surgeons over the past 25 years to apply the "art" that must be combined with medical science to achieve optimal results with plastic surgery.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Patrick J. Connolly, MD

Back and neck pain is extremely common, with 80-90% of people experiencing some pain within their lifetime. About 90% of cases resolve within six weeks, but for those patients whose pain persists, questions arise as to who should be referred next for further consultation. While patients often see a spine specialist at first, the care journey sometimes leads to a neurosurgeon or orthopaedic spine surgeon. Can this pathway from primary care to neurosurgery or orthopaedic surgery ever be expedited?

Dr. Patrick Connolly, neurosurgeon at Penn Medicine joins host Dr. Matt Birnholz to discuss when primary care physicians should consider referring patients to neurosurgeons for neck and back pain. Dr. Connolly will also discuss the different types of surgical options for patients seeking prolonged back and neck pain relief.

Host: John Russell, MD

Guest: Amy Mackey, MD

Hosts Dr. John Russell and Dr. Amy Mackey sit down to reflect on their individual and shared experiences participating in medical missions from their respective vantage points of family medicine and obstetrics & gynecology.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Taine Pechet, MD

Dr. Taine Pechet, chief of surgery at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and associate professor of clinical surgery at Penn Medicine joins host Dr. Matt Birnholz to discuss his thoughts on who should be regularly screen for lung cancer and the various diagnostic techniques from his perspective as a thoracic surgeon. Dr. Pechet also discusses the surgical outcomes for these patient and his thoughts on what is on the horizon for the lung cancer field.