Clinician's Roundtable

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Ruth Ballweg, PA-C The rate of dental disease in Alaska is the highest in the United States. In order to combat the problem, Medex has started a dental therapy program in the area called DENTEX. Ruth Ballweg, director of the MEDEX Northwest program, discusses with host Lisa Dandrea Lenell how Medex became involved with dental care, the progress of the program and their plans to expand the DENTEX program into other states.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Kenneth Thorpe, PhD The medical home is a concept that it moving from the theoretical and becoming a reality. How has this model of team-based care been piloted in the United States, and how might it change patient care, as well as physician payment? Dr. Kenneth Thorpe, the Woodruff Professor and Chair of Health Policy and Management at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and former healthcare adviser to President Clinton, joins host Bruce Japsen to discuss these issues, and how the medical home concept is being built into the healthcare reform proposals.

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: Mary Leuchars, MD Guest: Barry Marshall, MBBS Nobel Prize winners are among the most honored individuals on Earth. Yet in the case of medicine or physiology, it's said that prize winners find more success cultivating quiet careers in basic science research composing solid litanies of publications than assuming roles of "celebrity experts." Dr. Barry J. Marshall, Australian physician and professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Western Australia, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005 for the discovery of H. pylori's role in gastric ulcer disease pathogenesis. He joins host Dr. Mary Leuchars to provide his own "How To" guide for a Nobel Prize-winning career track.

Host: Mary Leuchars, MD Guest: Barry Marshall, MBBS After failed attempts to infect piglets with H.pylori in 1984, Dr. Barry Marshall decided to use himself as an animal model and drank from a petri dish cultured with the bacteria. His resultant development of gastritis, and the subsequent discovery of H.pylori's role in gastric ulcer disease pathogenesis, led to a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005. On this program, Dr. Marshal shares his personal story of discovery with host Dr. Mary Leuchars.

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Randy Danielsen, PhD, PA-C The National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) will launch their specialty certification program, beginning with five specialties, in 2011. What does a PA who may want to get certifiedneed to know? Dr. Randy Danielsen, dean of Arizona School of Health Sciences at A.T. Still University in Mesa, Arizona, joins host Lisa Dandrea Lenell to talk about why it's the right time for certification in the PA field as well as the myths and fears surrounding these new changes.

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Ruth Ballweg, PA-C When PAs meet other PAs from across the country, they often ask each other, Are you a Duke-trained PA or a MEDEX PA? This question comes from the early days of the profession when a difference in training depended on whether you lived on the east coast or the west coast of the United States. Ruth Ballweg, director of the MEDEX Northwest Physician Assistant Program at the University of Washington School of Medicine, joins host Lisa Dandrea Lenell to discuss the history of the MEDEX program and what this model offers to PA students.

Host: Lee Freedman, MD Guest: Lawrence Hurst, MD Dupuytren's disease can cause severe joint contracture in the hands, and surgery is often recommended for these patients most affected by the condition. But Dr. Lawrence Hurst, professor, chairman and chief of the division of hand surgery in the department of orthopaedics at Stony Brook School of Medicine Health Sciences Center, tells us about another new, non-surgical option that may soon be available for treating Dupuytren's contracture, using injectable collagenase. What types of patients are most susceptible to developing this condition? Dr. Lee Freedman hosts.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Jenni Hunter The field of temporary workers has become commonplace to satisfy shortages of nurses and fill gaps to ensure health care delivery. Doctors too — and particularly primary care physicians — are increasingly going locum tenens. The numbers may surprise you. Jenni Hunter, divisional vice president of Staff Care, tells host Bruce Japsen about how physician staffing is no longer just temporary but a career choice for more of the nation's physicians.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Jeff Belkora, PhD Informed decision-making involves helping patients arrive at the questions that can ultimately help their doctors deliver the best possible medical care. Jeff Belkora, director of Decision Services at the University of California San Francisco Breast Care Center, a demonstration program of the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making, tells host Bruce Japsen about ways to put more information and choices into patients' hands and the possible benefits of doing so to physicians and patient care.

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Tom Zampieri, PhD, PA-C The Department of Veterans Affairs is the single largest employer of PAs in the United States. With 1,600 PAs in the VA workforce, the PA leadership is only a part time field position. Dr. Tom Zampieri, director of government relations for the Blinded Veterans Association, joins host Lisa D'Andrea Lenell to talk about the possibility of a full-time director in the VA central office.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Wendell Potter Once an insider in the health insurance industry crafting messages in a battle against health reform, he's now telling secrets in hopes of affecting change. Wendell Potter, a former public relations executive for health insurance giants Humana and Cigna, warns about industry practices he says short-changed doctors and their patients and boosted health plan profits.

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Ian Jones, PA-C, MPAS Physician assistants have been practicing in Manitoba, Canada, for only the past 10 years. With a shortage of physicians across the country, the need for PAs is more crucial than ever. Ian Jones, president of the Canadian Association of Physician Assistants, joins host Lisa D'Andrea Lenell to discuss the success of PAs within the Canadian medical system over such a short time frame, as well as the job openings available to American PAs just across the border.

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Reginald Carter, PhD, PA-C Where is the beginning of the physician assistant profession? Is it in the 1960's, in response to a growing a shortage of physicians? Or does it go back even earlier than that? Dr. Reginald Carter, founder of the PA History Center in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, joins host Lisa Dandrea Lenell to talk about the pioneers at the roots of the profession and why it's critical to preserve this history.

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Reginald Carter, PhD, PA-C Guest: Leila Ledbetter The physician assistant profession is rich in history. The PA History Center at the Duke University Medical Center in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, houses everything from oral histories of early PAs to photographs, personal papers and artifacts at the museum. Dr. Reggie Carter, founder of the PA History Center, and Leila Ledbetter, director and archivist at the Center, joins host Lisa Dandrea Lenell to discuss the importance of the museum to the PA profession and how you can experience it, even if you can't visit in person.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Vergil Slee, MD From the noise on talk shows about death panels that don't exist to acronyms like HMOs or PPOs, the healthcare industry often does not speak to consumers in plain language. How can doctors and other health professionals help the consumer, and should this be a part of health reform? Dr. Vergil Slee, emeritus fellow of the Estes Park Institute, founder of the Commission on Professional and Hospital Activities, and author of Slee's Health Care Terms, now in its fifth edition, tells host Bruce Japsen about the need for medical professionals to speak in plain language for the betterment of patient care.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Linda Blumberg An integral part of covering the nation's more than 46 million uninsured that has been discussed by President Barack Obama and key members of Congress in Washington is the so-called insurance exchange. So what is an insurance exchange, and exactly how would it work? Linda Blumberg, an economist and senior fellow in the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center, tells host Bruce Japsen about movements in states and the federal government to use insurance exchanges as a way to cover more Americans with health benefits.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Tom Dilenge There appears to be movement in the US to bring less expensive versions of biotech drugs to market. But the brand name drug industry wants these so-called biosimilars to adhere to rigorous safety and efficacy standards currently not built into US laws. Tom DiLenge, vice president and general counsel for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, tells host Bruce Japsen about a palatable pathway biotech companies would like to see approved by Congress to bring cheaper biotech drugs to the US market.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Sunil Hattangady, MBA, PhD The wireless movement is a part of more and more consumers' daily lives, from smart phones to laptops. Will this kind of technology soon be ubiquitous in the healthcare field as well? Sunil Hattangady, president of Emblaze Consulting, tells host Bruce Japsen about the coming wireless trends and applications in the healthcare.