Clinician's Roundtable

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 H...

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 th...

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...

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...

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.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Sumant Ramachandra, MD While drug makers and consumer groups lobby Congress and the Obama administration on the best way to bring cheaper versions of biotech drugs to market, a U.S. company is already doing so overseas. How does this work and what are the prospects for biogenerics in the U.S. Dr. Sumant Ramachandra, Chief Scientific Officer at Hospira Inc. tells host Bruc...

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Laurie Benton, PhD, PA-C, RN Guest: Charles Foulks, MD Sometimes two heads are better than one. That's the case when it comes to the PA/Physician team of Dr. Laurie Benton PA-C and her supervisor Dr. Charles Foulks. The two working together over the years have been able to slow the progression of kidney disease and keep their patients off dialysis....

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Stephen Hanson, PA-C The debate over healthcare reform is on the minds of all medical professsionals these days. What could be different for PAs if new legislation is enacted? How is the American Academy of Physician Assistants assuring that PAs are an essential part of the debate? How can you get involved to make sure your representatives in Congr...

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Gail Curtis, PA-C The research is yet to be written on the number of physician assistants that face substance abuse issues. Gail Curtis, an assistant professor of PA studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, joins host Lisa D'Andrea Lenell to discuss the reasons PAs may abuse controlled substances, how to get proper treatm...

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Rear Admiral Michael Milner, PA-C You may understand what PAs do in the five armed services of the military, but do you know about their role in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the largest public health program in the world? Rear Admiral Michael Milner joins host Lisa Dandrea Lenell to talk about the role of the Corps an...

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Bruce Crowther The hospital report card is a much talked-about effort to provide transparency about quality information. It's becoming a more important tool for consumers, just as President Obama and Congress prepare to initiate healthcare reforms that demand such information. Bruce Crowther is president and chief executive officer of Northwest Community Hospital in the C...

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Nancy Nowak As President Barack Obama travels the country talking about the need for health care reform, hardly a week goes by when you don't hear the Commander in Chief talk about Intermountain Healthcare and its low costs when compared to the rest of the country. What makes this this large healthcare system an example? Nancy Nowak, vice president of clinical operations...

Host: Bruce Bloom, DDS, JD Guest: David Pearce, PhD Mucopolysaccharidosis I, or MPS I, often presents initially as a child's failure to thrive, and is a diagnosis with devastating effects. How is new research able to help children with this lysosomal storage disorder? Host Dr. Bruce Bloom talks with Dr. David A. Pearce, director of the Sanford Children's Health Research Center in Sioux Falls, Sout...

Host: Bruce Bloom, DDS, JD Guest: David Pearce, PhD How is the immune system involved in lysosomal storage disorders, including juvenile Batten disease, Niemann-Pick type C disease and Krabbe disease? Host Dr. Bruce Bloom welcomes Dr. David A. Pearce, director of the Sanford Children's Health Research Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to discuss research into the immune response in these patien...

Host: Bruce Bloom, DDS, JD Guest: Gregory Pastores, MD What are the musculoskeletal signs and symptoms in children with MPS I? How can we test for MPS I? And how does the disease present in patients as they grow up? Dr. Gregory M. Pastores, associate professor of neurology and pediatrics at the New York University School of Medicine in New York, and director of the neurogenetics laboratory in the...

Host: Bruce Bloom, DDS, JD Guest: Emil Kakkis, MD, PhD Host Dr. Bruce Bloom welcomes Dr. Emil Kakkis, an advisor at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. and author of numerous published articles on mucopolysaccharidosis I, or MPS I, to discuss current treatment options. They discuss the benefits and risks of enzyme replacement therapy with laronidase. Don't miss these other programs on MPS I, with host Dr...

Host: Michael Greenberg, MD Guest: J. James Rohack, MD If you've been following the health care reform debate as closely as we have, you may be suffering from a case of whiplash, with so many proposals and so little time to wade through all the back-and forth on each of them. As Congress heads into its customary August recess, we'll take a step back to examine the issues that could make or break t...

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Alfred Casale, MD As President Barack Obama touts what is right and wrong with the nation's healthcare system, hardly a week goes by when you don't hear him or one of this surrogates mentioning Geisinger Health System. So what does Mr. Obama see in this large Pennsylvania based medical care provider? Dr. Alfred Casale, director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Geisinger Healt...

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Joseph Golbus, MD, MBA The economic stimulus package signed into law by President Barack Obama provides doctors money to get their offices set up for electronic medical records over the next few years. But there are actually a few health care systems ahead of the curve on electronic medical records with systems installed and benefits being realized. Host Bruce Japsen talk...

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Sharon Treat, Ms. More and more states, and even the federal government, are moving to ban drug industry gift-giving practices. So how is this legislation working, and what does it mean for physicians and their patients? Sharon Anglin Treat, executive director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices, tells host Bruce Japsen about states moving...

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Stan Roberts Federal law mandates that commercial truck drivers pass a medical exam in order to stay behind the wheel. Physician assistants have been authorized by the Department of Transportation to conduct these exams since 1992. But stricter certification recommendations proposed by an advisory board to the government may change the role of the...

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Chip Phillips Retail health clinics, looking to expand their services, are going beyond care of routine maladies to physicals, injections of specialized drugs and management of chronic conditions. Chip Phillips, president of Minute Clinic, a subsidiary of CVS Caremark Corp., tells host Bruce Japsen about what physicians and their patients should expect from this new push...

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Robin Hunter Buskey, PA-C Physician assistants are often a vital part of the team delivering medical care to prison inmates. Robin Hunter Buskey, the 2009 PA of the Year and a senior clinical PA at the Butner Federal Corrections Complex in Butner, North Carolina, joins host Lisa D'Andrea Lenell to discuss how working in a federal prison differs fro...

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: George Collins, PA-C The opportunities for physician assistants in their practices are evolving. In practices all around the country PAs are not only seeing patients they are helping to run the offices and manage employees. PA George Collins chief physician assistant and PA director for Orthocarolina in Charlotte, North Carolina, joins host, Lisa D...

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Ken Aldrich Expanded guidelines for stem cell research have favored federal financing for embryonic stem cell development. But some researchers in the field are looking beyond embryonic stem cells. Ken Aldrich, chief executive officer and co-founder of International Stem Cell Corporation, tells host Bruce Japsen about pluripotent stem cell research, not yet eligible for f...