Clinician's Roundtable

Guest: Ruben Toral Host Dr. Larry Kaskel speaks with Ruben Toral, a recognized leader in medical tourism and healthcare globalization, at the Healthcare Globalization Summit in Las Vegas. What surprises will patients typically encounter when they explore their healthcare options abroad? Can the American healthcare system learn from the presentation of medical care around the world? Mr. Toral examines issues of quality, access, price and service in medical care overseas.

Host: Larry Kaskel, MD Guest: Todd Park Todd Park, cofounder and Chief Athenista at AthenaHealth, one of the fastest growing web-based practice management and electronic medical record companies, joined host Larry Kaskel at the Health Summit in Las Vegas. Todd discussed his vision of the future medical landscape. Join us to find out how companies like AthenaHealth try to help doctors master the ever growing changes that they must face.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD Guest: Benjamin Hippen, MD Dr. Benjamin Hippen speaks about the Iranian system that allows an individual's kidney to be sold by the donor, whom we can also think of as the vendor. Examination has shown that the recipients are on a level playing field and there is no tourism or fraud. The responsibility for recruiting potential vendors becomes separated from the responsibility for approving the vendor's medical and surgical candidacy. But moral concerns in the US may have to be resolved in the future by a hybrid system that combines features of both systems.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD Guest: Benjamin Hippen, MD Dr. Benjamin Hippen reviews the kidney transplantation policy failure in the United States. The cost is now 21 billion dollars in Medicare commitment to end-stage renal disease and 50 percent of those on the transplant waiting list will likely die before receiving an organ. This situation is getting worse by the day. Iran is the only country in the world that has no organ shortage. Is their system of legal organ "vending" worth examining?

Host: Bruce Bloom, DDS, JD Guest: Walter Stadler, MD Targeted and Individualized Therapies for Cancer. Where are we? What's on the horizon? Associate Dean of Clinical Research, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Genitourinary program at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Dr. Walter Stadler, cites the majority of patients struggling with the side effects - while grasping for the benefits - of cancer therapy as a necessity for individualized therapy. Dr. Stadler and Dr. Bloom discuss individualized treatment as a reality via biomarker identification, and management of cancer heterogeneity of various cancers within the same patient.

Host: Bruce Bloom, DDS, JD Guest: Walter Stadler, MD In 1971 Dr. Judah Folkman announced to the world that angiogenesis would be the Achilles heel of cancer-what's happened in the last 35 years? Dr. Walter M. Stadler, professor of medicine, director of Genitourinary Program, and associate dean of Clinical Research at the University of Chicago Medical Center joins host Dr. Bruce Bloom to fast forward from that early discovery to the current cutting edge uses for Avastin and other anti-angiogenics in cancer, including successes and shortcomings of this class of drugs in treating both solid tumors and blood cancers .

Host: Bruce Bloom, DDS, JD Guest: Walter Stadler, MD Associate Dean of Clinical Research, and professor of medicine and director of the genitourinary program at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Dr. Walter Stadler discusses his role in oversight of clinical research with your host, Dr. Bruce Bloom.

Host: Bruce Bloom, DDS, JD Guest: Walter Stadler, MD Host Dr. Bruce Bloom welcomes Dr. Walter Stadler, professor of medicine and director of the genitourinary program at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. We are still working toward a highly effective treatment for hormone refractory prostate cancer. Could a paradoxical treatment with high-dose testosterone hold the key to a cure? Dr. Stadler details current clinical research on this somewhat controversial topic.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Jeffrey Aronin, MBA At a time drug companies are looking for new answers when it comes to developing new products and having a difficult time, the pharmaceutical industry may be on the verge of a different tact: turning to physcians and their advocacy organizations. Jeffrey Aronin, president and CEO of Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc. tells the Chicago Tribune's Bruce Japsen about how his company has been getting some of its best ideas for drug development from doctors practicing in the field.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Jeffrey Aronin, MBA It seems most drug-makers are making their biggest sales to doctors by pushing medicines for common conditions whether they be statins for cholesterol or proton pump inhibitors for heartburn. But drugs can actually take on blockbuster significance for specialized treatment groups where treatment options are limited. Jeffrey Aronin, president and CEO of Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc. tells the Chicago Tribune's Bruce Japsen about his company's efforts to build blockbuster franchises by treating rare conditions.