Clinician's Roundtable

Host: Lee Freedman, MD Guest: Dana King, MD The cardiovascular benefits of moderate alcohol consumption have been studied with positive results in the alcohol consuming population. But what about non-drinkers? Should we be recommending a drink or two a day to our patients currently abstaining from alcohol? Dr. Dana King, Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, speaks with your host, Dr. Lee Freedman, regarding the surprising results of a study published in the American Journal of Medicine exploring the benefits of initiating alcohol consumption in middle age.

Host: Susan Dolan, RN, JD Guest: Harlon Wilson, MS Guest: Jack Ditslear, MD Harlon Wilson is the President and CEO of Medical Animatics. Dr. Jack Ditslear is a bariatric surgeon. During this segment hear Mr. Wilson and Dr. Ditslear discuss how physicians are using new animated informed consent technology for bariatric surgery.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD Guest: Vikram Patel, PhD Dr. Vikram Patel, professor of international mental health and the Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, discusses a community model in developing countries that empowers patients with mental illness to use collaborative psychosocial intervention. In India, where there are 3,000 psychiatrists for 1 billion people, technicians can be trained to diagnose and treat depression and anxiety with cost-effective results. Hosted by Dr. Maurice Pickard.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD Guest: Vikram Patel, PhD People with mental illness face enormous physical and social adversities on a daily basis. In developing countries, this issue becomes all the more prominent due to poor access to effective treatment. Because mental illness often begins to manifest earlier in life, efforts are ongoing across the globe to better integrate mental health with child and adolescent care. Dr. Vikram Patel, professor of international mental health and the Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, speaks to the importance of addressing mental illness in developing countries.

Host: Shira Johnson, MD Guest: Mark Merchant, PhD Surely the first question you’re asking yourself is, how does one extract blood from an alligator? Mark Merchant, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry at McNeese State University, is one researcher brave enough to tackle this arduous task. Exactly why would Dr. Merchant go this far to get ahold of alligator serum? The answer, indeed, lies in its potentially unique medicinal value. Host Dr. Shira Johnson finds out what features of alligator serum may make it a strong candidate for future use in the clinical setting. The answer may surprise you.

Host: Shira Johnson, MD Guest: Mark Merchant, PhD Dr. Shira Johnson interviews Dr. Mark Merchant on his recent research into the immunity of alligators in their natural habitat. Listen to learn what the implications are for future work with topical products in burn research and more. Why is alligator serum effective against HIV in vitro and is there a take home message for human research in all of this work?

Host: Matthew J. Sorrentino, MD, FACC, FASH Guest: Rick Stouffer, MD Hemodynamic measurements are a crucial component of diagnosing patients with aortic stenosis and evaluating their need for valve replacement surgery. Dr. Rick Stouffer, Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, underscores the value of hemodynamics in managing aortic stenosis, distinguishing critical disease from low-gradient or pseudo-aortic stenosis and cardiac dysfunction.

Host: Matthew J. Sorrentino, MD, FACC, FASH Guest: Rick Stouffer, MD Dr. Rick Stouffer and his collegues at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill have written a book entitled “Cardiovascular Hemodynamics for the Clinician” about using hemodynamic information for the diagnosis and management of cardiac disease. He will discuss the role of hemodynamics in assessing patients in both the cardiac catheterization laboratory and the intensive care unit.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Randal Mills, PhD 2008 was a watershed year for stem cell-based treatment, with the first product of this kind going before an FDA review for approval. Learn more from Randal Mills, PhD, chief executive officer of Osiris Therapeutics, as he unveils details of his company’s stem cell-based medicine with host Bruce Japsen. How might the submission of this medicine for FDA approval start us down the path toward an array of stem cell products?

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Randal Mills, PhD While politicians debate whether there should be federal funding of embryonic stem cells, they might be over-looking a key point: the fact that all of the momentum in stem cell research is not in cells derived from human embryos at all. Randal Mills, the chief executive officer of Osiris Therapeutics tells the Chicago Tribune's Bruce Japsen about how all of the major clinical research in the U.S. is in adult stem cells.