Clinician's Roundtable

Guest: Ruth Ballweg, PA-C Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA 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.

Guest: Kenneth Thorpe, PhD Host: Bruce Japsen 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.

Guest: Kevin Chung, MD Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA 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.

Guest: Kevin Chung, MD Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA 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.

Guest: Barry Marshall, MBBS Host: Mary Leuchars, MD 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.

Guest: Barry Marshall, MBBS Host: Mary Leuchars, MD 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.

Guest: Randy Danielsen, PhD, PA-C Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA 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.

Guest: Ruth Ballweg, PA-C Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA 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.

Guest: Lawrence Hurst, MD Host: Lee Freedman, 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.

Guest: Jenni Hunter Host: Bruce Japsen 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.