Clinician's Roundtable

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Eric Whitaker, MD An initiative sprouting on the South Side of Chicago that was once led by First Lady Michelle Obama aims to become a national model for re-educating communities on everything from appropriate emergency department usage to outpatient care and healthy life choices. Dr. Eric Whitaker, executive vice president of strategic affiliations and associate dean of community-based research at the University of Chicago Medical Center, tells host Bruce Japsen about the Urban Health Initiative and what it aims to achieve.

Host: Michael Greenberg, MD Guest: Susan Bachrach, PhD Guest: Richard Hirschhaut Physicians and scientists played an integral role in implementing the racial eugenics program in Nazi Germany, which culminated in the murder of six million European Jews. How can a better understanding of physician involvement in what ultimately led to the Holocaust help us frame issues being debated in medicine today? Susan Bachrach, curator of special exhibitions at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and Richard Hirschhaut, executive director of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Illinois, discuss the ideas behind the traveling exhibit, Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race. How did the idea of eugenics originate, and eventually turn into the racial eugenic ideas of the Nazis? How do we define science and pseudo-science, in the context of the roots of the Holocaust? Hosted by Dr. Michael Greenberg.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: John Adams, PhD Health insurance companies are pushing physician ratings to steer more patients to what they see as less expensive but higher quality medical care. But doctors are finding these new measurements aren't always accurate. John Adams, a senior statistician at RAND Health in the Statistical Research and Consulting Group, tells host Bruce Japsen how doctor ratings are being used, their limitations, and their potetial impact as future quality measures.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: George Korch, PhD The federal government has acknowledged the United States needs to overhaul its effort to develop better measures to counter pandemic flus and bioterrorist threats. So with nearly $2 billion committed, Dr. George Korch, secretary of preparedness and response at the US Department of Health and Human Services, tells host Bruce Japsen about how this new initiative should improve the system of developing and manufacturing drugs and vaccines to prepare for public health crises.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Karen DeSalvo, MD Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the horrific memories of disaster and devastation remain, but the healthcare system has created a legacy of resilience for the city's safety net and a potential national model beyond the primary care medical home. Dr. Karen DeSalvo, professor of medicine at the Tulane School of Medicine and a leader in the health system's post-Katrina recovery, tells host Bruce Japsen about the new community-based effort that has since been created to improve medical care delivery in New Orleans.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD Guest: Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH One of the most horrific disasters in modern history, the Holocaust, is being illuminated through a lens that is of particular interest to medical professionals, through a traveling exhibit called Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race. Nazism's roots in biology and genetics interlinked medical professionals with its advocacy of a eugenic program that ultimately led to the murder of European Jews in the Holocaust. What ethical lessons can we learn from examining physician involvement with the Nazi regime and what they called "racial hygiene for the greater good"? Dr. Matthew Wynia, director of the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association, stresses the importance for all medical professionals of understanding the role physicians played in implementing Nazi racial eugenics, and frames the ethical issues in the historical context of the early 20th century. How did German physicians succumb to the pseudo-science that formed the basis of Nazi racial eugenics, and what lessons can we learn from this? How did one of the worldwide leaders in the medical community fall from the forefront of medicine to orchestrate some of the worst crimes the world has ever seen? Hosted by Dr. Maurice Pickard.

Host: Michael Greenberg, MD Guest: Rebecca Thomley, PhD Five years after Katrina, some mental health issues linger. Dr. Michael Greenberg talks with Rebecca Thomley, a psychologist and CEO of Orion Associates, based in Minneapolis, about the mental health situtation in New Orleans and her group's walk-in mental health clinic in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, opened post-Katrina.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Angela Gardner, MD As healthcare reforms take place, changes are also in the offing in the emergency department amid demands that EDs be able to turn attention from treatment of routine conditions to disasters and other true emergencies. Dr. Angela Gardner, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, tells host Bruce Japsen about tomorrow's needs for the emergency department, which will have a greater role as health reform is implemented and patients seek primary care.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD Guest: Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH Long after the clean-up process from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is complete along the Gulf of Mexico, we'll still be examining the health effects of this catastrophe. While there is a wealth of information on the health effects of specific contaminants, the effects are less known regarding mixtures of contaminants. What are some of the immediate and potential long-term health risks (both mental and physical) of this disaster? Dr. Maureen Lichtveld, professor and chair of the department of environmental health sciences at the Tulane University, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana, discusses the role of physicians in this type of public health disaster. How are we identifying the populations most at risk of experiencing health effects from the oil spill, and what are some of the most effective risk communication strategies for these populations? What types of surveillance methods are being used? What can we learn from this disaster to be more prepared for the next? Dr. Maurice Pickard hosts.

Host: Bruce Japsen Guest: Patrick Hagan As doctors and hospitals enter an era of healthcare that will demand high quality at a competitive price, factory-style efficiency is an answer that's working, at Seattle Children's Hospital. The hospital's president, Patrick Hagan, tells host Bruce Japsen about how doctors and hospitals can replicate the kind of factory efficiency used at companies like Toyota and Boeing to improve medical care service for their patients, and perhaps even boost their productivity and profits.