Clinician's Roundtable

Host: Larry Kaskel, MD Guest: Carol Southard, RN Dr. Larry Kaskel is discusses each of the various smoking cessation options available with Carol Southard, RN, MSN, and an American Lung Association certified instructor with over 20 years experience and proven success. Carol serves as the Tobacco Cessation Consultant for Chicago area hospitals. You'll learn the pros and cons of the name brand drugs and treatments.

Host: Larry Kaskel, MD Guest: Carol Southard, RN Dr. Larry Kaskel is joined by Carol Southard, RN, MSN, and an American Lung Association certified instructor with over 20 years experience and proven success and Tobacco Cessation Consultant for Chicago area hospitals. She will go over what works and what doesn't work and why.

Host: Paul Raeburn Guest: Charles Bennett, MD The FDA is supposed to monitor adverse drug reactions after drugs are approved and put on the market. It collects information in a huge database to try to spot problems. But a handful of researchers tucked away in a university are using a completely different approach--and spotting problems years before the FDA could. Find out how these medical detectives do it.

Host: Paul Raeburn Guest: Gordon Guyatt, MD Everyone has an opinion about the Canadian healthcare system--whether it's a good idea, a travesty, or something in between. But how good is it, really? A comprehensive study looks at healthcare outcomes in Canada and the U.S.--and the findings will surprise you.

Host: Paul Raeburn Guest: Trudy Lieberman The bill that created the Medicare drug plan had another clause that few people noticed. It sets up a demonstration to test privatizing all of Medicare. Is this the first step toward privatizing all of Medicare?

Physicians know all too well how the United States struggles control the costs and increase access of our Health Care System. Individual states are taking matters into their own hands and changing their health care systems. What are they doing, and how will it impact physicians and their patients? Gov. Lamm discusses the different health care systems in two states, and its impact on the physicians and patients.

How will changes in US Healthcare Public Policy affect the clinical practice of medicine? Big changes are on the horizon-will physicians have a part in the dialogue?

Physicians ask, “What do I need to do right now for this specific patient today to maintain health.” Public Policy advocates ask, “What do we need to do in the future to ensure the health of our society.” How do we reconcile these different viewpoints to become a healthier nation?

In his book, The Brave New World of Health Care, former Colorado Gov. Richard D. Lamm discusses the good the bad and the future of the current US Health Care System: the brilliance of our doctors, the quality of our delivery systems and the promise of our technological advancements versus the disparity in treatment between the rich and poor, the lack of cost containment and other control mechanisms and our ability to sustain our healthcare future.

Host: Larry Kaskel, MD Guest: Jeff Feldman, MBA Dr. Larry Kaskel welcomes Jeff Feldman, founder and chairman of XShares Group, LLC, a financial services company based in New York. He discusses his firm's HealthShares series of exchange traded funds.