Wasting time on the "Well-check" - Jeffrey Linder, MD, MPH

Jeffrey Linder, MD, MPH

We are told by everyone to value our health and get ourselves checked out once a year. The annual “well-visit” typically includes getting your blood pressure and other vitals taken, blood drawn about a week before or so, and recommendations to have screenings such as colonoscopies done. These have become a staple and are what most primary care doctors are known for. However, are they really necessary? Dr. Jeffrey Linder is a professor and physician at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine who has data saying they might not be.

In this episode, we dive into the annual “well-visit” with Dr. Linder and discuss whether or not individuals should be going to them. Originally discussed on a JAMA clinical review podcast, we discuss the useful parts, the not so useful parts, and the real utility of the annual check up. Furthermore, we discuss the role of primary care within healthcare as a whole and how the pandemic affected medicine. For details on the research conducted by Dr. Linder, check out the following links below!

Episode Links:

Show Notes

(1:00 – 4:30) – Introductions

Question 1: Tell us a little bit about yourself, your journey through medicine, and why you do what you do?

(4:30 – 15:30) – Prevention and Primary Care

Question 2: What does preventive medicine mean to you?

Question 3: What are the key items that help prevent bad outcomes down the road?

Question 4: Are well-checkups necessary, how did they come to be, and are we going to do away with them in the future?

Question 5: What groups of people should be coming in to see their primary care physician?

(15:30 – 25:00) – Advances in Primary Care

Question 6: Do you think the use for tele-health and health monitoring via apps can be useful for providing healthcare?

Question 7: Do you think tele-health and new technology could assist with the primary care physician shortage and reduce overdiagnosis/overtreatment?

Question 8: What is a standardized physical exam and what are your thoughts on it? What are the potential harms of the less useful parts of the physical exam? Should students be conducting parts of the physical exam that are not as useful?

(25:30 – 33:10) – The Harms in Healthcare

Question 9: What are some of the biggest harms to patient health within healthcare and what do we do about it?

Question 10: What are some of the harms of over-prescribing antibiotics?

(33:10 – 41:40) – A Primary Care Rundown

Question 11: Take us through a primary care visit that you might have with a patient, how much time are you focusing on prevention vs. other factors?

Question 12: How do you address the social determinants of health within the patient visit? What resources can you provide?

Question 13: What are you recommending to patients when it comes to exercise and nutrition?

(41:40 – 50:30) – The Pandemic

Question 14: How did the COVID-19 pandemic effect your practice and how did tele-health impact care?

Question 15: Does tele-health actually make life easier for physicians?

Question 16: How do we address the shortage in primary care physicians?

(50:30 – 51:45) – Wrapping up

Question 11: What do you tell someone who asks you “how do I get healthy” in 2 minutes?

The Exercise Guidelines (via health.gov)

Join our Mailing List HERE:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:34 — 70.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS | Subscribe here on any platform!