Your Local Guide to Better Living
HEALTH Fall 2019
INSIDE This Issue
EMERGENCY DENTAL .............. 4 Burns Dentistry says don’t wait...let us help you
LEADING LADY OF AGING .............. 12 CarolAnn Tutera makes women feel like themselves with SottoPelle
CREATING AN ESTATE PLAN .... 17 Morris Hall is ready to help you create your estate plan
WELLNESS Special Supplement to The Glendale Star and Peoria Times
Abrazo residencies help address doctor shortage BY KEITH JONES
Arizona’s burgeoning population has prompted Abrazo Health to take proactive measures to address a concerning trend: a nationwide physician shortage experts say stands to worsen as Baby Boomers, including physicians of the same generation, reach retirement age. Nationally, 121,900 primary care and specialty doctors are needed by 2032, according to research by the Life Science Division of global research firm IHS Markit. Arizona is already feeling the pinch, especially when it comes to primary care physicians. The Health Resources and Services Administration estimates the state needs 563 primary care physicians to eliminate a current shortage of PCPs, while Robert Graham Center workforce projections indicate an additional 1,941 PCPs will be needed by 2030. Primary care physicians include those who are trained in family medicine and internal medicine. As the boomer generation ages and needs more medical care, shortages in specialties like general surgery are expected. Forward-thinking institutions are already working on ways to meet future community needs. “Traditionally, our community filled the physician pipeline by aggressively recruiting new talent, but that is no longer enough,” said Dr. Akil Loli, an interventional cardiologist and designated institutional official for graduate medical education at Abrazo Health. “We saw the trend and worked aggressively to establish two new graduate medical education programs training the next generation of physicians at Abrazo Arrowhead Campus, Abrazo West Campus and Abrazo Arizona Heart Hospital.” While Abrazo Health has a 40-plus year history of training future PCPs in its family
Abrazo Health has expanded its graduate medical education to include internal medicine and general surgery. The new programs officially kicked off during the summer, when Abrazo welcomed 15 first-year internal medicine residents who will spend the next three years shadowing physicians during continuous rotations at Abrazo Arrowhead Campus, Abrazo West Campus and Abrazo Arizona Heart Hospital. From left are new medical residents Dr. Jordan Fisher of Glendale; Dr. Haitham Rahman of Peoria; Dr. Christopher Lew of Glendale; and Dr. Daniel Stewart of Glendale. (Photo courtesy Abrazo Health)
medicine residency at Abrazo Central Campus, the health network expanded its graduate medical education to include internal medicine and general surgery this year. The new programs officially kicked off in July, when Abrazo welcomed 15 firstyear internal medicine residents who will spend the next three years shadowing physicians during continuous rotations. Three more recent medical school graduates started their five-year residencies with the focus on general surgery. Abrazo’s new graduate medical education programs will eventually accommodate 45 internal medicine residents and 15 general surgery residents. Internal medicine and surgical residents will train alongside emergency and trauma care physicians at Abrazo West Campus’s Level I Trauma Center; work closely
with specialists and clinicians at Abrazo Arrowhead Campus in Glendale; and get additional real-world learning opportunities with cardiac and vascular specialists at Abrazo Arizona Heart Hospital. At all three campuses, the internal medicine residents will provide a full range of medical care, including consultations in the emergency department, inpatient admissions and outpatient follow up. In addition, medical residents will train in critical care medicine by treating patients in the intensive care unit. General surgery residents will participate in trauma calls, where they will assist trauma surgeons in the operating room and provide post-operative care. One of the unique aspects of our program
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