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Scott Webb (Host): On today's podcast, we're going to meet Dr. Abdul Dada. He's a Family Medicine Doctor with Genesis. And in addition to learning more about him, he's going to tell us what it means to be a Family Medicine Doctor, including procedures that he can do right there in the office. This is Sounds of Good Health with Genesis brought to you by Genesis Healthcare System.

I'm Scott Webb. So Doctor, thanks so much for joining me today. We're going to talk about Family Medicine and you know, I think a lot of us maybe think we know, you know, what family medicine and what that implies, but I want to hear more about you and have you tell folks exactly what you do. So, as we get rolling here, just tell us a little bit about yourself.

Abdul Dada, M.D. (Guest): My name's Abdul Dada. I go by Dr. Dada or Abdul. Either one's fine. So, I'm a Family Medicine Physician. I graduated from residency about six months ago. Just started working out in Zanesville, Ohio. I was born and raised in Columbus. Parents are originally from Afghanistan, so they were refugees. And, came over here kind of like through a lottery system as refugees and settled in Columbus. And then I was born here. Family's been here ever since. I've got about a hundred and sixty, a hundred sixty five family members that live in Dublin and Columbus. I was in residency for Chicago and obviously, you know, wanted to move back and that's kinda why I'm back in Columbus now working with them.

I got into Family Medicine because, long story short, basically, to visit like the family that was still in Afghanistan when I was younger and I saw the situation there and how bad it was. And, you know, I was like, oh, I need to do something about this. you know, It kinda like piqued my interest. So, I figured, you know, get into medicine and that's kind of where we're at.

Host: And this is a common sort of theme when I host these and I get to know doctors is that something happens that spurs them on that, they sort of have this calling. And so great that you found this calling, you found, you know, what works for you in medicine, being a Family Medicine Doctor, and want to have you tell folks, what does that mean exactly? What does a Family Medicine Doctor, what exactly can you do in the office and what can folks expect?

Dr. Dada: Certainly medicine's, I guess it's hard to describe, but also kind of easy basically. We do everything whenever, you know, people ask me, okay, what are you guys? So, we literally do everything within a certain scope. So like, we'll see patients for basically anything you can imagine. I mean, people come in with skin conditions, we have pregnant patients. We have newborn babies. We have geriatric patients. We have elder patients. I see patients who are in hospice, who are at the end of their life. We have people who are completely healthy, you know, adolescents, we have very sick teenagers, we have healthy adults, we have very sick adults, anything that you can think of, we see. But what I tell people and I tell my patients too, is that, you know, as a Family Medicine Physician, we kind of have to have a general idea of everything. You know, we're better in some things than other when we have more knowledge in some things than others like for example, diabetes, heart disease, these things we see every day, you know? So, obviously we know them a little bit better than we know some other things. like I was saying earlier, I'll tell my patients all the time, you know, we try this or we try that. And if it doesn't work, then I usually have them see the specialist. And I try to explain to them that, like, you know, we have a general idea of everything. We know how to treat most things for the most part, but there are some things that are beyond our scope in that specific field. And that's when I'll like refer someone out to a specialist, an example would be like, if someone has diabetes. I'll start them on a medication. If that's not working, we'll go to insulin and then I'll start them on an oral and an insulin. And then it's still not controlled. Then at some point I realize, okay, like this person's, I got them on a bunch of different things. These are the things that I usually try.

Their A1C is not getting better. So, then I'll send them to the specialist. And a lot of times the specialist will just say, hey, continue what you're doing. This is the right thing. Maybe they'll check one or two other labs and they'll say, keep doing the same thing, but it's like a nice reassurance that, okay, there isn't much else to do. You're on the right track. Keep doing this, you know? So, that's kind of how I describe it to people.

Host: Yeah. And it sounds like, you rarely have a boring day when you're seeing babies all the way up to folks in hospice care. I'm sure your days are pretty interesting.

Dr. Dada: Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, you're seeing everything, you gotta be on your toes and, you know, I think the most important thing is at least, you know what I was taught was make sure it's not any of the like more dangerous things and, you know, then everything else is okay. Like for example, somebody comes in with abdominal pain, you know, you want to make sure it's not an appendicitis. You want to make sure they don't have an obstruction. You want to make sure they don't have, you know, really bad diverticulitis, something that they need, like an urgent surgery for or something that can potentially be fatal. And as long as you rule out the fatal things, you know, everything else is not as bad and if it takes a little. It's okay. You know, you can kind of like slowly narrow things down, but you want to make sure it's not any of the important things, then after that it's figuring out which of the less dangerous things it is basically.

Host: Yeah, definitely. And one of the things I'm sure they probably didn't go over in medical school was Telemedicine, which has become such a thing, you know, in the last couple of years, like it was just kind of inching along there for awhile, but during COVID, it's just become like the standard, like the norm. So, how are you handling Telemedicine? Are you doing, you know, video visits, things like that.

Dr. Dada: So, yeah, I do a lot of Telemedicine because currently like all the patients who are not getting admitted for COVID, they're sending to two clinics and one of them is ours, just me and another practitioner who are seeing all of them. So, and a lot of them that are not like urgent, we're just doing to Tele-health. So, I've been doing a lot of Tele-health. I actually like Tele-health, you know, I think it's easier. The problem is some patients, they're okay with the physician, you know, talking to them for reassurance and then other patients like, you know, want to be seen in person, want their lungs listened to and what not.

And I try to tell patients, you know, a lot of times the physical exam, I think slowly is going away. I mean, obviously there's certain things that you need it for, but people who have AFib. Some people have chronic AFib, we're going to hear it all the time. Other people it's like intermittent, right? So like, if you're not having it at that moment that I'm listening to your heart, I'm not going to hear it. So, I'm not going to catch it, you know, if that makes sense. So, the physical exam's important, but it's not as important, I think, as we used to think it was.

And there's always like variations, like, appendix for example, I had my appendix taken out, so I always go back to that one, but even when I was getting mine out, I didn't have any of the physical exam signs of an appendicitis. All of them were negative, but I just had a feeling that I had one. And I ended up having one. So, it's a good test. It's good skills to know, but it's not like a tell all, be all or whatever the saying is. So, I think you can do a lot on Tele-health, which people were worried about that. You won't be able to do. I think you can do a lot more of it.

Host: Yeah, that's what I've been hearing from practitioners along the way here is that they've even been surprised. You know, that the initially their reaction was, I don't know that I can do what I do over a video visit or a telephone call, and many are learning that, oh, wow, this actually works pretty well.

Maybe a face-to-face that, you know, being in the office is still the gold standard for certain things that where the physician and the patient just need to be in the same room. But as you're saying, everybody's sort of embracing that kind of loving it really.

Dr. Dada: And again, like there's certain patients I'll see, especially with the COVID situation, I'll say, okay, you need to come in. We need to check your pulse ox and you need to let you know, you need to put eyes on some people, you know, but.

Host: Yeah.

Dr. Dada: Not always.

Host: Well, it's been fun getting to know you and learn about Family Medicine. And as we wrap up here, what would be your takeaways just in the six months or so that you've been practicing, just generally your understanding of Family Medicine and especially for patients, perspective patients, you know, how you think you can help them.

Dr. Dada: I think it's been great. Like, you know, residency is a very tough time and I tell this to all my friends who were still in residency, that's a very tough time. It was very busy, a lot of stress, you know, and then you graduate and it's kind of scary actually in the beginning, like I was a little nervous. I had two months off before starting and I was like, you know, I don't have an attending. I don't have someone there to kind of guide me. But you know, it's nice to be on your own. It's a lot of fun. I'm feel like I'm building great relationships with my patients, which is kind of also why I went into Family Medicine specifically, you know, there's that like, you know, people don't remember their ER doctors, people don't remember their surgeons, but like everyone knows your physician, like their PCP.

So, it's been a lot of fun, you know, and I think in general, medicine's changing like where I'm at and then most places are switching over to value based care. And I think patients are gonna really appreciate that once we get into that. But that's a whole nother topic, so I think everything is kind of going in the right direction and I'm excited.

Host: Yeah, it sounds like it. And it, like I said, it's been great to, you know, to hear about you and your story and interesting story of how you got here, how you ended up, you know, in Ohio and so on. So, thanks so much. You stay well.

Dr. Dada: Thanks. You too.

Host: And for more information visit Genesishcs.org. And thanks for listening to Sounds of Good Health with Genesis brought to you by Genesis Healthcare System. If you found this podcast to be helpful, please be sure to tell a friend and subscribe, rate and review this podcast and check out the entire podcast library for additional topics of interest. I'm Scott Webb. Stay well.