Evo Terra (Host): Welcome. This is Conversations with MIT Health. And today, we're discussing pediatrics at MIT Health. I'm your host, Evo Terra. And I'm joined by Dr. Edward Levy and Dr. Rosemarie Gordon, both of whom are, in fact, pediatricians at MIT Health. Doctors, welcome to the show.

Edward Levy, MD: Hi, Evo.

Host: So, can you tell me a little bit about your roles as pediatricians at MIT Health. Let's start with you, Dr. Levy.

Edward Levy, MD: Well, the way I like to think about being a pediatrician comes from T. Berry Brazelton, who's a very famous pediatrician, and he talked about families finding allies in development. So, I really want our families to think of us as allies who, when they run into either a problem, a question, a difficulty, we're a place they can come for support. And that another part of being an ally as a pediatrician is that children are constantly changing, so doing preventive and thinking about what's coming up ahead and how to be prepared for that.

Host: Dr. Gordon, anything to add?

Rosemarie Roqué Gordon, MD: I think that was well said. I think that we like to collaborate with our families to help our children, our pediatric patients, achieve the best health possible. We like to help our patients and their families feel that they're well supported and well heard here. On a more basic level, our role as pediatricians here is to take care of the needs of our patients. We see them from as soon as they leave the hospital after they're born until they turn 21. We're here for regular routine visits and sick visits. And we also, in our role here at MIT Health, manage portal questions, online questions from our patients and phone calls as well at times.

Host: So, it sounds like you're really working to find ways for parents, as well as the physicians and the children themselves can really stay healthy at all time. Do I have that right?

Rosemarie Roqué Gordon, MD: Absolutely.

Host: Great, great. Dr. Levy, when should my child see a pediatrician at MIT Health? I have a six-year-old granddaughter as example there. So, when should we do this and what type of appointments are offered?

Edward Levy, MD: I think there are really, depending on how you break it down, three or four different kinds of appointments. One, leaving off where I started before is a preventive appointment, meaning that there are well-child visits that are both sensible and required by state law often for participation in school. So, a six-year-old should have had a physical that is in Massachusetts within the last 12 months. Those are the preventive visits. I think there's a second kind of visit, which is very common, which is, "My kid is sick, and he's sick enough that I'm worried about it. You know, it's a high fever, it's pain, it's them not acting like themselves. I don't know what this is or it a little scares me and it needs to be checked out." and we have good access. We have much more rapid access because we're kind of a closed house. We are only for the MIT community so that we have open appointments every day. So, there's less of a wait.

So, there's the preventive visits, the sick visits. And then, I think of more as the consultative visits where it isn't really preventive, but it's more "I'm having a challenge with sibling behavior or toilet training" or "The school has said my kid is kind of wandering off in their attention." So, more of a consultative, nothing is going to happen soon. But again, I need kind of an ally to help me sort this through, sort the problem out, and move me in the next direction.

Host: That's a great way to look at it. I hadn't really considered that aspect of, "Hey, maybe I should get a medical pro to help me with this." And I think your concept of being an ally makes a lot of sense. Dr. Gordon, can you talk about the uniqueness of having a family while also being a part of the MIT community?

Rosemarie Roqué Gordon, MD: That's a good question. So as Dr. Levy said, we are kind of a closed house here. We only see children who are part of the MIT community. So, their parents either work at MIT or are students here. Maybe their parents are staff members. Maybe they're postdocs, professor, a grad student, a PhD student. So, we get it. We're really embedded in this community, and we understand the needs of this community. It's a very high pressure place to work for the parent.

We also have access to resources that are only for MIT families, such as MIT Spouses and Partners Connect, which is a really great resource, helps families meet each other, helps people looking for, say, like, jobs outside of MIT for the spouse, maybe who's not part of MIT. We have some community wellness resources here, some behavioral health resources. So, we can offer things to MIT families that are really specific to our university. And I think because we've worked here for years now, we better understand many of our international families and their needs in a way that, say, like a general pediatric practice out in the community would probably not yet be aware of. I think that's what's kind of unique and special about this practice.

Host: That is great. Yes, I can imagine that being a part of MIT obviously gives you access to the things that a lot of others would not be able to see. I want to dovetail off of that, Dr. Levy, and I want to ask you about what MIT Health does to help? You know, who's the right pediatrician for the family? And also, how is MIT Health different than other pediatric practices? Dr. Gordon talked to us a little bit. Can you talk a little bit more about that, please?

Edward Levy, MD: Well, starting off, Dr. Gordon did a good job of talking about what is somewhat unique about MIT Health. I think the two pieces that I think are really different about us are, one, we kind of understand the community and their desire to have cognitive mastery, you know, and to understand the rationale and the science behind what we're talking about as opposed to, "Okay. Here's this to go get at the pharmacy." That's not enough for our families. It's "What is this medication? How does it work? What are the side effects?" And combining that with the access that we talked about earlier, I think those are two really strong potential draws for the MIT community specifically.

Host: Excellent. Dr. Gordon, I'll ask this last question of you. Can you explain a little more about how patients, from infants all the way to retirees, can be seen at MIT Health's primary care facility?

Rosemarie Roqué Gordon, MD: Absolutely. So, MIT Health is a very comprehensive center. Ed Levy and I are pediatricians, but we have a whole host of other practitioners here, including Family Medicine physicians, Internal Medicine physicians, and nurse practitioners. We have urgent care as well. So, we can really meet the needs of families at any stage, including people who are, you know, retired for many years. We also have some in-house specialists. We have urgent care so that we can meet the needs of people with like some urgent medical issue in the evening and on weekends and holidays as well. So yeah, we absolutely are equipped here and ready to see people of any age.

Host: Ready for all things. That is amazing. Well, I want to thank you once again, Dr. Gordon, and you as well, Dr. Levy, for joining me on the program today. And that concludes this episode of Conversations with MIT Health. Head on over to our website at health.mit.edu for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other MIT Health podcasts. For more health tips and updates, please follow us on your social channels. I'm Evo Terra, and this has been Conversations with MIT Health. Thanks for watching.