where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Going to the doctor isn't always on the list of favorite things to do, but one of the most important appointments might very well be what is called the wellness visit.

Our own Grover Silcox is here to tell us more about the annual checkup and physical.

Grover, always great to see you.

- Great to be here.

- So what is the importance of this?

And how important is it?

- Well, some studies suggest that it may lead to overdiagnosing, but that certainly is not the mainstream approach.

- Sure, so seeing your doctor once a year, it could help catch something before you get sick, kind of thing?

- Exactly.

- OK. - That's certainly how the family doc that I interviewed feels about it.

The annual physical or wellness visit has served as a key tool for family and primary physicians for decades now.

It's a way for the physician to really know the patient as a person and to prevent, manage and alleviate medical conditions before they lead to more serious complications.

Why visit your doctor when you're not sick?

That's a question family physician Dr Michael Carnathan gets all the time when discussing the importance of yearly physical exams.

- So that's the purpose of a well visit, is to try to catch things before they happen.

You come in when you're feeling well.

Typically, a doctor will ask you a series of questions that pertain to your physical health, mental health, the health of you and your family, social life.

We'll do an exam.

Listen to your heart, lungs, all sorts of things, to see, is there something maybe pending that needs to be looked into in the future?

Also, with certain age groups, there's different things we need to do to help prevent downstream issues.

For example, the dreaded colonoscopy when you turn 50, or now it's 45 for some people.

So that's the whole idea of a well visit, is to make sure we're on top of things.

- A primary care physician typically compares a patient's current physical exam with previous ones.

- I'd like to use today just to kind of review your health history, make sure, see if anything's changed over the last year or so.

Then we'll get you down to the exam room.

- All right.

- So a lot of things can happen in a year.

We can look back on the year and say, "How'd you do this year?

How's your diet been?

"Have you been exercising?"

We'll do the exam to see if there's anything new.

Let's take some good breaths, in and out.

Do a skin exam.

You know, people have been out in the sun all summer time.

I do biopsies here, so I could take care of that right there on the spot.

And then it's usually some bloodwork, if they're the right age, and some screening tests, depending on if they were ever a smoker.

So it is important to come in at least once a year for most people.

Excellent.

Very good.

- Dr Carnathan prepares for his patients' well visits.

- I always review their charts first.

So the five or ten minutes before they get here, I'm on their chart and just reading about what their previous visit was like, looking at their past medical history, their medications, their social history, just to get a sense of where we were a year ago or at the last visit.

Then I look and check, OK, how old are they?

What sort of preventative services should I plan for?

What kind of bloodwork are they going to need?

Are they going to need a colonoscopy or a mammogram or a pap smear or things like that?

Dr Carnathan recommends that patients also prepare for the yearly well visit.

- Come with a list of questions of concerns you might have about your overall health.

It could be specific too.

Also, bring your medications with you if you have a lot.

I mean, usually I know what my patients are taking, but if you have a lot of meds, including supplements over the counter things, bring them in.

- The yearly wellness visit serves as a time for nurturing the doctor-patient relationship.

- Everybody is an individual.

They come from different households, different socioeconomic statuses.

That all plays into health.

Do they have access to grocery stores or not?

Do they have people in the house that are smoking, even though they may not be a smoker?

These are things that I get to learn about my patients.

How are your kids doing?

What's going on in the house?

Are they just stressed out?

Do they need to talk to somebody?

Can I help them with that, finding a therapist, or be there for them for those sorts of things?

And getting to know them and their personal history helps guide me to do what's best for them.

They know a lot about me, too.

I don't shy away from telling about my family and things like that, but they are very open with me, and they need to be open and honest with me because that is the best thing.

I'm here to help them.

- In addition to learning all about the individual patient, it's important for the primary doctor to also know the patient's family history.

- It's huge.

Family history is huge.

I base a lot of my preventative screening tests that I order on the family history.

For example, if you have a mom and dad who have both had heart attacks in their 40s and you're now a 35-year-old seeing me, we're going to talk about getting you tested for perhaps a stress test or an EKG, at the very least, to make sure... And we're talking about healthy lifestyle changes, to make sure we can prevent those issues.

- What happens after the yearly physical?

- So usually, I call it homework, things we're going to try to do over the next days, weeks and months and a year.

So usually within days, it's bloodwork, getting your test that I ordered, and then weeks and months, it's usually how we're going to tweak your diet a little bit.

Could we pick up 15 minutes of exercise a day?

Things like that.

And then I usually put a reminder in their chart to talk to them in about six months, to see how we're doing.

- In addition to reviewing the patient's lab work and lifestyle changes, the primary doc might refer the patient to a specialist for further care about something of concern detected during the wellness visit.

But the primary, perhaps more than the specialists, must treat the whole person on a regular basis.

- Medicine's an art and a science, right?

They always say that.

And it's true.

We have lots of evidence-based medicine.

We have guidelines to help us.

Those are all great.

I use them every single day in my practice.

But you're still looking at a human being who's gone through their own personal trials and tribulations, and you have to take that into consideration.

If you haven't had a physical exam in over a year, call your family doctor, call me.

I'll be happy to see you anytime.

It's important, and it may...

It may seem silly because you feel well, but that's the idea.

- An idea that just might catch a problem before it's an issue.

As Dr Carnathan pointed out, the yearly wellness visit provides a helpful tool in caring for and keeping current with his patients and their health.

Most importantly, however, it speaks to the critical role played by primary doctors overall.

They are often the first physicians to detect or confirm a medical issue or condition.

They arrange for lab studies and imaging procedures.

They recommend specialists for further treatment.

They facilitate hospital stays and transitions to rehabs and outpatient centers.

They are often the gatekeepers who prevent illnesses from getting worse or conditions from getting out of hand.

- Grover, the past few years, during the pandemic, so many people have relied on telehealth, which has been such a great resource.

But this just goes to show you how important in-person visits are as well.

- Right, and to keep that relationship going, and for your doctor, as I said, to know you and know your health, know your whole family's health, in the case of most primary doctors.

-Yeah, so there's a benefit to sticking with one doctor.

- That's right, over a long period of time.

And in Dr Carnathan's case, he attributes his ability to know his patients well by his approach.

He has a direct primary care practice, which means that his patients pay an affordable monthly fee and they can see him as often as they need or like.

And so he really gets to know them.

And that's what's important.

- Kind of nontraditional there, cutting out the insurance aspect of all of it.

- It does.

And again, the yearly physical or wellness visit is a way to stay on top of what the patient needs.

- Stay on top of your health.

All right, Grover Silcox, as always, thank you so much for joining us.

- My pleasure.

- And that'll do it for this edition of Living In The Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.