September 14, 2024 • 30 mins
Kenicia Curry is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist for Legacy Community Health. Telehealth has become the main way to consult for Legacy Community Healthcare and we discuss the importance of managing medication for older patients. In addition to very important in-person consultations with physicians, constant contact with people like Kenicia through video calls is a helpful tool to help people manage their conditions. www.legacycommunityhealth.org
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston's public affairs show, an iHeartMedia broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that the opinions expressed on this show
me not necessarily reflects held by this radio station that's managed, me, staff,
or any of its advertisers. My name is Laurent I
am the Texan from France, and I've had a relationship
(00:27):
with Legacy Community Health going back to the mid nineties,
back when they were called the Montrose Clinic. They're one
of the most well respected and revered organizations in town.
They're a nonprofit that provides medical care, all kinds of
medical care to all people, especially people who may not
be able to afford insurance or people who don't have
(00:49):
a current doctor. They're particularly good place to call if
you're new to town because what they'll do is they'll
assess your needs and suggest that you go see the
right place people. They also have extensive pharmaceutical services where
you can just get your drugs and get the regimen
that you need. And my guest today works very often
(01:11):
with geriatric patients or older patients who are sometimes limited
in their mobility, and I was really interested in hearing
that she does most of her consultations via zoom now
of your computer. These are telehealth I guess over the phone.
And it seems to me that that's one of the
great silver linings of the pandemic, because sometimes all you
(01:31):
need to do is to tell the doctor I have strap,
I know it, I've had it before, I have a
sign of this infection. I know exactly what I have
because I've had these symptoms before, and the doctor can say, Okay, well,
he's my patient. I know that they're reasonable, and I'm
going to give them the antibiotics prescription that they need
(01:53):
for this strip throat or the science infection. And they
can just go straight to the pharmacy to get their medicine.
And that means that they don't have have to actually
go see a doctor, which saves a whole bunch of
time and liberates that doctor to see a new patient
in person. And so there's there's just a lot of
great things that have come out of the pandemic when
it comes to the use of technology, we can look
(02:14):
at the silver linings.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
My guest is Kenisha Curry. She is a clinical pharmacy
specialist for Legacy Community Health. They are online at Legacy
Communityhealth dot org, Legacy Communityhealth dot org. This is a
great place for you to go find their number if
you want to get an appointment. You can also see
the list of services that they offer and get in
(02:38):
touch with the one of the organizations in town that
is bringing a holistic outlook and a holistic methodology to
applying medicine and kinesia. I have to ask you this
because we talked a little bit about it off air
before we started. You have a doctorate and this is
necessary to be a pharmacist these days. And I'm ashamed
(02:59):
to say I didn't realize that. I know, of course,
you know the college education, but I often thought that
that was all that was necessary to be behind the counter,
and then you would just use life experience, so to speak,
to keep learning or go into secondary learning for a
(03:20):
slightly different career, or I guess a parallel movement. But
you have a PhD.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yes, I have a doctor of pharmacy. Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So where did you get it and what does that entail? Exactly?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Okay, I got my Doctor of Pharmacy from Campbell University
College and Health Sciences. It's actually in a small town
in North Carolina. Yeah, And as far as what it pertains.
There's different pathways, right, So there's some people who will
do two years of undergrad and then they'll go straight
into pharmacy school. I took the longer route because I
(03:51):
wanted the full undergraduate experience. I majored in Spanish, but
I took all the classes necessary to enroll in pharmacy school,
so I was kind of like a dual major. I
got to travel, I got to do health programs in
different country countries, and then yes, it was amazing and
that experience that got me interested in public health. And
(04:12):
so I did my master's in public health as well
as doctor pharmacy at the same time at Campbell University.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So where did you go abroad?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
The first place I went to was Malaga, Spain. The
second place I went to was Santiago, Chile, and I
spent five months there. I lived with a whost family there.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah, so your Spanish is pretty good, I'll.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Say work proficient now proficient, yes, yeah, yes, so, and
then that's an amazing skill to have here. I didn't
know I was going to end up living in Texas.
I'm from Kentucky, so you know, I was seventeen years
old when I made that decision. That's the best decision
I ever made.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
You were seventeen when you decided to.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Move to Houston, seventeen when I decided to major in Spanish.
Oh okay, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And I didn't realize how big of a impact that
was going to make in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, it's very useful in Houston. Yes, especially if you're
going to be a pharmacist or work in healthcare, you
probably have a lot of people that are glad that
they can switch to Spanish with you.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Absolutely, it's it's you can kind of see the light
in their eyes a little bit when they realize that
I speak Spanish. It's just less of a hasshole, and
you know, I'm able to I feel like I'm able
to connect with them more. And there's a lot of
nuances you missed when you're using an interpreter, right, Whereas
when I'm speaking directly to the patient, I can pick
up on cues that maybe might lead me to ask
(05:35):
further questions, especially when it comes to medications and if
a patient is taking them correctly. So yeah, it's a great,
great asset into what I do.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Would you say your Spanish is more European or South American.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
That's a great question, right, They're.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Very different though. It's I mean, you can tell it's
the same language, but the accent is so different.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yes, I would say more South American.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I've also been told that I speak Spanish with a
Southern accent.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Like, yes, well that makes some sense. If you're from
the Southern States, you might have a Southern accent.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Pretty much where I spent most of my life.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So so so I guess most influential to your career
has been South America. You spent more time there, yes, yeah.
Did you like Europe that you go elsewhere in Europe
but Spain?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
No, But I was born in Germany. My dad was
in the army, so yeah, I was born there, but
I was a baby, So you don't like I remember
that yet.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
But I haven't been back, No.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I haven't. I haven't. So Spain's the only place I've
been to in Europe. And then from there I traveled
to Morocco, which is right under.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, if you're on top of Gibalter and you have
you have a parachute and the wind is nice, so
you can make it there just by jumping off the Yeah,
it's amazing on a clear day you can see it. Yes,
it's really If anybody knows the geography of your brother
of Gibaltar at the isthmus of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic,
(07:06):
it's it's really kind of a cool place because it's
one of those it's one of those demonstrations that the
planet is alive and that it has moved a lot.
We're looking at a scale on millions of years, but
we were all one big piece of rock and it
just kind of shattered and broke apart, and some of
these parts are still really close together. Well, let's talk
(07:28):
a little bit about legacy community health. Most of your
services are geared towards people who may not have access
to traditional medicine, mostly because of price. Is that fair
to say or you say it?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I'm not sure I'm the best person to answer what
we're geared to. I just can say that our population
is mixed, you know, Like you mentioned off air, we
started off as or organization providing treatment for HIV at
a time when that wasn't something else openly addressed or public,
(08:10):
and then I think from there it just transitioned into well, okay,
we know that we manage HIV very well. What about
everything else because if you think about it, patients living
with HIV are living a longer period of time now, right, Well.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
It's not even my understanding. It is no longer a
death sentence at all.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So you just need the pill.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yes, you need the medications, and we have amazing medications
that work very well. And so what legacies vision changed to. Okay,
we can also do primary care for the patients that
we've been seeing for HIV management, and so that's where
we still have that population, right, but we also realize, oh,
(08:53):
the population we've been treating for forty years is now
getting older, and that's a great thing. That's something that
we couldn't have forty years ago. But as you get older,
other things your body changes. You know, you may get
high blood pressure, you may get diabetes, or you know,
all a plethora of things. And so Legacy has just
(09:13):
become this major organization that not only can address HIV care,
but now we have other service lines. We have pediatrics
and geriatrics, so we can manage all patient populations. So
it's a hard question to answer, but really the vision
of Legacy is to help as many people as we can,
no matter your ability to pay.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, So no, matter your ability to pay, you'll be
able to get some health. And all you have to
do is go to their website Legacy Communityhealth dot org.
Legacy Communityhealth dot org. You are listening to Houston, PA,
Houston's Public Affairs Show. My name is Laurent and my
guest today is Kenisha Curry. She is a clinical pharmacy
specialist for Legacy Community Health. She specializes in geriatric care
(10:02):
for them. But as you heard, she's well, just like
all pharmacists, she sees people of all ages. I was
I'm struck by what you're saying about how Legacy which
was the Mantros Clinic when it was the Montros Clinic,
like you said, it was a place where people dealing
with HIV and AIDS could get their first bit of
(10:25):
information and then actually get treatment. And as we developed
medicines to treat HIV and keep it from turning into AIDS,
it's very rare when we meet someone in America with AIDS,
and almost always they come from abroad. The disease has developed.
And so the point being is that in America, thanks
(10:46):
in part to organizations like Legacy Community Health, the access
to healthcare has made it something which is no longer
a death sentence. And I'm struck that you have morphed
into a new organization with a new purpose, broader purpose.
And I'm reminded of interviewing people from Legacy Community Health
back in the late nineties and AIDS Foundation Houston back
(11:09):
in the late nineties, and there was a there was
talk about how we're hoping to go out of business
one day, you know, hopefully we won't be needed anymore.
But instead you've morphed into something even more useful. And
I just I like that idea, because when we say, well,
we hope to be out of business one day, it's
one of those things, it's kind of wishful thinking. But
(11:31):
you're actually demonstrating that that's actually what happened. You didn't.
You didn't go out of business. It's better you get it.
You got it. You broaden the business that you're into.
And I'm guessing that most of the patients that you
deal with do not have HIV anymore.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I'm not sure of the exact statistics now for in
my I guess patient panel or my role. I see
I see all paintings, so it's it's you know, it's
a variety keeps my day interesting for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So your patients come through Legacy Health, they first get
a consultation for a doctor.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yes, they meet with the provider or the clinician first
and if there is a need. So let's say you
go into your doctor's office and you say, you know,
my diabetes is uncontrolled because I cannot take these medications
because of side effects or I can't afford the medications.
It's kind of like a flag to the clinician like
(12:28):
this would be a great person to meet with our
clinical pharmacists. But in addition to referring patients to us,
I also I have a contract with basically forty to
fifty of our clinicians a Legacy that allow me to
prescribe on their behalf. So you're not just meeting with
me to go over your medications. I can change your
medications to basically make them fit for what's best for you,
(12:52):
because every medication isn't best for everyone. The best medication
is what works for you. And so once they meet
with the clinician, they you know, identify that this will
be a great person for me to meet with, and
I continue to see them however often I need to,
if that's weekly, monthly every three months. There's no copay
with my visits, so it's in my hands, in the
(13:13):
patient's hands. How often we meet with the mang goal
of getting you know, these disease states under control.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
You're demonstrating, you're demonstrating the system by which the providers
will determine what level of care you need and what
you can pay for, and they'll adjust what the services
that they have access to through legacy and accordance to
that which means that they don't turn anybody away. They
can reference you to whoever you need to see, even
(13:44):
if it's someone who's outside of your network. Right obviously
you may not have access to absolutely every specialty for instance,
but more importantly, because most people have management medical management issues,
they can be referred to someone like you who can
go over their plan and actually make sure that they
(14:05):
keep taking their medication. And it's a little hard for
me to relate to this, but I happen to know
that that's a huge problem, especially with older people. They
get a little forgetful, They might forget to take their medicine.
So a big part of what you do, I understand,
is to help them remember and manage their intake how
(14:25):
do you do that because obviously, especially if you're using
telehealth and you're talking to them over a computer, once
your consultation is done, they're on their own again. So
how do you make sure that they're taking their medicine
at the right time and in the right qualities.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, you're absolutely correct. It's something I've always said throughout
my journey is that a patient treats themselves. The doctor
doesn't treat them. Oh, yeah, they give so as a pharmacist,
my goal is to give a patient the tools to
be able to treat themselves. And it's really on a
by case basis. But what we know, as you said before,
(15:03):
is that pretty much fifty percent of patients taking chronic
medications for chronic diseases like diabetes and high pertension, fifty
percent of those patients are not taking their medications correctly.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Fifty percent people with important prescriptions are not taking them correctly.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And the percentage in certain studies show that if basically,
if you were symptom free, that decrease the likelihood of
you taking a medication every day, whereas if you have
the flu, right, you're gonna take something every day because
you want to feel better. But diabetes, you may feel great.
(15:40):
High pretension or high blood pressure, you may feel great,
and so the likelihood of keeping up with your medications
when you feel good is low, and so that decreases adherents.
And so as far as what I do is really
addressing whatever barrier the patient has. So there's always a
series of questions that I have that I ask, what
(16:00):
prevents you from taking your medications every day? Do you
have difficulty getting to the pharmacy, Are you having side
effects with any of those medications? And also how many
medications are you taking? Because we know that as the
number increases, the adherence decreases.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Oh yeah, the more complicated the regimen, the least likely
it is to be following.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Big surprise, who knew? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And then you're sort of you're making interesting mixes with
the medication because maybe you're not taking them all. So
your body is dealing with different chemical compositions every day,
where a walking bag of chemical reactions is what our
bodies are all the all of us animals. We're mostly liquid,
and so we introduce these chemicals in ourselves and there's
(16:46):
a chemical reaction. You must also deal with people who
take an additional medicine because of a new symptom, and
then that medicine can flix or has a negative side
effect because it's being taken with another medica. So that
gets a little complicated and beyond the scope of what
I can discuss. And I'm not a pharmacist, but i
(17:10):
have to say I'm surprised that people that fifty percent
of your patients don't take all their medicine. But then
I'm also reminded that I think it's something like over
seventy five percent of people who are prescribed antibiotics don't
take them all. So like you have the flute, all
the flu, they don't give antibiotics because it's a virus.
You just need to fight it. Your body takes care
(17:31):
of it. You have to take care of your body.
But let's say you have a science infection, so they
give you ten days of cipro something an antibiotic, and
you start feeling better after a week, you got four
more pills and you're not gonna take them, and then
you relapse a week later. And I guess I'm one
of those people. If you give me a vial and
(17:51):
I feel bad, I'm just gonna take it all because
I don't want to feel bad again. But it's really
surprising to me that so many people apparently just do
they just want under off. How does how do they
explain it? When you say, when you ask them the
question what prevents you from taking your medication? What do
they tell you?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And that statistic of fifty percent is national, that's not
just legacy patients, that's studies.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So we're all kind of dumb about taking medicine.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I wouldn't say dumb, but I would just say that
there's just there's a misunderstanding of how a medication works,
how long you have to take it, and what it's for.
So when you say what type of answers do I get?
A lot of it has to do with social determinants
of health. A lot of it is the patient can't
get to the pharmacy cost, they can't afford the medication.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
But what if they have the medication and they're just
not finishing the tube?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
What are you talking about antibiotics specific?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
For example?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So if I were to, you know, talk to someone
about finishing antibiotic one, you have to break it down.
I can't come in with science y terms and talk
about antibiotic resistance. Yeah, I can't say that who knows
about that, right Like I can't you know, I can't
say that I went to pharmacy school learned that didn't
know before. But what I do say is in COVID again,
(19:10):
I'm bringing it up because COVID showed us something that
now I can use this as an example, is that
viruses are smart. There's a reason that every year there's
a new vaccine for the FLUD, there's a new vaccine
for COVID, and that's because these viruses are getting smarter
and learning how to basically maneuver around the treatments that
we've used or the prevention techniques that we used. And
(19:32):
so when you're taking an antibiotic, the reason that you
need to finish it although you're feeling better, is because
if you don't finish the entire course, that bacteria or yeah,
bacteria is going to become smarter and the next time
you take that medication, it's not going to work for you.
So it's important that you finish the entire antibiotic to
(19:55):
ensure again that you don't relapse or have another incident
of infection or and to make sure that the medication
is going to work for you if you need it
in the future. We do not want smart bacteria.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Well, it's the nature. It's it's Mother nature doing its thing,
and that's why it's so these viruses are so scary.
They don't go away, they just change. I'm a science
fiction geek. I love science, and to me, these demonstrations
of what we come up with of how we can
alter our bodies are absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing. You are
(20:31):
listening to Houston, PA, Houston's Public Affairs Show. My name
is Laurent. My guest is Kenisha Curry. She is a
clinical pharmacy specialist for Legacy Community Health. They are online
at Legacy Communityhealth dot org. Legacy Communityhealth dot org. Should
be said that this is a place where you can
(20:54):
go if you have a PPO or HMO, it doesn't matter.
They'll they'll take insurance. You can choose to go Legacy
to for them to be your providers. I was talking
briefly at the beginning of the show that one of
the silver linings of COVID is telehealth and how I
mean we adapted. We adopted telehealth pretty much overnight. The
(21:15):
government said, yep, We're just going to allow it to happen.
And the question was can a doctor, a pharmacist, a
healthcare provider be effective if they're communicating through an iPad
or a phone. How do you feel about it now
we're several years in. I know it's been super useful.
Are there some downsides?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
We're definitely so. Actually I completed my residency during COVID
and sool boy, so that was course.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
As soon as I became a pharmacist, I was doing
telehealth a climacy, oh my god. And you know, I
was responsible for running COVID vaccine clinics, so I didn't
have a chance to really do in person visits initially,
and so I was already comfortable with doing telehealth even
before I started here at Legacy. And there was actually
(22:08):
a study that we did in the hospital setting that
were more effective via telehealth because we're getting rid of
some of those barriers right that patients have, such as parking, transportation. Again,
transportation is a big one. Being able to take time
off work I have. I mean, yes, if you're sick,
(22:28):
but for me, we're just doing you know, disease states. Yeah,
we're not. I'm not doing antibiotics. But yeah, so now
I can talk to a patient on their lunch break,
and if they have an office, they have a private
area where they're not around anyone. We're not you know,
we don't want to share any private information. You can
(22:49):
be sitting in your car as long as you're not driving,
if you are parked, and you know, that's just the
private area that you have. So it's really changed the
amount of people that we can access and how many
people that can access us. As far as the downside,
you know, sometimes you do lose some of that, you know,
personal connection well for sure, and so I think we
(23:10):
do have to work harder to still establish that. But
luckily I meet with patients so often that it's not
a problem. It's not like you see me once and
then you don't see me for six months. I might
see you again next week.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Do you do you have a requirement, for instance, you
have to meet physically one time or is that we
do not.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
For a patient to see my team, they have to
have at least had one appointment with their clinician in
the last.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Year, So the doctor has to physically. Yes, if you haven't.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Been at a legacy in a year, you know, we
need to get you back established first, and then if
you need a pharmacist, We're there to help.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, so that I guess that that eliminates part of
the problem that I see with telehealth is that there
is that impersonal factor. But then I wasn't thinking very
very clearly. Obviously, a doctor needs to see you and
listen to your heart, so to speak. It's like it's
there's there's the there is an important process by which
they can determine what you need. So you do it.
(24:08):
You would have to go to Legacy and you can
just you can find out every information you need to know,
including the location, is online at Legacy Communityhealth dot org.
Legacy Communityhealth dot org. But yeah, so basically mostly silver
lining I had. You're describing your situation. Since you came
out of school during the pandemic, you don't really know
(24:31):
a world without telehealth. Professionally speaking, you remember it before
the pandemic because you were around. But that seems like
I wonder if that's a generational divide for healthcare providers.
There will be people like before and after telehealth. Is
it similar to before and after the Internet? I mean,
obviously that the Internet is such a huge but man,
(24:55):
fifteen years later or twenty years later, after after AOL.
Here we are dialing into our doctor's office and pharmacists
and getting advice quickly, efficiently. I just think it's it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I mean, it's great, especially if I'm doing a video appointment.
And diabetes specifically has so much new technology we can use.
I'm sure people have heard of the sensors that you
can put on your arm and they measure your blood
sugar continuously. You don't have to prick your finger, right.
But one thing that that has allowed us to do
(25:28):
is be able to look at reports. Right, I can
pull up a report that shows me the last two
weeks of your numbers.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Oh yes.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
And then if I'm on if it's a virtual appointment,
I can share that. I can share my screen, you
see the report. I'm walking you through it day by day,
like oh, here, I can tell that you ate something
that you probably shouldn't have ate. Here, I can tell
you know your number dropped low because you were sleeping.
It just gives us so much more information, and I
think it helps our patients understand the disease more because
(25:59):
before it just kind of blind and you're changing medications,
you don't know what it's doing, right, but with telehealth,
I can really use other you know, technology to help
to educate.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
So you're going by the information that the sensors from
these machines are using to measure blood sugar levels for example.
Is the addition of these personal wearables like Apple Watch,
and do they give you useful data? Do you get
do you get stuff from the health app and all
these phones.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That's so I actually started using the health app myself
in the last year. We can you can share with
your doctor.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
The best tool that I think for medications is when
you go in there and put each of your medications
you're taking and let you pick an image and you
can pick the image that looks exactly like your tablet.
So if your blood pressure medication is a yellow round
peel and it has you know, certain pills have indentations
(26:58):
on it or have numbers on you can put that
in the health app and the name of the medication.
So let's say you know, you for your bottle, your
label has fallen off the bottle and you can't remember
what that medication was.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Which is something that effaces older people.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yes, you can go in that health app and say, oh,
this was my yellow pill with the number three on it.
That was my blood pressure medication. So yeah, my health
app is amazing for you know, just knowing what you're
taking and you know, keeping chrack of your medications. It
gives me a reminder every day at seven am you
need to take one, two, and three. Yeah, so it's great.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, that's a glimpse into your future. Sensors are going
to become more and more common. I mean they're drilling
skulls and putting the cyber links into people's brains already
and that's just going to keep growing. But the idea
that we can have these chronic diseases kept in check
by technology. You just attach a little device that squirts
(27:57):
in the right amount of medicine when you need it
to put it to put it in a funny way, well, wow,
brave new world. I foresee a lot of ongoing education
as all these new technologies are deployed and you have
to learn about them. It's got to be pretty cool though.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, it's I mean, it's it's really cool. Especially you know,
I'm a I'm a young practice. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Yeah, she looks like she's eighteen, no offense, but this
is a very young woman at the beginning of her
career and that's just your enthusiasm for the technology is
absolutely awesome to me because I see that as as
a way to make medicine more accessible and also less painful.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Yes, I mean, it makes it so much easier, and
I love especially when my senior patients they're looking at
me on.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Who's my doctor?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah no, they I mean they talk to you, kid,
they got they hap it down and I'm sitting there
looking at them on their video They're on accouch and
the like, here's my medication about it? Yeah. Yeah, that
happens sometimes soon for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah. But it's good to be underestimated because then you
can surprise people and then they like you.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
But you know, I'm self spoken, so people don't expect
me to know what I know.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah. Well, I think that we underestimate young people just systematically,
and the older we get, the smarter we think we
are just because we're older. It doesn't work that way
as far as I can tell, anyway. If you need
information about Legacy Community Health, you can go to their
website Legacy Communityhealth dot org. Legacy Communityhealth dot org. It
(29:37):
seems like the perfect place to go if you need help.
Maybe if you have an elderly parent, or you have
an elderly aunt who lives alone and you happen to
know that she's having trouble with taking her medicine on time.
This is one of the places that you can go
to to get some help that they specialize in that.
And of course if you have any questions related to
(29:58):
the guests that have on Houston P, yeah, you can
just send me an email. Texan from France at gmail
dot com. Texan from France at gmail dot com. I
want to thank you for listening and caring about the
issues I put on this show. Folks. My name is Laurence.
I am the Texan from France and this has been
Houston PA, Houston's public affairs show, Houston Strong.
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston's public affairs show, an iHeartMedia broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that the opinions expressed on this show
me not necessarily reflects held by this radio station that's managed, me, staff,
or any of its advertisers. My name is Laurent I
am the Texan from France, and I've had a relationship
(00:27):
with Legacy Community Health going back to the mid nineties,
back when they were called the Montrose Clinic. They're one
of the most well respected and revered organizations in town.
They're a nonprofit that provides medical care, all kinds of
medical care to all people, especially people who may not
be able to afford insurance or people who don't have
(00:49):
a current doctor. They're particularly good place to call if
you're new to town because what they'll do is they'll
assess your needs and suggest that you go see the
right place people. They also have extensive pharmaceutical services where
you can just get your drugs and get the regimen
that you need. And my guest today works very often
(01:11):
with geriatric patients or older patients who are sometimes limited
in their mobility, and I was really interested in hearing
that she does most of her consultations via zoom now
of your computer. These are telehealth I guess over the phone.
And it seems to me that that's one of the
great silver linings of the pandemic, because sometimes all you
(01:31):
need to do is to tell the doctor I have strap,
I know it, I've had it before, I have a
sign of this infection. I know exactly what I have
because I've had these symptoms before, and the doctor can say, Okay, well,
he's my patient. I know that they're reasonable, and I'm
going to give them the antibiotics prescription that they need
(01:53):
for this strip throat or the science infection. And they
can just go straight to the pharmacy to get their medicine.
And that means that they don't have have to actually
go see a doctor, which saves a whole bunch of
time and liberates that doctor to see a new patient
in person. And so there's there's just a lot of
great things that have come out of the pandemic when
it comes to the use of technology, we can look
(02:14):
at the silver linings.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
My guest is Kenisha Curry. She is a clinical pharmacy
specialist for Legacy Community Health. They are online at Legacy
Communityhealth dot org, Legacy Communityhealth dot org. This is a
great place for you to go find their number if
you want to get an appointment. You can also see
the list of services that they offer and get in
(02:38):
touch with the one of the organizations in town that
is bringing a holistic outlook and a holistic methodology to
applying medicine and kinesia. I have to ask you this
because we talked a little bit about it off air
before we started. You have a doctorate and this is
necessary to be a pharmacist these days. And I'm ashamed
(02:59):
to say I didn't realize that. I know, of course,
you know the college education, but I often thought that
that was all that was necessary to be behind the counter,
and then you would just use life experience, so to speak,
to keep learning or go into secondary learning for a
(03:20):
slightly different career, or I guess a parallel movement. But
you have a PhD.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yes, I have a doctor of pharmacy. Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So where did you get it and what does that entail? Exactly?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Okay, I got my Doctor of Pharmacy from Campbell University
College and Health Sciences. It's actually in a small town
in North Carolina. Yeah, And as far as what it pertains.
There's different pathways, right, So there's some people who will
do two years of undergrad and then they'll go straight
into pharmacy school. I took the longer route because I
(03:51):
wanted the full undergraduate experience. I majored in Spanish, but
I took all the classes necessary to enroll in pharmacy school,
so I was kind of like a dual major. I
got to travel, I got to do health programs in
different country countries, and then yes, it was amazing and
that experience that got me interested in public health. And
(04:12):
so I did my master's in public health as well
as doctor pharmacy at the same time at Campbell University.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So where did you go abroad?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
The first place I went to was Malaga, Spain. The
second place I went to was Santiago, Chile, and I
spent five months there. I lived with a whost family there.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah, so your Spanish is pretty good, I'll.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Say work proficient now proficient, yes, yeah, yes, so, and
then that's an amazing skill to have here. I didn't
know I was going to end up living in Texas.
I'm from Kentucky, so you know, I was seventeen years
old when I made that decision. That's the best decision
I ever made.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
You were seventeen when you decided to.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Move to Houston, seventeen when I decided to major in Spanish.
Oh okay, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And I didn't realize how big of a impact that
was going to make in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, it's very useful in Houston. Yes, especially if you're
going to be a pharmacist or work in healthcare, you
probably have a lot of people that are glad that
they can switch to Spanish with you.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Absolutely, it's it's you can kind of see the light
in their eyes a little bit when they realize that
I speak Spanish. It's just less of a hasshole, and
you know, I'm able to I feel like I'm able
to connect with them more. And there's a lot of
nuances you missed when you're using an interpreter, right, Whereas
when I'm speaking directly to the patient, I can pick
up on cues that maybe might lead me to ask
(05:35):
further questions, especially when it comes to medications and if
a patient is taking them correctly. So yeah, it's a great,
great asset into what I do.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Would you say your Spanish is more European or South American.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
That's a great question, right, They're.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Very different though. It's I mean, you can tell it's
the same language, but the accent is so different.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yes, I would say more South American.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I've also been told that I speak Spanish with a
Southern accent.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Like, yes, well that makes some sense. If you're from
the Southern States, you might have a Southern accent.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Pretty much where I spent most of my life.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So so so I guess most influential to your career
has been South America. You spent more time there, yes, yeah.
Did you like Europe that you go elsewhere in Europe
but Spain?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
No, But I was born in Germany. My dad was
in the army, so yeah, I was born there, but
I was a baby, So you don't like I remember
that yet.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
But I haven't been back, No.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I haven't. I haven't. So Spain's the only place I've
been to in Europe. And then from there I traveled
to Morocco, which is right under.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, if you're on top of Gibalter and you have
you have a parachute and the wind is nice, so
you can make it there just by jumping off the Yeah,
it's amazing on a clear day you can see it. Yes,
it's really If anybody knows the geography of your brother
of Gibaltar at the isthmus of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic,
(07:06):
it's it's really kind of a cool place because it's
one of those it's one of those demonstrations that the
planet is alive and that it has moved a lot.
We're looking at a scale on millions of years, but
we were all one big piece of rock and it
just kind of shattered and broke apart, and some of
these parts are still really close together. Well, let's talk
(07:28):
a little bit about legacy community health. Most of your
services are geared towards people who may not have access
to traditional medicine, mostly because of price. Is that fair
to say or you say it?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I'm not sure I'm the best person to answer what
we're geared to. I just can say that our population
is mixed, you know, Like you mentioned off air, we
started off as or organization providing treatment for HIV at
a time when that wasn't something else openly addressed or public,
(08:10):
and then I think from there it just transitioned into well, okay,
we know that we manage HIV very well. What about
everything else because if you think about it, patients living
with HIV are living a longer period of time now, right, Well.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
It's not even my understanding. It is no longer a
death sentence at all.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So you just need the pill.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yes, you need the medications, and we have amazing medications
that work very well. And so what legacies vision changed to. Okay,
we can also do primary care for the patients that
we've been seeing for HIV management, and so that's where
we still have that population, right, but we also realize, oh,
(08:53):
the population we've been treating for forty years is now
getting older, and that's a great thing. That's something that
we couldn't have forty years ago. But as you get older,
other things your body changes. You know, you may get
high blood pressure, you may get diabetes, or you know,
all a plethora of things. And so Legacy has just
(09:13):
become this major organization that not only can address HIV care,
but now we have other service lines. We have pediatrics
and geriatrics, so we can manage all patient populations. So
it's a hard question to answer, but really the vision
of Legacy is to help as many people as we can,
no matter your ability to pay.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, So no, matter your ability to pay, you'll be
able to get some health. And all you have to
do is go to their website Legacy Communityhealth dot org.
Legacy Communityhealth dot org. You are listening to Houston, PA,
Houston's Public Affairs Show. My name is Laurent and my
guest today is Kenisha Curry. She is a clinical pharmacy
specialist for Legacy Community Health. She specializes in geriatric care
(10:02):
for them. But as you heard, she's well, just like
all pharmacists, she sees people of all ages. I was
I'm struck by what you're saying about how Legacy which
was the Mantros Clinic when it was the Montros Clinic,
like you said, it was a place where people dealing
with HIV and AIDS could get their first bit of
(10:25):
information and then actually get treatment. And as we developed
medicines to treat HIV and keep it from turning into AIDS,
it's very rare when we meet someone in America with AIDS,
and almost always they come from abroad. The disease has developed.
And so the point being is that in America, thanks
(10:46):
in part to organizations like Legacy Community Health, the access
to healthcare has made it something which is no longer
a death sentence. And I'm struck that you have morphed
into a new organization with a new purpose, broader purpose.
And I'm reminded of interviewing people from Legacy Community Health
back in the late nineties and AIDS Foundation Houston back
(11:09):
in the late nineties, and there was a there was
talk about how we're hoping to go out of business
one day, you know, hopefully we won't be needed anymore.
But instead you've morphed into something even more useful. And
I just I like that idea, because when we say, well,
we hope to be out of business one day, it's
one of those things, it's kind of wishful thinking. But
(11:31):
you're actually demonstrating that that's actually what happened. You didn't.
You didn't go out of business. It's better you get it.
You got it. You broaden the business that you're into.
And I'm guessing that most of the patients that you
deal with do not have HIV anymore.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I'm not sure of the exact statistics now for in
my I guess patient panel or my role. I see
I see all paintings, so it's it's you know, it's
a variety keeps my day interesting for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So your patients come through Legacy Health, they first get
a consultation for a doctor.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yes, they meet with the provider or the clinician first
and if there is a need. So let's say you
go into your doctor's office and you say, you know,
my diabetes is uncontrolled because I cannot take these medications
because of side effects or I can't afford the medications.
It's kind of like a flag to the clinician like
(12:28):
this would be a great person to meet with our
clinical pharmacists. But in addition to referring patients to us,
I also I have a contract with basically forty to
fifty of our clinicians a Legacy that allow me to
prescribe on their behalf. So you're not just meeting with
me to go over your medications. I can change your
medications to basically make them fit for what's best for you,
(12:52):
because every medication isn't best for everyone. The best medication
is what works for you. And so once they meet
with the clinician, they you know, identify that this will
be a great person for me to meet with, and
I continue to see them however often I need to,
if that's weekly, monthly every three months. There's no copay
with my visits, so it's in my hands, in the
(13:13):
patient's hands. How often we meet with the mang goal
of getting you know, these disease states under control.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
You're demonstrating, you're demonstrating the system by which the providers
will determine what level of care you need and what
you can pay for, and they'll adjust what the services
that they have access to through legacy and accordance to
that which means that they don't turn anybody away. They
can reference you to whoever you need to see, even
(13:44):
if it's someone who's outside of your network. Right obviously
you may not have access to absolutely every specialty for instance,
but more importantly, because most people have management medical management issues,
they can be referred to someone like you who can
go over their plan and actually make sure that they
(14:05):
keep taking their medication. And it's a little hard for
me to relate to this, but I happen to know
that that's a huge problem, especially with older people. They
get a little forgetful, They might forget to take their medicine.
So a big part of what you do, I understand,
is to help them remember and manage their intake how
(14:25):
do you do that because obviously, especially if you're using
telehealth and you're talking to them over a computer, once
your consultation is done, they're on their own again. So
how do you make sure that they're taking their medicine
at the right time and in the right qualities.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, you're absolutely correct. It's something I've always said throughout
my journey is that a patient treats themselves. The doctor
doesn't treat them. Oh, yeah, they give so as a pharmacist,
my goal is to give a patient the tools to
be able to treat themselves. And it's really on a
by case basis. But what we know, as you said before,
(15:03):
is that pretty much fifty percent of patients taking chronic
medications for chronic diseases like diabetes and high pertension, fifty
percent of those patients are not taking their medications correctly.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Fifty percent people with important prescriptions are not taking them correctly.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And the percentage in certain studies show that if basically,
if you were symptom free, that decrease the likelihood of
you taking a medication every day, whereas if you have
the flu, right, you're gonna take something every day because
you want to feel better. But diabetes, you may feel great.
(15:40):
High pretension or high blood pressure, you may feel great,
and so the likelihood of keeping up with your medications
when you feel good is low, and so that decreases adherents.
And so as far as what I do is really
addressing whatever barrier the patient has. So there's always a
series of questions that I have that I ask, what
(16:00):
prevents you from taking your medications every day? Do you
have difficulty getting to the pharmacy, Are you having side
effects with any of those medications? And also how many
medications are you taking? Because we know that as the
number increases, the adherence decreases.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Oh yeah, the more complicated the regimen, the least likely
it is to be following.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Big surprise, who knew? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And then you're sort of you're making interesting mixes with
the medication because maybe you're not taking them all. So
your body is dealing with different chemical compositions every day,
where a walking bag of chemical reactions is what our
bodies are all the all of us animals. We're mostly liquid,
and so we introduce these chemicals in ourselves and there's
(16:46):
a chemical reaction. You must also deal with people who
take an additional medicine because of a new symptom, and
then that medicine can flix or has a negative side
effect because it's being taken with another medica. So that
gets a little complicated and beyond the scope of what
I can discuss. And I'm not a pharmacist, but i
(17:10):
have to say I'm surprised that people that fifty percent
of your patients don't take all their medicine. But then
I'm also reminded that I think it's something like over
seventy five percent of people who are prescribed antibiotics don't
take them all. So like you have the flute, all
the flu, they don't give antibiotics because it's a virus.
You just need to fight it. Your body takes care
(17:31):
of it. You have to take care of your body.
But let's say you have a science infection, so they
give you ten days of cipro something an antibiotic, and
you start feeling better after a week, you got four
more pills and you're not gonna take them, and then
you relapse a week later. And I guess I'm one
of those people. If you give me a vial and
(17:51):
I feel bad, I'm just gonna take it all because
I don't want to feel bad again. But it's really
surprising to me that so many people apparently just do
they just want under off. How does how do they
explain it? When you say, when you ask them the
question what prevents you from taking your medication? What do
they tell you?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And that statistic of fifty percent is national, that's not
just legacy patients, that's studies.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So we're all kind of dumb about taking medicine.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I wouldn't say dumb, but I would just say that
there's just there's a misunderstanding of how a medication works,
how long you have to take it, and what it's for.
So when you say what type of answers do I get?
A lot of it has to do with social determinants
of health. A lot of it is the patient can't
get to the pharmacy cost, they can't afford the medication.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
But what if they have the medication and they're just
not finishing the tube?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
What are you talking about antibiotics specific?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
For example?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
So if I were to, you know, talk to someone
about finishing antibiotic one, you have to break it down.
I can't come in with science y terms and talk
about antibiotic resistance. Yeah, I can't say that who knows
about that, right Like I can't you know, I can't
say that I went to pharmacy school learned that didn't
know before. But what I do say is in COVID again,
(19:10):
I'm bringing it up because COVID showed us something that
now I can use this as an example, is that
viruses are smart. There's a reason that every year there's
a new vaccine for the FLUD, there's a new vaccine
for COVID, and that's because these viruses are getting smarter
and learning how to basically maneuver around the treatments that
we've used or the prevention techniques that we used. And
(19:32):
so when you're taking an antibiotic, the reason that you
need to finish it although you're feeling better, is because
if you don't finish the entire course, that bacteria or yeah,
bacteria is going to become smarter and the next time
you take that medication, it's not going to work for you.
So it's important that you finish the entire antibiotic to
(19:55):
ensure again that you don't relapse or have another incident
of infection or and to make sure that the medication
is going to work for you if you need it
in the future. We do not want smart bacteria.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Well, it's the nature. It's it's Mother nature doing its thing,
and that's why it's so these viruses are so scary.
They don't go away, they just change. I'm a science
fiction geek. I love science, and to me, these demonstrations
of what we come up with of how we can
alter our bodies are absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing. You are
(20:31):
listening to Houston, PA, Houston's Public Affairs Show. My name
is Laurent. My guest is Kenisha Curry. She is a
clinical pharmacy specialist for Legacy Community Health. They are online
at Legacy Communityhealth dot org. Legacy Communityhealth dot org. Should
be said that this is a place where you can
(20:54):
go if you have a PPO or HMO, it doesn't matter.
They'll they'll take insurance. You can choose to go Legacy
to for them to be your providers. I was talking
briefly at the beginning of the show that one of
the silver linings of COVID is telehealth and how I
mean we adapted. We adopted telehealth pretty much overnight. The
(21:15):
government said, yep, We're just going to allow it to happen.
And the question was can a doctor, a pharmacist, a
healthcare provider be effective if they're communicating through an iPad
or a phone. How do you feel about it now
we're several years in. I know it's been super useful.
Are there some downsides?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
We're definitely so. Actually I completed my residency during COVID
and sool boy, so that was course.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
As soon as I became a pharmacist, I was doing
telehealth a climacy, oh my god. And you know, I
was responsible for running COVID vaccine clinics, so I didn't
have a chance to really do in person visits initially,
and so I was already comfortable with doing telehealth even
before I started here at Legacy. And there was actually
(22:08):
a study that we did in the hospital setting that
were more effective via telehealth because we're getting rid of
some of those barriers right that patients have, such as parking, transportation. Again,
transportation is a big one. Being able to take time
off work I have. I mean, yes, if you're sick,
(22:28):
but for me, we're just doing you know, disease states. Yeah,
we're not. I'm not doing antibiotics. But yeah, so now
I can talk to a patient on their lunch break,
and if they have an office, they have a private
area where they're not around anyone. We're not you know,
we don't want to share any private information. You can
(22:49):
be sitting in your car as long as you're not driving,
if you are parked, and you know, that's just the
private area that you have. So it's really changed the
amount of people that we can access and how many
people that can access us. As far as the downside,
you know, sometimes you do lose some of that, you know,
personal connection well for sure, and so I think we
(23:10):
do have to work harder to still establish that. But
luckily I meet with patients so often that it's not
a problem. It's not like you see me once and
then you don't see me for six months. I might
see you again next week.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Do you do you have a requirement, for instance, you
have to meet physically one time or is that we
do not.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
For a patient to see my team, they have to
have at least had one appointment with their clinician in
the last.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Year, So the doctor has to physically. Yes, if you haven't.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Been at a legacy in a year, you know, we
need to get you back established first, and then if
you need a pharmacist, We're there to help.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, so that I guess that that eliminates part of
the problem that I see with telehealth is that there
is that impersonal factor. But then I wasn't thinking very
very clearly. Obviously, a doctor needs to see you and
listen to your heart, so to speak. It's like it's
there's there's the there is an important process by which
they can determine what you need. So you do it.
(24:08):
You would have to go to Legacy and you can
just you can find out every information you need to know,
including the location, is online at Legacy Communityhealth dot org.
Legacy Communityhealth dot org. But yeah, so basically mostly silver
lining I had. You're describing your situation. Since you came
out of school during the pandemic, you don't really know
(24:31):
a world without telehealth. Professionally speaking, you remember it before
the pandemic because you were around. But that seems like
I wonder if that's a generational divide for healthcare providers.
There will be people like before and after telehealth. Is
it similar to before and after the Internet? I mean,
obviously that the Internet is such a huge but man,
(24:55):
fifteen years later or twenty years later, after after AOL.
Here we are dialing into our doctor's office and pharmacists
and getting advice quickly, efficiently. I just think it's it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I mean, it's great, especially if I'm doing a video appointment.
And diabetes specifically has so much new technology we can use.
I'm sure people have heard of the sensors that you
can put on your arm and they measure your blood
sugar continuously. You don't have to prick your finger, right.
But one thing that that has allowed us to do
(25:28):
is be able to look at reports. Right, I can
pull up a report that shows me the last two
weeks of your numbers.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Oh yes.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
And then if I'm on if it's a virtual appointment,
I can share that. I can share my screen, you
see the report. I'm walking you through it day by day,
like oh, here, I can tell that you ate something
that you probably shouldn't have ate. Here, I can tell
you know your number dropped low because you were sleeping.
It just gives us so much more information, and I
think it helps our patients understand the disease more because
(25:59):
before it just kind of blind and you're changing medications,
you don't know what it's doing, right, but with telehealth,
I can really use other you know, technology to help
to educate.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
So you're going by the information that the sensors from
these machines are using to measure blood sugar levels for example.
Is the addition of these personal wearables like Apple Watch,
and do they give you useful data? Do you get
do you get stuff from the health app and all
these phones.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That's so I actually started using the health app myself
in the last year. We can you can share with
your doctor.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
The best tool that I think for medications is when
you go in there and put each of your medications
you're taking and let you pick an image and you
can pick the image that looks exactly like your tablet.
So if your blood pressure medication is a yellow round
peel and it has you know, certain pills have indentations
(26:58):
on it or have numbers on you can put that
in the health app and the name of the medication.
So let's say you know, you for your bottle, your
label has fallen off the bottle and you can't remember
what that medication was.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Which is something that effaces older people.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yes, you can go in that health app and say, oh,
this was my yellow pill with the number three on it.
That was my blood pressure medication. So yeah, my health
app is amazing for you know, just knowing what you're
taking and you know, keeping chrack of your medications. It
gives me a reminder every day at seven am you
need to take one, two, and three. Yeah, so it's great.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, that's a glimpse into your future. Sensors are going
to become more and more common. I mean they're drilling
skulls and putting the cyber links into people's brains already
and that's just going to keep growing. But the idea
that we can have these chronic diseases kept in check
by technology. You just attach a little device that squirts
(27:57):
in the right amount of medicine when you need it
to put it to put it in a funny way, well, wow,
brave new world. I foresee a lot of ongoing education
as all these new technologies are deployed and you have
to learn about them. It's got to be pretty cool though.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, it's I mean, it's it's really cool. Especially you know,
I'm a I'm a young practice. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Yeah, she looks like she's eighteen, no offense, but this
is a very young woman at the beginning of her
career and that's just your enthusiasm for the technology is
absolutely awesome to me because I see that as as
a way to make medicine more accessible and also less painful.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Yes, I mean, it makes it so much easier, and
I love especially when my senior patients they're looking at
me on.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Who's my doctor?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah no, they I mean they talk to you, kid,
they got they hap it down and I'm sitting there
looking at them on their video They're on accouch and
the like, here's my medication about it? Yeah. Yeah, that
happens sometimes soon for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah. But it's good to be underestimated because then you
can surprise people and then they like you.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
But you know, I'm self spoken, so people don't expect
me to know what I know.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah. Well, I think that we underestimate young people just systematically,
and the older we get, the smarter we think we
are just because we're older. It doesn't work that way
as far as I can tell, anyway. If you need
information about Legacy Community Health, you can go to their
website Legacy Communityhealth dot org. Legacy Communityhealth dot org. It
(29:37):
seems like the perfect place to go if you need help.
Maybe if you have an elderly parent, or you have
an elderly aunt who lives alone and you happen to
know that she's having trouble with taking her medicine on time.
This is one of the places that you can go
to to get some help that they specialize in that.
And of course if you have any questions related to
(29:58):
the guests that have on Houston P, yeah, you can
just send me an email. Texan from France at gmail
dot com. Texan from France at gmail dot com. I
want to thank you for listening and caring about the
issues I put on this show. Folks. My name is Laurence.
I am the Texan from France and this has been
Houston PA, Houston's public affairs show, Houston Strong.
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