Episode 21
Original Cablecast: July 1, 2008

• Where Do (High-Tech) Babies Come From?: Meet the founder and director of New York Methodist’s fertility clinic, and find out what it’s like for his patients – the moms – to go through the process.
• Interview with Iffath Hoskins, MD: The Chair of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Lutheran Medical Center talks with host Monica Sweeney, MD, about high risk pregnancies for both older and younger prospective mothers.
• First Aid For Kids: The playground, the pool, the beach, the woods – all places your child may find him or herself in the summer. Here’s what you should know about keeping them safe.
• Pilates Primer: More and more people are trying it – so just what is Pilates anyway? It’s an exercise system that – a century after it was created – is really coming on strong. Especially in Fort Greene…

Episode 20
Original Cablecast: June 3, 2008

• Wash Your Hands: At Maimonides Medical Center, inside a hospital-wide campaign to urge doctors, nurses, staff, and visitors to frequently and carefully wash hands. With all our modern medical know-how, why is something so simple so important?
• Behind the Screens: Speaking of Maimonides, host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks to author Julie Salamon about her acclaimed new book, Hospital. Salamon, a former NY Times reporter, spent a year getting a first-hand look at how a large urban medical center deals with the pressures of serving a complex and diverse society.
• The Sniffling Season: We get the latest from an allergist on why this spring has been such a rough season for sufferers. She offers advice on the new medications, shares tips on keeping those allergens at bay, and tells us how to tell a cold from an allergic attack.
• Rescue Dogs: To help certain patients recuperate, New York Methodist Hospital uses an unusual program to bring specialists into the rehab ward. These specialists have four paws, fur, and an instinctive ability to make sick people feel better.

Episode 19
Original Cablecast: May 6, 2008

• Door to Ballroom: At SUNY Downstate, a look at how this initiative helps get heart attack patients from the hospital door to balloon-angioplasty surgery as quickly as possible, in an effort to save critical heart tissue.
• Learning to Relate: In addition to educating autistic children, The Brooklyn Autism Center teaches them how to strengthen their ability to relate to other children.
• STDs and Teens: One in every four teenage girls in America has a sexually transmitted disease. Host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks to someone who fights this battle every day: Dr. Michael Augenbraun, Director of the King’s County Hospital STD Clinic.
• Letting It Go: Stress is with us at almost any age…we go inside a program at New York Methodist Hospital that helps those over 60 how to get it under control, using tools like breathing, meditation, and imagery techniques

Episode 18
Original Cablecast: April 1, 2008

• Medication Noncompliance: Why don’t patients take their meds the way they’re prescribed? A doctor at Long Island College Hospital takes us through the reasons.
• Medication Nation: Over-medication, mixing medications, self-medication…host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks to Assoc. Professor Lorraine Cicero from Long Island University about these and other prescription-drug-related issues.
• Fibromyalgia: A somewhat mysterious disorder that leads to fatigue and widespread chronic pain, sometimes extreme sensitivity to touch…how doctors treat patients at Brooklyn Women’s Services.
• Crunch Crisis: Working out is meant to make you strong and fit, but pushing too hard can leave you hurting, or even put you out of commission. Here’s how to prevent injuries at the gym.

Episode 17
Original Cablecast: March 4, 2008

• Sexual Safety for Teens: Project Reach Youth uses its Project SAFE to teach Brooklyn teens about AIDS, sexual health, and to help train other teens. Watch as they rehearse some of the skits they perform when they visit schools.
• Public Health, Private Stories: Host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks about AIDS and its impact with two young men living with the virus.
• Osteoporosis – Not Just for the Aged: It may come as a surprise that osteoporosis – loss of bone density – affects many younger people, women in particular. At Long Island College Hospital, we learn what can contribute to this disease and how it can be treated.
• To Dance with Parkinson’s: At Mark Morris Dance Group, people suffering from Parkinson’s disease get relief from the mental and physical challenge of weekly dance classes.

Episode 16
Original Cablecast: February 5, 2008

The Senses

• Hearing: How the faculty at St. Francis De Sales School for the Deaf uses new technology and plenty of care and attention to prepare their students for life in a hearing world.
• Smell: Asthma & Allergies Host Monica Sweeney, MD, talks to Kathy Garrett-Szymanski, the Administrator for the Asthma Center at Long Island College Hospital.
• Sight: At Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, a neuro-opthalmologist explains how what may look like simple eye trouble is sometimes an indication of more serious illness.
• Touch: Only one hospital in the country is using an acupuncturist to help mothers during labor and after delivery – and it’s right here in Brooklyn.