BETA - What other healthcare professionals should you consider adding to your healthcare team?

As a patient, surrounding yourself with a strong health care team comes with powerful benefits. Think better care coordination, clearer communication, and a more complete view of your overall health. When you bring together experts from different specialties, you're not just getting more opinions. You're gaining a support system. Each team member plays a unique role, helping you stay informed and confident in your care decisions. In this Health Tree University lesson, you'll hear directly from patient advocates and myeloma specialists as they share their insights on who should be part of your health care team and why each member matters. What other health care professionals should you consider adding to your health care team? Every patient should have a good family practice physician. I'm a little biased, I guess, because for 25 years I was a practicing family physician. But I can tell you that an educated family practice physician can put all of these things together. They can keep track of some of your myeloma treatments. They can definitely keep track of all the other medical concerns in your life, such as your high blood pressure, checking you for diabetes, all of the many things that a family practice doctor can do. It's also important to have a good oncology nurse that you can trust. And that oncology nurse can even help you with things like payment plans, which different companies have for their myeloma drugs. A good specialist myeloma nurse will know these various treatment plans. They'll know the phone numbers to call. They'll know who to contact. So you should get a nurse that you can trust and rely on as well. Myeloma specialist, I believe that everyone should have a good PCP because just how can the myeloma doesn't mean that you don't have any other issues. And with the treatment of myeloma, because of the side effect of medication, you may actually have more problem with hypertension, diabetes. So having those people based on your comorbidities or other medical condition is very important. Pain management, if the person having the pain is very important and it's going to be very useful. And I would say some people, they need a PTOT, especially if they have a bone disease or complications from a myeloma. If there is any kidney involvement, nephrology would be very useful. And psych oncology, I do believe that it's very important and it's like something that is very new and it's just coming to be an important part of the practice because everyone with the cancer at the diagnosis, at least they have some coping issues. So it's going to be very helpful for them to overcome and learn the coping system to help them to just go through the diagnosis and the treatment. Jack Ailow lived with myeloma for 29 years until he peacefully passed on Saturday, July 13th, 2024, surrounded by family and friends. Jack helped the entire myeloma community from patients and care partners to health care professionals, whether it was one-on-one or on the global scale. We are honored to have his words of wisdom to always be part of Health Tree University. So besides a myeloma specialist, I think it's important, one, to have certainly your local oncologist and even your general practitioner on your medical team. You may well have other specialists on your team as well. For example, a nephrologist who specializes in kidneys, a cardiologist who specializes in heart and pulmonary issues, a pain management doctor, a biologist who specializes in heart and pulmonary issues, a cardiologist who specializes in heart disease, and a neurologist who specializes in heart disease. But you might want to have a cardiologist who is your local doctor because you may go through some pain that they can help you with. A neurologist who specializes in nerve issues and more, they can all play a role in your care. There are a variety of specialists that may be involved depending on a particular situation. If a patient has significant bone disease, we may need an orthopedist to assist either surgically or assessing. Sometimes patients present in their first presentation is actually with a fracture and we need to address those situations. So all of those members can be part of the team for a given patient. Besides health care professionals, who else may be part of your team? Integral also to your team and when you're newly diagnosed is not just the team at your site, but actually all of the wonderful resources of the patient advocacy groups and the education resources that are available both through Health Tree, but through the other myeloma foundations that are out there as well too. Because it is really critical, I believe, for patients to get good quality information to help because I believe that knowledge helps deal with some of the anxiety and the fear that comes with a new diagnosis.