What is preventative care?
Preventative Medicine includes screening for common medical conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and certain cancers. It incorporates administering vaccines and includes certain diagnostic tests like blood analyses, colonoscopies, cardiac stress tests, and female care like mammograms and pelvic exams.
The central pillar of Preventative Medicine is the Annual Screening Physical Exam, where we can discuss appropriate testing given your age, gender, lifestyle, family history, and other risk factors.
Preventative Care means helping our members live healthier lifestyles. Our practice provides tips and treatments that you can implement into your diet, exercise routine, or other habits to make sure you are on the right track to a long and healthy future.
The best part about Preventative Care is that most of these services are free if you have insurance. Generally, your annual physical exam and the screening tests recommended at this visit are covered under your insurance plan.
Preventative screening:
- Colonoscopy
- Mammogram
- Bone Density Scan
- Low Dose Lung CT
- Cholesterol and Diabetic Screening
- Cardiac Screening by Stress Test or Calcium Scoring
Areas of Preventative Medicine:
Routine check-ups
- Blood pressure check
- Height and weight check
- Head to toe physical exam
- Blood work may include:
- Complete blood count
- Comprehensive metabolic panel
- TSH (test of thyroid function)
- Lipid profile
- Vitamin levels including B12 and D
- PSA (prostate antigen test in blood for early detection of prostate cancer)
- Hemoglobin A1c
- Testosterone level
- Hormone testing
- Other Tests: depending on your current health situation
Chronic Diseases
Members with chronic diseases need regular doctor visits, in order to keep the condition under control and monitor and prevent any complications.
We manage a variety of conditions such as
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Asthma
- Skin conditions
- Allergies
- COPD
Mole / Skin Growth Removal
If you notice any suspicious or changing skin moles or other spots on your skin and if it is determined to be worrisome, we can collect a biopsy at our office.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, regular self and doctor performed skin checks are very important. There is an easy way to remember what you are looking for, just remember ABCDE.
A – Asymmetry, one side of mole looks different from the other
B – Border irregularity – it is not smooth and sharply distinct from skin
C – Color, the color is not uniform
D – Diameter, bigger than 6mm or the size of an eraser
E – Evolving, the most important factor, any changing mole