Hi-Tech Practice Prescribes Old-Fashioned

Common Sense For Family Wellness

By John Voket

Tucked away from the bustling corner of Church Hill Road and Queen Street, an established family medical practice uses a combination of technology and age-old medical arts to help every patient maintain tip-top health.

Newtown’s Family Health Care Center has been providing medical care locally since 1980. Specializing in the care of newborns, children, and adults, Dr Alex Afshar, Dr Alexander Isgut, Dr Ludmila Goldstein, and Maureen Engel, APRN, also have admitting privileges at Danbury Hospital, where they are supported by the medical center’s team of allied health care professionals.

According to Dr Isgut, his office was among the first private practices to use the kind of patient tracking computer technology that is becoming a standard at most hospitals today. And the Newtown practice integrated its patient history system nearly two decades ago.

“I have been practicing 28 years in Newtown,” Dr Isgut said, sitting in his private office during a brief break from seeing patients. “That means we are able to maintain well-established relationships with our families that is now three or four generations strong.”

Early on in the development of computerized patient charting, Dr Isgut saw the practicality of trying to go increasingly “paperless,” while at the same time, building an extremely comprehensive battery of information on each patient. Today, with the click of a mouse, the child or grandchild of an original patient can benefit from knowing how the local practice treated a medical condition such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease.

“This is a past medical and social history…an accumulation of factors,” Dr Isgut explained. “We even have records of what occurred when our patients have gone to other doctors for consultations.”

Dr Isgut said his practice’s patient history can provide lifesaving information when they see other doctors, or are admitted to a hospital.

“We also recommend health maintenance and age-appropriate testing based on these histories, and at any moment, we can call up details of anything the patient has had going back 18 years — any cardiovascular issues, pathology, radiological.”

Dr Afshar, who joined Family Health Care Center about a year ago, said he was drawn to the practice because of its reputation for both effective and advanced family medical practices. He appreciates that on the occasion he may not be available, only the center’s medical staff is interacting with his patients, and each one has full access to the patient’s history.

“If the patient has a problem on Sunday, they don’t call in and get a random covering doctor. They will only talk to doctors from our office,” he said. “And from where ever we are, from our laptops we can pull up the complete history of patient records within seconds.”

Besides the computerized charting and family histories, the practice is also developing interactive technologies that help ease patients’ visits, including providing many of the office policies regarding payments and insurance 24-hours-a-day on its website. The site currently allows the patients to print out most, if not all, of the forms they would normally be required to complete in the office.

But now, thanks to the web service, patients can complete the forms in advance and arrive ready to be seen. On that subject, Dr Isgut is also pleased to offer same day appointments.

“We like to offer open office scheduling, that way we can accommodate anyone wishing to see the doctor on the same day,” Dr Isgut said.

While Newtown’s Family Health Care Center is proud of its integration of patient care technology, it has recently completed a full interior makeover to help create a more pleasant and comfortable atmosphere, which mirrors the style, or art, of medicine practiced there.

While many of the patients seen at the practice face typical issues from the flu to common aches, Dr Afshar said he is beginning to see significantly more depression and hypertension in patients experiencing economic pressures. Dr Isgut added that over the past few years, he is becoming more concerned with the threat or symptoms of Lyme disease that are affecting a number of patients.

“We see so many patients now with varied symptoms, it’s sometimes difficult for them to focus on any one of them. And they will often end up having Lyme disease,” Dr Isgut said. These symptoms may range from full-blown neurological issues, to joint pain, to Bell’s palsy to general fatigue, he said.

In cases where Lyme is suspected, the doctors go right to work prescribing a prophylactic program of antibiotics. That preventative measure can often head off many negative long-term affects of Lyme, Dr Afshar said.

“We’re also doing a lot of preventative work with patients in areas like weight management,” Dr Afshar said. “We like patients to understand that the benefits of maintaining a healthy weight go far beyond just looking good.”

“The biggest mortality issue facing our communities right now is related to obesity,” Dr Isgut added. “It’s a predisposing factor in diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, and sleep apnea.”

Dr Isgut said his most recent “claim to fame,” was seeing two patients reverse their diabetic conditions through exercise and proper nutrition.

“These two patients have come off their meds completely,” he said proudly.

The success of these and other patients to support the healthiest possible lifestyles is due in part to the relationship they enjoy with their practitioners at Newtown’s Family Health Care Center. This is not by coincidence, Dr Afshar said.

“European studies have shown that the most successful and advance medical practices are both preventative and technologically advanced,” he said. “And I think we have proven to have helped increase our patients lifespan, as well as their overall quality of life by focusing on prevention.”

Visit Newtown’s Family Health Care Center on line at familyhealthcareofnewtown.com, or call 426-1818.