Inside Ascension River Park takes local healthcare to the airwaves

There’s a new voice on WBMC talking about healthcare in Warren County, but don’t expect an hour of medical jargon.

Eric H. Paul, president of Ascension Saint Thomas River Park Hospital, is hosting “Inside Ascension River Park: Your Health, Our Mission,” a new weekly show built around a pretty simple idea: Sit down with the people providing healthcare in our community, and have a conversation the rest of us can actually follow.

Paul laid out the plan in the first episode, saying the show will introduce listeners to local physicians and healthcare professionals while exploring new technology, services and health issues that affect local families.

The first guest was cardiologist Dr. Scott F. Reising, and while the hospital’s new GE Revolution Apex CT scanner was the headline topic, the conversation wandered into everything from preventing heart attacks to peanut M&M’s and Little Debbies.

That’s probably a better description of the show than anything else. Paul isn’t a doctor interviewing another doctor. He’s asking the questions most of us would ask.

And there’s another episode on the way. For Episode 2, Paul sits down with cardiology nurse practitioner Tinera D. Hutchins-Conry to talk about congestive heart failure. If that sounds heavy, they start with a question that gets right to the point: Does heart failure mean your heart has stopped? No. From there, the conversation tackles some of the things people actually want to know. Can you have heart failure and look perfectly healthy? What symptoms should get your attention? When is it time to call the doctor, and when is it time to call 911?

There are practical tips, too. One of the most useful tools for a heart failure patient may be the bathroom scale. Hutchins-Conry explains how changes in weight can provide an early warning of fluid buildup and why knowing what’s normal for you matters.

That’s what makes the show work. Paul asks the questions listeners might be wondering themselves, giving local medical experts a chance to explain the answers without turning the conversation into a lecture.

The show can be heard on WBMC and watched on YouTube. Plans are underway to make episodes available on major podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon in the future.

Episode 1 is available now, and Episode 2 with Tinera D. Hutchins-Conry, NP-C is coming soon.