The roots of urgent care trace back to the industrial clinics of the early 20th century designed to treat injured workers quickly and minimize downtime. The urgent care model re-emerged in the 1970s as a response to overcrowded emergency departments and the inability of primary care offices to handle acute, non-life-threatening issues such as walk-ins or after-hours care. Initially met with skepticism and branded by many as "doc-in-a-box,” today urgent care is a $50 billion industry in the U.S. with more than 11,000 centers nationwide. Urgent care is the go-to for routine needs as 45% of young adults lack a primary care provider (PCP). Urgent care may be a better option than the emergency room, but is it better than primary care if primary care was revitalized? We examine that question and more on this episode.

Most rashes are benign. If they are viral, they resolve spontaneously, and if they are bacterial they may require antibiotics. However, some rashes have been more elusive to understand and treat. These more chronic skin rashes are long-lasting, often inflammatory disorders requiring ongoing management to control symptoms like itching, redness, and pain. Common types include eczema, psoriasis, acne, and rosacea. Their underlying cause is complex, driven by autoimmune responses, genetics, and environmental triggers. These conditions significantly impact quality of life, necessitating personalized, long-term treatment.

Cataracts, which are the age-related changes of the eye’s natural lens, are the leading cause of reversible blindness worldwide and among older adults in the U.S. As proteins in the lens break down over time, they cause the lens to be less transparent and less able to change its shape. The lens can’t contract into a ball for near vision or flatten for distant; images become cloudy, blurry, less bright, and less colorful. Untreated advanced cataracts can lead to total blindness, which amazingly can still be reversed with surgery. Current estimates are that four million cataract surgeries are performed annually in the U.S., and the surgery is considered the safest invasive procedure done on humans. On this episode, we'll take a deep dive into the most common surgery performed in the U.S. today.