Vital Signs: Health care on the ballot

CATHY WURZER: It's time for our segment Vital Signs. And joining us right now is Dr. Jon Hallberg, a family medicine physician at Mill City Clinic and a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Oh. I hate to say goodbye. This is his last segment with us.

JON HALLBERG: Oh!

CATHY WURZER: I know! But you know what? We're both going off to different things here, which is fantastic. So I want to just thank you so much for your time over this last year. It's been really great to have you on the air with us.

JON HALLBERG: Oh, my gosh, my pleasure, Cathy. What a treat for me.

CATHY WURZER: Well, let's talk about the election, shall we? It apparently is going to happen tomorrow.

JON HALLBERG: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS]

JON HALLBERG: Yeah, so I've heard.

CATHY WURZER: I've heard that. Yeah, exactly. So I'm wondering here, as a physician, you, of course, have to deal with a lot of regulations and policies that are controlled by elected officials. So as a physician, as a person steeped in the medical healthcare industry, what are you going to be paying attention to this election?

JON HALLBERG: Well, it's really interesting for me. This is my 30th year of practice, I think. So I've been in practice during a number of elections, and I can't recall one where there wasn't more specific conversation about what was going to happen policy wise, from both camps, frankly. And that's been a little different this year.

What I have noticed this year is the amount of anxiety that I'm feeling and seeing in the exam room itself. So in a much more of a macro level than a-- a micro level rather than a macro level. And I think lately hearing things like we might try and take fluoride out of the water or that there might be some legal arguments against the US Preventive Services Task Force that I rely on to determine what I'm going to do from a preventive screening standpoint with patients has been alarming or shocking. But generally speaking, it seems like the focus has been so much on the president's health, and President Biden before he stepped down. That's a real switch for me in terms of the cycle that we're through going through.

CATHY WURZER: But the anxiety definitely is palpable. I was talking to a group of individuals Friday night, and they were-- everyone raised their hand when I said, are you anxious? Everyone raised their hand and said, well, aren't you anxious, meaning, am I as a reporter? And I said, I try to keep an even keel, right? So what do you tell your patients about dealing with all this?

JON HALLBERG: Well, first of all, I feel very privileged that I'm in a profession where I can see everybody, and I do. I take care of everybody, regardless of how they think about things. I try and create a very special environment. When we're in that exam room, this is sort of a sanctuary. It's a safe place. And that's a very powerful place to be, very powerful place to practice.

And when that door is closed, it is a little bit like a confessional. And the amount of anxiety I'm hearing from people, their worries, their fears, their hopes is very much part of the conversation. It's really-- I would say, I had a lot of this in 2020 and some in 2016, but never like this. And I think that the anxiety people are suffering is the obvious stuff, right-- insomnia, anxiety specifically, but also some physical symptoms, GI symptoms, nausea, muscle spasm, pain, headaches-- that may or may not be directly related to this. But for some people, it absolutely is because this has been very consuming for many.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, going forward, and maybe you just want to do this broadly speaking, there's been some attention on healthcare policies in the campaign, but not a lot, really. What would you like to see going forward from our leaders?

JON HALLBERG: Well, I think saying things, more than we've got some kernel of a plan or we're going to share this with you later, we need much more detail than that, obviously. I think that you look at the past elections. Clinton was really talking about universal health care. George W. Bush shepherded in secure-- he secured prescription drug coverage for seniors. Obama created the Affordable Care Act. Those are pretty big, bold initiatives.

And it feels like we need something concrete like that, something to look forward to, something to shoot for. And having vague plans, just isn't that. And I think of Mike Osterholm, who I know you've had on, and you and I both know him really well, and hearing things that for the first time ever, veterinarians are now hearing, that some pet owners are reluctant to have their dogs immunized against rabies. We've never heard anything like that.

There's been such an undermining of our public health infrastructure. I think that's maybe where I would start is, how do we rebuild that, that trust in the public health system? Because that has been just terrifying to see that happen, the way that it has over the last few years, that distrust with the pandemic. And certainly that's where it started, it seems. We really need to build that back up.

CATHY WURZER: Say, I want to talk about all the things you've done for us here at MPR News. You've been with us for a really long time, and I was so excited that you came back and were hanging out with me on the noon show here for a little while. Now, I know you're still going to be a physician, obviously, but I think it's so cool that you are going to focus on filmmaking. And as a matter of fact, your team won an Emmy award for something you did for Twin Cities Public Television this past year. So what are you going to focus on here?

JON HALLBERG: Well, it's crazy to say this-- and just to drive home the point you mentioned, Cathy, I am absolutely committed to being a physician from here on out, until I retire. I love being in clinic. It's where I'm probably the best. So I intend to continue to do that.

The filmmaking thing is completely something that just came by surprise. It started in 2020 with the pandemic. It had a live show that I had done for about a decade and then pivoted and worked with Twin Cities Public Television. And we've done four shows. We've won Emmys, regional Emmys, for three of those four.

And I have four films in various stages of preproduction right now. One will focus on primary care family medicine, one on the work being done by a local nonprofit, the Protége Foundation, taking care of Ukrainian soldiers who've lost limbs in the war, and a couple of other projects. And it's so fun, so unexpected.

But I think what I love about it is, I'm in clinic. I always consider that micro medicine, one on one, taking care of patients, one after the other. But the work that you do on television, on radio, the work that I'm doing, it allows us to put our public health hats on, or my public health hat on, and reach more people. And film is my absolute, hands-down favorite form of art.

I love photography. I love cinematography. I love theater. I love the written word. I love music. And it's just this incredible way of bringing all of it together in one kind of package, which is really, really fun.

CATHY WURZER: And how might the humanities work that you do, the creative part of your life intersect with what you do in the exam room, or do they intersect?

JON HALLBERG: Oh, yeah. It is absolutely-- I'm sitting here. I'm talking to you from the Mill City Clinic. I'm looking out the window at the Guthrie Theater. And around the side, one of the playwrights that they have is Anton Chekhov. And I'm constantly reminded of his life and William Carlos Williams, another one, where these were physicians who had-- they were legit physicians. That was their day job. But then they had this other part of their lives, where they were writing plays or poetry.

And for me, my clinic work 100% informs the arts and humanities work that I do. And then that, in turn, reinforces the work I do in the clinic. So I find them completely inseparable. And I help run, with some wonderful colleagues, the Center for the Art of Medicine, and that is really this place that is near and dear to me. And so it's not either or. It's a big emphatic "and."

CATHY WURZER: I love that so much! So when you're nominated for the Academy Award and-- when you get nominated, I want to interview you. And then, of course, when you win an Oscar, you know who to call then.

JON HALLBERG: Oh, Cathy, if that ever happens, I will thank you from the stage. I'll make sure that I include you.

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS]

JON HALLBERG: But that is really fun to think about. That will not happen. But I'm having such a great time working with-- making a film, running a radio program, running your television show, it's such a cool way of bringing a village together. I just love all the disparate people and all these great professionals coming together to make this product. It's just a really fun thing because it's not just you at the microphone or me trying to fund a film or something. It takes a village, and I really, really love that piece.

CATHY WURZER: Now you know about the magic that is inherent in what we do. And you, of course, I'm a big fan of your work. And don't be a stranger. We'll be talking soon.

JON HALLBERG: Absolutely Thank you so much, Cathy. It's been such a pleasure to work with you.

CATHY WURZER: Likewise. Dr. Jon Hallberg's been with us, family medicine physician at Mill City Clinic and a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School.