MDisability Provider Webinar Series

A Disability Health Webinar Series for Primary Care Medical Professionals in yellow text on a blue background

The MDisability Provider Webinar series is hosted by and for primary care medical professionals who seek information on how to care for patients with disabilities. These webinars provide educational and clinical care insight, tools, and resources, and cover diverse topics about caring for people with physical, sensory, intellectual, and developmental disabilities. They are delivered by experienced primary care providers who care for people with disabilities. Some of these providers are also caregivers for a person with a disability or who may have a disability themselves. With thanks to the generous support of the Robert J. Fisher, M.D. Family Medicine Fund, the webinars are held quarterly, include live captioning, and are free of charge.

April 2023 - Home Visits for People with Disabilities: A Family Doc's Approach

For our first provider webinar in the 2023 series, “Home Visits for People with Disabilities: A Family Doc’s Approach” with Cheryl E. LaMore, M.D., Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan. Dr. LaMore shared her experience providing home visits and explained how this care has added to her love of practicing family medicine.  

Dr. LaMore has spent her career caring for patients in multiple levels of care including serving as an attending physician on the inpatient service at Chelsea Family Medicine, providing care for patients at the local nursing home, and performing home visits for her patients who meet criteria. Dr. LaMore has also included medical students and family medicine physicians to join her on her home visit rounds. 

Transcript - April 13, 2023, Provider Webinar (PDF)

December 2022 - Reproductive Health Care for People with Disabilities

The last series webinar of 2022 was held on Thursday, Dec. 8 with Justine Wu, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Justine Wu discussed the overarching principles of reproductive health care for people with disabilities as informed by social justice frameworks. She will then focus on the intersection of contraceptive care and management of menstrual symptoms and how to tailor this care for patients along a spectrum of decision-making models (shared decision-making, supported decision-making, proxy decision-making).

Dr. Wu is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine with a joint appointment in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan, where she completed her residency many years ago. She completed a Master of Public Health and Family Planning Fellowship at the University of Rochester. She provides primary care to patients in Livonia, Michigan. Her research focuses on improving contraceptive care for individuals with complex health needs, including those with disabilities, and chronic conditions. She has led a series of epidemiologic analyses documenting U.S. trends in contraceptive use among women with disabilities. Dr. Wu lives in Ann Arbor with her family and enjoys doing nerdy NY Times word games when she is not watching her kids’ soccer games or walking the dog.

Transcript - December 8, 2022, Provider Webinar (PDF)

September 2022 - Navigating Health, Community, and School Barriers with a Cognitive Disability

On Monday, September 26, we held the second edition of our primary care provider webinar series, titled “Navigating Health, Community, and School Barriers with a Cognitive Disability,” presented by Amal Othman, M.D., and co-presenter, Muhammad Othman, Dr. Othman's son. 
 
Dr. Amal Othman is a practicing family physician and assistant professor of family medicine, geriatric medicine, and obesity management at the University of Michigan. However, for this webinar, she will be speaking from her personal experience navigating complex systems of care as a mother of a child living with Rett Syndrome.  
 
Muhammad Othman is a biomedical engineering student on the pre-med path at Wayne State ​University's Irvin D. Reid Honors College. He is passionate about disability advocacy and improving the quality of life for individuals with a disability. During high school, he worked on a project titled, “The Effects of Communication on Activity Participation and Engagement in a Girl with Rett Syndrome.” 
 
 
Rett Syndrome Resources

March 2022 - Caring for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Patients: An Overview for Primary Care Providers

Philip Zazove, M.D., the George A. Dean, M.D. Chair of Family Medicine, and Michael M. McKee, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor, held MDisability’s first Provider Webinar on Thursday, March 3 titled, "Caring for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Patients: An Overview for Primary Care Providers."

The event attracted participants from health organizations across North America, including registrants from within Michigan Medicine as well as Wayne State University, Harvard University, and the Provincial Health Services Authority in Canada.