Essentia Health to hold free joint-replacement seminar on Oct. 19 at The Lodge in Detroit Lakes

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – Essentia Health St. Mary’s in Detroit Lakes will be hosting a free joint-replacement seminar at The Lodge on Thursday evening that will focus on common joint problems and possible remedies.

The event will feature two of Essentia’s orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Francis Cormier and Dr. Om Sharma who will be making short presentations to the attendees, but also be available for any questions during or after the event.

Dr. Andrew Moen, a podiatrist for Essentia Health, said sometimes people don’t want to have to go through the clinic and want to have health discussions in a different venue first.

“Kind of the concept is to bring the surgeons and the docs out of the clinic and out to the community,” said Dr. Moen. “People can ask questions. Meet the surgeons. Just get a general overview of what arthritis in our knees and our hips mean and then what are some options. And it’s not 100% surgical focused. We’re not trying to sign you up for the OR the next day, but sometimes people like to have medical discussions in different venues.”

He also said, if patients are experiencing chronic joint pain, he wants them to come to the event and ask questions from their surgeons instead of googling their ailment and then being advertised things or procedures they might not need because Essentia Health St. Mary’s can treat much of what they are looking up locally. It would also probably save them money by just coming to ask questions at their free event.

“There’s lots of advertising, just like with anything,” he said. “So various companies advertise and patients think they need to go to Minneapolis and Mayo Clinic and those are all good alternatives, but this is something that can be done safely and done very well in Detroit Lakes.”

Dr. Moen said he hopes the event remains low key with coffee and snacks because sometimes people don’t want to ask for help in the clinic setting and meeting community members informally is a way for their doctors to answer those questions and put that patient’s concerns to rest.

“I want it to be very low key, not a super serious event,” said Dr. Moen. “It’s a ‘no stupid questions; kinda thing. We’re really just trying to get our surgeons out in the community. They are two great guys. The therapy department is great. It’s just a good event for people that have any kind of questions about this area of the medical world.”

The Essentia Health free joint-replacement seminar begins Thursday, Oct. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at The Lodge in Detroit Lakes.