Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh

E80: Bone Health Isn't Just for Seniors: The Wellness Center for Bone and Joint Health Leads Patient-Centered Care

• Leila Carter & Tiffany Belculfine • Episode 80

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What makes Tiffany Belculfine with the Wellness Center For Bone And Joint Health a good neighbor? 

Bone health doesn't have to mean surgery or medications. Tiffany Belculfine, a certified physician assistant since 2007, reveals the innovative work happening at the Wellness Center for Bone and Joint Health at Magee Women's Hospital—where customized, non-surgical approaches are transforming how we think about our skeletal system.

Did you know your bones reach peak strength in your thirties? Most people don't discover this until decades later when problems have already developed. The Wellness Center aims to change this narrative by bringing education and preventive care directly to communities. Through free screening programs that include ultrasound bone density tests, nutrition assessments, fall prevention evaluations, and grip strength measurements, they're making bone health accessible to everyone—not just those who can make it to a doctor's office.

Belculfine busts persistent myths during our conversation, particularly that osteoporosis only affects older women. Men, too, face significant bone health risks but often remain unaware until problems develop. What makes the Wellness Center truly special is their patient-centered approach—creating fully customizable care plans based on what matters most to each individual. "This is not a one-size-fits-all program," Belculfine emphasizes, highlighting how they fill healthcare gaps when traditional medical settings leave questions unanswered. Whether through their main hospital location, satellite offices, or telemedicine options, the center ensures everyone can access the bone and joint health resources they need.

Want to learn more about keeping your bones and joints healthy at any age? Check out the Wellness Center's website or keep an eye out for their community screening events happening throughout Pittsburgh. Your skeleton will thank you for starting this conversation sooner rather than later!

To learn more about the Wellness Center For Bone And Joint Health go to: 

https://www.boneandjointhealth.org/

Wellness Center For Bone And Joint Health

(412)641-8594

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of an informational resource on bone and joint health? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Tiffany Belkifine, with Wellness Center for Bone and Joint Health. Tiffany, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

I am having a great Thursday. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Well, thanks for being here. We're excited to learn all about you and your business, so please tell us more about your organization.

Speaker 3:

So I am the medical provider for the Wellness Center for Bone and Joint Health, based out of McGee Women's Hospital. We are a non-surgical, non-medication bone and joint health clinic and we focus on a lot of different things that come up for people about bone and joint health that maybe they've never even thought about before, so we try to bring education and awareness out into the community and to all of the patients who want to access the Wellness Center. We are closely connected with a large orthopedic surgery group at McGee called the Bone and Joint Center and Renaissance Orthopedics. Our medical director is actually one of the surgeons who operates in that facility, so we are the non-surgical arm of the Bone and Joint Center.

Speaker 2:

What an amazing resource for people who are looking for something less invasive. So how did you get into this business?

Speaker 3:

Well, I've been a physician assistant since 2007.

Speaker 3:

That is my degree. I'm a certified physician assistant, so I take care of all of our patients in the Wellness Center and in other previous positions I've had, they've just been clinic-based, where you have a schedule and you go see a patient, you address their concerns and then you go on to the next. In the Wellness Center we actually have a really nice component that we go out into the community and we bring not only free educational events to people but we also bring care. Some of the things that we can do for people include free screening programs where we can do an ultrasound to check their bone density, we can do a nutrition screen, we can do a fall prevention screen, we can do a grip strength test and we are piloting a new plan coming soon where we will actually be bringing x-rays to people in some capacities. So there's a lot of information we can give people, not only with their health and things that they can do for prevention, but also that education component to people who maybe can't come to regular appointments.

Speaker 2:

Oh, very good and definitely increasing the accessibility for people who might not be able to make it to appointments as easily. I love that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's really nice.

Speaker 2:

What are some myths or maybe misconceptions in your industry?

Speaker 3:

That's a great question. So, unfortunately, in every area of medicine there are going to be myths and misconceptions, but some of the biggest ones that we encounter in the wellness center are things that men can't get osteoporosis yes, they can and also that people only need to worry about things like osteoporosis or their bone health once they advance in age. It is actually something that people need to be worried about their whole life so that once they are of an advancing age, they don't have as many problems. If we can catch them sooner, we can educate them on the prevention and what they need to do in the meantime, and then again alerting men that they can also be at risk for osteoporosis, which many of them don't know. A lot of times we go to events and it's primarily women, but men need to be educated that they can also suffer from these terrible silent diseases.

Speaker 2:

Right. So who are your target customers, then, and how are you attracting them to the business?

Speaker 3:

We really don't have a specific target audience. I will say that bone and joint health is for everyone, so everyone has concerns about their bone and joint health at some point in their lives. Many people don't get any attention to their bone and joint health until they're into their 60s. The frustrating challenge there is our bones are at their strongest when we're in our 30s, but this isn't widely advertised to people, so they don't know about it. So we want people to start to know that they can come to us at any point in their lives and start to get information on what to do or what to start doing or what to keep doing to keep their bones and joints good and strong and healthy.

Speaker 2:

Have you ever thought about maybe starting your own podcast to get that information to people?

Speaker 3:

I haven't, but that could be really fun if I ever had the capacity to do that.

Speaker 2:

So what else do you do for fun outside of work?

Speaker 3:

So I love to read. I am currently involved in a reading challenge that I created myself, where I'm trying to read all of the books off of my shelf before I buy any more. It's quite hard. Otherwise, I'm also a musical theater performer, so I do two to three shows a year where I sing, dance and act on stage, and I love to go out into community theaters and meet new people and perform together.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, pittsburgh has a really lively scene for the arts. Yes, oh, that sounds so much fun. So, tiffany, please tell our listeners one thing that they should remember, or that should stick with them, about the Wellness Center for Bone and Joint Health.

Speaker 3:

So the accessibility is so important for everybody to know about. We are in McGee Hospital, but we also have other satellite office locations and a lot of what we do can be done as telemedicine, so every patient can be involved in whatever degree they need to be. This is not a one-size-fits-all program. It is completely customizable to whatever patient's concerns and needs are.

Speaker 3:

One of the things that we pride ourselves on in the Wellness Center is focusing on the things that matter to the patient and unfortunately, a lot of times in medicine, people you know go in with questions and they don't have time to get them answered. Or you know they have an idea about something and maybe their doctor doesn't think that's the best fit for them and they don't know where to go from there. We try to fill in the gaps for people where we can, and we want to provide as customized of a program as we can. Whether people are simply looking for education, or people are looking for exercises they can do or information on nutrition, or, you know, ways that they could prevent their fall risk in the future, or things they can do in their home, we really tackle any of those concerns and more, and we really want people to know that what matters to them is what matters to us to help drive their care and make them an active partner in their care.

Speaker 2:

I love that so how can our? Listeners learn more about the Wellness Center for Bone and Joint.

Speaker 3:

Health. Well, we do have a website. I apologize, I did not write down the link so I will have to send that to you so you can list that for all of your listeners. But we also have a phone number where patients can call and ask questions or make an appointment. You can also keep your eyes peeled for any of our information where we would be listing upcoming outreach events. We go to a lot of senior citizen centers. We go to a lot of health fairs where we will be doing those four and five point screenings that I mentioned. We can, you know, really get people involved in any way that they want to be by just reaching out to us.

Speaker 2:

Excellent. Well, Tiffany, I really appreciate your time today and having you as a guest on the show. We wish you and the Wellness Center the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be able to do this with you, and I look forward to hearing more about everything else that you have going on too.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPittsburghcom. That's GNPPittsburghcom, or call 412-561-9956.