Dr Synonymous: Blog Review-Patients, Med Students, Doctors; Marcus Welby, MD

Dr Synonymous greets listeners, gives show overview and disclaimer: We're not practicing medicine on the show, that must come from your own family doctor. A patient blog is reviewed from Sea Spray about pain control and the relationship with her urologist. Fog Be Gone by Penelope from Canada discusses her frustration about undiagnosed symptoms. She reviews Lyme Disease as a possibility, discussing how some tests are less accurate than others. Dr S then reads some glycemic load diet tips for breakfast from Rob Thompson, MD. Next is the difficult issue of professional behavior covered by Sebastian, one of the medical students who blogs via The Future of Family Medicine, in which he discusses the Wisconsin family physicians who were videotaped giving sick notes to protesting teachers in Wisconsin. He writes of advocacy and political involvement versus the professional role that he thinks should be separate from politics. Nest is a story from Dr Tom Sterns book, House Calls, in which Robert Young who played Marcus Welby, MD is a dinner guest of Dr Stern and his wife Glad when a patient /neighbor calls about her sick son wanting a prescription. Dr Stern pulls a delightful prank on the neighbor by having Marcus Welby make a house call on the neighbors. It ended well, too. Dr S follows that with physician blog reviews including The Singing Pen of Dr Jen, expressing concerns about apparent bias in advertising by a specialty group which wants people to bring children with asthma to them even though primary care physicians can take of them. The specialty frustrations are well reviewed by Dr Jen (also an Ohio State Med School grad). Dr Kenny Lin discusses the PSA test misuse as a screening test on The Common Sense Family Doctor. He reviews how the test is ineffective as a screening test (meaning to be used in people with no symptoms) and leads to much confusion. Last is Dr S with Hippocrates, Hope and Heart a post about teaching medical students and more.