Docs on the box: Satisfaction from reaching thousands each broadcast

Doctors on television and radio see their media work as a way to teach more people about being healthy.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Aug. 26, 2002.

Pediatrician Bruce Buehler, MD, has become something of a local celebrity thanks to his call-in TV show on KMTV3, the CBS affiliate in Omaha, Neb.

Men have approached him to ask questions while he's shaving in the gym locker room. At the local Kmart, a woman once approached him with a less-than-flattering comment.

"She said, 'I thought you were only supposed to look fatter on TV,' " said Dr. Buehler, chair of pediatrics and director of the Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Usually the feedback is more positive.

Dr Buehler said viewers of his show tell him the program has helped them go on a diet or work to get their cholesterol down.

Dr. Buehler and other physicians featured on TV or radio as hosts and medical experts say the satisfaction they get from their broadcast work outweighs the sting of the occasional critic. And the airtime gives them a chance to reach beyond their own patients and help more people improve their health. They impart their medical wisdom on cable access in the wee hours of the morning, spell out the latest advances on the 6 o'clock news and sound off on flu shots to country radio listeners.

They acknowledge it's a bit of an ego boost.

"You have to realize that you are potentially talking to 20, 30, 40 thousand people, and that's a rush," Dr. Buehler said.

Naturally, doctors appearing on the major networks are seen by many more viewers, typically millions. They often are trained and paid to put a professional face on medicine during broadcasts. [...]