4/4/15 – Episode 530: Big City Bias

Regular guest and instigator of the Inside Sports Medicine Best College Fight Song competition, Dr. Scott Blumenthal joins Dr. Souryal today for some music, medicine, and for the first time ever: live-streaming hi-def hijinks! The votes are in for the final four of best college fight songs, and in the second hour listeners’ votes determine what song comes out on top.

The doctors take on Big City Bias and EOB in the Business of Medicine segment. Dr. B. recommends that for any elective surgery if you have the means to travel to a specialist, consider going to a bigger town, where the expertise, experience, and resources may be greater and better for you, the patient. Sometimes the Explanation of Benefits is inexplicable. Sports Medicine 101 covers arthritis or inflammation of a joint, the difference between rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, and the idea that arthritis is both a process and on a spectrum. At the end of the show, a Souryal Story brings home the importance of digging deep for the right diagnosis.

Callers’ questions start with a Sports Medicine Nugget: a dad asks if there is a better option than using an Endobutton in an ACL surgery for his 15 year old daughter who has a known metal allergy. As often happens, this question leads to more good questions and very good advice. Later, a soccer player may have a bruised rib or a cracked rib or something else altogether, a gout sufferer wants to get into shape and wonders what the best kind of exercise might be, another father calls in with his perspective on his daughter’s ACL recovery, a college baseball player throws hard and has some elbow pain that needs a solid diagnosis, and there’s a tricky trigger finger injury. Whew.

Daa daa daa, da-da da-da! And the winner is…listen and learn.