Please, please, please...When have I ever posted individual medical advice on this (or any other) board?  I always talk in general medical terms and present all the different alternatives.  When I did NOT say "Talk to your family physician!" I never have NOT said that!  

I can give "standard" or "text-book" medical advice, but, due to my different activities on websites, I NEVER GIVE PERSONAL MEDICAL ADVICE AND I ALWAYS REFER THE QUESTIONER BACK TO HIS/HER FAMILY PHYSICIAN.  Any medical information I may give is totally consistent with the generally accepted standards of medical practice.  I do stick to my ethics.

BUT your comment..."Besides, a real doctor wouldn't provide free medical advice unless he/she was doing it in association with a legit online medical forum since there is too much liability involved."

That's digusting!  Real doctors do give free medical advice and do give free medical care.  And the truth is that there are NO "legit online medical forums."  ALL those currently online have ethical conflicts with the pharmaceutical companies that support them. (Yeah, I used to consult to several pharmaceutic companies that wanted to provide medical information online, but had to "push" their products.  I got out of that business.)  Even the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical owe their online abilities to certain monied influences.

When I "retired" from private practice to rescue a Medicaid HMO that was going under, reorganize it, give patients free transport to their visits, sent out public health advisors to find patient's in their homes if they were not seeing their doctor regularly, started pre-natal classes where expectant mothers learned about the medical needs of pregnancy (and gave them free car seats for the coming kid, safe free playpens, free pre-natal nutrition, etc.) and so forth my physician colleagues called me a "wack-job."   Medicaid recipients aren't worth proper medical attention because Medicaid won't pay large physician fees.  You want me to be a "traditional" physician?

But when you say "Next thing you know there will be podiatrists preying on the ballerinas in order to fulfill a foot fetish" I knew you had to be a money-grubbing orthopedic surgeon, looking for his next back fusion so he could bill $24,000.00 for four hours work.  The kind of money-grubbing physican that I don't care to associate with.

I hope this doesn't offend the thoughtful people who post here, but I don't need this aggravation.  

And in more than 20 years, nobody stepped into my office and looked at the diploma and license on the wall.

DancingDoc

• Re: You must be an orthopedic surgeon. - DR??? at - 01.04. 14:43:04