SMART MEDICINE: Two Peds Are Better Than One

Forget sitting in a germ-infested waiting room watching the clock tick just to score face-time with your child’s MD. Now, thanks to two local pediatricians, busy parents can download discussions on children’s health right onto their computers or iPods, getting the information they need at the breakfast table, while they workout, or during their commute.

“Parents leave our offices with so many other questions, and there’s just so much misinformation out there,” says Dr. Naline Lai, who runs a private practice out of Buckingham Pediatrics. That’s why Lai and fellow Bucks County pediatrician Julie Kardos — who met on the first day of their residency orientation at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia 15 years ago — launched their blog and podcast, Two Peds in a Pod, this past July.

Kardos and Lai update the site twice a week with informative, yet entertaining, medical advice on issues they’ve tackled in their offices over the years, from peanut allergies to explaining family deaths. “It’s our dream to be able to go beyond the 30 patients we see everyday,” says Lai, who is also on staff at Doylestown Hospital. “We can talk to people during the day in our offices, but we knew if we had a site we could educate a lot more.”

Kardos and Lai, who each have three children of their own, are even getting ready to jump from the airwaves into the living rooms of Philly parents for interactive podcast recording sessions. The best part? Anyone can host a podcast session. All you have to do is gather a group of interested parents, pick a topic, and invite Lai and Kardos out to answer your questions. The recorded session will be aired on their site so other parents can tune in.

“Our heart is in patient education,” says Dr. Kardos, who practices out of CHOP Care Network Newtown Pediatrics, St. Mary Medical Center, and Lower Bucks Hospital. “Given how important preventative medicine is these days, this is a really unique avenue that needs to be explored.”

Check out the new site — and even e-mail your own concerns to Kardos and Lai — at twopedsinapod.com.