The only two physicians in the US Senate partner today on a new method of outreach to voters on health-care reform. Drs. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) will appear live on Ustream at 4 pm ET to conduct a national dialogue:

From the press release:

Barrasso said, “We all agree that health care needs reform. Having practiced medicine for over two decades in Wyoming, I know that the devil is in the details. Doing nothing is simply not an option. We must be careful, we must be thoughtful, and we must be deliberate about the changes we make. Health care is a very complex and intensely personal issue. It deserves a serious, open, and transparent national debate. ‘Senate Doctors’ will allow more Americans to participate in that discussion.”

Coburn said, “As a practicing physician, I know that the doctor patient relationship is at the heart of medicine. Unfortunately, some in the Senate want to severe that relationship and put unaccountable and unqualified politicians and government bureaucrats in charge of medicine. Having a government board dictate medical treatments based on abstract economic data – not medical knowledge, or years of experience – is wrong for Americans and my patients. Republicans are committed to making health care more affordable while letting doctors and patients call the shots.”

For more information, to submit questions and comments, or to tune in, visit http://republican.senate.gov/doctors/. Viewers can send questions and comments via e-mail, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter from this site. Barrasso and Coburn will respond to a sampling of questions in future episodes.

I’ll be interested in this episode, but especially in future episodes. Will Barrasso and Coburn make a more honest showing than Barack Obama did with his planted questioners at the “town hall” event last month? I’d bet dollars to donuts they do, although that’s an admittedly low bar anyway. Be sure to watch it!

Update 16:25 – I watched most of it and was very impressed.  Other than a nagging buzz on the audio, the sound was good, and more importantly, both men came across as competent, informed, sober, and concerned.  They picked real questions from really random citizens, not just plants set up to help them stick to their talking points, as our President did at his town hall forum.  They’ll be doing these on Tuesdays and Thursdays all summer long, apparently.