Dr. Marla Shapiro, who is to launch Dr. Marla & Friends on CTV News Channel on Sept. 24, on Friday recalled how she got her break in TV.

It came as a father with two sick kids showed up at her Toronto clinic in 1993, which was unusual because fathers usually were accompanied by mothers.

After her examination, Shapiro, or Dr. Marla to her Canadian TV fans on Canada AM, outlined to the father the course of treatment.

“I was explaining to him what the story was, what we were going to do and how we were going to do it,” she recounted.

And just as the father was preparing to leave her office with  his kids, Shapiro asked him whether he fully understood her medical advice.

After all, the father needed to go home and continue her role as healer.

“I asked him, ‘Did you get it?'” she recalled.

“What do you mean, ‘Did I get it?'” the father replied, mystified.

Shapiro told the father he needed to grasp what the treatment for his kids entailed to follow through once he got home.

“There’s no point in me giving you advice if you don’t understand it. And if you understand, you’re more likely to do it,” she told the father.

After agreeing, the father asked if she tested all her patients for comprehension.

Yes, she did, Shapiro replied.

Then you should do that on TV, the father, who turned out to be an associate producer on Citytv’s CityLine show, insisted.

And with that, Shapiro joined Citytv as the resident doctor on CityLine, giving out informed and intelligible medical advice to an audience bigger than her immediate patients back at the clinic.

“Having a larger (TV) platform to be able to talk about topics that I’m so passionate about is just like do what I do in the office, one-on-one, but this time on a much larger scale,” she explained.

Now that platform shifts from CityLine and Canada AM to Dr. Marla & Friends, a  half-hour national series on CTV News Channel that presents timely, current and news-driven medical topics and stories.

“We’re going to take that medical-based news, not anecdotes and opinion, but scientific data, and ask what does that mean in language that you can understand, and to do that for an audience of all ages,” Shapiro said.

Another element of Dr. Marla & Friends is looking at medical trends.

An example is autism. “It’s on the increase, so I’ll talk to an expert and ask why the numbers are increasing. And I will represent the point of view of the viewer,” Shapiro insisted.

And the CTV News Channel series will dispel medical myths, like how many glasses of water you should drink daily.

At bottom, Shapiro wants to eliminate confusion, mystery and fear on the part of ordinary consumers of health care and medical advice, so they no longer feel any need to be intimidated or cynical.

Photo: Marla Shapiro, from Dr. Marla.ca