Kids From REACH at #fmecnet

The residency fair is always a popular place for medical students to be during the Family Medicine Education Consortium NE region meeting. At the 2010 meeting in Hershey, PA, there was an added bonus in that the kids from Reach, Inc in Central Pennsylvania also performed for us.

REACH is a visual & performing arts and education organization promoting Greater Academic Achievements through the performing arts. And, you'll see in the video above just how inspirational these kids are and this program is. Enjoy!

More interviews from #fmecnet

Thanks to Larry Bauer who recorded the videos above at the 2010 Family Medicine Education Consortium meeting in Hershey, PA. In one video, you'll see meeting attendees sharing why they enjoyed this year's meeting. And, in the other video, you'll see a session where people are learning to square dance. Enjoy!

Med Students at #fmecnet

It's always great talking with med students at the Family Medicine Education Consortium NE region meeting. At the 2010 meeting in Hershey, PA, I was able to speak to these three students about their experience at the meeting and why other med students should attend. Enjoy the video above!

Video: Health Care Innovators at #fmecnet

I was finally able to edit together some of the video I recorded at the Health Care Innovators network meeting here at the Family Medicine Education Consortium NE region meeting in Hershey, PA (twitter hashtag #fmecnet). I invite you to check out my full text blog post on this by clicking here. I apologize for not being able to get all the presenters on video since I had to leave the session early. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy the video above!

Health Care Innovators at #fmecnet

I went to a bunch of sessions today grouped together under the umbrella of the "Health Care Innovations Network" at the Family Medicine Education Consortium NE region meeting. I'm trying to get people to tweet during the meeting (hashtag #fmecnet). That concept is pretty new here, but to follow what we have so far, you can check it out here.

The moderators for the sessions were Paul Grundy, MD, Roland Goetrz, MD, and Edward Zurad, MD. These three are also going to be doing the keynote speeches during this meeting. I really wasn't sure about what I would get out of these sessions. But, I was pleasantly surprised by what I learned.

Everyone knows the many weaknesses of the current US model of health care including more payment for procedures as opposed to prevention. But, there is very little heard about those programs who are using different models or care. The models that we heard about included "Health Access Rhode Island," and Scituate Health Alliance. We also heard of physicians who directly talk with health care purchasers (ie - employers).

Everyone in the Family Medicine community knows that we give great health care in this country. Unfortunately, there was not enough data out there to back up this claim. I'm learning now that there are pockets of the country who have been gathering this data and presenting this data to employers and insurance companies. The data shows that, when done the right way, Family Docs deliver high quality care at decreased cost.

The problem is that no one (or very few people) know about these successful health care delivery models. One of the questions that came up today was this: "Can these smaller, successful programs scale up to take care of more patients - and still maintain their success numbers." That's the (multi) trillion dollar question.

I recorded a bunch of short video clips from this morning's sessions. I hope to edit that stuff and post it up to the blog tonight. I do have to tell you though - that I feel a little out of my element in that most of the people here are academic docs who have a lot of different day-to-day issues than community docs like me. But, like other conferences I've been to this month, our main focus is still the patient, and how we can deliver the best care both on a microeconomic and macroeconomic level.

Getting to #fmecnet meeting 2010

Since I'm passionate about creating content, I recorded some video, edited it when I arrived at the hotel, and uploaded it for all of you to enjoy (hehe). It was a really nice drive to Hershey, PA getting ready for the 2010 Family Medicine Education Consortium NE Region meeting. As you'll see in the video above, the fall leaves gave a great backdrop to today's drive. I'm really looking forward to this year's meeting, my panel presentation this weekend, networking with Family Docs, and letting them know about social media.

The twitter hashtag for the meeting is #fmecnet. And, even if I am the only one tweeting at the meeting, my goal is to teach these family docs the benefits of social media and how much fun it is! Hopefully my friends out there on twitter will help me show the power of twitter in that even though you're not here on site, you interact with me and know what's going on at this year's FMEC meeting. Keep track of the blog and of my twitter feed for updates...

Dr. A Show 191 Wrap-up

Thanks to Kat for being my co-host for Doctor Anonymous Show 191. This was a typical Saturday night show where we share a little bit about our past week, talk about some news stories, and relax with our friends in the chat room. In the video clip above, you'll see the opening moments of the show.

As always, you can listen to the entire audio podcast in the sidebar of this site. Or, if you like, you can download Show 191 from the show's iTunes page, and listen any time. I also invite you to check out the show's facebook page and hit the huge "Like" button at the top. Finally, you can also check out other video segments from past shows over on my you tube page. Thanks as always for your continued support of my blog and of the show!

Dr. A Show 190 Wrap-up

Thanks to all those who were able to listen to Doctor Anonymous Show 190 live last night. I talked about this week's Digital Pharma East meeting in Philadelphia. During the show, I talked about the 2 panels that I was lucky enough to be a part of. I also talked about some people that I met at the meeting.

In the video clip above, I make some predictions of where I see the industry going. There is no way that pharma or even docs like me are going to push physicians into digital or into social media (at least right away). Who will push docs in this direction? Check out the video above to find out what I think.

You can listen to the entire audio podcast in the player in the sidebar. Or, if you like, you can go to the show's iTunes page, download Show 190, and listen at your leisure. I also encourage you to check out the show's facebook page and hit the big "Like" button at the top. Finally, if you enjoyed the video above, I encourage you to check my youtube page. Have a great weekend everybody!

Video Essay: Digital Pharma East 2010

I took a lot of video while at the Digital Pharma East 2010 conference this week in Philadelphia. I put this video wrap-up video really fast so that I could share this with all of you. (Apologize for all the non-ideal lighting. Hey, I'm not a videographer lol) The music is "Goodbye Philadelphia" by Peter Cincotti. I also invite you to read Post #1 and Post #2 from the meeting along with Doctor Anonymous Show 190. Thanks for a great meeting!

Dr. A Show Tonight

Thursday, October 21th, 2010 at 9pmET (0100 UTC)

I invite you to join me for Doctor Anonymous Show 190. Over the past few days, I have been in Philadelphia for the Digital Pharma East meeting. There is no scheduled guest tonight, but I will share some thoughts about my experience at this week's meeting. I refer you to a couple of posts I wrote before leaving Philly yesterday (See Post #1 and Post #2). In the video above, I was interviewed by the Pixels & Pills website that follows "New Directions In Digital Pharma." Thanks so much to them for interviewing me.

If you are new to the show, I encourage you to catch us live. There is a great chat room that also goes on. You can even see my shining face on the webcam. Can't catch us live? That's ok. You can listen anytime after the show as it is saved as a podcast so you can listen anytime!

For first time Blog Talk Radio listeners:
*Although it is not required to listen to the show, I encourage you to register on the BlogTalkRadio site prior to the show. I think it will make the process easier.

*To get to my show site, click here. As show time gets closer, keep hitting "refresh" on your browser until you see the "Play/Chat" button. Then, of course, press the "Play/Chat" button.

Panel: Digital Pharma East 2010

I'm going to be leaving Philadelphia later today completing my time at Digital Pharma East 2010. I'd like to thank the organizers for asking me to be on a panel talking about the interface of pharma with physicians. The topic of this panel was similar to the discussion at Digital Pharma West this past summer.

It was a very good discussion with interaction from the audience. The bottom line is - as of right now - even though docs are using mobile and smartphones a lot, physicians are not on social media. The question kept keeping up as far as, "How can docs access pharma in the internet space?" The answer is that you just can't, because docs are not on social.

One point that was brought up was putting technology into the physician workflow. For example, putting things like pharma links into something like the EMR. In addition, wouldn't it be nice for me to see in the side bar whether the med I'm considering is on formulary or not on formulary. How about putting a link in my EMR side bar - that I can click - to get my patient a voucher for the med - instead of me trying to keep track of all the voucher cards or coupons in my office right now.

In my opinion, there is nothing that pharma can do directly that will get physicians on social media (at least right now). What I see in the future is pharma putting resources into a strategy that has worked in the past. The "Ask Your Doctor" about this med - The direct-to-consumer marketing strategy that has worked before - In addition to pharma exploring how to utilize the E-patient movement and patient advocates (Do you hear that E-patients?) - This means utilizing Consumer Directed Health Care - I see pharma pouring resources on these strategies instead of trying to get docs to access social.

Update: Digital Pharma East 2010

I'm having a great time here in Philadelphia at Digital Pharma East 2010. I'd like to thank the conference organizers for asking me to take part in the conference. I'll talk about the panel that I was on during a separate post. Usually during a meeting like this, I get to meet a lot of great people. And, I know that I'm going to probably offend someone if I don't mention everyone in this post. For that, I apologize.

However, for me, the highlight during the conference was meeting Berci Mesko, MD who is the founder of Webicina and ScienceRoll.com. He spent 24 hours traveling from Hungary to take part in the conference. I remember interviewing Berci in the early days of The Doctor Anonymous Show. And, he woke up at about 2 or 3am to talk to me live from Hungary.

We had a great conversation about social media. He told me that my blog and my internet radio show is a part of the curriculum for his Internet In Medicine University Course. We discussed me recording a video for his students about physicians in social media. He even told me that The Doctor Anonymous Show is a trivia question in his course. He is presenting today and he was interviewed at a session yesterday. I also invite you to check out Berci's update.

The highlight meet up that happened after the conference was with long time internet friend known as @LizzPiano. We started blogging at around the same time in 2006. In addition to reminiscing about those early blogging days, we had a great conversation about how we have seen the blogging scene change in just the past four years. The landscape of was was called "the medical blogosphere" then and "social health" now - has greatly changed with less pure story telling and more pure personal marketing of some who are seen as the leading voices in the social health space. I have a separate blog post in my mind on this topic. When will I write that post? Not right now...

Digital Pharma East 2010

I'm going to Philadelphia for two days this week to be a part of what is called "The Most Innovative Event In Pharma History." It is called Digital Pharma East put on by Exl Pharma. Back at the end on June, I was asked to attend DigPharm West in San Francisco. I definitely learned a lot by going to that meeting. I encourage you to check out my blog post of when I was there.

I'm going to be part of two panel discussions during this conference. The first one will be on Tuesday at 2:15pm. The title in the program is "Mobile Messaging To Health Care Providers." In this panel, will discuss "ways that mobile devices impact clinical workflow" and "how life sciences can use the mobile channels to provide value to the provider."

The second session will be on Wednesday at 9:30am. The title is "The Changing Landscape Of Pharma/Physician Relationships." I'm on this panel with none other than @Doctor_V. If you would like to see the full schedule, check out the link here.

One person I'm really looking forward to meeting at the conference is Berci Mesko, MD from the Science Roll website. I've been an admirer of his for a while. And, I actually interviewed him on The Doctor Anonymous Show in the early days of the show. He got up in the middle of the night to be on my show live.

One person I'm really looking forward to meeting outside the conference is @LizzPiano who lives in the Philadelphia area. We have known each other since I started blogging, and is a member of that group of people called "Bloggers Anonymous" that was jokingly started back in 2006 when I started blogging. So, needless to say, this will be a very fun trip!

Radio Rounds: Behind The Scenes

Yesterday, I was able to hang out at the studios of the Radio Rounds show/podcast on the campus of Wright State University in Dayton, OH. They broadcast Episode 410 live at noon eastern time and their guest was a recorded interview with Howard Dean.

In the video above, you'll see the what happens behind the scenes during a live podcast. It was so interesting seeing how the four co-hosts coordinated to make this show happen. As they talk about in the clip, this is the first time that these four have been in the same studio for a number of months. But, you'll be able to see the rapport that this tight knit group has.

I also invite you to check out the Radio Rounds crew from Doctor Anonymous Show 183 from a few months ago. You can download Show 183 how from the Dr. A iTunes page. I also invite you to check out the facebook page for my show. And, if you enjoy the video above, check out others from my YouTube page. Enjoy!

Twitter Mentor

I've had a lot of titles in my life. But, "Twitter Mentor" has never been one of them - until now. Over the weekend, I was asked to lead a discussion about social media with my friends at the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP). I've been involved with the organization all the way back to when I was a medical student.

The organization, lead by OAFP President Dr. Sarah Sams (pictured to the right above), has made it a priority this year to get involved and learn more about social media. This is where I come in. Not only was I asked to help come up with a strategy, Madame President asked me what twitter was all about and how to get signed up. In the picture above, Dr. Sams is tweeting for the first time.

This was also interesting, because in last night's HCSM twitter chat, question number three was this: You’re charged with setting a colleague/MD/exec up on social media. Who should they start following, listening to, and engaging with? Why? What comes first?

In the HCSM chat, they recommended finding a kind of social media mentor - which I totally agree with. I mean, hey even CEO's of companies are asking for help from the tech savvy set. Sarah has been great to work with on this. I encourage you to give her a follow @QuiltingDoctor - In addition, give a follow to the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians feed @OhioAFP. Thanks so much!

Show 189 Wrap-up

Thanks to my co-host Kat for joining me for Doctor Anonymous Show 189. Topics on the show included my travel from Seattle, some current news events, and me whining about the Ohio State loss last night. In the video above, we discuss a news story from the week talking about prescription drug abuse.

As always, you can listen to the entire audio podcast in the sidebar. Or, if you like, you can go to the show's iTunes page, download Show 189, and listen at your leisure. I also invite you to check out the show's facebook page and press the huge "Like" button at the top. Finally, check out my youtube page. Thanks for your continued support of the show!

Why Social Media Needs Physician Participation

One of the most common questions I get is this: "Why should physicians get involved in social media?" This past week, Swedish Medical Center in Seattle had a social media conference of which I was fortunate to be a part of (#Swedish100). I invite you to read more about the panel that I was a part of at this link here.

However, there was a lot of buzz this week generated by the presentation by Wendy Sue Swanson, MD who is otherwise known on twitter as @SeattleMamaDoc. She makes the best case of why docs should be involved in the social space during her inspiring program. Check out the video above. This should be required viewing by all docs and all those who doubt that physicians can make an impact in social media.

Social Health at BlogWorldExpo 2010

Just wanted to give a big shout out to my friends out in Las Vegas for BlogWorld Expo 2010. Last year, I was proud to be a part of the first Medblogger Track (now called the Social Health) track at #BWE09. I encourage you to check out a bunch of posts about #BWE09 from October 2009. This year's schedule is another impressive lineup. You can check out the entire #BWE10 schedule by clicking here.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this year's meeting. But, I will definitely be monitoring the twitter stream to see what is happening out there. I also wanted to announce that I am going to be canceling tomorrow night's scheduled Doctor Anonymous Show. Starting with the travel fiasco yesterday in trying to leave Seattle, being on call tonight, and going out of town again this weekend, I gotta find some time to catch up on the office work. I apologize for the inconvenience. I encourage you to check out the video below to see the highlights of last year's meeting. Enjoy!

Perspective Watching Miners Rescue

Life definitely keeps you grounded. Today has been a time of emotional ups and downs. Things started off on quite a high and I was finishing up the Swedish Medical Center Health Care Symposium. It's fun doing the entire live tweeting thing. Not only does it keep me on my toes as far as paying attention to the lecture and tweeting that out.

I was about 30 minutes before boarding my flight at SeaTac, when it was announced that my flight would be delayed for 2 hours due to mechanical problems. I knew that I was going to miss my connecting flight. So, I knew that I had to rebook my flight - hoping to get back to my home airport tonight. I was told that it was impossible to get home tonight, and that the earliest that I could get home was tomorrow.

Needless to say, I was really upset by this. No only am I in the office tomorrow, I'm also on call tonorrow night. Being mad and embarrassed, I had to call my office to let them know that I had to cancel most of my morning patients and to let them know that I would not be able to be on call until I got back in town.

As soon as I was able to arrange that, I heard the announcement that the "mechanical problem" was now fixed and that they would be boarding immediately. I had already got new boarding passes, and I could not get things switched back. I would still miss my connecting flight anyway.

For the next few hours, I remained mad. But I tried to make the best of things, by getting back to watch the live stream of #Swedish100 conference, take the picture above, and tweeting away again. That was fun to virtually re-connect with friends - at least for a little bit.

As I'm writing this, it is around 8:30pm pacific time, and on the TV right now is the coverage of the rescue of the miners in Chile (as of this post the first of 33 miners rescued in Chile). That leads my thoughts to the families of these miners who have been hoping for a miracle for the past few weeks. Suddenly, all my problems seem so small. My thoughts and prayers are with the miners and their families....

Social Health Panel at #Swedish100

I was very happy to he a part of the Pre-conference session of the 2010 Swedish Medical Center Health Care Symposium. Definitely felt a little intimidated being on a panel with a group of medical social media superstars (that probably shows in the video above - sheesh)

Our moderator, Nick Dawson, did a fabulous job at keeping us on track. As you'll see in the video above from our panel, he did a great thing in which he asked the audience if they had any questions. I think those opening thoughts really guided the panel in our discussion. Nick also asked about the composition of the audience. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of physicians in the audience.

The other panelists included Kent Bottles, Jen Dyer, and Bryan Vartabedian. Some themes that came out of the discussion were the issues that physicians are concerned about - Payment reform for electronic communications, Patient privacy concerns, and Liability issues. Another interesting theme that came out was showing a lot of love for twitter. If you had any question about how physicians utilize twitter for social media consumption - You must watch the video above!

In addition to our panel, there were presentations by Dave deBronkart and Wendy Sue Swanson. (As of this posting, EPatient Dave's talk is available, but SeattleMamaDoc is not - yet) I was also able to meet a lot of great people including Bill Thatcher, Greg Guenther, and Anita Beninger. I was even interviewed by Jessica Levco from Ragan Communuications. I'll post that interview here when it is made available.

I'd like to thank the Swedish team including Dana Lewis, Melissa Tizon, Aaron Blank, and a lot of other people that I am forgetting. If you'd like to check out the twitter stream, you can check out #swedish100. (In the video below, you'll see my attempt of recording a Q&A of a question about patient involvement with their care)

2010 Swedish Health Care Symposium

Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington will be hosting their 2010 Health Care Symposium next week on October 11-12. They have an impressive speakers list including the CEO of General Electric. Dr. Rod Hochman, the CEO of Swedish, is even on twitter - and - sent me a tweet back when I said hello. (Very cool!)

I will be taking part in one of the Pre-Conference sessions. The speakers for this Pre-Con session include Kent Bottles, Nick Dawson, Dave de Bronkart, Jennifer Dyer, Wendy Swanson, and Bryan Vartabedian. (In the video above, I discuss the conference with Dana Lewis from Doctor Anonymous Show 187)

If you're not able to attend the event in person, that's ok. Swedish is making it available on a live video stream. If you want to watch the Live Video Stream, just go to http://bit.ly/sw100live - Also, as you're watching the live stream, use twitter to take part in the conversation by using the hastag #Swedish100 - They will also be using the social media tool called CoverItLive to try to funnel some of the conversation.

Social Health Is Cool Right Now

Back in the dark ages only a few years ago when the intersection of medicine and the internet was in its infancy, there was not really a phrase or a word coined to describe medical people who liked the internet. Then, for lack of a better term, "Medbloggers" was used. This was kind of solidified by the weekly blog carnival called "Grand Rounds."

In addition, only a year ago, there was the first "Medblogger" track at the huge tech conference called BlogWorld Expo 2009, of which I was lucky enough to be asked to be a speaker for. Then, earlier this year, in the spring, I saw people using the phrase, "Social Health." This was especially prominent with the event named "SouthBy Social Health" - patterned after the very popular geek conference called "South By Southwest."

Now, in 2011, the South By Southwest meeting is going to have a "Social Health" track of programming. In addition, in Las Vegas this week will be the "Social Health" track at the 2011 BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas. So, if you want to be one of the cool kids and want to be seen on the cutting edge, forget Social Media - Call it Social Health, and hold your head up high!

Paper.Li: I Don't Get It

Ok kids, I need some help here. It seems like over the past month or so, I've been seeing something peculiar in my twitter stream. The links I'm seeing are for "newspaper" like appearances of twitter stream hashtags.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not calling out any particular hashtag "newspaper," but, in general, I just don't get. If I wanted to follow all the people these "newspapers" are following, I would do that. I don't need another twitter aggregator within my twitter stream. I do understand that platforms like this popped up since the introduction of the iPad and ipad apps like flipboard (BTW, I love filpboard when I use it on the iPad).

However, when I see this on my twitter stream, I'm starting to get a little annoyed by this. I know what you're saying, "Why not just unfollow them?" Well, the only thing that kind of irks me iw the paper.li link. Maybe there's a way to search for this and have this deleted from my twitter stream...

Now, I'm not going to completely write this off. So, this is where I need your help. For those of you who have a paper.li page and for those of you who read it, help me out here. Why do you use it and why do you read it? Leave your comments below. Thanks so much!

Why Twitter Is Cool

We're going to be talking a lot tomorrow about Twitter and other social media platforms at the Pre-Conference meeting of the Swedish Medical Center Health Care Symposium. But, I just wanted to share something that is really cool about twitter.

Twitter gives me the opportunity to be in contact with people I would never have access to. For example, the CEO of Swedish Medical Center just started a twitter account. Just to kind of be funny, I sent him a twitter message. In the video above, you'll see him type a message back to me. When I saw this, I was really amazed. That's really cool!

Vlog: October 9, 2010

In the video above, you'll see a video blog post, portions of which were recorded yesterday and this morning talking about my first day here in Seattle. If you enjoyed this, I encourage you to check out other videos over on my YouTube channel. Thanks so much!

Dr. A Show 187 Wrap-up: Dana Lewis

Thanks again to Dana Lewis for joining me for Doctor Anonymous Show 187. The topics we discussed included the upcoming 2010 Swedish Medical Center Healthcare Symposium, the success of the #HCSM (Healthcare Communication & Social Media) chat, the #MDChat that occurred last week, and other topics as well.

As always, you can listen to Doctor Anonymous Show 187 on the sidebar of the blog. You can also go to the iTunes page for the show, download Show 187, and listen at your leisure. I also encourage you to check out the Facebook page for the show, and my YouTube page. Thanks for your continued support for the show!

Show 188 Wrap-up

Had a great show from Seattle last night. Thanks, as always to Kat for joining me for Doctor Anonymous Show 188. We talked about a lot of topics, as we usually do. In the video segment above, we discuss the interesting topic of what happens when people disagree online. As a reference, check out blog post 1, blog post 2, and blog post 3.

You can listen to Doctor Anonymous Show 188 on the sidebar here. Or, you can go to the show's iTunes page, download the show, and listen at your convenience. Also check out the show's Facebook page, and hit the big "Like" button at the top. Finally, I invite you to check out my YouTube page. Enjoy!

2010 HealthCamp SFBay

Now, I wasn't at the 2010 HealthCamp SFBay in person yesterday. But, I definitely felt like I was there. The social media coverage on this event was impressive. I was following the twitter stream all day. According to Gregg Masters, the twitter reach of the event reached 2,132,033 impressions (really?). In the video above, Todd Park gives what sounds like a keynote talk. What you'll hear is the energy in his voice as he presents his topic on next steps for the community health data initiative. I'm energized just watching this vid. Great job!

Dr. A Show 187 Tonight!

Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 9pmET/6pmPT (0100 UTC)

I hope you can join me tonight for Doctor Anonymous Show 187 when our guest will be Dana M Lewis who is the Interactive Marketing Specialist for Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. As I discussed in yesterday's post, Dana is also the founder and moderator of the #HCSM twitter chat that takes place Sunday evenings.

Swedish Medical Center has been celebrating its 100 year anniversary. And, next week will be their Health Care Symposium. If you haven't already, check out their speaker's list who include the US Surgeon General (who is a Family Doc) and the CEO of General Electric. I was lucky enough to be asked to be on a panel for the Pre-Conference session. Check out the pre-con agenda here. Dana and I will be talking about these topics, and a lot more...

If you are new to the show, I encourage you to catch us live. There is a great chat room that also goes on. You can even see my shining face on the webcam. Can't catch us live? That's ok. You can listen anytime after the show as it is saved as a podcast so you can listen anytime!

For first time Blog Talk Radio listeners:
*Although it is not required to listen to the show, I encourage you to register on the BlogTalkRadio site prior to the show. I think it will make the process easier.

*To get to my show site, click here. As show time gets closer, keep hitting "refresh" on your browser until you see the "Play/Chat" button. Then, of course, press the "Play/Chat" button.

Dr. A Show 187 Preview: Dana M Lewis

I invite you to join me for Doctor Anonymous Show 187 when our guest will be Dana M Lewis who is currently the Interactive Marketing Specialist for Swedish Health System in Seattle, Washington. Dana is probably known more for being the founder and moderator of the #HCSM twitter chat that takes place Sunday nights. HCSM stands for "Healthcare Communications and Social Media."

There's a great article about Dana over at Xconomy.com as well as at the Swedish MC site. In the article, it states that she was a freshman in high school when she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Beginning at that point, Dana found a passion for communication which led her to achieving a Bachelors Degree in Communications with majors in public relations and political science. She has also won a number of awards including Best Non-profit Microblogging Award from the Society for New Communications.

So, join us on Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 9pm Eastern Time/6pm Pacific Time for Doctor Anonymous Show 187. In addition, we'll be talking about the upcoming 2010 Swedish Health Care Symposium, of which, I'll be going to and being a part of the Pre-Conference. Hope to see you for the show!

Dr. A Goes To Washington

The next few days are going to be very busy for me, the blog, and for the Dr. A Show. To try to summarize things, I recorded the video above to let you know what is coming up. In addition, I'm going to be writing separate blog posts for most of the events above. I'll keep this video at the top of the blog in case you (meaning in case I) get confused on what is happening over the next few days. Enjoy!

AAFP President: Roland Goertz, MD

The above video was shown at the 2010 American Academy of Family Physicians annual meeting last week in Denver. Dr. Roland Goertz was installed as the AAFP President. It's always interesting seeing the background of some of the Family Medicine leadership. Like Dr. Goertz, I also started getting to know the Academy as a 2nd year medical student. Does that mean I'll be AAFP President someday? Probably not. But, it's always nice to see the person behind the title...

First #MDChat: My Reaction

MDchat: The World's First Twitter Chat for Physicans

View more presentations from MD Chat.

Branded as the "first twiter chat for physicians," MDChat took place just a few hours ago on twitter. If you would like to check out the transcript of what happened earlier, then click here. Unfortunately, I was not able to be an active participant because I was still in clinic, but I was able to see the stream of comments during that time. Here are a few of my initial reactions to what happened at MDChat.

Not A Lot Of Docs on MDChat: Maybe I was just peaking in at the wrong times, but it looked to me that there were not a lot of docs on "MDChat." And, I realize that one way to encourage docs to participate in twitter chats is to have twitter chats. But, it seemed to me that there were a lot more non-docs than docs

Lots Of Talking AT Docs And Not Talking WITH Docs: There was a lot of preaching going on directed toward the few physician participants. It's like some of those non-physicians who showed up really had an agenda and wanted to give a doc a piece of their mind. Lots of one sided conversation from my point of view.

Art Imitates Life: I really don't see (at this point) physician social media neophytes wanting to step into an arena like this. Every day in the office and hospital, docs every move is watched and examined; waiting for people to pounce on a slight misstep. In my opinion, today's MDChat was a digital microcosm of what happens in analog life. Physicians unfamiliar with social media are going to make mistakes. I finally understand why some docs would feel the need for closed systems like iMedExchange or sermo where docs can talk to peers, ask stupid social media questions, and not worry about others trying to take advantage of "a doctor's mistakes."

I apologize if this sounds harsh, but, at this point, this is my first impressions of what was branded as "MDChat." Do I have solutions on how to make it better? I have to think about this a little more before presenting some ideas, because if my idea is not well thought out, I know that I'll hear about it...

Breast Cancer Awareness

The above video clip is from an interview I did yesterday on local TV news talking about October being National Breast Cancer Awareness month. (If you found the video above informative, I encourage you to check out more health related videos on my you tube page)

This can be a complicated subject when it comes to when to screen for breast cancer, what factors are or are not associated with breast cancer, and what the potential treatments are for breast cancer. I definitely get a lot more questions from patients during this month. However, I encourage anyone who sees the video above, or who reads this blog - If there are questions, please make an appointment with your doctor to further discuss. Who knows, you may save your live, or the life of someone you love...

AAFP 2011 Family Physician Of The Year

The above video was recorded at the American Academy of Family Physicians meeting last week in Denver. S Hughes Melton, MD was awarded the 2011 Family Physician of the Year award. The video above shares his story. I also encourage you to read more of his story from this news article from the AAFP website. I have always been inspired by hearing the stories of the Family Physician of the Year. One of my wild and crazy dreams is to achieve this award someday. But, I know that I definitely have a long way to go. Congratulations Dr. Melton!

Video: We Are Family Physicians

The video above was shown at the 2010 American Academy of Family Physicians annual meeting in Denver last week. The theme is simple: "We are here. We are listening. We are healing. We are Family Physicians."

People ask me all the time "what do you do?" There is no easy way to explain all the things that I do as a family physician. In addition, each family doc in each community is unique. That's kind of part of the difficulty of answering the question. But, I believe, that the video above does a good job of trying to encapsulate who we are as family physicians....

Dr. A Show 186 Wrap-up: EMS Newbie

Thanks again to Ron Davis and to Kelly Grayson for being on Doctor Anonymous Show 186. They talked about their podcast called Confessions of an EMS Newbie, and they went out of their way to do it. Ron switched his class schedule to be on the show. And, Kelly called in from the EMS Expo conference in Dallas - after being on another bunch of podcasts earlier in the day.

In the video segment above, Ron talks about the origins of the podcast, Kelly talks about what drew him toward the medical field in the first place, and both talk about the experience & future experience of taking electronic tests. You can listen to the entire audio podcast on the player in the sidebar.

You can also download Doctor Anonymous Show 186 from the show's iTunes site and listen anytime. I also encourage you to check out the Facebook page for the show and hit the big "Like" button at the top. And, you can check out other videos on my you tube page. Thanks for your continued support of the show!