Video Blog: July 17, 2010

I forgot to post this video blog that was recorded on Saturday, July 17, 2010 on my way to meetup with a couple of twitter peeps. In this video, I talk about taking some time off from the radio show, and just some thought with regard to social media in general. I know, kind of boring. But in case you're interested, here you go. If you like this, I encourage you to check out other videos over on the Doctor Anonymous You Tube channel....

AAFP National Conference Memories

This week marks a quirky little anniversary for me. It was 10 years ago this week that, in my opinion, my professional life was changed forever. In the great city of Kansas City, the American Academy of Family Physicians will have their annual National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students. (Yes, that's a long name for a meeting, huh?)

When I was a medical student, this meeting was a great way to learn about cool medical stuff. But, more importantly, it was a great way to learn more about Family Medicine, to talk with Fam Med residents, and to hang out with my friends. When I was a resident, I started exploring more the advocacy side of the meeting. For example, if Family Docs are not their own advocates in the walls of government, then no one will.

For my last annual meeting as a resident (10 years ago), I decided that I would do something that I have never done before - that is, to run for national office which entails preparing and giving a speech in front of my peers. Let me tell ya, it was terrified at this prospect. You'll see the pictures of me in action in this post.


What was amazing to me was that I actually won that election. And, it was this point which changed my professional life forever. With this risk that I took and with this election won, this event opened so many doors for me and tremendously helped my self confidence. Something that is funny is that the other person in the picture above is the 2010 chair of the AAFP National Conference of Special Constituencies. So, for the students and residents who read this, the leadership positions and friendships that start now - will last for years to come. I will always have fond memories of this annual meeting....

Salute to Medic999

Although it happened a few weeks ago, I only recently learned of the "retirement" of the blog called "Medic999" by EMS Social Media superstar Mark Glencourse who works in the United Kingdom. I only learned of Mark and his blog (which was recognized as the 2009 Fire/EMS Blog Of The Year) in the past few months in association with the hugely popular Chronicles of EMS project (the first episode is the video above)

In stating why he was stopping his blog, unfortunately, I find similar thoughts being shared by the medical colleagues I know about why people either stop blogging or don't even start in the first place:

I find it a shame that the reason for this blog ending is the general lack of understanding of blogging and social media. I feel that I have promoted best practice, shared my passion for the job that I do, and hopefully have shown all readers what it is that makes EMS and those that devote their lives to it so special.

However, there still remains this general unease about social media and blogging in the Health Service. Some of the bloggers out here may want to continue the fight, and maybe I am being a coward, but I dont want to risk getting into a position where I cannot provide for my family and can no longer do the job that I love so much.

I also encourage you to check out the comments people made to this post called "My Farewell To Blogging." It is definitely an outpouring of love and support for someone who has created a community around his blog - in only 18 months.

This situation has shown both the good and bad at where we're at in medicine and social media. Even though there has been increased awareness and some brilliant uses of Social Media in the medical sphere, we still have a long way to go in the education of the positive impact that Social Media in medicine can offer. I know that we haven't seen the last of Mark Glencourse on the internet. I just want to thank him for giving me a glimpse into his medical system and his life.

Sorting Through Social Media

As I finish up this long weekend of holiday on-call during this Independence Day weekend, I've decided that I'm going to try to get back to writing and finding my blogging voice again. Can you believe that it was four years ago when I started this blog? And, I used to write every day? Sometimes, I would write more than one post a day.

Must, like most things, when the excitement faded, my eagerness to write also faded. Plus, I started a live internet show (ie - live podcast), and that took a lot of time to put together. Regardless, I'm going to try to get back to writing again. I know by watching my number of visits to the blog - that most people have stopped reading. So, this will be fun to try to get back to try to write interesting stuff again.

I was in San Francisco last week at a conference. And, one of the questions that I had for the hard core users of Social Media was this - How do you sort through the information overload that we call Social Media? And, I got some great practical advice from people who do this every day. For example, what does your desktop look like when you're catching up on Social Media?

If you saw my previous post, I'm trying to clean up and change the look of the blog a little bit. I'm trying out the templates that are over here on blogger. In addition, I've been reorganizing my google reader a little bit as well. I'm going to try this out in trying to sort through reading blog posts and reading tweets. Yes, I'm going to try to get back and reading/commenting on blogs again. I really feel bad about being absent from the comment areas of my fave blogs.

So, since I'm taking a little break from the show, I'm going to try to re-explore some of the other areas of social media which I have been neglecting. But, an interesting question that I have for anyone who reads this is this question - What do you use to sort through social media? Do you use an RSS feed reader? Do you now get most of your info through twitter and a twitter reader like tweetdeck? I'm trying to find an efficient way to sort through all of this stuff....

Happy July 4th!

Just wanted to wish everyone (especially in the United States) - a happy Independence Day! How am I celebrating? Well, I'm on call for this long three day weekend. Yeesh. Been browsing around the web today, when I can get a little break, and I see people like my good friend Dr. Wes post pics from the local 4th of July parade. (If you're feeling really nostalgic, then you can check out my first, really lame, July 4th posting. Ugh)

What kind of pic do I have today? Well, it's me. I know, how boring is that. But, I thought I would take today and try to gain my independence from my blog template. Yup, I've officially ran out of material to write about. Anyway, I'm going to be trying out some of the new templates over here on blogger to see if I like them. Let me know what you think. And, have a great Independence day everybody!

Digital Pharma West 2010: Wrap-up

As I'm writing this, it is about an hour before my flight home. The final day of Digital Pharma West 2010 was highlighted (in my opinion), with the panel that included myself and @Doctor_V. This was a great discussion about social media, physicians, and pharma. I'll probably have more to reflect on this discussion as I have more time to reflect on it.

With respect to physicians adoption (or non-adoption) of social media platforms, topics that were talked about include questions like this: How can social media fit into the physician workflow? Everyone knows that time is probably the most prized commodity of the physician's day. And, if any tool (social media or otherwise) cannot effectively and efficiently integrate into the physician daily workflow, then it will not be adopted or implemented.

Other physician barriers to social media, in my opinion, include concerns over privacy (personal physician privacy as well as patient privacy), security of the information, and, of course, liability issues. From the pharma standpoint, it was very interesting hearing how departments like "legal" in their companies can get in the way of innovation and "taking a risk on social media."

I very much appreciated the questions that were asked by the attendees. (You can get a flavor of the discussion by checking out the twitter stream from day 3 - via Phil Baumann)

The final session of the day was called the "Unconference" in which there were about 20 people left. This was kind of a "town hall" type of format in which there was a free flowing discussion wrapping up the meeting. I very much appreciated the discussion here. The pharma people who were left were asking very pointed questions. I really hope this discussion continues.

Finally, I'm thinking about having a live podcast at some point to continue the discussion of how physicians, pharma, and social media would intersect. I wonder if there would be an interest in this - other than my personal interest in this. Leave comments below with feedback. Thanks again to the organizers of Digital Pharma West 2010 for the opportunity to be a part of the meeting!