Perception IS Reality

Comments and analysis on the events of May 16, 2007 continue. Some are going to all this a juvenile analogy, but to me, it's feeling like Star Wars: Episode 3 when all the good guys are being eliminated - thus leaving the bad guys to take over the universe. (Yeah, I know, kind of cheezy.)

In reading Kevin, MD this morning, he has an interesting grouping of opinions of the meaning of what happened yesterday (and the trend of medical bloggers leaving the blogosphere). What's more interesting is the comment section. Some have made the accusation that this situation is being blown way out of proportion.

Has even one person filed one claim against a doctor for putting their info out? Can you guys be any more dramatic?
# posted by Anonymous : 9:18 AM

I am sorry to see that blog go, but it is not the death knell of med-blogging, the end times, nor dogs and cats, living together, nor physicians stripped of their first amendment rights.
# posted by For whom the blog rolls : 10:09 AM

I'm not going to respond to these, because the "comeback" comments are a lot better than what I could have written. I encourage you to check them out. I admit that in the big scheme of things, people like me may be causing some unnecessary hype.

But, when it comes to the medical blogosphere, I think that we're in the midst of the aftershocks of a seizmic event that culuminated with what happened yesterday. What does it all mean? I think people are still trying to figure it out. But, in trying to sense some trends, many medical bloggers are perceiving a problem out there and I really do believe that Perception IS Reality.

Here are two comments from the grassroots which really concern me:

This week I chanced across a blogger whom I recognise. Whilst I'm pretty sure they haven't yet recognised me, I'm certainly not going to take the chance of waiting and hoping. These betrayed bloggers ought to be evidence enough that it's better to be safe than sorry. For this reason, on the afternoon of Sunday the 20th, I'm going to make this blog private. (from Tea at Ten)

Wow. This reiterates why I am “anonymous”. But I do fear what has happened to Flea and Fat Doc. People are jealous, vindictive, and generally out to make others miserable while trying to make a buck off you. It makes me consider making my blog by invitation only. Which I would hate to do. (comment made on Emergiblog)

Perception IS reality. The "demise of the medical blogosphere" will not occur with the already established blogs with lots and lots of traffic. Their future is secure. What I am concerned about are those smaller blogs with less traffic (like mine), those who have just started blogging, and those who are considering starting a medical blog.

The demise will occur because of the lack of growth of the medical blogosphere from the grassroots. These people will (or already have) changed to private blogs. And, those who have not started blogging - they will be more hesitant to publically blog, or even blog at all. That's another reason for the "I'm A Blogaholic" blog - to try to catch these people before they leave the public blogosphere or to welcome those considering medical blogging (or any blogging for that matter) in a group environment.

Will the I'm A Blogaholic blog work? Who knows? Am I still blowing this problem out of proportion? Possibly. But, I feel that people are going to be voting with their feet - leaving or not even entering the public blogosphere and we won't hear about it until most of medical blogging has already been wiped out.

Time To Be Proactive

Wednesday, May 16, 2007 is a day that will be remembered in the history of the medical blogosphere. The demise of the Dr. Flea blog and the closing of the Fat Doctor blog is still rippling through blog land. Reactions that I've seen include the following: Moof, Kevin, Scalpel, Scanman, SuperStenoGirl, TBTAM, Rita. (sorry, i probably forgot a lot of other people out there)

This whole day I've had this negativity going through me - feeling sad, feeling scared (who will be next, me?), feeling defeated. Well, I'm here to tell the world that I'm not going to take it anymore. (image credit)

It's been more than a year since blogging found me and almost a year since I've had my own blog. Sure, I had my tough time a few months ago. Sure, I almost stopped blogging as well.

But what happened then? It's the same thing that's happening now. We're coming together to support our fallen bloggers. I still think that the medical blogging community is a strong one. We've seen a lot and we've been through a lot.

There are some out there who say that it's only a matter of time until the entire medical blogosphere fades away. "The lawyers are picking you off, one by one," someone sent me in an e-mail today. In my heart, I think that our community too strong to allow that to happen.

To try to get out of this negativity and to try to be proactive, I have an idea. I don't know if it's going to work, but I'm going to try it anyway. I want to try to reach out to those fallen bloggers out there who still have the urge to blog.

Curious and intrigued by this concept? I invite you to my new blog where people will gather for the love of blogging. Don't worry, I'll still have this blog (for the time being - HA!) The name of the new blog? It's simple -- I'm A Blogaholic. Check it out and join in the fun. You'll be glad that you did.....

Fat Doctor Gone Too

What the heck is happening out there? Just twelve hours ago, I posted about the demise of Dr. Flea. Thanks to a tip from Xavier Emmanuelle - I was notified that Fat Doctor has also closed up her blog.

Someone in my department printed out my blog and showed it to my boss. He tells me he didn't read it and won't interfere in what I do with my own time as long as I do a good job at work.

Still, I'm heartbroken.

Why, whoever did this, did you not come to me?

It's been fun, folks. I will miss you all.

What's going on out there? Who will be next? Hopefully, not me. Blog land is getting scary out there. I may have more to say about this later. Meanwhile, back my bored review lecture...

Bored Review - Day 4

After two days of sun and warm temperatures, today, it's raining and a little cooler. This is a perfect day to be stuck indoors for another eight hours of didactic lectures. (image credit)

Had some psych topics this morning - especially psychiatric illnesses in children and adolescents. I have some patients in my practice at home, but I really wasn't aware of the nationwide impact of these diseases.

In surfing the news today, I came across a Cnn.com and an article entitled, "Push To Achieve Tied to Suicide in Asian-American Women." Here's the alarming statistic from the Department of Health and Human Services:

Asian-American women ages 15-24 have the highest suicide rate of women in any race or ethnic group in that age group. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Asian-American women in that age range.

The article from CNN goes on to theorize that Asian-American families put a lot of pressure on their children to academically achieve. According to the researcher in the article, females are more affected than males. There are also cultural differences in which, "you don't question parents."

Growing up in an Asian family, with both my parents being Asian, I can definitely relate to some of this article. Of course, I cannot give an objective view of my family, but although I felt some pressure to do well in school, I did not perceive an overwhelming pressure to academically excel.

In talking with my friends through the years, I personally don't believe that this is a cultural thing isolated to Asians. A lot of people I've met from different nationalities have reported being pressed by their family to receive high grades. But, I do admit, anecdotally, of those who perceived parental pressure, most of them have been of Asian descent.

I guess the question is this: Does parental pressure to excel in school directly relate to suicide? This is an interesting question. The right answer for questions like this is always "multifactorial." However, I would agree with the author in that in the Asian culture there is perceived pressure being felt by Asian-American children/adolescents/young adults to excel academically. Is this good or bad? I guess it depends you to talk to.

Dr. Flea Disappears

Here's what Medgadget posted on January 19, 2007 in reference to the 2006 Medical Weblog Awards:

The winner of Best New Medical Blog is...

Flea, a weblog by an anonymous pediatrician "in solo practice in the Northeast U.S." On his website, Flea tackles many issues facing pediatricians today: from childhood obesity to anti-vaccination moonbats and their websites that scare parents with pseudo-scientific proclamations. Congratulations, Dr. Flea! Job well done.

Now, if you click on over to the Flea blog or on the Flea profile, you'll see that it's all gone (Thanks Carrie for the heads-up). If you have been following over there, you know that Dr. Flea is/will be going through some litigation.

It was actually an interesting series that he was putting together over there. But, probably his lawyer or the lawyers from the other side somehow found out about his blog and pulled the plug.

This is a concerning trend. There's been previous mention of Barbados Butterfly (in Grand Rounds) leaving the blogosphere. Cathy recently had her blogger URL hijacked. Now, there's no Dr. Flea. What's going on out there in blog land?

I know that I'm not going to be the only one saying this, but I'm going to very much miss Dr. Flea and his witty rantings. Dr. Flea, if you're still out there, you have an open invitation to guest post on my blog any time. Best of luck in your court case. We're all pulling for you.

The Interactive Novel

Here's an interesting question: Can docs write novels? Well, this is your chance to be the judge. Dinah, from the Shrink Rap blog and one of My Three Shrinks, has started The Interactive Novel and is seeking feedback. Dinah writes....

Sunday's New York Times had an article on the unpredictability of the publishing industry: The Greatest Mystery: Making A Bestseller. The jist of the article is that publishers aren't good at guessing in advance what will sell, and the industry has surprisingly little feedback and interactive responses from its market.

So I thought, what if I try to see if I can get some feedback on Double Billing, my novel-of-the-moment, either use the feedback, or let prospective agents know that 50 million people read the first few pages and now want more? So here goes, the first chapter, the set up for the rest of the novel. If you want to make suggestions on how it would be better, please feel free to comment.

Personally, I don't know if anyone has "the magic formula" on what makes a best selling novel, a hit song, a blockbuster movie, or anything else successful in the entertainment industry. I'll have to delve into that NYT article more carefully.

So, take a read over there and leave some feedback (and vote in her poll). I'll turn the comments off over here, because I'd like to focus the feedback over there. I've already left a constructive criticism (not mean, just some feedback). If you can help out Dinah, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

Bored Review - Day 3

The above slide was my favorite one of the day. The topic was irritable bowel syndrome. I hope you're not offended; the slide was not meant to be demeaning. Actually, I may even use this to try to better communicate with my patients. The speaker tells her patients, "So you have Bristol Type 3 then, right?" That's interesting. (image credit)

Being in full-time private practice, it's really difficult for me to try to keep up with the latest and greatest medical literature. Attending this conference really has reminded me of just a thirst for knowledge. Back at home, it's just a rat race sometimes -- just trying to complete all the tasks of my day before I fall asleep.

I've come to miss a little bit of the academic slant of medicine. One of the buzz words these days is "evidence based medicine." A better way of saying that is this: Why do you make the treatment choices you do in medicine? Is there medical literature (ie - research evidence) to back up why you make your choice?

In day-to-day practice, I'm busy dealing with paperwork, insurance companies, medicolegal stuff, etc. It's really difficult to keep up with the medical knowledge that is constantly changing on a daily basis. I know what my patients are reading, because I keep up with the popular press. But, sitting down and going through research studies -- this take a lot of brain power on my part to really break it down. There are (too often) times that I'm too tired or not enough time to do that.

On another kind of related topic, I did get to visit a friend of mine here in town. (Yes, I did skip part of the conference. Oh well.) He works at the medical school and I got to see him in action teaching a little bit. I've never seen the "work side" of this guy before - we're usually socializing and making fun of people at the bar at meetings that we go to.

My experience this afternoon reminded me how much I miss teaching medical students and residents. That's a really good time (at least for me). Maybe someday when I've gotten really cynical of private practice, maybe a career change to academics could work. We'll see.

Sorry for the rambling. It's kind of been a little different blogging this week. Like I've said before, I like a little different change of pace sometimes. Hope you're week is going well so far.

iPodphobia

This post is in honor of my good friend HP from Australia. I encourage you to read iPodphobia before reading this post. A few months ago (I cannot remember) -- either I posted my current iPod list or mentioned that I would. Here's what HP posted today:

I remember Dr. Anonymous used to post his current iPod playlist but suddenly ceased to do so. Did he fall victim to iPodophobia? *wink* Should we initiate treatment? Download him anything Icelandic to increase his cool factor?

The back and forth banter over the past few months has been amusing - to say the least. So, at the risk of analysis of my psyche by my good friends out othere in blogland, here is the most current list that I put together for May 1st, 2007 on my iPod -- Enjoy! (BTW, this would probably be a good meme idea. But, since I'm on a meme break, I'll pass on tagging anyone.)

Some quick remarks about the list below: I always try to mix what's currently on the iTunes Top 100 list with some of my favorites. Actually, I made this list for the meeting I was a part of earlier this month. I'm into some positive visualization and putting myself in a positive frame of mind -- or even psyching myself up before getting into the spotlight. That's reflected in the middle section of this list. This is also good driving music. Of course, as always, please obey all posted speed limits. HA!

Makes Me Wonder by Maroon 5
Never Again by Kelly Clarkson
Single Fire by Snow Patrol
Hells Bells by ACDC
Right Now by Van Halen
Better Man by Pearl Jam
In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins
Vertigo by U2
Desire by U2
Pressure by Billy Joel
Don't Mean A Thing by Borialis
Clocks by Coldplay
Harder to Breathe by Maroon 5
Round Here by Counting Crows
A Long December by Counting Crows
Home by Michael Buble
Cupid's Chokehold by Gym Class Heroes
Don't Matter by Akon
What I've Done by Linkin Park
Better Than Me by Hinder
Give It To Me by Timbaland
Over It by Katherine McPhee

Bored Review - Day 1/2

Yes, I'm still here. Someone commented that my lack of more posts yesterday signified that things were getting a little better. I guess that's accurate. Here are some random thoughts from the last couple of days.....

One of the things I really liked was receiving a choice of either a HUGE 200+ syllabus or a SMALL USB drive that I could put into my computer and take notes on the slides there. Very nice. If you're planning a meeting out there, please make this option available. My shoulder got sore in past meetings lugging around a huge three ring binder.

I'm always interested in who actually attends these things. I would say about a third of the attendees are males in their 60s. They have a smile on their face when they tell me, "Yeah, this will be the last time I take this stupid board review exam." I hope to get there some day.

Here are some questions: Why do presenters insist on squeezing as many words on each slide as they can? And, why do they insist on reading from their slides? If you make a presentation, please don't do this. And, please pick bright colors for your powerpoint slides. It is much appreciated.

The free internet in the meeting room. Plain and simple, every meeting should have this. I don't care what the meeting subjecct is. If you're offering CME and have net access, you're attendance will be pretty good.

Near the end of the day, I'm thinking to myself, "How did I get through all those years of college and med school, because after 6-8 hours of didactic lectures, I'm pretty tired." Yeesh!

That's it for now. If you want to try to keep me awake during the next 3-4 days (Yikes!), continue to send me e-mails and comments. I have to say, the stuff that has been sent already has been hilarious. Thanks a lot!

Mother's Day Brunch

"That's the end of our morning session," the hostess with the mostest said, "We'll reconvene in an hour." So, I'm trying to find a place close for lunch. For some reason, I really didn't want to leave the hotel.

I go down to the hotel restaurant, get seated, and wonder why all these people are dressed so nice today. "Is it some kind of holiday today," I asked myself. Then it hit me (again). Duh! It's Mother's Day.

I know I looked kind of strange sitting there by myself, with my trusty iBook at my side as I'm munching down on my brunch meal (Why do they call it brunch anyway?) I'm sitting there with all these families around me - some taking pictures - all wearing their Sunday best.

Just so there is no question - I did see mom yesterday before I left. Why anyone would schedule a meeting to begin on Mother's Day is beyond me. I had to try to explain this to mom, but was not that successful. I do feel bad that Mom's dad had to be rescheduled for one day earlier, but oh well.

This kind of "real time" blogging is kind of interesting. Isn't that how blogging started in the first place? I know all you blogging historians out there can help me out.

Thanks so much for those of you who have sent me e-mail and left comments already. I really appreciate it. I may give some day one thoughts later. But, overall, things have been going good. It's 67 degrees in downtown Lexington right now and cloudy. Perfect golfing weather. AHHHHH! Oh well, time to refocus.

We do have a break in two hours. Maybe another post from me then. We'll see....