Show 31 Wrap-up

Thanks so much for Vijay from Scan Man's Notes for being on the show. (Video post above) He has been a long supporter of the show and I appreciate that. We talked about the training system in his country to become a physician. Did you know that radiology was not his first choice? We talk about that a little bit as well. And then, he started exhibiting some of the typical radiology arrogance that I see every day and I just had to shut him up (just kidding).

Thanks also to Mexico Med Student for flying in the co-pilots seat tonight for the show. At the beginning of the show, he talked about his current status as far as from an educational standpoint. And, then we talked about his recent post from today in which he very poignantly described his health scare. Somethings things happen the way that they do for a reason, and we reflected on that as well.

Finally, thanks so much to Dr. Val for calling into the show at the point when I most needed her. There was definitely a lull in the show while Vijay was trying to find a working connection. Tomorrow, Val is going to have an exclusive interview (probably not exclusive, but sounds good) with the former surgeon general Dr. Richard Carmona. Good luck Val!

Next week, we'll see. I have some e-mails out there. So, we'll see if I'm able to get a guest. If not, then we'll talk about anything (almost). Thanks so much for your support of the show (don't forget to rate the show here)! Have a great weekend!

Dr. A Show 31 tonight

Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time

Join us tonight for The Doctor Anonymous Show . Our guest will be radiologist medblogger Vijay who is author of the blog Scan Man's Notes. It will be early morning on April 18th when Vijay calls in live from India. I'll be taking your phone calls, and who knows what we'll talk about.

You can even take part in the chat room, or what I affectionately call, "The MedBloggers Lounge." A great opportunity to interact with medbloggers you've only read about. See you for the show!

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 "Click to Listen" button. Then, of course, press the "Click to Listen" button.

*You can also participate in the live chat room before, during, and after the show. Look for the "Chat Available" button in the upper right hand corner of the page. If you are registered with the BTR site, your registered name and picture will appear in the chat room.

*You can also call into the show. The number is on my show site. I'll be taking calls beginning at around the bottom of the hour. Hope these tips are helpful!

Dr. A Show 31 Preview

Never before in the history of The Doctor Anonymous Show has a guest done his/her own promo - until now. Vijay from Scan Man's Notes has discovered video posting for himself. In his video post above, he shares that he will be a guest on the show on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 9pm eastern time (6:30am 4/18 in India). It's a cute intro and it looks like he recorded it on the moon from a lunar landing. But, no criticism here. I really appreciate Vijay having the courage to post a video to talk about his own guest appearance on the show. He shares written comments on a post today entitled, "scan man on BTR." See everyone tomorrow night (or at whatever time the show is where you're at)!

The Scan Man Interview

The Doctor Anonymous Show welcomes Vijay from Scan Man's Notes to the show on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time. He is a radiologist in India. Not only does he write clinical posts like this one, this one, and this one - on colon cancer. He also has fun posts with great pictures like the one here from where he lives.

Back in January, Vijay also started recording podcasts aptly named "Scan Man Speaks." In addition, he's started to venture into video. He made a video comment to one of my Viddler videos. Make sure you scroll down to the comments section, but you can check out his video comment here. (Also check out the music in the background of his video comment)

Finally, he initially started out his blog anonymously. But, about 5 months into blogging, he revealed his real identity here. So, we'll talk about that and a lot more on The Doctor Anonymous Show. Be there!

Weekend Update

A quick summary of my weekend (especially Sunday) is seen above in this video post. I make reference to "Me Today" which is a group of videos on this site. Ever get a song stuck in your head? Well, that happened to me when I saw this video post by iJustine.

Then, I went to a meetup meeting for the PodCampOhio event that will take place on June 28th. (See my promo for the event here.) Close to the end of the meeting, things got a little crazy with Brandice, Joe, Matt, and Angelo. (The theme was "Show us the stickers on your laptop." Notice the two other people shooting at the same time that I was - hehe)

Finally, to finish the weekend, I went back to the office to try to clear off as much as my desk as I can to start the week fresh. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Show 30 Wrap-up

What a great show tonight! Thanks so much to Bongi, Sid, Kerri, Vijay, and everyone who joined us live in the chat room. (Video post above). For me, it was really interesting hearing Bongi and Sid talk about how it is to be a surgeon in his country and in this country. I admit I don't know all that technical stuff. But, listening to how they approach the same procedure - fascinating.

I felt like I was at an international conference, but still in my place. Plus, with Vijay calling in live from India and describing some of the same infrastructure problems and government problems in his country and how it is the same there as it is in South Africa and/or in the United States. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Thanks also to Kerri for calling in at the beginning of the show. Raise Your Voice is what she's trying to do to raise awareness about Type 1 Diabetes. Best of luck with that and best of luck with your wedding planning and your wedding -- next month -- Ek!

Our guest next week will be the aforementioned Vijay from Scan Man's Notes. He's a radiologist in India and has a great blog. Also, on May 1st, John Halamka from GeekDoctor.Blogspot.com. Trained as an Emergency Physician, John is on the cutting edge of information technology. And, we'll get to talk about it.

I really feel that this show is coming together as how I envisioned the thing. It's so much more than an interview show. It's a way for medbloggers to connect in a way "beyond the blog" (hehe). But, you know what I mean (I hope). Reading text posts and writing text comments are one thing, but to hear people's voices and to talk with people in real time. This is the way that the medical blogosphere is going, and I'm very excited about it. Have a great weekend, everybody! (Don't forget to rate the show here.)

Dr. A Show 30 tonight

Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time

Join us tonight for The Doctor Anonymous Show . Our guest will be Bongi who is author of the blog Other Things Amanzi. Our special guest co-host will be Sid Schwab from Surgeonsblog. Also, at the beginning of the show, I'll be talking with Kerri Morrone from Six Until Me. We'll be talking about Raise Your Voice.

In addition to all of this, I'll be taking your phone calls! Take part in the chat room, or what I affectionately call, "The MedBloggers Lounge." A great opportunity to interact with medbloggers you've only read about. You can even call into the show to talk and/or ask a question. See you for the show!

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 "Click to Listen" button. Then, of course, press the "Click to Listen" button.

*You can also participate in the live chat room before, during, and after the show. Look for the "Chat Available" button in the upper right hand corner of the page. If you are registered with the BTR site, your registered name and picture will appear in the chat room.

*You can also call into the show. The number is on my show site. I'll be taking calls beginning at around the bottom of the hour. Hope these tips are helpful!

Show 30 Preview

Can you believe that this show is up to number 30? Granted that probably the first third were just trying to work out major technical difficulties. But, still, I'm surprised at myself for continuing this project this long. Anyway....

Be sure to join me for the next edition of The Doctor Anonymous Show which will be Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 9PM eastern time on BlogTalkRadio. Our guest will be the blogger Bongi from the blog Other Things Amanzi. He is a surgeon from South Africa. He first caught my attention a few months ago when he submitted his post for my Grand Rounds last fall. Here is just a sample of a post called Cuts:

she was massive. her bmi must have been hovering around the 50 mark. then she developed severe abdominal pain, complete obstipation and vomiting. as is common, she went to her local neighbourhood sangoma. he did what sangomas do. he made cuts over the area the patient reported to be the problem (her abdomen) and smeared his muthi (in this case, apparently cow dung) into the cuts. the idea, i think, is that the medicine can get to work directly where the problem is.

Not only is he a great writer, but also someone with the most picturesque posts that I have ever seen in blogging. For a sample of this, check out a recent post called Rest and Relaxation where he shares pics from recent time off. WOW! Maybe, someday, I'll have an opportunity to visit where these pictures were taken. I'm very much looking forward to this interview.

In addition, there will be a very special co-host for this week's show. It will be the one and only Sid Schwab from Surgeonsblog. You may remember from Show #23 when Bongi called into the show to talk to Sid (around 32 minutes into the show). I thought it would be great to bring these guys back together for an extended conversation.

Also, right at the beginning of the show, I'll be talking with Kerri Morrone from Six Until Me. As I mentioned in an earlier post this week, on April 14th, 2008, Kerri is trying to raise awareness for Type I Diabetes with "Raise Your Voice." I'm very excited to talk to her about how this effort is going. And, if you didn't already know, Kerri's wedding is next month. So, I'll get to ask her about that as well.

Not only do we have all of this going on - we will also have our live chat room up and running (you MUST listen to this show live). And, we will be taking your phone calls during the show. What can be better than that? So, make sure to tune into The Doctor Anonymous Show. You'll be glad you did! (video post above)

Raise Your Voice about Type I DM

One of the things I love about the blogosphere is reading people who are passionate about their point of view and wants to share it with the world. Kerri Morrone is one of these people. Her blog is Six Until Me and I have been following an education and advocacy "movement" on her blog she calls "Raise Your Voice." She has designated Monday, April 14th to 'Raise Your Voice.'

What she is looking to do is to raise awareness about Type I Diabetes Mellitus. The media is full of messages about Type II DM, and it should be with the numbers rising and younger and younger kids being diagnosed with Type II. What Kerri is trying to do is raise awareness on what has traditionally been called "juvenile onset diabetes."

Just in the past week, she held a logo contest on her blog (the winner is above). There even now is a Raise Your Voice shop where one can purchase t-shirts, stickers, buttons, and magnets. All profits will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

I am so moved by this effort, that I have invited Kerri to be on the next edition of The Doctor Anonymous Show to briefly talk about her Raise Your Voice project and about Type I Diabetes. (This will be in addition to our already scheduled guests) So, if you haven't already, check out her blog and take part in Raise Your Voice. Good Luck, Kerri and we'll talk more on Thursday night!

The Joy of Learning

I don't know what's going on, but it seems like there were a lot of people at a conference last week - like Dr. Val, Fat Doctor, and The Happy Hospitalist. Of course, I'm jealous. I guess I really should schedule some out of town time at some point soon.

Anyway, I've also taken up educating myself a little bit. But, this is a little out of necessity. My board certification in Family Medicine is up this year, and I have to take my recertification exam in a few months. In fact, I just scheduled the date for July 25th. (Maybe I should get one of those countdown clocks for my sidebar).

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not the biggest fan of standardized tests. Even going back to the ACT, SAT, MCAT, USMLE, etc - I have this mental block and anxiety going into these exams and preparing for these exams. So, I'm in the midst of board exam preparation over the next few weeks.

Dr. Val and I talked about this on the latest edition of The Doctor Anonymous Show last week (about 10 min into the show). The problem is not learning and re-learning the stuff. It's how much can you remember and retain for the exam. There is also these test taking techniques that I have to re-learn as well. The knowledge is up there, it's just how to access it - especially when the heart is racing and the forehead is sweating. Only 108 days now - Yeesh!