The Rural Doctoring Interview

The Doctor Anonymous Show is proud to welcome Dr. Theresa Chan from the Rural Doctoring blog to show 42 on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time. She is a family physician (YAY!) working in Northern California who primarily does hospital work now - Called a hospitalist. Did you know that family docs deliver babies? Well she does and she even blogs about it. You can also follow her twitter feed right here.

She is a relatively new blogger and in my humble opinion, she is one of the fastest rising stars in "New Media Medicine" (I'm trying to get away from the term "medical blogosphere"). I think she's a great writer. If you don't take my word for it, how about being at the top of the Kevin MD Power 8 for not just one week for a number of weeks in a row.

I encourage you to check out some of her most popular posts in the right side bar of her blog including, "Why I Blog," "Open Letter to Woman at Supermarket," and my personal favorite simply called, "The Hospital Yadda-Yadda." We'll also talk about her new iPhone, how she's dealing with her new media medicine fame, and the interesting topic of transparency.

Finally, if there is time, I'll talk about what the heck I've been doing since I've been off - including my Board Exam Experience, Podcamp Ohio, and other assorted stuff. I'm also going to Kansas City this weekend where I will be on a panel presenting to family medicine residents and medical students. And, there may be a major change to my "new media medicine" life that may occur this weekend. We'll see.

My Board Exam Experience

Hi, I'm Doctor Anonymous. Remember me? Probably not. I'm the guy who took a month away from his blog and from his show to focus on something silly like the American Board of Family Medicine recertification exam. I can't believe that it's been seven years since I completed my residency training. I've been in the same job for the past seven years, which I think is the exception to the rule. I've talked with a lot of my peers who have been at more than a handful of different jobs since finishing residency.

I know it's silly, but I still get a little anxious about the entire testing process. I've been reading, reviewing, and doing practice questions for the past few months or so. Overall, I think I was as ready as I was ever going to be going into the exam. People told me and I believe that getting adequate rest on the night before the exam is key. However, as always happens, I didn't sleep very well the night before the exam.

As you'll see from the video posted above, this is me on test day. It's kind of a three act play. The first part is me barely awake kind of being a little reflective on the process and sounding a little scared and anxious going into the thing. The second act is me right around lunch time after my morning session and before my afternoon session of testing. And, the final act is thoughts following the exam and the "screw-up" that happened that hopefully will not affect my score.

Thanks again to everyone who left supportive comments and wrote supportive e-mails during the past month. You have no idea how much that helped me and kept me going with the positive attitude - and kept me focused. I'm slowly getting back into the blog and will be bringing back the show this week.

Going to camp

I'm actually taking a few days off from work, if you can believe that. As the title of this post goes, I'm going to camp. I think I may have mentioned it on this blog before, but I'm the team doc for our local boys high school soccer team. And, I think this is the second or third year that I'm going to camp with them. (See video post above)

It's really a great time! I get to hang out with the coach and the kids. I admit that I don't know that much about soccer, so it gives me a chance to learn a little about the fundamentals of the game in addition to some strategy. I'm definitely not a coach and I'm not much with X's and O's. My job is health and medicine, and I think I play that role pretty well.

We're going to watch one of the professional teams play tomorrow night, and the kids love that. They get inspired and it's a great spring board to their work at camp over the weekend. I'm taking the new flip cam. So, I hope to get some video to share with all of you.

In other news, studying for boards is going well (I think). I'm taking a study book with me to camp. And, there is no internet down there to distract me. However, I hope to share some stuff of what's going on through my Twitter posts via the trusty iPhone. So, if you haven't yet, subscribe to my Twitter feed to get the latest updates. I know it's early, but have a great weekend, everybody. I know I will!

12 days until boards

Here's the update:

1. Had an unscheduled Doctor Anonymous Show 41 last week. It was a wrap-up of Podcamp Ohio. I told myself that I was actually going to have show notes done, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Had a great time (as usual) and afterward tried out ustream and even oovoo. Fun!

2. Board study update: My strategy is to do a lot of questions, and I think that it's working. At least for me, a lot of this "thing" I have with exams is a confidence level. And, I think that my confidence level is improving. About 10 days left.

3. On call this weekend: One of the good things about summer around here is that the hospital is not that busy (Oh great, I just jinxed myself now). But, as of Sunday night, things have been going ok.

4. Home internet down Saturday: This was really frustrating, let me tell ya. You probably know what I'm talking about. But, I actually had to find something else to do other than check my Twitter. Actually, it was good for me, because I had a good day studying and focusing Saturday.

5. New Gadget: As you can see from the video above, I got a new gadget. It's a really small video camera called The Flip Mino. It's really fun, and the video quality is not bad. I've been shooting some stuff this weekend, and may even put it on my viddler site soon.

6. Soccer Camp: As some of you may know, I'm the team doc for our boys high school soccer team. On Thursday of this week, I'm going to camp with these guys. Can you believe that? I've been doing this for the past couple of summers or so, and it's a blast! We're staying on campus, and hopefully the dorm where I'm at will have Wi-Fi so I can continue to post stuff. At least, I'll try to record with the new cam and share the experience with you.

7. New MedBlogger: Finally, I wanted to point out a blog that I just started reading. How I stumbled onto it was that this guy subscribed to my Twitter feed (the power of twitter - hehe). The blog is called The Scut Report by JSE Booth who is a fourth year medical student. Great stories over there. So, check it out and tell 'em that Dr. A sent ya! That's it for now!

17 days until boards

Just wanted to give everyone an update on what's been happening:

1. Thank you!: Just wanted to thank everyone for your supportive comments and e-mails during this time when I've had to step back from the blog and the show. I hated to do it, but felt I needed to re-focus for this month. I'll be up and running again soon.

2. Board Exam Preparation: I admit that I did freak out a little bit last weekend when I realized that I had less than three weeks until the exam. My prep is basically doing a lot of practice questions and practice tests. This has served me well in the past.

3. Podcamp Ohio: This was a fabulous experience. I'm going to have to talk about this on a future show. I shot a lot of video out there and posted some videos on my Viddler site. Check it out. Some funny stuff over there (at least I think).

4. Podcamp Ohio Wrap-up Show: I was asked to have a feedback session to kind of do a post mortem (bad joke) on the meeting. So, if anyone is going to be around, there's going to be a special episode of The Doctor Anonymous Show on Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 9pm. But, be warned, that we're going to be talking Podcamp and not medicine.

5. Twitter: I'm using this a lot these days. If you want to know what I'm doing, subscribe to my twitter feed. This "micro-blog" thing is interesting and I'll be using blogger for longer thoughts and discussion.

6. iPhone 3G: People have been asking me if I'm going to take the plunge and by this thing on Friday. I'm going to go on the record right now and say that I'm going to wait for a little bit. First of all, my area is not 3G, so I won't be able to take advantage of the higher web speeds anyway. And, also, I don't care much for the GPS. I'm going to use the software upgrade in my current iPhone and have fun with the new apps that come out for it.

7. When is the show coming back officially? I'm thinking of Thursday, July 31st. That way, my boards will be done and I think I'll be ready to get back in the saddle again to start blogging and getting the show back to a normal schedule. But, we'll see. For now, enjoy the video above from Podcamp. I think it's funny. I hope you do, too!

Taking A Step Back

Every so often, one has to take a step back and take a look at the big picture. It's been a little while since my last blog break, and I think I'm at that point right now. First of all, I'm scheduled to take my board exam at the end of July. I can't believe that it's been seven years since I've finished residency. Time flies by when you're having fun. So, I definitely have to focus on that.

Secondly, I can not say it enough how much I have been just blown away by Podcamp Ohio this past weekend. I met a lot of great people. There were a handful of people who I only knew through e-mail or blogs or podcasts - to meet them in person was quite a treat.

I talked to a lot of people about my blog and about my show - everything from technical questions to lifestyle questions (like why publicly I still identify myself without my real name). And, I have to tell you that they gave me a lot to think about - as far as marketing, identity, and other stuff.

So, I've decided that I'm really going to cut down on blogging for a little while (I wasn't blogging that much anyway). I'm not scheduling any shows this month. I'm going to concentrate on my boards. I'm also going to think about if I need to take the blog and the show in a different direction - or to change things around at all.

Don't worry, I'm not completely going "off the grid." I will remain very active on Twitter and I will continue to read blogs and occasionally leave a comment. I also shot a bunch of video at Podcamp Ohio this past weekend. I may post them here for you to check out. But, I'll definitely post them on the Podcamp Ohio group site on Viddler.

My Podcamp Ohio Experience

As you can see in the video above, it was late/early again when I recorded this. Why do I do that to myself. And, why do I subject all of you to this? Hehe. Anyway, Podcamp Ohio was a great experience yesterday. I worked the registration desk in the morning and you can see front desk pics here and here.

I heard that some of the sessions in the morning were standing room only. It's great that some people took pics during the sessions like here and here. And, as we were sitting at the front desk, we saw that a couple of people were live streaming the sessions on ustream. So, at the front desk, we were able to view a session going on down the hall. Dontcha love technology?

Then, I had the idea of "Live Streaming from the Front Desk" - more as a joke than anything else. I mean who would want to see what's going on at the front desk? Apparently, a few people were curious. So, we kind of had a "front desk" podcamp ohio session as we were checking people in. There was such a response to it, that the live stream continued all day and got to stream the lunch line, the afternoon sessions, and the post conference party.

I shot a lot of video yesterday - so much so that the battery in the camera almost ran out. I'm really looking forward to putting it together and sharing it with all of you. But, being around a bunch of geeks (and I mean that in a good way) was a really fun experience. I learned a lot this weekend about various technical stuff - I just hope that I remember it all.

For my new Podcamp Ohio friends, welcome to my blog! I invite you to take a look around and make yourself at home. I hope you read some of my posts from the past, and take a listen to some archives of my live radio internet radio show. What was your PodCamp Ohio experience like? Leave a comment here - or if you already wrote about it on your blog - leave the link below and I'll check it out!

Night Before Podcamp Ohio Update

I really weird thing happened. I shot the video above about six hours ago,. I then went to the video site and hit upload and then collapsed and fell asleep. I was hoping to see the thing uploaded and ready to go when I woke up this morning. But, alas, that is not how things work - apparently.

But, I had a great time last night meeting some people the night before the Podcamp Ohio event. Podcamp Ohio hasn't even officially started, and, for me, it's already been a valuable experience. I have never considered myself a "tech guy" and talking with some of these people last night - that definitely re-emphasized that fact. I'm really looking forward to the event later thing morning. It's Podcamp Ohio!

Show 40 Wrap-up

A little bit of a different show tonight - for Show Number 40 - in that it was not medically related. But, I did have the crew from Podcamp Ohio on the show. The event will be this weekend in Columbus. We talked about some sessions that will take place. I also asked the people on the call about their specific blogs, podcasts, video podcasts, or whatever new media project that they were working on. (see video post above)

It was a little bit of a challenge for me because I'm not that well versed in technical stuff. And, I have never had eight people on the show at the same time. So, trying to balance all of that was a challenge - yet a lot of fun! So, I'll be driving down to Columbus on Friday afternoon/evening (about 3 hours away) and hanging out down there this weekend.

If you want to keep track of what I'm doing, you can always check out my twitter feed. Or, if that's not working, I just subscribed to friendfeed. I'll also be shooting video down there and hopefully placing it up on my viddler site. Have a great weekend everybody!

Dr. A show tonight!

Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time

Join us tonight for The Doctor Anonymous Show number 40. We're going to be talking about Podcamp Ohio on the show. What is this? Well, it a conference, actually called an un-conference, talking about all things new media - whether they be blogs, podcasts, video podcasts, social networking, twitter, and other stuff. Our guests will be conference organizers, people presenting sessions, and of course, taking your phone calls as well.



If you do listen live, you can even take part in the chat room. It is truly "The show within the show." You can even call in and say hello. A great opportunity to interact with medbloggers you've only read about. And, you will be able to see me on the live webcam during the show! See you tonight!

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. There is also a "Click To Talk" feature where you do not need a phone to call into the show - only a microphone headset. Hope these tips are helpful!