The Crzegrl Interview

The Doctor Anonymous Show is proud to welcome Crzegrl, Flight Nurse to Show 47 on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time. She is otherwise known as Emily McGee (pictured above), and I won't even try to recite all that she has done profesionally other than to say that presently she is a flight nurse (cool), is a Captain in the US Army Reserves (really cool), and is a new media medicine maven (extra cool!).

In addition to her blog, in encourage you to check out a podcast is called "Frontlines of Freedom." The show from June 29, 2008 is where our guest was highlighted (start listening at 4:20 into the show). The host starts with this quote, "Captain Emily McGee has done in more to her life to date than most have done in three lifetimes." Quite a compliment. The second show she was on was just on August 24, 2008 where she was part of an panel (start listening at 4:25 into the show).

Also, for those of you who remember, she was part of the panel on the Valentine's Day show where the blogtalkradio site really messed up the audio. (I'm still not bitter, am I?) Anyway, thanks crzegrl for coming back. I could be wrong, but I think that she's excited about being on the show. Check out today's post:

OHhhhhh!!! I forgot to tell you all that I am going to be the guest on the Doctor Anonymous Show this Thursday at 2100! (that is 9 p.m. to all you civilian types.) If you haven’t logged in live, I do suggest you show up! 

Not only is Dr. A getting better and better (do I hear syndication??) but the chat room is the place to be on Thursday nights. I would especially love to “see” some of you EMS and military bloggers/lurkers. You guys will bring some more spice to an already H-O-T bunch of crazies!

So, cancel whatever you're doing Thursday night, and join us for the show! And, I have to tell you right now. I'm very intimidated by this upcoming interview - mainly because she can squash me like a bug - So I have to watch out! What? Something on TV that night? We'll that's what TiVo, digital video recorders, and VCRs are for (who uses VCRs anymore anyway? hehe). Hope to see you there!

Labor Day Weekend

Not having to work on the weekend. What a concept! I fully took advantage by being a slacker and started by day by sleeping in (Ah, yes!). When I finally rolled out of bed, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was opening day for the Ohio State Buckeyes (Go Bucks!) and caught the first part of the football game.

Then, actually went out of the place for a little while. For those of you who follow me on twitter, you know the places that I went today, because like a good little social networker, I checked in where I was at. It was kind of funny, too, because I was getting requests for some "personal shopping" at each of the stores I visited. Gotta love the power of interactive twitter.

After picking up some take out (Wings from my favorite place, yum!), I went home and turned on the webcam and went live on my ustream channel for what seemed like a few minutes. But, it was actually ended up being a few hours. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat. I played some music and talked with people. Great time! And, now, I'm settling in and getting ready for The Annie & Burl show - one of my fave blogtalkradio shows. Hope you're having a great weekend so far! (Don't forget to check out the video above as well)

Six Until Me on Video

On this holiday weekend, I've been catching up on my blog posts. I was happy to learn that another medblogger out there is trying video posting. Above, you'll find Kerri Morrone Sparling from the blog Six Until Me. In her post above, she talks about what it's like to have a low blood sugar. You can check out her other video posts here.

What I enjoy about video is that it brings an entirely new dimension to the blogger who you only knew in the past with the written word. Plus, usually with video, it's usually a "one take" situation where you see less editing verses a blog post - which I think is a good thing because you see a little more into the personality of the person as opposed to an edited blog post. (That was a really long rambling on sentence, wasn't it).

Great job Kerri! I'm looking forward to more video posts (Aren't they fun? And, BTW, thanks again for listening live to my one year anniversary show this week!). And, I want to encourage all of my friends out there in new media medicine to check out and try out video posting in addition to your text blogging. Of course, I prefer Viddler as the video posting platform I use, but there are other choices out there as well to try out. Happy Vlogging!

Show 46 Wrap-up

The one year anniversary show, otherwise known as Doctor Anonymous Show 46 (don't forget to rate the show), was a huge success. (See video post above) Even before the show, I had a little pre show over on my ustream site. Thanks to the dozen or show people who showed up for that. We had a great discussion even before the show started.

As far as the show itself, a good time was had by all. Thanks to all those who called into the show including RockDog, MarQ, Carrie, MJ RN, Annie & Burl, and finally Enrico called into save me from myself. The show went a little too long. Maybe I should shift back to a 60 minute show in the future.

During the show I shared a little about the origins of The Doctor Anonymous franchise including the blog, the show, the video blogs, and other stuff. I also tried a bit called "Ask Doctor Anonymous," which didn't work out how I thought and that idea will be tossed away. Finally, I covered some news stories and the closed up the show.

But, the evening was not done. I even had a post show back over on the ustream site. And, we had a good crowd over there as well. As I ended the show, a certain presidential nominee was taking the stage, so that was good timing to close up the show because I know a lot of people wanted to see that speech live.

So, thanks again for all of you out there who listen to the show live or on the archive, those of you who stop by and read the blog, and to those of you who I consider my blog friends out there. Without you, this blog and this show would not be around. As far as me, I plan to continue this as long as it is fun for me. And, that could be a long while. Have a great weekend everybody!

Dr. A Show Tonight!

Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time

Join us tonight for The Doctor Anonymous Show number 46. We are celebrating one year of the show! Can you believe it? I know that I can't. We'll be looking back at the past 12 months and looking forward to the future.

I'm also going to try two new things on the show tonight. First, I've been trying to find a way to share some of the news stories I read during the week and talk about on the show. I've seen other show utilize the delicious site for social bookmarking. So, there's a Dr. A Show Delicious Site where I have gathered some new stories. So, check that out. Secondly, I'm going to try a segment called "Ask Doctor Anonymous." What is that going to be about? Well, you'll just have to tune in to find out.

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. For this show, I'll be taking calls for the entire 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!

The One Year Anniversary Show

I cannot believe that a year has gone by since Show number one. Listening back to that show, the technical difficulties plagued those early shows. But, soon after, I really started to find my way as far as being a show host. Now, it's just a great time.



I'd like to invite all of you to The Doctor Anonymous Show number 46 which will be Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time. It will be the One Year Anniversary Show (see video post above). There are no scheduled guests, so I will be taking your phone calls for the entire show. Stop by and say hello!



As always, we'll have our live/interactive chat room and we'll have the web cam going so all of you can see my shining face. I'm also going to be starting a new segment called "Ask Doctor Anonymous." That should be interesting. What are the rules of that? Well, you'll just have to tune into the show to find out. Hope to see you Thursday night!

Grand Rounds

Grand Rounds 4.49 is now up and running over at Rural Doctoring. (If you haven't already, catch RD's appearance on Doctor Anonymous Show 42). She has a Shakespearean Grand Rounds this week. And, if you can believe it, I actually wrote something for GR this week and it was actually accepted. Thanks for including my post this week!

Even if the body is beginning to feel the wear and tear of the fifth age, our Shakespearean justice has nothing to fear. Doctor Anonymous shares news of innovative health care interventions currently in trials in South Africa.

If you don't know what Grand Rounds is, it is a weekly compilation of the best posts from the medical blogosphere that moves to different sites each week. And, who doesn't like reading about medicine and science? Next week, Grand Rounds moves to the blog of Laurie Edwards called A Chronic Dose.

Show 45 Wrap-up

Thanks so much to Ramona for being on the Show 45 tonight! (Don't forget to rate the show on the BlogTalkRadio site) I really appreciate it! I encourage everyone to check out her blog Suture For A Living. You could tell from her voice in the beginning that she was very nervous. But, as the interview progressed, she really hit her stride talking about how she chose medicine as a career, and surgery and a specialty, and plastic surgery as a sub-specialty. (See video post above)



Her blog not only talks about surgery and medicine, it talks about her favorite hobby which is quilting. I admit that I know nothing about quilting, but I know that Ramona would be happy to teach me and anyone else who is interested - she's great like that! She had a great post on Thursday talking about Women in Surgery. I encourage you to check that out as well.



Thanks also to those who called in to say hello including Dr Val, Rural Doctoring, Enrico, and Mary. The last 20 minutes of the show was really cool in that we had six people on the call at the same time - two of which were outside the United States. Thanks to Vijay for calling in live from India and thanks to Bongi for calling in at 4am his time in South Africa. This is truly an international show and tonight we proved that!



After tonight's show, I did a short post show session on my Ustream channel. We had a great time over there as well. I even recorded part of that session. You can check it out here. You can also check out the video below.



Finally, I just checked out the numbers and tonight we had the highest number of live listeners in a while for the blogtalkradio show. And, even a good number of people for the post show. And, that's thanks to all of you. Next week, that's right, it's the one year anniversary of The Doctor Anonymous Show. Who knows what will happen and who will call in? Sheesh!

Live video chat by Ustream

Kevin MD: USA Today Op-Ed

Kevin Pho from the Kevin MD blog is one of the leading voices in new media medicine. He's also a friend of the blog and of the show. (Check out Kevin's appearances on Dr A Show 20 and Dr A Show 32). On a more regular basis now, Kevin writes op-ed pieces for newspapers.

His latest op-ed piece is in today's USA Today website and is entitled, "Doctors' pay cuts save little in health costs."

"Why should I care if doctors get a pay cut?" my patient recently asked me. Therein lies the delicate dilemma physicians face today. While the common perception is that the medical profession is well-compensated, there are serious implications in targeting physician pay to control medical spending.

The piece goes on to explain why targeting physician payment costs are a fallacy in trying to decrease health care spending in the United States. And, of course, going after the physician is a popular notion when you have entities like popular culture, the malpractice attorneys, the insurance companies, and anyone else going after physicians. But, here is the key statistic.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there are more significant drivers of health costs, including new prescription drugs, technology and administrative needs. Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt estimates that physicians' take-home pay represents roughly 10% of national health care spending. Cutting physician pay by 20% would only reduce spending by 2%.

Great job Kevin with this op-ed. I'm not gifted enough nor do I have the talent or the patience to write strong opinion pieces like this one on policy and financial issues like this one. I know that I will be referencing this piece when talking to some of my patients today. Thanks Kevin for being one of the voices out there for us bloggers out here!

Dr. A Show 45: Ramona Bates

Thursday, August 21th, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time

Join us tonight for The Doctor Anonymous Show number 45. Our guest will be Dr. Ramona Bates from the blog Suture For A Living.

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!