Show 91 Preview

Chicago week continues on The Doctor Anonymous blog with the announcement of this week's Doctor Anonymous Show. I will be broadcasting from the great city of Chicago, Illinois. And, I have been graciously invited by our friends at the Annie and Burl Live show to broadcast from their luxurious studios on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time.

What are we going to talk about? Well, I'm going to tell you right now that this show has a good chance of being not too medical. I'm going to be driving to Chicago - So, there will be at least one good story there. As you can see in the video above, our friend Kim from the blog As The Pump Turns will be flying in from Seattle to hang out. Air travel stories are always fun as well.

In addition, I will be talking with our gracious hosts, Annie and Burl, about their very successful live podcast on BlogTalkRadio. They are continually, week after week, one of the most popular comedy shows on the network. And, they are coming up on their two year anniversary of the show. So, maybe we'll talk about that a little bit as well.

Finally, I may regret this, but I will be extending the show for a full two hours this week. And, if all goes well, I plan to introduce a new segment to the show in the 2nd hour. What will it be? Well, you'll just have to tune in to find out what that is. Hehe. I'll be traveling on Wednesday, so keep track of my progress via my twitter account. See you all Thursday night!

Video: Chicago at 18: Part Deux

This is part two of the journey back to Chicago in the college days of Dr. A. As we learned yesterday, a friend of mine has relatives in the Chicagoland area and we decided to take a road trip out there. This video is our adventures in downtown which includes being in traffic, at some tourist sights, and running the car through the car wash before going home. Why wash the car while on vacation? Well, as I say near the end of the video, since I bought an "outrageous" price of gasoline, I got a free car wash. In today's world, $17 to fill a car is a bargain! Oh well, enjoy the video!

Video: Chicago at 18: Part 1

In honor of going back to Chicago later this week for a conference, I went back into the Dr. A video archives to find this gem of a video. This was from the beginning of college. A friend of mine has relatives in the Chicagoland area and thought it would be fun to take a road trip out there.

I can't believe that it's almost been 20 years since this original video was recorded. It was so much fun to put together! This is part one. Part two will be posted tomorrow. From the three hours of video that was recorded for this first part, this is the best 10 minutes - really. It's basically us on the road driving to Chicago. You'll notice the eclectic music collection that we had on cassette tapes (yes, that's right - cassettes). You can see more exclusive video clips at my Facebook Fan page. Enjoy!

Show 90 Wrap-up

Thanks so much to my good friend "Dr. M" for coming on Show 90 to talk about the sometimes misunderstood topics of palliative medicine and hospice care. We both trained as family physicians, but now he has found a calling to take up the specialty of palliative medicine. (You can listen to the show in the player above or download the show here Also check out the video post above)

Following our conversation, which included talking about his blog called "The Journey Learned," Dr. M and I talked about our med school days when we were on call during certain rotations and the obscure facts that we learned to look good on rounds. We also talked about how we come to find out that I played piano and how he liked to sing - definitely great stress relief - especially during those stress filled times of med school.

At the end of the show, our friend Kevin called in to share some thoughts on hospice care. He is a member of the "Warrior's Wish Foundation." You may remember Kevin calling in back on show 54 and show 59 to share how medblogger GruntDoc helped to make a difference in the life of a military family. Thanks Kevin for calling into the show.

Finally, I wrapped up the show by talking about how I will be in Chicago next week for a conference. My shows next week will be broadcast from the fabulous and luxurious "Annie and Burl Live" studios in Chicago. I'm really looking forward to that. Before I leave for Chicago, I will be posting some more old video of me at a younger age driving around Chicago. It's riveting video - hehe - at least it was fun to put together. Have a great weekend everybody!

Dr. A Show 90: End of Life Care

Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time (0100 UTC)

Join us this week for The Doctor Anonymous Show where our guest will be the blogger who calls himself "Dr. M" who is a good friend of mine and a prior classmate. Our topic will be hospice care and "End of Life" care where "Dr. M" has an interest. His blog is called The Journey Learned.

Following our interview about his blog and his work, Dr. M and I will be talking about "the good 'ol days" when we were in medical school. And, boy do we have stories that go back a long way. I'm really looking forward to this interview, and I hope that you are, too. Also, check out the video post above where Dr. M and I participated in our medical school talent show when we were 2nd year medical students.

If you are new to the show, I encourage you to catch us live. There is a great chat room that also goes on. You can even see my shining face on the webcam. In addition, you can call into the show to say hello. Can't catch us live? That's ok. You can listen anytime after the show as it is saved as a podcast so you can listen later.

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 "Play/Chat" button. Then, of course, press the "Play/Chat" button.

*You can also participate in the live chat room before, during, and after the show. Look for the green "Chat Now" button. 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. If you have a headset microphone, you can "call" into the show by looking for the "Click To Talk" button at the top of the chat box to try out the BTR VoIP option. Hope these tips are helpful!

Show 90 Preview

This week, The Doctor Anonymous Show will be talking about the sensitive subject of what is called "palliative care." There are a lot of definitions out there, but a common one is one I found on wikipedia and it follows below:

Palliative care is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse progression of the disease itself or provide a cure. The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness.

In the US, palliative care is pseudonymous with the term "hospice care," or "end of life care," but that is not always the case. Our guest this week is a good friend of mine and med school classmate. His blog is called "The Journey Learned" and there he calls himself "Dr. M." Here is how he describes himself and his blog:

I am a family physician in a rural setting and also very involved with "End of Life Care". I am blessed daily by the people I am honored to treat and learn life's lessons from them constantly. I feel honored to be a physician as it is a great privilege.

So, I invite you to join us on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time for a special edition of The Doctor Anonymous Show on BlogTalkRadio. After our interview, we'll lighten things up a little bit and maybe reminisce about being back in med school "back in the day." Also check out the video post above. Hope you can join us for the show!

Show 89 Wrap-up: Medbloggers at 2009 BWE/NME

Thanks to Kim and Dr. Val for being guests on Dr. A Show 89 (You can listen on the player above. Or, you can download the show here and listen anytime. Also check out my video post above as well).

We talked with Kim first about how she got involved with this project. If you didn't already know, it was Kim's rant on her blog that caught the attention of Blog World Expo. At the 2008 BWE, there was a brainstorming session of possible topics for presentations. Kim put these topics on the blog and people voted on them. The final list is below:

*The State of the Health Blogosphere: We've Come A Long Way, Baby
*Staying On The Good Side of HIPAA: Safe and Ethical Blogging Practices
*Blogging For Change: How To Influence Healthcare Through Blogging
*The Value of Blogs To Hospitals, Industry, and News Organizations

Dr. Val has been contacting prospective panelists for these topics. And, she invited me not only to be a part of the panel, she asked me to moderate one of the panels, which I'm very excited about!

In the coming months, I hope to contact some of the panelists to possibly have them come on the show. I'm also hoping to have representatives from the sponsors of the medblogger programming track - Johnson & Johnson and MedPage Today - to come on the show as well.

Also to let you know, my skype connection cut out early in the interview. So, if you hear some silence in part of the podcast, that's what happened. I even extended the show a little bit - because we were having so much fun! In addition, I had a little post show party on my ustream site. So, thanks so much to those who hung out with me for almost three hours - WOW! Have a great weekend everybody!

Dr. A Show 89: Medblogger Meetup

Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time (0100 UTC)

Join us tonight for The Doctor Anonymous Show where we will talk about Blog World/New Media Expo and the first ever programming track for Medicine/Health bloggers. Our guest will be Kim from Emergiblog who has a unique perspective on how this medblogger track came about. Time permitting after the interview, I'll discuss the recent Doctors Diaries documentary from PBS, his recent appearance on The Guys Podcast, and his upcoming trip to Chicago.

If you are new to the show, I encourage you to catch us live. There is a great chat room that also goes on. You can even see my shining face on the webcam. In addition, you can call into the show to say hello. Can't catch us live? That's ok. You can listen anytime after the show as it is saved as a podcast so you can listen later.

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 "Play/Chat" button. Then, of course, press the "Play/Chat" button.

*You can also participate in the live chat room before, during, and after the show. Look for the green "Chat Now" button. 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. If you have a headset microphone, you can "call" into the show by looking for the "Click To Talk" button at the top of the chat box to try out the BTR VoIP option. Hope these tips are helpful!

Show 89 Preview

This week, The Doctor Anonymous Show will be talking about the HUGE medblogger meetup which will take place at the 2009 BlogWorld/NewMedia Expo which will take place October 15th in Las Vegas. I hope that you have already made plans to attend this historic event.

Our guest for the show will be the one and only Kim from the wildly popular Emergiblog - which is, in my opinion, one of the premiere blogs in all of the medical blogosphere - and I'm not kidding when I say this. In addition to all of Kim's other responsibilities, she is the keeper of "Change of Shift" which accumulates the best nursing blog posts around. If you're a nurse blogger, you're not anyone until you have posted and/or hosted an edition of "Change of Shift."

Anyway, Kim and I will be talking about the first ever programming track for Medicine/Health bloggers which will take place at BWE/NME this fall. I encourage you to check out her appearance on the "Blog World Expo" show last week where she goes into detail on how all of this came about (You can listen on the player above, or download the show here and listen anytime). Also joining Kim is our pal Dr. Gwenn on last week's BWE show.

So, join Kim and me on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time on The Doctor Anonymous Show. As I talked about on last week's show, I'm still trying to get my way on one of the panel presentations for the event. I'm thinking about maybe starting a petition campaign - maybe having some t-shirts made - maybe get some blog badges to be made - all in jest of course. Hope to see you for the show!

The Guys Podcast

Wonder what I'm like on another podcast? Well, here is your chance to find out. My first in person experience with The Guys Podcast was at Podcamp Ohio. You can see the highlights of their live podcast from Podcamp in the video above. Their podcast talks about tech news, sci-fi, video games, movie reviews, and whatever else comes up during the show.

They graciously asked me to sit in as a guest panelist on show number 58. You can listen to the podcast above in the player. Or, you can download the file here and listen anytime. As you will hear in the podcast, I was really unprepared (who does show prep?). I just tried to throw out some jokes and punchlines. You be the judge on how I was as a guest instead of the host.

I have to share with all of you that I really feel bad because I messed up in the recording of my audio portion of the podcast. I used "skype recorder" to record the audio. But apparently, they wanted me to only record my voice only - and skype recorder apparently can record all the audio streams. Brad (the awesome editor of the show) had to kind of put all the audio streams, which meant splicing my audio feed in between the other streams to make it sound great.

My explanation here probably did not make any sense but, I have to say sorry to the TGP guys for not following proper podcast etiquette - bummer. Thanks again to The Guys Podcast for giving me the opportunity to hang out with them! Don't forget to listen to the very end where the outtakes are!