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Happy Independence Day!


I always associate patriotic holidays like July 4th with Ray Charles and America The Beautiful. Before I head out for the day with friends and family to have a great time, I will say a prayer for all those who have given their lives for my freedom and I will think about all those men and women out there right now fighting for and defending my freedom. I hope you will, too. Have a Happy and Safe Independence Day!

Welcome Interns


With the beginning of July comes the beginning of a new academic year at the nation's residency programs. Ah, yes, the memories of the first day of internship as a young family medicine physician. Man, glad, I don't have to do that again - Sheesh! Above is a CNN story talking about one of the nation's newest physicians on her first day of work and telling a little bit about her life story.

Fireworks Injuries TV News Spot


What you'll see above is my 2nd interview on local TV news talking about health issues. In this spot, it starts out with a news item about fireworks sales and then I talk about some statistics about fireworks injuries along with some tips to follow for the Fourth Of july weekend to be safe.

You can also read about my own critique about this interview in another post. If you found this informative, I encourage you to check out my first TV news spot talking about asthma. Enjoy! (Originally posted on June 30, 2009)

Interview Critique


In the video above, you'll see and hear my thoughts on my latest local TV news spot talking about fireworks safety. This interview is following a long seven days of working which included a Joint Commission survey - as I mentioned in this post - was pretty stressful for me. And, in addition to that, I was on call this past weekend.

But despite that, and feeling fatigued, I felt that I was ready for this interview. I have been through this before - well once - with my interview about asthma. As you can see in the "before" video above, I felt pretty confident with the material. I practiced to myself more than a few times in the car driving up to the TV station. Did I mention that this was live and there was no "take two" possible?

So, I get at the TV station in plenty of time. I check in at the front desk, and almost immediately, I'm whisked back to the studio. It was pretty cool seeing how the news is produced. I saw the anchor reading from the teleprompter and saw some of the behind the scenes stuff.

Then, the anchor comes and sits at the interview table with me and I get a microphone. I thought that was unusual because my segment is not usually for another 5-7 minutes. At least, I told my friends and family that I was going to be on at about 5:15pm. The first story that you'll see in the video, is a story about fireworks sales. The dummy that I am, I didn't put it together that THIS was my segment as well.

So, breaking things down in more detail that you probably want to know, the first thing you'll see is me sitting up in my chair and gathering my thoughts and trying to recall my slides in my head when the anchor asks me the first question. What you will not see during the entire interview is my hands - because they are holding a pop can - because I thought I wasn't going on for another five minutes. I thought about dropping the can, but I knew that wouldn't be cool. So, I just went with it.

As I left the studio, I thought I did ok (and I recorded the "after" video above). My family called and told me I did a great job - what a great family! Then, I got home and looked at it for the first time with my own eyes. The material I presented was good, but I wasn't as animated as I was for my first interview. I learned a definite lesson today - just be ready for anything when it comes to media - whether it be TV, or radio, or live podcasting.

My next TV spot won't be for about three weeks. It's still a learning process for me, but I'm still having a great time. I definitely can do better, and I will. Thanks for all the support I've received from all of you out there. I appreciate it. You're the best!

Podcamp Ohio 2: Pre-Lunch


This is the next random video from the Podcamp Ohio registration desk including discsussions about wedding rings, Devo, doing the cabbage patch dance, a quick interview with Brandice about how the morning was going, and a view of the lunch food line. Exciting, isn't it? Enjoy!

The Joint Commission Experience


Some people have asked me what I did last week and what this "Joint Commission" thing is. Especially if you see patients in the hospital on a daily basis, hearing the words "The Joint Commission" (TJC) should make you a little tense.

For lack of a better term, TJC is a regulatory agency who inspects hospitals every three years or so to review hospital policies and procedures to maximize patient safety. Unfortunately, what is covered in the news a lot are patients sometimes accidentally harmed when they come to the hospital. How can this happen you ask? Most times, it is the breakdown of processes that occur in the hospital - in addition to human error.

Anyway, TJC comes to hospital unannounced to conduct their survey. So, for the past year or so, the hospital has been preparing (by reviewing and updating policies and procedures) and wondering when TJC was going to stop by. It happened last week.

Being the Chief of Staff for the docs of my hospital, I'm one of the people that the TJC reviewers talk to - so needless to say, my stress level was pretty high last week. They were at the hospital for three and a half days. And, the hospital senior leadership staff was on pins and needles while talking to these people wondering what they were going to scrutinize next.

In addition, I felt bad for my patients, because I had to cancel my office hours for most of the week. I thought that I could just shift my office schedule, but, at times, meetings at the hospital were moved to a different time. So, I just had to cancel an entire morning or afternoon at times. I felt bad about that.

When Friday morning came, the stress started to let up a little bit as this was the last day of the survey. The preliminary feedback was good, but the final report will come back in a couple of weeks. Overall, I'm proud in how the hospital presented itself. We know that we do good work, but to receive initial positive feedback from TJC gave everyone a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, instead of celebrating on Friday afternoon, I got ready for a weekend on call. But, hey, I'm not looking for sympathy here. As I tell everybody, it's tough being awesome. And, if this is the price for being awesome, then, I'll take it. HA!

Podcamp Ohio 2: Registration Desk


In this video from Podcamp Ohio 2, who is rockin the registration desk again this year? That's right! It's me - and some of my closest #pco09 friends. I finally got to meet drew who has been a fan of my show for a long time. We had a great discussion about the type of work that he does - specifically wound care. I'm going to have him on the show to talk about this and other topics. The rest of this video, you'll see what happens behind the scenes of the Podcamp Ohio 2 registration desk. Don't worry, more videos to come soon. Enjoy!

Pre-Podcamp Ohio 2 Video


I know I haven't had a chance to talk about it yet, but I had a great time at Podcamp Ohio 2 last weekend in Columbus. In these next few posts, I will share some video and come comments about the video and about the conference. In this video, it is the night before Podcamp and we had a little gathering at a local mexican restaurant.

It's kind of interesting, especially since this was the first time that I saw some of these people in a year - since the last Podcamp Ohio. It was kind of funny seeing everybody with their smartphones, taking video, taking pictures, and other geeky, techy stuff. So enjoy this and there will be more Podcamp Ohio 2 video to come!

Pre-Podcamp Show Wrapup



I have to tell you that I am so happy for the show tonight. It didn't start off how I'd like. What do I mean by that? Well, I had a hospital meeting right before the show. About halfway through the meeting, I thought things were going ok and that I'd be on time at home for the live show. Then, there was that one agenda item which brought everything down. I ended up being about 5-10 minutes late for the show.

One of the great things about twitter is that as soon as I put a twitter post up - boom - there were about 5-7 people popping up in the chat room - incredible. So, you need to know that the show really didn't start going until about 13 minutes into the show. So, feel free to fast forward to that part to listen. (You can listen on the player above or download the show here)

Thanks so much to Angelo, Merry, and Daniel for hanging on through the majority of the show to discuss Podcamp. Thanks also to Jeremy, Rocky, Jamie, and Brother Wolf for calling into the show (I hope that I didn't forget anyone who called in). Two hour shows are usually fun, but my allergies have been bad and it was a real struggle to get through things tonight - Sorry if I didn't sound like myself.

But, I'm really looking forward to Podcamp Ohio coming up this weekend. You can keep up with my twitters as I journey down to Columbus and follow me as I get "the Podcamp experience." Wonder how Podcamp started, see the video above and read more about it over on the Podcamp Ohio site. Have a great weekend everybody, and if you're going to Podcamp, I'll see you there!