So, officially, this is the first day of the meeting. But, unofficially, things got kicked off last night in talking with long time friends and sharing stories. I have been to many, many AAFP meetings through the years and the friendships that I have gained have been so valuable - both professionally and personally.
It's really hard to believe that it was about 10 years ago when I really started becoming very active with AAFP leadership activities - like being on AAFP committees, like running for AAFP leadership positions. How time really flies.
This specific meeting has always been exciting and inspiring for me because of the content and because of the networking opportunities. The usual first activity is the first-time orientation, which is always entertaining - especially this early in the morning. To be perky and excited first off is really a challenge - I should know - because I helped with the session on more than one occasion.
As the morning gets started here, I'll definitely be updating on my twitter account - so check that out if you like (i'll be using the #aafpncsc tag during the meeting). And, I might even update this post during the day as well. I'm still working on that video feed. Hopefully, I'll be able to broadcast something today. Otherwise, have a great day everybody!
So, I'm going to try something that has never been tried before (that I'm aware of) at the National Conference of Special Constituencies meeting in Kansas City by the American Academy of Family Physicians. At times during the meeting, I'm going to go live with a video feed to update all of you what is going on.
The main limiting thing will be the bandwidth issue. And, I have to caution you right now that the laptop camera & mic (maybe even trying out from the iPhone) I'll be using won't be that high quality. But, it's better than nothing. (BTW, if you're talking about the meeting, don't forget to use the #aafpncsc tag in your twitter updates)
When will I go live? Well, the best way to know is to subscribe to my twitter feed as I will "tweet out" when I will go live with the video stream. To assist you to in making snarky comments, I've also placed a chat box. But, you need to register with the Ustream.TV site before you can chat. Sorry about that. Hope this sucker works!
Update: I tried to go live when I was at the airport and that was a big fail. I then tried at the hotel lobby and there seemed to be a problem there. I'm gonna keep trying, but it doesn't look good. Oh well....
Thanks so much to Dr. Gerry Tolbert who is a Family Medicine Resident Physician - for being on Doctor Anonymous Show 156. We had a great conversation about his experiences as a medical student and now as a resident. The video clip above is particularly interesting in that we have a real conversation about our frustrations with organized medicine these days.
If you enjoyed the video clip above, I invite you to download the entire audio podcast by clicking here. Don't forget to check out the Facebook page for the show and hit the big "Like" button. You can also subscribe to the show and download any Dr. A Show by going to the show's iTunes page. Thanks for your continued support of the show!
So, I'm going to this meeting tomorrow put on by my professional organization called the American Academy of Family Physicians. Since I was Chief of Staff for my community hospital for the past two years, I haven't been able to attend. This is going to be a great opportunity to connect back with long time friends - some of whom I haven't seen in three years.
This is basically an advocacy meeting and policy meeting. It's no secret that many Family Docs out there (like me) who are not very happy with organized medicine these days - especially with their stance on Health Care Reform. But, instead of writing off all of organized medicine (at this point). I'm willing to listen to the leadership to see what they have to say on important health care topics like HCR.
The really fun part of the meeting is meeting new people - especially family docs who have similar points of view. It's a chance to come together from different parts of the country to share what were doing in our communities and see how we can learn from one another. Too often, we're so isolated in our little "silos" and so focused on work, that there is little opportunity to network with colleagues.
For those of you who follow this blog, or who follow me on social media, you're in for a treat. I'm going to try to bring you inside the NCSC meeting through the magic of social media. I do have some plans that I don't know if I can make happen, but stay tuned here and see if I succeed - or if I fail....
It's no secret that I've been interested in purchasing the Apple iPad since its announcement. One of the first things I did when I got my hands on one to check it out, I went to this very site to see what I would find. I knew that flash wasn't supported by the iPad and something I have never heard about called "HTML 5" was going to be the new standard.
However, I was very surprised that when I looked at this site on the iPad, I could hardly see anything. This means I was very surprised by how much flash I was using on the site - mainly with video clips. So, over the past 2 weeks or so, I've been converting a lot of my video library over to my Doctor Anonymous You Tube site and things over there are looking great.
If you haven't read about the "record" high levels of pollen in the air, you (like me) have experienced a lot of the allergies we know as allergic rhinitis. Yesterday, I was on the local TV news station talking about pollen, allergies, and what to do about it. Check out Video 1 and Video 2 below. If you found them useful, I encourage you to check out more of my interviews by clicking here. Enjoy!
It's been almost 2 months since the HIMSS (Health Information and Management Systems Society) meeting in Atlanta. And, I've been meaning to write a post about my experience, but I just haven't had a chance to until now. Of course, there has been much written about the event, which is the largest health information technology conference of the year.
It was my first HIMSS meeting and I have to tell you that I felt overwhelmed even before getting there. But, upon entering the convention center, it was just a great experience. I thought that I was going to meet a lot of executives and IT people. Don't get me wrong, I did. But I also met a lot of clinical people - kind of like front line people who also take care of patients every day.
One of the main topics that I wanted to learn about is Meaningful Use. I'm still learning a lot about it, and a lot of it still confuses me. But, it was good for me to learn that a lot of other people are still confused about it as well. I was able to bring home a lot of important information for my practice and for my hospital.
The other great project that I got to take part in is to help out Dr. Val and the Better Health company in coverage of the HIMSS conference. Thanks so much to Dr. Val for the opportunity to participate in such an innovative task. The goal was simple - to interview a bunch of vendors at the HIMSS meeting. The hard part was figuring out how to do that in real time, on the internet, and to give all of you the opportunity to ask questions from wherever you were around the world.
The technical research I had to do on this project was - at times - overwhelming. In my tech planning, I had to make some assumptions of how the room set up was going to be. I already had some of the sound & computer equipment in my possession. It was just hauling all the stuff to Atlanta, hooking it up, and hoped that it would work.
I have to admit that I was holding my breath a good 30 minutes before we went live that first day hoping that an entire disaster didn't happen. If you haven't checked out the results yet, I encourage you to check out the You Tube Better Health page to see what we were able to accomplish. You'll also see an interview I did above.
As a wrap-up, Dr. Val was a guest on Doctor Anonymous Show 150. We talked about the experience and how the Better Health company is positioning itself to cover conference like this in the future. As always, you can listen to the show in the player above. Or, if you like, you can download the show and listen anytime by clicking here. Thanks to everyone who gave so much positive feedback to our coverage at HIMSS 2010!
Yes, I know. It's been over a month since the interview and I'm just posting the wrap-up now? Oh well, what can I say? I did want to thank Dr. Lucy for being a guest on Dr. A Show 155. It was such a great time talking with her on a variety of topics. Her story of starting out a solo Family Practice is just fascinating to me. You get a little piece of that in the video above. If you enjoyed that, then I invite you check out Video Clip 2, Video Clip 3, and Video Clip 4.
There is also an audio podcast of the entire interview as well. You can listen in the player above. Or, if you like, you can download the show and listen anytime by clicking here. Dr. Lucy recently moved her blog to wordpress. So, I encourage you to check out her new digs at the new Musings of A Dinosaur site. Thanks also for her very nice post about her experience on the show. I really appreciate it!
I've been really falling behind on these summaries, and I apologize about that. For show 160, thanks so much to DG and Tiffany Hollums who shared their story of how it is to go through the adoption process. Their story is fascinating and begins with Dr. A Show 108 when they were on last summer. I encourage you to listen to that show as well. You can listen to Show 160 in the player above. Or, you can download the show by clicking here and listen anytime. Don't forget to check out the video clip above which covers the opening moments of the show.
On Show 161, our good friend Kat returned to the show to co-host with me. You can check out the opening moments with the video above. We talked about some news stories along with catching up on what happened during the week. You can listen to Show 161 in the player above. Or, if you like, you can download the show and listen anytime by clicking here. Hope everyone had a great weekend!
I invite you to join me tonight for Doctor Anonymous Show 160 when my guests will be DG and Tiffany Hollums. They were also on show number 108 way back last summer. You can listen to the show on the player below. Or, if you like, you can also download the show by clicking here.
I asked them to return to the show to update their journey through the adoption process. I got a lot of great response from the last time they were on the show. And, I still get e-mails from people who have listened to that show to ask about how they are doing. I'm very happy to welcome them back to tonight's show.
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 anytime!
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.
