The Goal Is To Fail

I have to tell ya that this has been the most refreshing week in a long time when it comes to my social media life. In looking for a new place to go after this blogger blog, it has been a lot of fun just to bounce around a lot of possibilities.

Looking back, I know that I lost a little passion to write blog posts. I lost the excitement to do a regular podcast. I lost the courage to try to innovate. Too often, I would worry about "rocking the boat" or to change the status quo.

What happened to me was one of my biggest fears in social media: Yes, I was taking myself a little too seriously. I thought I was one of those guys who got half a million hits a month - when in reality, I was getting less than one percent of that.

It's kind of fun thinking about starting over (to a point). The topics to talk about and to write about have got my creative brain working to a point where it hasn't been in a few months - really. Why? Because I have set such low expectations for myself, it's not even funny.

Not only do I expect to fail in some of these ideas, the goal is to fail, and I expect to be really embarrassed and humilated about some of the ideas that I'm going to try to get done. Why? Because I want to learn from them and do it better the next time.

I think I've rambled on enough. Shout out to all my friends at SouthBySouthwest. I'm on call this weekend, so I couldn't fly down there right now, even if I wanted to. But, that's ok, because my new website will be launched on Monday and I'm super excited about it! Want to find out where it's at? Well, you just have to subscribe to my twitter feed to find out...

The Risk of Rebranding

Since the hugely popular South By Southwest conference starts later this week, this is probably a good topic to talk about. By the way, I'm not going to "SouthBy," although I really wanted to. But, the last few days have been very exciting, yet anxiety provoking for me.

I was in New York City last week working on a social media project with Dr Joseph Kim from Medical Communications Media, Dr. Enoch Choi, the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians and Einstein College of Medicine. I'll talk about it more in the future, but the project is about Medication Adherence and the use of technology like mobile and social media.

Following about 24 hours in New York, I flew to Baltimore to check out the EMS Today conference where I got to meet many of the social media superstars of the EMS community - and there are a lot of them. I even got to sit in as a guest during their final podcast of the conference. Oh, and did I mention that they VIDEO live streamed about 12 hours of podcasts over the course of 3 days. It was really good stuff.

Anyway during my 24 hours in NYC and my 24 hours in Baltimore, I've come to realize that I have probably hit the glass ceiling of success with the "Doctor Anonymous" internet identity. I have been told this in the past, but I really didn't believe it. I have gotten a lot of social media opportunities over the past few months. But in recent discussions with many people whom I've come to trust, to reach for an even higher potential, I have to let go of the whole Dr. A thing.

I have been very hesitant to do that for a number of reasons. I think that I've done a lot of work in the past (almost) five years in social media. Would that mean throwing all that away and starting over? That is something that I have been asking myself for a long time. The status quo has been screaming out in my mind for months. "Why risk this?" I kept asking myself.

So, I guess I'm announcing that I'm exploring my options to change the direction of my blog and to change the direction of my internet life. As I said on facebook yesterday, "After the last few inspirational days, thinking about building an entirely new social media plan from scratch. Will probably fail, but it's the challenge of innovating that drives me." Stay tuned to what happens, as this long time blog may not be here for much longer...

Dr. A Show Tonight

Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 7:00pm ET

Yes, I've been a social media slacker as of late. I admit it. Few blog posts and little podcasts. But, there will actually be a Doctor Anonymous Show tonight at the special time and on a special night. Doctor Anonymous Show 203 will be Monday, February 28, 2011 at 7pm Eastern Time on BlogTalkRadio.

My guest will be @MsParamedic who will be attending the EMS Today conference in Baltimore this week. This will be her first EMS Today, as well it will be mine as well. Yes, I am actually going to an EMS conference. I've never been to one before. But, I remember reading about it a lot last year, and I'm looking forward to meeting some EMS podcasters/bloggers whom I have never met before.

In the video above, you'll get a little preview of our chat. We talk about the upcoming conference, her podcast called GenMed, and at the end of the interview (not on the video above), MsParamedic will ask me the "Ask Doctor Anonymous" question. Isn't that exciting?

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. 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.

Cough And Cold Medicines

Want to try to avoid a visit to the doctor's visit for that cough or cold? Why not go to the pharmacy to get an over the counter medicine? In the video above from local TV news, I talk about the good and the bad about OTC cough and cold meds. And, will that medicine from the pharmacy actually help you get better faster? If you found the video helpful, I encourage you to check out other videos about health related topics at MikeSevilla.TV.

National Donor Day

February 14th is not only Valentine's Day, but also it is National Donor Day. Did you know that (as of this post) over 110,000 people are waiting for a donor organ? And talking about organ donation, don't forget about being a blood donor. Did you know that every two seconds, an American requires a blood transfusion? In the video above, I talk about National Donor Day on local TV news. If you found the video helpful, I encourage you to check out other videos about health related topics at MikeSevilla.TV.

People Power Revolution: Philippines 1986

With the events in Egypt over the past three weeks, it reminded me of thoughts when I was barely a teenager of a different type of revolution. If people didn't already know, my heritage is from the Philippines, even though I was born in the United States. The homeland of my parents took a lot of interest to me during the mid 1980s.

The story was similar to today in that the people rose up and, in essence, took over the government. What's really interesting is that when you search the term "People Power Revolution," in Wikipedia, it takes you to the nonviolent demonstrations and revolution that took place in the Philippines in 1986. Starring as the dictator at that time was Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos who was in power for two decades.

This story begins with the assassination of the president's chief rival at the airport in 1983. There were a lot of rumors that the Philippine president was involved. And, for the next two and a half years, the tension was building until presidental elections took place in 1986. Marcos was declared the winner, but there were accusations, especially from the international community, of election fraud.

Corazon Aquino was the leader of the opposition movement. It was her husband who was assassinated and she was the one running against Marcos. It was at this point, from February 22-25, 1986, when the peaceful demonstrations took place. Many remember the color yellow on television while watching the protests. It was estimated that 2 million Filipinos took part in the demonstrations.

The Wikipedia article gives a pretty good timeline of what happened during those few days. Yes, there was no twitter or facebook back then, but the article goes into how the rebels were able to use traditional media - like radio stations and television stations - to update the country on what was happening.

The transfer of power was peaceful and President Aquino became internationally known even to a point where she gave a speech in the US Congress and was named Time Magazine Woman Of The Year for 1986. What's interesting now is that there really has never been one person named as the "leader" of the Egyptian opposition. I find that interesting.

What people don't know about the Philippines and what people won't know about Egypt is what happens after the change in leadership. It's going to be pretty rough for a while. The graphic above outlines the multiple attempted coup attempts in the years following the 1986 People Power Revolution. What will happen in Egypt? It's hard to say. But one thing is certain, it definitely could get worse before it gets better...

Social Media Prepares Docs For Traditional Media

Thanks to KevinMD for mentioning me at the podium during his keynote address at the Texas Medical Association meeting over the weekend. Want to see the entire talk? Click here to review the session which runs about an hour. To see some small snippets, Kevin put some on his youtube page. In the video above, the first part shows Kevin's section of the talk about social media and traditional media. The second part of the video above is my interview with him talking about the same subject. Happy Monday everybody!

Dr. A Show 202 Wrap-up: KevinMD

Thanks again to KevinMD for being my guest on Doctor Anonymous Show 202. We talked about his upcoming keynote address at the Texas Medical Association meeting this weekend. You can catch his keynote live on ustream at around 9:30amET on Saturday, January 29, 2011. More details at the Texas Medical Association website.

We also talked about some issues having to do with health policy like health care reform/repeal and the Medicare SGR "doc fix." Other topics included the state of the medical blogsosphere and are blogs "dying." Finally, the tables were turned on me in the "Ask Doctor Anonymous" segment where he asked me how I balance my social media life along with my analog life. And, he asks me what advice I have for docs who are curious and who want to get involved in social media.

The video above has the key parts of my interview with KevinMD. You can listen to the entire audio podcast on the sidebar. Or, if you like, you can go to the show's iTunes page, download show 202, and listen at your leisure. I also invite you to check out the show's facebook page and hit the "Like" button at the top.

You can also check out my youtube page where there are interviews of me on local TV news talking about general health topics. Finally, if you listen to the very end of the audio podcast, you'll hear me singing and taking part in a parody song - Really! Thanks for your support of the show!

Dr. A Show 202 Tonight: KevinMD

Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 9pmET

I invite you to join me tonight for Doctor Anonymous Show 202 when our guest will be Dr. Kevin Pho who is "Social media's leading physician voice" according to his LinkedIn page. Kevin is author of the KevinMD website. We had a great conversation recently which I will be playing on tonight's show. One topic we'll be talking about will be his upcoming keynote address at the Texas Medical Association meeting this weekend. This keynote address will be broadcast live over ustream begininng at 9:30aET on January 29, 2011 at this link.

Another topic of conversation is health policy issues like health care reform/repeal and Congress' continued avoidance to pass a permanent fix to the SGR. We also dialogue about the current state of the medical blogosphere. And, finally, in the last segment of the interview, the tables are turned in the "Ask Doctor Anonymous" segment. What will KevinMD ask me? You'll have to tune in to find out...

As some may know, the network that I am a part of, BlogTalkRadio, is going to be going through some changes. And, I have written on this blog before that I am considering a different home for the show. I'll make my announcement tonight about what is going to be happening to The Doctor Anonymous 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. 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.

Dr. A on Technology Today Podcast

I was asked to be a guest on the Technology Today Podcast on Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 4pm Eastern Time. This show is hosted by Ajay Gupta who is a cyber security expert. And, each month on his show, he highlights the area of Health Information Technology. On the show's blog this week, they wrote the following post called "Is Social Media A Health Care Delivery System?"

Social media is a lot of things to a lot of people. Individuals use it to reconnect with old and make new friends. Businesses have certainly begun levering social media as an avenue to reach consumers. Can it really serve as a mechanism for the health care industry to deliver medical care?

Join us Thursday at 4pm Eastern on Business.VoiceAmerica.Com as we discuss this and look into how doctors are beginning to engage their own patients and even wider populations on sites such as facebook, twitter, YouTube and through individual blogs.

Dr. Michael Sevilla, of DoctorAnonymous fame joins the show to share his insights from over four years of activity in incorporating various forms of social media into his medical practice.

You can listen live to the interview at Business.VoiceAmerica.Com at 4pm Eastern Time on Thursday, January 27, 2011 for the Technology Today program. You can join the discussion at 866-472-5790 and by text at 240-731-0756. I also encourage you to check out their facebook page, you can find them on twitter at @TechTodayRadio, or you can e-mail the host at a-gupta@technologytodayradio.com - Hope to see you for the Technology Today show!