Grand Rounds Coming To FamMedRocks

 

Thanks to Better Health for a great Grand Rounds post this week. Yes, kids, that's right! I will be hosting Grand Rounds for the fourth time next week on Tuesday, March 29, 2011. Don't know what Grand Rounds is? Well, I'll just pull the quote right from the official GR Website...

Grand Rounds is a weekly summary of the best health blog posts on the Internet. Each week a different blogger takes turns hosting Grand Rounds, and summarizing the best submissions for the week. Grand Rounds was originally established by Emergency Medicine physician, Nicholas Genes in September, 2003.

His concept was to highlight and capture the best medical blog posts in one place each week. The rotating nature of the hosts for Grand Rounds promotes community awareness of new bloggers, and encourages cross linkage to more content.

This will be the fourth time that I will be hosting Grand Rounds (this will be Volume 7, Number 27). I encourage you to check out previous posts from November 21, 2006 which was GR Vol 3 No 9, November 13, 2007 which was GR Vol 4 No 8, and March 2, 2010 which was Vol 6 No 23. It's always fun putting together the best medically related blog posts from the week.

Submitting Instructions: So, if you would like to be considered to be a part of my edition of Grand Rounds, please follow these instructions. The deadline for posts will be on Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 10pm Eastern Daylight Time (0200 UTC) which is at the completion of the weekly #HCSM twitter chat. Please use the "Contact" button above to submit your blog post. Also, please put "Grand Rounds" in the subject line. Finally, please include a brief description of the post along with your name, blog name, and specific blog URL.

Just to let everyone know, I will be highlighting "Doctor's Day" which will be Wednesday, March 30th. But, I wouldn't call this a theme. All posts will be considered. Plus, the earlier you submit, you'll be rewarded with more favorable placement verses the late submitters. And, as always, my picks will be the lead for the Grand Rounds post. I hope people have fun with this. Thanks so much!

Beyond Social Media

Over this past weekend, I got to re-connect with someone that I first met a few years ago in the planning of a social media event. And, through the years, we have exchanged messages over twitter and facebook. But, with our schedules, we never really had the opportunity to meet up in a while.

So, almost in a whim, I contacted my friend @Brandice and set up a meet up last weekend. And, it was great. Fellow geeks, we talked about our latest gadgets. We're also in health related fields, so we talked a little bit about work as well. I invite you to check out her tumblr blog as well - called Sundown Social Work.

Following our chat, I had dinner with her and her husband - and I had a great time. Too often, I just get wrapped up in the daily life of work, work, work. Yes, social media is cool. But, there really is nothing like chatting with someone right there in front of you. I need to do a better job of re-connecting with old friends and connecting with new people - in real life. How about for my social media peeps out there? How tough is it for you to go Beyond Social Media and meet people in real life?

Family Medicine Rocks Podcast 1

I'm happy to announce that the premiere of the Family Medicine Rocks podcast will be Thursday, March 17, 2011 on BlogTalkRadio. What will this show be about - you ask? Well, it will be similar to the last show in that this show will be "Passionate About Medicine And Social Media."

I will talk about some current events having to do with medicine and social media. I'll also mix in things that are going on in my life. The new content will including topics, ideas, and guests from the world of Family Medicine. I did this a little bit on the last show.

For example, topics for Show Number 1 will include my transition to the new website, blog, and podcast. I have been getting a lot of questions about "My Rebranding Strategy," and I'll have commentary on that. It is also Match Day for many medical schools across the nation, in that, this is the day were graduating medical students find out where they will be doing their residency training.

I will also talk about the #LiveKneeSurgery that took place live on the internet at Swedish Medical Center earlier this week. And, of course, it is St. Patrick's Day and the first day of the NCAA Mens Basketball tournament - also known as March Madness.

So, lots to talk about, and maybe some surprises as well. Hope you will be able to join me on Family Medicine Rocks Show One on Thursday, March 17th, 2011 at 12:30pm Eastern Time/9:30am Pacific Time on BlogTalkRadio. There will be a live chat room where you can make fun of me. There will be a live webcam for you to see me do the show live before your eyes. And, if you cannot listen live, then you can always listen later to the archived podcast. Thanks for your continued support of me and the show!

Live Streaming Match Day

Thursday, March 17th, 2011 will be a HUGE day in the mind of many medical students who will be graduating later this year. Why? Because this is the day that they will find out where they will be going for their residency training beginning in July.

I remember my Match Day all those years ago (hehe). I have to admit that I was kind of stressed out going to the medical school that day. For most med students, the next chapter of their lives will be started on Match Day. Next steps after this will be finding a place to live near their residency hospital and continuing their medical training.

Over the last couple of years, I have found on the internet that some schools are live streaming their Match Day ceremonies. During these ceremonies, medical students announce to their class, their family, their professors - and now the internet - where they will be going.

I'd like to thank the University of South Florida for reaching out to me and sending me an e-mail to talk about their Match Day ceremonies in which they will be broadcasting live on the internet on facebook and ustream. I think they did this last year, and the emotions just jumped through the screen.

It is my bold prediction that, not this year, but next year - 2012 - that it will be common practice for medical schools to live video stream their Match Day ceremonies. But, for this year, other than USF, does anyone out there know of other med schools doing this? Leave a comment down below....

Sudden Cardiac Death In Athletes

This topic has been in the news recently, especially with Wes Leonard - high school basketball player from Michigan who collapsed and died after making the winning shot for his team. Sudden Cardiac Death is technically the term used in these tragic events. I encourage you to check out this very informative link from the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation on the subject.

Over the past few days, I did three TV interview segments on this topic on local TV news. Topics discussed include what the current recommendations are as far as medical evaluation before participating in sports, the controversy of cardiac testing all high school athletes, and what steps can be done when a high school athletes collapses suddenly on the field of play. If you find this video informative, I encourage you to check out other videos on general health topics at MikeSevilla.TV. Enjoy!

Live Knee Surgery at Swedish Med Ctr

Just when you think you saw everything on the internet, something really cool comes along. I know that this is probably not the first time that a live surgery was done on the internet. But, Swedish Medical Center did something really interesting today in that they broadcast a live knee surgery - really. I'm not kidding, this video may be squemish for some people out there (especially the video above about 13 minutes in).

And, the multiple camera angles from the studio to the operating room wide shot to the knee close up shot was cool as well. And, if you're curious, they had over 4,000 views of the video for the entire broadcast (I believe), and when I was on there were over 200 live viewers at the same time. (Want to apologize up front for the ad you'll see when you hit play above)

The video above is part three of the broadcast which lasted about SIX hours today. I encourage you to check out their very informative webpage which not only has the other parts of this long video session, but also they had valuable information about the robot assisted knee surgery along with biographies of the surgeons.

The social media angle was also very cool to experience in real time. The twitter stream was active with the hashtag #LiveKneeSurgery - Something that was also great (but doesn't always happen in broadcasts like this) was the fact that they actually took questions from the twitter audience as well. And, even for me, as a physician, there were some tough questions thrown out there.

Finally, what impressed me the most was the fact that physicians were the hosts for this entire webcast. I think this really added tremendous credibility. And, they did a great job for this entire 5-6 hour broadcast. I have been known to do some live podcasts before, and I tire out at about an hour. But, they did a great job of keeping the audience interested and cycling in some of their questions along the way. Well done Swedish!

Rebranding Twitter Account

I wasn't able to repost this from the old Doctor Anonymous blog.  The entire rebranding process was an interesting one. I was very hesitant that I was going to lose all of my followers, and maybe even have to start over from zero followers - Yeesh.

After finding a new home for the blog/website, the next step was to rebrand the twitter account from @DoctorAnonymous to @DrMikeSevilla. I thought that this was going to be a tough process, but actually, it isn't. Of course, I googled the term and came up with a couple of good articles to walk me through the process. Thanks to hubspot and digital inspiration for their useful articles.

Thankfully, I did not have to start over from zero followers. All my followers (including the spam ones - sheesh) came over to the new account. Probably the most important thing to remember when switching twitter IDs is to immediately sign up for your former twitter name so that someone doesn't try to take it and try to pretend to be you. Good tips.

I have really enjoyed the rebranding journey. And, if people have questions about my rebranding story, please feel free to use the contact tab above to ask questions. I'll try to help out if I can.

Goodbye Doctor Anonymous

This will be my last post on the Dr. A blog. The Doctor Anonymous blog started on June 19, 2006 with the four line post called "Does This Thing Work?" And now, this being the 1,323rd post, it is time to say goodbye.

When I started this blog, it was kind of a joke. I really didn't think that anyone would read this stuff. I mean, who would read this stuff? As of this writing, there have been 388,465 visitors to the blog and 543,436 page views. There are also over 1000 subscribers to this blog. I am just humbled by those numbers. The success of this blog and the success of me could not have been without all of you out there.

I remember when I received my first comment and I was amazed. Then, I received my first comment from overeas. Then, I started a podcast and I interviewed people from all around the world. During one show, there were people from three continents on my show at the same time. I could have never imagined that.

And, the opportunities that have emerged from those beginnings. They just boggle my mind thinking back. Now, it's time to take a risk. To emerge from the shadow of Doctor Anonymous and see if I can really stand on my own as Mike Sevilla, MD - Family Physician and Social Media Enthusiast. Doctor Anonymous was a gimmick, and now it's time to be more transparent.

The new website is called "Family Medicine Rocks." Don't worry, I will still talk about my two passions of medicine and social media. I will still have commentary on these two subjects and interview people who I think are interesting in these two spheres. I'm inspired by people like the diabetes social media community and the EMS social media community who have also added an advocacy component to their communities.

I really think that Family Medicine is a calling and I think that we as Family Medicine docs can do a better job of letting everyone know how we can help the US healthcare system. I'll talk about it more in a future post, but reading the works of Dr. Jay Lee, Family Doc in California, in his post, "Jay W Lee: #FMRevolution - Family Medicine Revolution," I think the time is now to really share the Family Medicine story with as many people as possible.

So, I hope you join me over at "Family Medicine Rocks." My podcast will be continuing there as well. I also encourage you to join the facebook fan page, and to follow me on twitter. Thanks again to all of you out there on the internet who have supported me and this blog for (almost) five years. Til we meet again, Au Revoir, Doctor Anonymous...

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...