The video above is a segment from last night's Family Medicine Rocks podcast episode 27 with Dr. Gerry Tolbert from Total Access Physicians where he talks about his model of concierge direct medicine model of care. In this model, patients pay a monthly fee for a set of services. He also talks about what happens when some lab tests are ordered and if patients need hospitalized. I encourage you to download the entire podcast here to listen to our entire conversation on this subject.
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The Doc Fix Debacle (again)
Haven't we seen this movie before? It's late December (on the Congressional calendar) and physicians across this country are again focused on Washington, DC seeing how the "Doc Fix" chess game will play out. "Doc Fix" is the main stream media's buzz phrase for the Medicare SGR band-aid Kabuki theater that happens every other year in the halls of Congress.
Last night, Tuesday, December 13, 2011, the US House of Representatives, by a 234-193 margin, passed legislation including the "Doc Fix," extend the payroll tax cut, and speed the process for governement approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, (and prevent a federal government shutdown).
Now, the predictable political drama continues as the clock ticks down. The Senate and the President vow to reject this House bill. Meanwhile, millions of Americans, including physicians, are hanging on every word that comes out of Washington, because whatever happens, people's lives will be changed.
Without action from Congress, Medicare physician payment sees a 27.4 percent pay cut on January 1st. Now, some of you may not care, because you see physicians as "the 1%." But this Medicare payment is what is also used to compensate people that work in physician offices like nurses, secretaries, lab personnel, etc.
What will happen? C'mon, everyone knows what will happen here. Mark my words: The Senate will pass their version of the bill, and then Congressional leaders go into the back room called "Conference Committee" where things will be hashed out, and no one's fingerprints will be seen anywhere. Congressional accountability? That's an oxymoron.
My prediction (I know you'll tell me when I'm wrong. But what's your prediction? How will this play out?): The Republican debate is Thursday night. I think the Senate will pass an amemded bill on Friday or Saturday. The Sunday news show pundits will guess what will happen in Conference Committee. At the beginning of next week, the public's attention will shift to the upcoming holidays and they will care even less about politics.
Conference Committee will really get to business on Monday. And, the President will sign it into law - with the band aid Doc Fix and without the controversial stuff - on Wednesday next week, just in time to get on a plane to join his family in Hawaii for a 2 week Christmas vacation. And then in 2 years, the "Doc Fix" Drama Sequel will happen all over again - exactly the same way - Isn't groundhog day in February?
Social Media Fatigue
Ever feel like you're kind of stuck and you need a change? I was there last week. With the upcoming Thanksgiving week, life was adding more stress that was difficult to handle. For weeks now, I felt like I was taking all my efforts and playing catch up. Don't get me wrong. I'm very happy where I'm at right now professionally and personally. I was just tired.
"Social Media Fatigue" is a dirty little secret that the early adopters never write about - especially those in health care social media. That's why I was surprised when a few months ago, my good friend, Seattle Mama Doc wrote the post "Online Sabbitical."
I’m taking an online sabbatical this month. Consider this an act of both self-reflection and self-awareness but also an act of self-preservation. As any blogger knows, blogging every few days, taking photographs daily, approving and responding to comments 24 hours a day (7 days a week), while authoring content in your head every few paces, is an entirely consuming experience. Blogging has completely changed my life. And this job is an utter privilege... But I’ve been consuming media, blogging, and authoring content without reprieve since November 11, 2009.
Now, my blogging frequency and my podcast frequency have decreased tremendously in the past 2-3 years. But, I still feel that social media has taken over my life, and I needed a break. So, I took one for a week. And, let me tell you, it was quite liberating. It opened my mind up to all kinds of new possibilities.
It was also cool that Thanksgiving fell in this time as well. It was great to spend time with the family and not constantly checking my phone. My parents, who are of course proud of my social media work, asked me lots of computer questions - specifially about digital photos. And, it was so interesting to hear them tell stories about each and every picture.
What's my social media future? NO, I'm not quitting. But, as the end of the year quickly arrives, I'm looking ahead to 2012 and thinking about what my social media life will be like and my continued challenge to balance personal, professional, and social media life.
I'm very thankful that I've gotten to experience being a conference speaker this year, and I hope this continues. But, I'm thinking about some different plans for the website and the podcast for 2012. If you have suggestions, please let me know.
I talk about this more in last night's Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 22 in which I talk about my social media fatigue episode. If you have your own thoughts on social media fatigue, I would love for you to share them as well. I also encourage you to check out posts on the subject by Chris Brogan, BusinessWeek, and MemeBurn. This is not something talked about or written about much. I wonder what your thoughts are on this topic.
Missouri AFP Fall Conference
Thanks to the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians for the invitation to speak at the 19th Annual Fall Conference at Big Cedar Resort in Ridgedale, Missouri. I've been asked to do two sessions: Why Family Medicine Needs Social Media and Practical Steps In Social Media & Family Medicine. The slide sets are below and I hope to put up the video here when I'm able to edit it.
This is my last speaking opportunity for 2011. If you told me at the beginning fo this year that I was going to be in 4-5 different states talking about social media, I would have told you that you're nuts. If you told me that I would be presenting at a national meeting about social media, I would have laughed out loud. It has been quite a ride this year. I hope to write a more comprehensive post later. This has such been a good time, and I hope that this experience continues in 2012!
Why Family Medicine Needs Social Media
View more presentations from Mike Sevilla
Family Medicine Advocacy Thru Social Media
View more presentations from Mike Sevilla
E-Patient Chat Tonight
A few weeks ago, I met Kari Ulrich at the Mayo Clinic Social Media Summit. She is also known as @FMDGirl on twitter. Her diagnosis is Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD), which I admit, I don't know much about. I encourage you to check out the video above in which she tells her story. She told the same story at the Summit.
Kari approached me for a unique opportunity to take part in an e-patient chat on the topic of FMD. This chat will take place on the FMDChat facebook page on Thursday, November 10th, 2011 from 8:00-8:30pm Eastern Standard Time. Also taking part will be Mike Ulrich, MD who is a Family Physician at the Mayo Clinic. Get more details on the chat here.
Some preliminary questions have been proposed for the participants, including the following:
- What are the biggest challenges you face with your primary care physicians (PCP)?
- Share with us what you appreciate most about your PCP.
- How much time do you need with your physician for an average FMD follow-up appointment?
- If you could give your PCP one piece of advice, what would that be?
- What areas do you think need to be addressed most with PCP in dealing with patients with FMD?
There will probably be more of these good questions during the chat tonight. Thanks to Kari and her co-facilitator Sarah for conducting the chat tonight. If anything else, I invite you to listen. People just want to be heard. I'm looking forward to this unique experience tonight.
#FMRevolution: Turn Emotion Into Action
In my opinion, the #FMRevolution needs to learn from the Occupy Wall Street protestors. What do I mean by that? In the video above, you'll see a segment from Family Medicine Rocks Podcast #21 last week where I talk about this in detail. In brief...
My friend Kevin Bernstein, of the Future of Family Medicine Blog, released a creative little video (#FMRevoluton video) getting people fired up about Family Medicine. Ever since it's release, it has made the rounds in the Family Medicine community, with numerous postings on people's and organization's facebook pages. And, as of this blog post, there have been over 1600 views (which in the FamMed community, I think qualifies as a "viral" video).
Even after all that - So What? What does it really mean? People really like a video that says Family Medicine is cool? To me, it means people really like to feel good about Family Medicine. Does that really change anything in the world? Does that really change anything in the health care system? No.
Here is where Occupy comes into the picture. We can all agree that Occupy has a lot of frustrated feelings about their world situation. But, they are doing something about it. They are not staying home and whining about things. Now, you may not agree with what Occupy is doing, but most of #FMRevolution is sitting at home, in front of their computer, clicking "like" on facebook and hoping the world changes around them.
Now, another video was also recently released and making the rounds in the Family Medicine community. This video is with my friend Sarah Sams and was produced by the AAFP. In this video, Sarah is talking about the impending Medicare cuts at the end of this year for physicians. She gives clear and concise advise on what we can DO to address the problem. Unfortunately, as of this posting, there have been only 200 you tube views. No, it doesn't give a happy feeling at the end of it like the #FMRevolution does. But, it gives a more important message.
Sarah Sams is Turning Emotion Into Action. And, I really believe that if #FMRevolution wants to succeed in its goals, the Family Medicine community needs to stop whining and complaining about what is going on in this broken healthcare system - and they need to DO something about it. For some people, it's contacting legislators and advocating for a permanent fix in the Medicare payment system before December 31, 2011. For other people, it's educating about what Family Medicine is really about and how the Patient Centered Medical Home can help our country. For others, it's something different.
If Family Physicians cannot be advocates for our own specialty, then who will?
FamMedRocks G+ Page
You probably heard this week that there are now Google Plus brand pages. And, yes I signed up the Family Medicine Rocks website for one of these delightful things. Why? Two reasons. First, I was curious to see if there was anything different versus my personal G+ page.
But more importantly, I would like to see if anyone in my circles (hehe) also signs up their organization or business for one - particularly, I'll be watching my own Family Medicine community (basically the FamMed membership organizations and #FMRevolution) and those in the healthcare social media (#hcsm) community.
I gotta be honest, I'm not going to be using my brand page that much - just like I don't use my personal G+ page that much. Unlike facebook, the critical mass has not been reached here yet. Then why sign up? Well, I'm basically hedging my bets. And, if for some reason G+ takes off, I'll have my stake planted in the ground - ready for action...
Keystone Physician Magazine
Thanks so much to the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians for the opportunity to chat with them a few months ago about the topic of social media. They just published the fall issue of their membership magazine called "Keystone Physician."
They talked with numerous Family Physicians and social media enthusiasts (ie - those from #FMRevolution) about their take on social media now and in the future. Here is my quote published in the magazine (on page 41)...
I really believe that the AAFP has reached a tipping point at the 2011 Congress of Delegates and Scientific Assembly meetings with things like live streaming COD sessions, getting real-time feedback with twitter, and featuring social media sessions at the Scientific Assembly
On a personal note, I was interviewed by Family Practice News and PrimaryCareClinician.com about the impact of social media and Family Medicine. Finally, the AAFP Board of Directors has made social media a priority with the AAFP President's twitter account and leadership blog.
The Academy is well positioned in 2012 for Family Medicine Advocacy through social media platforms!
I also invite you to read my full summary of this year's annual meeting in the post "AAFP Embraces Social Media." You can also see a video interview by Family Practice News in my blog post "Social Media Tips For Physicians."
AmEdNews: Social Media & Public Health
While I was in Rochester, at the Mayo Clinic Social Media week, I was contacted through my website by American Medical News about social media and public health. There have been numerous examples of social media use in public health.
This article entitied, "Social Media Increasingly Used To Gauge Public Health," from November 7, 2011 - talks about this topic. Here's my quote...
One such doctor is Mike Sevilla, MD, a family physician in Salem, Ohio, who blogs, tweets and has hundreds of Facebook friends. Dr. Sevilla encourages primary care physicians to spread public health messages to patients and community members by posting on a professional Facebook page a picture of themselves getting vaccinated against influenza or eating a healthy meal.
"Putting these pictures on Facebook lets people in the community know that we are doing what we tell them to do," he said.
I also invite you to check out my other quotes from American Medical News articles:
- New Personal Technology Creating New Ailments from September 27, 2010
- Anonymous Posts: Liberating Or Unprofessional from July 11, 2011
Reed Smith Interview
Reed Smith is a social media consultant and someone I met during the Mayo Clinic Social Media Summit and Social Media Residency. We had a great chat during the week and he's trying to get me to come down next spring to SXSW. I was honored to be asked to be Expert Interview #6 on his site. Here was the most intriguing question of the bunch...
Q: In your field what has been the biggest win for social media and new technologies?
I have been doing a lot of speaking engagements to Family Physician organizations on the topic of social media this year. In the Family Medicine community, 2011 has really been the tipping point for use of social media.
My professional association, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), really embraced social media this year even to the point where the AAFP President has a twitter account (@AAFPPrez), a Facebook fan page, and a leadership blog on the AAFP website. “The Prez” even dubbed me ”The King Of Family Medicine Social Media” at the annual meeting this year. He’s joking, of course. But, it’s always fun for me to tell my friends this. HA!
Thanks Reed for the interview. And, hey, maybe I will show up next year for the 2012 SXSW extravangaza!