Why #FMRevolution Matters

Had a great show last night with Dr. Michelle Quiogue who talked about saving the Family Medicine Residency program in Bakersfield, California. I encourage you to download the entire audio podcast and listen more about Family Medicine Rocks Episode 246.

At the end of the show, I had the closing monologue in the video above. We need more positive stories like this one in the Family Medicine community. This #FMRevolution that you see out there on twitter is not only about a twitter hashtag.

To me, #FMRevolution is about spreading the word about Family Medicine. Social media has the power to bring together people from across this nation and around the world. Family Medicine has the data that we give high quality patient care at a lower cost. The Patient Centered Medical Home is the model by which we have this data.

For too long, Family Medicine has let other people tell our story. If Family Docs cannot be advocates for themselves, then who will? Ever since I started in social media (almost) 6 years ago, it has always been my goal to help spread the message of Family Medicine. If you are a Family Doc and have a story to tell that impacts your patients and your community, I'd love to hear about it. Have a great week everybody!

FamMedRocks Ep 246: Dr. Michelle Quiogue

Thanks again to Dr. Michelle Quiogue (follow her on twitter) for coming on the show last night. She shared her story about the saving of the Family Medicine Residency program in Bakersfield, California. She is not directly connected with the program, but through a Facebook update, she learned the news and then sprung into action.

Through her advocacy training from the California Academy of Family Physicians, she contacted the local politicians through letters and phone calls. She also helped coordinate the efforts of the Family Medicine community to help get the word out.

In the video above, she described the scene at the meeting where many people gave testimony to keep the program open. She stated that there was three hours of testimony given my many individuals. At the end of the meeting, the board ordered the hospital CEO to hire a new intern class for the program.

In the second portion of the video above, I asked her what she tells people who say they are too busy for Family Medicine advocacy efforts. I encourage you to download the entire audio podcast of Family Medicine Rocks Episode 246. Can download from the mp3 file from the link below, or here. I also encouage you to "Like" the facebook page for this site and to follow me on twitter. Thanks so much!

Listen to internet radio with DrMikeSevilla on Blog Talk Radio

Download Ep246

Family Medicine Saves Residency Program

On Sunday, March 18th, 2012 at 10pm Eastern Time/7pm Pacific Time, I'll be interviewing Dr. Michelle Quiogue who was part of the effort to keep the Family Medicne Residency Program open at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California. This interview will take place on the Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 246. (don't worry if you cannot listen live, you'll be able to download the podcast and listen anytime)

This story begins at the end of February 2012 when Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California announced that they would be closing their Family Medicine Residency Program. This story even made the local TV news cast. In the video above, you'll see my commentary on the subject.

This is where the story gets good. The community, lead by Family Medicine (in my opinion), came together to spead the word about the potential complications of such a closure which included the question, "Who will take care of all these patients? Where will they go?" The local news paper even wrote, not one, but two editorials favoring keeping the residency program open.

Just this week, Family Medicine advocacy (otherwise known as #FMRevolution) helped to turn the tide. Dr. Quiogue tweeted out the meeting where testimony was heard supporting the residency program. The county supervisors sided with the program and ordered the hospital to hire new Family Medicine residents. Yay! Also check out the local TV news report and the follow-up editorial by the newspaper. I hope you can join us for the rest of the story! (I encourage my Family Medicine friends to spread the word about the show!)

Colon Cancer Awareness

March is Colon Cancer Awareness month. According to the prevent cancer foundation website, 143,360 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer and an estimated 51,690 people will die of the disease. In the video above is my interview on local TV news talking about colon cancer and screening.

If you find this interview helpful, I invite you to check out my other television interviews on local TV news at MikeSevilla.TV. Also check out the facebook page for this site, and, as always, follow me on twitter. Enjoy!

Chardon HS: It Will Happen Again

Kind of interesting monitoring twitter and the news through the day. It's kind of nice to see a student say "Wear something red tomorrow to support Chardon and this terrible time." Other tweets are continuing to play the blame game. As I reflect back on my own blog, I reviewed "From Columbine To Virginia Tech To Tuscon," written January 10, 2011.

Also I re-read my posts from the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings including, "Mental Health Care Delivery In The US," "Depression=Murder?", "Privacy Laws Need Scrutinized," In looking at the news and twitter through the day, the same questions come up again, with still no resolution. Here are some buzz words that are always thrown around:

• Bullying (ie - blame the bully): Since this is an election year, I predict the politicians will pass more bullying laws this year. Will they work? Probably not...
• How was his home life? Did he play video games? (ie - blame the parents): Some have said that his parents should also serve jail time.
• How safe are public schools (ie - blame the school district): Metal detectors in public schools has already come up in the discussion today. The home school people have also been talking today
• There are too many guns out there (ie - blame guns): The gun control people are out again advocating for passing more laws that may or may not be enforced
• Was the child mentally ill (ie - blame the doctor): I haven't read anything on this yet, but I predict that news stories will start covering this in the next few days
• Did you see his Facebook page? (ie - blame social media): I see a knee jerk reaction to prohibit and/or heavily monitor students social media use. Could that have prevented this? It's debatable.

Unfortunately, what usually happens is that the small community of Chardon will be in the spotlight for a few days. The usual pundits will debate the above issues. Again, no resolution will occur. And, then, again, another school shooting will take place. But, I will again post a quote from my 2007 post named, "Can The Cycle Be Broken?" All I can hope is that something will happen to change...

Of course, people are outraged by this situation. I'm outraged by what happened. But, I've seen this too many times. We are shocked by what happened, we mourn the victims, we blame whomever we need to blame for what happened, then we go back to our apathy until the next tragedy happens.

 Well, I'm sick and tired of this useless cycle. Instead of outrage turning into apathy, let's turn outrage into action. And, I'm not talking about knee-jerk reactions like firing some university official somewhere or a more strict student visa process or permanent resident visa process - like what's being talked about now.

Um, uh, wait a minute. As I think about things now (a couple of hours after starting to write this post), I'm thinking about what realistically can happen? Would it mean a radical change in American culture? A culture that celebrates violence? A culture that makes celebrities out of people like Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Cho Seung-Hui [and now TJ Lane]

Chardon HS: Remember the forgotten

Chardon, Ohio is only 60 miles away from where I live. And, this morning, while monitoring facebook and twitter, I learned that there was a shooting at the high school there. Over the next few hours, I saw that national press picked up the story, and for me, memories of Columbine and Virginia Tech started to go through my mind.

Of course, throughout the day, the press was focusing on the one fatality and the others who were injured in the shooting. Then, they would talk about the shooter. And, then the blame game stories would begin. Could this have been prevented? Are public schools safe enough? Do we need more gun control laws? How can we better prevent bullying in the schools?

Only seldom were there stories about the counseling that is needed for the kids, parents, and the community. I'm glad that they announced that they were having counselors at the school today, tomorrow, and for the rest of the week. The governor's statement is in the video above.

I refreshed my memory about the condition called "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." Especially in the pediatric age group, these memories will linger for a long time - long past when the TV cameras are gone, and long past when this community drops out of the national news. There are many great sources of information, but according to this WebMD article, here are key symptoms to look out for:

• Flashbacks: Often times, people will re-live the events of today again and again.
• Emotional Detachment: People may tend to avoid activities, friends, and places - especially associated with the traumatic event
• Jumpiness: A sudden noise may startle someone. Or someone may overreact to a seemingly simple situation. Or people may start to have trouble sleeping

Key to treatment, especially of children, is to give them the opportunity to express what their feeling, whether it be through talking or drawing pictures or writing. Anything to get those confused emotions out and not have them bottled up.

So, as the press is trying to get their ratings, sell their newspapers, and get hits on their website, they will probably forget about those students, those parents, and the community who has been emotionally scarred by this tragedy. Don't forget about them, because they will be the ones to bring Chardon, Ohio back...

Press Like Family Docs

In the video above, I talk about a news report I saw on Saturday, February 18, 2012 from the CBS Evening News talking about how Family Medicine and primary care are very important to the United States health care system. The AAFP President enjoyed this news report as well.

Even with this positive press, in my commentary above, I state that Family Medicine still has a ways to go in explaining what our specialty is. I talk above about even in the past week, to my own patients, I had to explain the scope of practice for our office. But, I'm still encouraged by news reports like this one. Yay Family Medicine!

As always, you can download the entire audio podcast for Family Medicine Rocks Episode 241 here or down below. I also encourage you to "Like" our facebook page, follow me on twitter, and check out the youtube page. Enjoy!

Download Episode 241

Podcast Ep241 Intro

I know that I've been really bad at keeping up the blog. It's just that life (and work) gets in the say sometimes. The video above is the opening segment from last night's live podcast. What I hope to do is to place other video segments from the show on to the site and make them like blog posts. You can download the entire audio podcast in the link below. Also check out MikeSevilla.TV for other youtube videos. Enjoy!

Download Ep 241

TV Interview: Depression

In the video above, you'll see the interview done yesterday talking about depression. The interview was only two minutes, so I could only cover very limited material. In addition, I wanted to talk about the Behavioral Medicine and Wellness Center at Salem Community Hospital, but I ran out of time.

The funny thing is that this was a new set that I had never seen before. Apparently, this couch set was new for the station as well. So, this threw me off a little bit, but I think I was able to manage. I did tell the anchor that I missed sitting at a desk - Hehe.

If you found this interview helpful, I encourage you to check out my other TV interviews here. Plus, I have a whole youtube channel at MikeSevilla.TV in addition to a facebook page for the website and, of course, my twitter feed. Enjoy!

Social Media: Don't Do This

There's nothing like a good fight taking place on social media, right? Locally, there has been a contract dispute between a radio station and (arguably) the #1 morning show in the market. The morning show is called "The DeLuca Show" and the radio station is WDJQ in Canton, Ohio otherwise known as Q92 Radio.

Contract talks broke down today which lead to a Q92 press release and The DeLuca Show press release. For about 2 weeks, there have been facebook comments on both of their facebook pages which have been interesting to follow.

In the past few hours, the facebook comments have been getting more negative - to the point where the radio station posted the facebook page above. What's more interesting is that the facebook update above has been DELETED since I took that screen shot.

Q92: For those of you who have missed it and are demanding to know what has happened, we have issued a press release on what has happened with the morning show. It is what it is. In the future, negative comments on this page will be removed and users banned from posting on this page. Let's move on and try to be positive. There is more than enough negativity in the world. Posting it here won't change anything.

On the other hand, the DeLuca Show posted a FB update with the simple request "'Like' if we have your support." As of this posting, it has been up only 30 minutes, and they already have 1299 likes. Do me a favor, "Like" this as well and see how high this FB update can go.

Here's the lesson: DO -> Show some love to your audience. DON'T -> Insult your audience. Pretty simple to me...