#CPI12: Risk Stratified Care Management

This is a second in a multi-part series talking about last week's Conference on Practice Improvement organized by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and American Academy of Family Physicians. The previous post talked about the pre-conference sessions.

In the video above, I talked with Dr. Bruce Bagley from TransforMED.com and AAFP specifically talking about the idea of Risk Stratified Care Management and why that is important in a Patient Centered Medical Home system. In addition, the AAFP just released a new RSCM Assessment tool last week to help assist clinicians in this process, and you can access that at www.AAFP.org/rscm

Dr. Bagley is even on twitter, tweeted during the meeting, and even attended our social media session. How cool is that? In the next few days, I'll be writing more blog posts and sharing more videos that I recorded at last week's #CPI12 meeting. Enjoy!

#CPI12 Pre-Conference

This is my first Conference on Practice Improvement meeting and it was a great Pre-conference day. For those who are not familiar, this is organized by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and the American Academy of Family Physicians and the location of this year's meeting is in Greenville, South Carolina.

The highlight for me was a Pre-conference session talking about practice transformation and clinical innovation. Of course, there were concepts on the Patient Centered Medical Home talked about, but there was so much more. Being at the grassroots, it's difficult to see the big picture, because I'm just trying to keep up with day-to-day office duties, like keeping up with my electronic medical record.

But, it was great to see a presentation kind of put everything together from "Who is in your medical neighborhood" to "This is how you use data driven care to improve the quality of your patient care." I have never really had the time to dive into my own EMR and explore its full functionality and do things like find trends in clinical numbers or use the EMR as a patient registry to remind myself of preventative maintenance issues.

Dr. Bruce Bagley from TransforMED.com introduced an entirely new webpage on the AAFP website having to do with Risk Stratified Care Management. This asks you, "How can you formally figure out which patients are going to require more of your time & attention and your staff's time & attention?" We kind of do this already informally, but what is very exciting is this chart which puts this concept in an organized format.

Day Two of the conference is today and is highlighted by main stage speaker Christine Bechtel whose talk is entitled "Patient Centered Care: What is it and how do we get there?" You can follow along on twitter with the #CPI12 hashtag. I'm also going to try to record video interviews during the conference. Stay tuned for more updates!

Healthy Holiday Eating Tips

It's holiday time again and there's nothing better to do than gathering with friends and family for a meal. Are there ways to have healthy holiday eating? You bet there are. In the video above, I talk about some tips to still enjoy your meal, but still make some healthy choices.

The TV interview above is a short 2 minute chat set up by Salem Community Hospital and recorded at WKBN-TV in Youngstown, Ohio on Monday, November 19, 2012. If you found this interview helpful, I also encourage you to check out previous interviews at MikeSevilla.TV. Also check out my other social media areas like the facebook page for this website, audio podcast site, my twitter feed, and my linked-in page. Enjoy!

Here's To The Crazy Ones

"Here's To The Crazy Ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes..." The video above is from the Apple "Think Different" campaign. What's unique about the video above is the voice over is by Steve Jobs, and not by the orignial actor who did the spots...

I read a post today from my friend Dr. Bryan Vartabedian, otherwise known as @Doctor_V on twitter. He talked about a band of tweeting pediatricians called "Tweetiatricians" whose name was born at the American Academy of Pediatrics meeting last week. In the post, he says that some liked the moniker, and some didn't. Some said that the name diminished from what pediatricians should be doing on social media. He writes...

I may be the wrong person to be chiming in here.  I’m sometimes accused of taking all of this too seriously.  I do struggle with the balance of levity and leadership.  And I’ve noticed that the more people who watch me, the more challenging it is to be myself in the most transparent sense.

Of course, this made me reflect on our little Family Medicine social media group that was coined #FMRevolution on twitter by my good friend Dr. Jay Lee. If I have been accused of anything, I've been told that I'm not taking all of this serious enough. "Mike, you joke around too much on social media with all of your Doctor Anonymous shenagigans," I've been told in the past.

Maybe it's a generational thing, but doctors are not "joiners" these days. When it started, it was really fun to join a group of Family Docs who used twitter a lot. And, no one thought that #FMRevolution would go from a small little group to being mentioned at the podium by more than one AAFP Board member at our annual meeting.

So, what ever you call it #FMRevolution, #Tweetiatrician, or whatever - the easy part is catching their attention. The hard part is keeping their attention, and even more difficult that that is figuring out a way to turn that feeling, emotion, and camaraderie into action. Whether you're a Family Doc, or Pediatrician, or anyone else. The real power of social media is bringing about change: "...because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Being An EMR Physician Champion

Like other hospitals around the nation, our small little community hospital in NE Ohio is on the road towards electronic medical records. Yesterday and today, the hospital team asked me to accompany them on a site visit to see how an Indiana hospital implemented the system. The picture above was seen in our commute to this out of state destination. Who knew that northwest Ohio had a huge wind farm?

Of course, one advantage is that they have went through this process already, and we can ask very detailed and technical questions about what they did. And, this dialogue has been very helpful. The disadvantage is that each hospital and each hospital situation is different. For example, variables include the size of the hospital, size of the community, size of the medical staff, are the physicians employed by the hospital, how many IT (information technology) staff are available at the hospital at any given time, and many other factors.

When it comes down to it, I have learned when it comes to physicians and provider staff, they don't like change whatsoever, and it comes down to change management. I mean, I totally understand. No one likes change, and to learn new and different processes takes time and effort.

In reading a lot about how other hospitals manage change, it's about setting expectations and framing the argument correctly. For example, when it comes to EMR implementation in the hospital or clinic setting, it does come back to patients. Implementation of an EMR has the factors of patient safety, quality patient care, and work flow efficiency. The next step is about scripting those talking points and spreading that message across the organization.

I'm probably a freak in that I'm enjoying this challenge of being an EMR Physician Champion for my hospital. I may be biased, but I think physicians are the most resistant to change. Yet, if you're able to gain their trust and their buy-in, physicians can be your biggest ally in bringing about change in the organization. Our go-live date for computerized order entry is in 4 months and maybe I'll write about this topic in the future.....

Social Media and #aafpcod

Last week was another big step in the progression of social media and the Family Medicine community. The Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) took place last week in Philadelphia with the first part of the week being the policy making part of the meeting called the Congress of Delegates. The 2nd half of the week was the educational sessions called the Annual Scientific Assembly.

I reviewed the advocacy part of the week (the Congress of Delegates) in Family Medicine Rocks Episode 281. (also check out the video above) I reviewed the brief history of social media and the AAFP which started for me at the 2010 leadership meeting called the Annual Leadership Forum and National Conference of Special Constituencies (ALF/NCSC) meetings.

Just a year later, which has been documented on this blog in the past, at the 2011 ALF/NCSC meetings, this was a significant moment for social media and the AAFP in which the AAFP Board of Directors signed up and explored twitter. Just a few months later, the AAFP made social media a priority with the launching of a Leadership Blog on the website, and the starting of the AAFP President facebook page and twitter account.

Through the 3 days of the Congress of Delegates meeting in Philadelphia last week, those on twitter were able to get over 2 million impressions on the internet. Now, I know that other meetings do a lot better. But, given that social media was not even on the AAFP radar just 2 years ago, this is a huge accomplishment. (including video streaming of Congress of Delegates events)

In addition, I invite you to check out the AAFP Storify account to review the tweets from the meeting. Check out my full analysis on Family Medicine Rocks Episode 281. Welcome to those of you who are new to this website. I also encourage you to check out my twitter account, facebook page, you tube page, linked-in account, and podcast page. Enjoy!

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Best Moment As A Family Physician

On the AAFP website, they ask this question "What is your best moment as a Family Physician?" It's a cool way for members to think back and reflect on those moments that keep us going when we have those tough days. At the link, there is a video from the 2013 Family Physician of the year Dr. Thomas Albani and another video with my friend Dr. Deb Clements.

At the end of Family Medicine Rocks Episode 281 today, I took a crack at this question, and the result is the video below where I reflect on a story from residency that is a moment difficult to forget. It will probably be impossible for me to dilute down to the 20 words that they are asking on the AAFP website, but this was a nice exercise for me to think back to some real rewarding moments of being a Family Physician. Enjoy!

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Mayo Clinic Social Media Revolution

The 4th Annual Health Care Social Media Summit opened today at the Mayo Clinic. I was honored to be a panelist at last year's meeting, and this was my first experience at the #MayoRagan Social Media Summit. Unfortunately, I could not attend this year.

The big announcement that was just made at the opening session of this year's meeting was the release of a book by the Mayo Clinic Center For Social Media. The book is entitled "Bringing The Social Media Revolution To Health Care." I'm honored to be a contributor, and I'm proud to be a part of a distinct group of thought leaders who helped in the book's creation. My essay has to do with Why Blogging Matters.

The goal of the book is to empower, encourage, and inspire health care professionals to engage in social media. The book also hopes to re-energize social media veterans to be advocates and to bring revolution to health care. I want to be clear in that I do not make a dime from this book. Net proceeds from book sales will fund patient scholarships to attend events sponsored by the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.

The cost of the book is $9.95 in paperback and can be ordered via amazon through this link. Bulk orders (like for 5, 10, or 15) are available directly from the Center by using this form. (Just as a friendly suggestion, I know a lot of people who would be interested in a kindle version of the book as well) Thanks again to the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media for asking me to be a contributor to the book. For those on twitter, I encourage you to follow this year's meeting with the #MayoRagan hashtag. The schedule for the 2012 meeting can be found here. Enjoy!

Dinner with Primary Care Progress

I had a very unique opportunity last night to have dinner with a rising star in Primary Care Advocacy. Dr. Andrew Morris-Singer is founder of Primary Care Progress which is an organization created following two significant events. First involves Dr. Andrew and what guided him toward primary care in the first place. In his standard presentation, he shares the story of how his own mother did not have a primary care physician and almost died because of our broken health care system. This event occurred when Dr. Andrew was a senior medical student.

The second event that caused the creation of the organization was the 2009 announcement at Harvard Medical School that the Primary Care Division was going to be defunded. At that point, Primary Care activists gathered to fight this decision and to try to build a new primary care vision for the school and for the community. As others around the country heard this story, other medical school campuses were interested in creating their own Primary Care Progress Chapter.

In the video below, you'll see the closing remarks made by Dr. Andrew from last night's presentation at Northeastern Ohio Medical University. There was also a great question and answer session from the students who attended the talk.

Following the close of the session, I had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Andrew over dinner about Primary Care Progress and advocacy for primary care/family medicine. A realization occurred to me that to further the cause of the Family Medicine Revolution, collaboration must occur with organizations like Primary Care Progress.

The Primary Care Community must stop working in our silos and come together under the big umbrella (or big tent) of Primary Care, Practice Innovation, and concepts like the Patient Centered Medical Home. You can see from this week's National Primary Care Week and Voices For Primary Care project - there is common ground that can be found among Family Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and other primary care groups. We must stop working in our separate advocacy silos and come together with one Primary Care message.

Dr. Morris-Singer is a fascinating guy with lots of ideas, a strong advocacy background, and tremendous network of contacts that is growing everyday. I look forward to future collaborations with Primary Care Progress, and I thank everyone in my network who helped make the Voices for Primary Care initiative so successful. Hopefully this 2012 National Primary Care Week is a spark that will ignite a fire (Escape Fire?) of Advocacy that will carry through for the years to come...

Preview: Mayo Social Media Summit

Dr. Natasha Burgert joins me for an exclusive podcast interview on Thursday, October 11, 2012 for Family Medicine Rocks Episode 280. She is a pediatrician and the Social Media Manager for Pediatric Associates, Kansas City. Dr. Burgert is a Keynote Speaker at next week's Mayo Clinic Health Care Social Media Summit presented by Ragan Communications (Hashtag for meeting is #MayoRagan). 

In the video below, Dr. Burgert offers an exclusive preview of her Keynote Presentation entitled "With social media, patient education doesn't stop in the doctor's office." In addition to this, we'll discuss on the podcast her social media origins and how she integrates social platforms into her clinical practice. I also encourage you to check out the Ragan site and the Mayo site for more specific information about the meeting in general (there is still time to register for the meeting)

I hope you can join me tomorrow, Thursday, October 11, 2012 for Family Medicine Rocks Episode 280 for the full interview. If you cannot join live, you can always download the archived podcast (via iTunes or via RSS) and listen anytime, like on the flight out to Rochester LOL. In addition, if you haven't already seen, Dr. Burgert is quoted in a New York Times story from 2 days ago entitied, "Texting The Teenage Patient."

Finally, welcome to those of you who are new to my site. I invite you to look around. I also invite you to check out my other social media outlets like on twitter, on facebook, on youtube, on linked in, and the podcast link to the show. Enjoy!