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Wrap-up of #aafpncsc 2013: Blip or Trend?

Last week was another successful Family Medicine Leadership meeting by the American Academy of Family Physicians. You can re-live the meeting through tweets via the AAFP storify account.

Even though I was not physically there, I got an idea of the energy, enthusiasm, and empowerment that was happening during the meeting. It happens every year. The question is "What happens now?"

Even though by the data, this was the highest attendance for this meeting ever, and the most candidates running the the prestigious New Physician on the AAFP BOD position ever, I'm still kind of skeptical if this momentum will carry on.

I've seen this too many times before. People get back home and are back in their usual routines and will forget the magic of this year's NCSC meeting. However, this is where social media can take over. We can continue to keep in touch and we can continue to encourage each other through twitter, facebook, and other platforms.

So, the question becomes, was 2013 NCSC a flash in the pan? A blip? A really great three day leadership meeting, and that's it? Or hopefully, the participants and the leadership will find a way to continue the great work that was started last week, and make this a leadership trend. Only time will tell....

FamMedRocks Ep302: NCSC/ALF 2013

What a great day watching from thousands of miles away the Family Medicine Leadership meetings known as ALF/NCSC. I have written blog posts about this meeting in the past. To read a post from NCSC 2010, click here.

The day began with the Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 302. Thanks to Dr. Gerry Tolbert, Dr. Kim Yu, and Dr. Troy Feisinger for being guests on the podcast talking about this year's meeting. You can listen to the show in the player above, or, you can download mp3 episode here.

In addition to the audio file, I also recorded a video segment from the podcast which you will see below talking with Gerry, in which he reported some breaking news. You'll have to listen to the audio podcast or watch the you tube video below. Well played Gerry.

And, then for the rest of the day, I was tracking the meeting on twitter and facebook. Missed the whole day? No worries, because our pals at AAFP did the hard work of accumulating the tweets of the day and placing them on the storify platform. You can see the tweets in the window below or click here. Another graphic below shows some twitter data from a sample of 50 tweets reaching over 100k twitter accounts. Not bad from a small meeting.

What will happen on day two? This is when some real fun begins with the presentation and debate of resolutions along with listening to speeches and voting for candidates. Continue to keep track of these twitter hashtags for your enjoyment: #aafpncsc, #aafpalf, #FMRevolution

2013 AAFP NCSC/ALF Meetings

For a long time, I have said that Family Medicine leadership is important. Tomorrow begins a huge Family Medicine leadership meeting in Kansas City. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend this year, but I have been there many times before.

Whether physicians know it or not, they are leaders. Unfortunately, "leadership training" per se, does not occur on a formal basis in college, medical school, or residency. I have learned through the years that there is a set of skills that need to be learned to communicate a message to your patients, the community, and especially, legislators.

It's always inspiring, invigorating, and empowering to be around friends and colleagues with similar interests and common goals. This synergy is needed to formulate and execute the ideas to change our broken health care system, and, frankly, to change the world.

The social media presence of this meeting continues to amaze me. In a previous post, there have been many youtube videos posted to help promote the meeting. In addition, I share the video above and the videos below to let you know that passionate Family Physicians are embracing digital communication to help spread the message.

Best wishes to all those attending the meetings this year - the American Academy of Family Physicians Annual Leadership Forum and National Conference of Special Constituencies. Sorry I could not be there this year. But, I will feel like I'm there while monitoring social media using #aafpncsc, #aafpalf, #fmrevolution

2012 AAFP NCSC Revisited

As NCSC 2013 starts tomorrow, it's always fun to look back at last year. Here are some videos of some highlights for me from last year's meeting. Enjoy!

Nebraska AFP Meeting

Thanks again to my new friends at the Nebraska Academy of Family Physicians meeting for the invitation to speak at their Annual Meeting about the topic of Social Media and Family Medicine. I've been doing these type of talks for Family Docs from coast to coast for about 2 years now, and I'm happy to report that I'm seeing less and less clueless looks from the audience.

The Family Medicine community, through the education efforts of many of my friends from #FMRevolution, is starting to come around as far as recognizing the importance of social media for patient education, marketing, and advocacy.

I intentionally did not tweet a lot or use facebook that much during sessions, because I found myself in a lot of "sidebar" conversations with people I sat next to. I made a lot of new Nebraska friends at the meeting, and I caught up with long time Family Medicine friends.

The strength of "in person" meetings is still the "in person" part. Already on twitter, just this weekend, I'm seeing Family Medicine meetings in Nebraska, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oregon, and, of course, Ohio.

I encourage my #FMRevolution friends to not only use social media this weekend, but don't forget to make those more important "in person" connections as well. We WILL spread the Family Medicine Revolution: One person at a time...

The Golden Rule Of Traveling

I'm on my way to speak at the Nebraska Academy of Family Physicians meeting about Social Media and Medicine. Unfortunately, Mother Nature got in the way yesterday with lots of volatile storms in my travel path, causing the delay and the canceling of flights across the country (including my flights).

Traveling is definitely an exercise in patience, especially with the gate agents who have to rebook your flight. I mean, hey, it's not their fault about plane mechanical problems and about bad weather in your region. Give them a break people! If you treat them with respect, you will receive that in return (and it doesn't hurt to share that on social media)

Which got me thinking: this is a great analogy for work and for life. I remember when I was a medical student and as a Family Medicine Intern/Resident. One of the top pieces of advice what this: Treat the nurses extra nice, and you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

During your intern year, there are times when you feel like a very clueless new doctor. People are turning to you for answers, and you may not have them. Sometimes the intern, in a moment of stress (which happens often), turns to the medical student to ask a question or to confirm a thought.

It is moments like this when nursing staff can really save you. When you're a new doctor, there is nothing like turning to experienced individuals to help you learn - whether a senior resident physician, an attending physician, or a long time nurse. And if you treat your colleagues with respect, especially nursing staff, you will be surprised with how much people go "above and beyond" to help you out. This happens at work and this happens in life as well.

Today, I'm starting this traveling exercise all over again. In checking The Weather Channel, severe storms are expected again today. And, when I finally get to Omaha, I'm expecting a 30 degree temperature drop from where I'm sitting right now, and snow (yes snow still in April). Keep track of my travels on twitter, and wish me luck!

Has Twitter Changed? Previewing FamMedRocks Ep300

Remember when twitter was a great place to have conversations? I invite you to join me on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 12pm Eastern Time for Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 300. My guest will be Meredith Gould: Digital Strategist, Writer, Blogger, and Founder of the Church Social Media Chat (#ChSocM).

This landmark show was sparked by the Meredith's tweet above about two weeks ago: "Ah Twitter. I remember when public convo offered rich engagement among tweps wrestling with great questions. Now I get that via DM."

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. I've been active on social media since 2006 (has it been that long already?), and I remember a time when blog posts regularly received dozens of comments back and forth. Then, when twitter first started, there were these great spontaneous group type discussions out there on topics. Scheduled twitter chats have kind of replaced that, but chats are structured, and leave little room for tangential/sidebar discussions.

When people now want to have a little bit deeper discussion, I receive the twitter/facebook direct message. People send me an e-mail, or even a text to my phone - and the conversation takes place off the "public" airwaves. But why?

In my opinion, here are reasons why "rich engagement" has gone private:

Political Correctness prevents deep analysis: We live in a world where people focus more on being offended than expressing a fully thought out opinion. Sometimes truth hurts, but people hesitate to go there in the public forum, because of the fear of being labelled a "hater." So, the discussion shifts to private messages.

This hyper-partisian world leaves little room for the "middle of the road" opinion: No matter what public opinion you express, whether it is on gay marriage or who will win the Final Four, people will attempt to paint you as some kind of extremist. How has the world evolved to this? No wonder people shift to the private message.

Being taken "out of context" is no longer the exception, it is the rule: This kind of goes along with the reasons above. To negate your argument or to deflate your point of view, people don't take all of your statements head-on, they are selective in the arguments they make. People pick out the statements they can easily defeat or label as "extreme" and then they reason the entire opinion is null and void.

I hope that even some of this makes sense. I'm looking forward to my live conversation with Meredith Gould on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 12pm Eastern Time on Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 300. Hope you can join us!

Previewing AAFP NCSC 2013

Family Medicine leadership is very important to me, as I have talked about on this website in the past. Later this month will be one of the most important Fam Med leadership meetings of the entire year: The National Conference of Special Constituencies organized by the American Academy of Family Physicians. This meeting will take place from April 25-27, 2013 in Kansas City.

In the videos below, you'll see exciting and fun promotions for this year's meeting. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend this year, but I know that I'll be able to share in the action through the (probable) twitter hashtag #aafpncsc. Shout out to all my friends headed out to NCSC 2013!

Andy Ihnatko: "I'm A Narcissist In Private" HA!

Andy Ihnatko is a tech journalist who is a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-host of the MacBreak Weekly podcast. The interview above is a type of "up close and personal" chat that is an interesting comparison of a person's public persona versus the person behind the mask.

When I started in social media, it was important for me to be anonymous. But, then I realized that to make more of an impact, I had to be non-anonymous. In watching this interview above, I have learned that you can actually keep some things private, and there are ways to do that.

One of the cool things about Andy is that he's a guy who has done a lot of deep thinking about a lot of things, and that is apparent in the interview above when it comes to technology, staying private in social media, and being a writer.

I have always admired good writers, because of why they are good writers. Good writers are able to describe their point of view and opinion in ways that everyone can understand. Effective ways to communicate has always been fascinating to me.

The funniest quote in the interview was having to do with not exposing your entire life to social media. It's been talked about in the past that a lot of people in social media (including me) has to be a little bit of a narcissist to talk about things like what you had for breakfast. In the quote above, Andy does admit to be a narcissist, but only in private (around 28 minutes into the interview)

I apologize if this post seems boring, but I've been trying to get back into the habit of blog writing again. I remember when I started blogging. i wrote pretty much everyday. And it took me a while to get into a groove, and eventually, my writing became actually decent. Hopefully, I'll get there again. I just have to get back writing on a regular basis again...

Did Eric Topol Jump The Shark?

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Is it the goal of social media docs to go mainstream? On twitter yesterday and today, I kept seeing posts that rockstar Dr. Eric Topol from Scripps Health was going to be a guest on the Colbert Report. At first, I thought, "Well, that's cool." Then as I continued to think about it, I asked, "Will this appearance really move the needle at all? Did Eric Topol jump the shark?"

All the time, I get questions from docs starting out in social media, "Hey, Mike, how can I get more twitter followers? How can I get more people to visit my website? Do you know anyone in national TV to help get the word out about me?" Is getting popular to just get popular a real goal? That's not medicine. That's not making a difference for patients. That's celebrity.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm probably going to sound like a hypocrite here, but I think what Eric Topol is doing is great, and, of course, I would not turn down an invite on Colbert (not that I would ever get that opportunity).

But, for docs doing social media or who want to do social media, I remind you to not to get caught up in getting famous or being a celebrity. It won't happen overnight. Topol has been doing this type of education & media for a long time, and he deserves all the success he has. But for those of us who are not him, I remind you to remember what's professionally important, and that's your patients. Focus on that and however you define success will be right around the corner.