FamMedRocks Ep305: Dr. Rachel Franklin

​Thanks again to Dr. Rachel Franklin for being my guest on Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 305. It was a fascinating interview that was recorded about 24 hours following the F5 tornado in the Oklahoma City tornado on May 20, 2013.

There were so many emotions going through my mind as I was watching the news and keeping the cable news channels on for those few days following the tornado. Dr. Franklin reflected very nicely on how Family Medicine takes a role in disaster situations like this.​

In the video above, I asked her how people from across the country and around the world can help her community right now. She also has some great closing thoughts on Family Medicine.​

You can listen to the entire audio podcast in the player above, or you can download Family Medicine Rocks Episode 305 right here. I also encourage you to follow me on twitter, like the facebook page, check out my youtube page, and see my linked-in page. Enjoy!​

Social Media Is Still About IRL

It is 1 o'clock in the morning as I write this, and I am so energized by the meet up tonight, I just had to write about it. Thanks to my long time social media pals Emily Bennett (@crzegrl15) and Sean Dent (@IAmUnafraid) for the great discussion tonight. Most of the conversation I'll leave at the bar, but there were three themes that I wanted to share here:

• What has happened to social media discussion? All three of us started around the same time blogging - meaning long form blogging, not the microblogging of  twitter and facebook. Back then, success was about quality writing and commenting, and not about the number of twitter followers and facebook likes. As I have discussed previously with Meredith Gould, social media discussions have moved from the public forum to private direct messages. Are public social media discussions dead? Maybe not, with things now like google hangouts, podcast interviews, and twitter chats.

• Social Media burnout happens. Back in the early and mid 2000s, to be a successful anonymous blogger, you had to be pretty transparent and honest in your story telling. Even though health care bloggers were not transparent with their real names, those bloggers shared sometimes pretty personal information & stories, which readers loved, but blog writers could not sustain, and many of those bloggers quit and blogs deleted. In today's social media world, marketing people say that you have to have a continuous stream of content.  But, I have found social media sanity by taking occasional and intermittent social media breaks. Recognize that social media burnout happens, and instead of quitting, know when to pull back a little bit and not sharing everything you're doing.
• Social Media Is Still About IRL (in real life)​. Back when I started blogging, I was able to make a real connection with the blog authors I was reading - mainly because the amount of sharing that was happening was fairly deep at that point. Today, it's very difficult for me to determine whether a blog post is a genuine story or a re-worked press release. People have noticed that when I'm at conferences or meetings, I do not tweet that much. This is because the way to make connections today is In Real Life (IRL) in the back halls of the conference room or in the hallways. For me, social media reinforces the in person conversations and connections I have with people - So it's still about In Real Life meetings for me.

I hope some of this makes sense. As I hope (and dream), I challenge you to leave a comment below to continue the conversation. But, I know what will happen. I will receive the limited comment of the tweet response, and a thumbs up like on facebook.. Maybe I am sound like Statler and Waldorf below from the muppets, an old guy wanting to go back to the past and how things were when social media was fresh and new. An old guy can dream, right? ​(It's 2am as I finish this post. Apologies if it sounds like a first draft, because it is lol)

Cleveland Meeting Of The Minds

You're guilty of this, I know. On social media, how many times a week do you type in, "Hey twitter friends, we should meet up sometime and hang out." And, then, nothing happens, maybe for years....

In Cleveland, there will be a twitter meet up which has been years in the making. Ive known @Crzegrl15, who recently started blogging again, pretty much when I started in the social media game, and for years, we've been joking, "Hey we should head out for that beer sometime." Well, it will happen Thursday night...​

Thanks to our pal @IAmUnafraid, the new graduate, for putting this meetup together. To check out the fun Thursday night, monitor our twitter feeds, including mine. It's going to be a good one...

Physician From Oklahoma City

Very few physician stories out of Oklahoma City this week following the F5 tornadoes there. I'd like to change that. I hope you can join me on Thursday, May 23, 2013, for Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 305.

Dr. Rachel Franklin is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. She lives with her family in the Oklahoma City area and we chatted about what it has been like there for the past few days.​ In an earlier blog post this week, I talked about how Dr. Franklin was live tweeting information from the ground in OKC just a few hours after the tornado.

I didn't know this, but Dr Franklin was living in the area there for the April 19, 1995 bombing of a federal building, the May 3, 1999 F5 tornado, and this week's May 20, 2013 F5 tornado. ​I can't even imagine being in the area of one of these events, but all three? Wow.

In the video above, I asked Dr. Franklin what people can do Right Now to help the people in her community. You can listen to our full interview on Thursday, May 23, 2013 for Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 305. Visit my podcast page for more information. Hope to see you for the show!

@DocForeman on #SMEM

​In watching the coverage of today's F5 tornado in the Oklahoma City area, I'm reminded by the Joplin, Missouri F5 tornado almost exactly two years ago on May 22, 2011.

In the video above our pal @DocForeman talks about how she used twitter following that Joplin tornado to try to get the word out and to coordinate emergency services (her section is 9 minutes and 25 seconds into the you tube video above). It is a moving story.​

Here are a couple of important quotes from this talking about using social media in the emergency/disaster setting (#SMEM on twitter, aka, Social Media Emergency Management):

• "You don't have to be a doctor to do this"
• "The public (i.e. the normal citizen) should have guidelines on how to be helpful on twitter following an event.... Tell me the three things that people should know from first responders"
  

You'll see more tweets below that @DocForeman was sending out tonight. If you haven't already, also check out my previous post on how a local physician on the ground in the Oklahoma City area is also using twitter. Social Media and Emergency Management: I know there will be more stories like this one in the days to come...

Live Tweeting Following OKC Tornado

​As I write this, it is 8:42pm Eastern Time, and I've been following coverage on this F4 Tornado in the Oklahoma City area. Kudos to our pal Dr. Rachel Franklin, who is a Family Physician in the Oklahoma City area. She is live tweeting as I write what is happening on the ground right now. I was able to copy the initial tweets from her efforts below. I encourage you to follow her on twitter @YourFamilyDoc for more updates. Thanks Rachel for your efforts! I challenge the Family Medicine Community, and especially those in #FMRevolution to help share their story with retweets and offer assistance when/if needed.

World Family Doctors' Day 2013

​In 2010, in Cancun Mexico, the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) declared World Family Doctor Day. The logo above was conceptualized by a couple of physicians in the Philippines. According to their website...

The first World Family Doctor Day was celebrated on 19 May 2010. It has been taken up with enthusiasm around the world and has given us a chance to celebrate what we do to provide recognition to family doctors, to highlight important issues and the work we perform in supporting health care for all people in our local communities, our nations and around the world.

We have much to celebrate as governments around the world have really begun to realise the value of our specialty. In some countries there is work to do, and celebrating World Family Doctor Day will open up many opportunities to highlight the important contributions of family doctors.

This day creates an atmosphere of global solidarity among family doctors and it will be a positive and visible contribution of WONCA’s leadership and contribution to family medicine. 

​I admit that the only way I knew it was World Family Doctors' Day was checking my social media today. In my opinion, from an advocacy and public awareness point of view, the Family Medicine community lost another opportunity to share our story. Wouldn't it have been nice to coordinate a social media campaign among the Friends of Family Medicine (even internationally) to share why we (as Family Docs) believe that we give the world the best medical care. Oh well, maybe next year...

FamMedRocks 304 Wrap-up: Your Health Talk

​My thanks to the hosts of the Your Health Talk podcast for being my guests on Family Medicine Rocks Episode 304 recorded today. If you didn't already know, the hosts of the podcast are Second Year Medical Students in the Kansas City area. (How do they have time to do a podcast in the midst of their studying?)

We had a great discussion about why they applied to medical school in the first place, what it's like being a medical student these days, what are board exams for med students, and their social media backgrounds before they started the podcast.​

It was really fun listening to them talk about the origins of the podcast. For the 2nd half of the show, I turned the show over to them, and they asked me questions. Thanks to our pal Dr. Neu for calling in close to the end of the show!​

You can listen to the entire audio podcast below, or download here. In the video above, I asked them what they would do if a patient tried to friend them on Facebook. You'll want to see the answer in the video above. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast here, along with following me on twitter, facebook, youtube, and linked-in. Enjoy!​

Jolie Spotlights Prevention

​Actress Angelina Jolie wrote a New York TImes Op-Ed this morning entitled, "My Medical Choice," in which she says she had a preventative double mastectomy because she has a breast cancer gene which puts her at higher risk for cancer.

I admit that I'm not a big fan of Angelina's movies, but, today, this gives me an opportunity to talk to my patients about the idea of preventative medicine. It's not just about breast cancer, but also about other aspects of cancer prevention (like lung cancer, colon cancer, and other types of cancer). In addition to cancer prevention, it's a chance to take a look at other aspects of people's health like cardiovascular risk prevention and even mental health topics.​

News cycles are so quick these days, so it's important for physicians to take advantage of this opportunity of a celebrity in the news to talk about preventative medicine issues - not just breast cancer. Family Medicine focuses on the entire person and the entire family. That's why I love what I do!​

FamMedRocks Ep303 Wrap-up

During this most recent episode, I've been trying out some new audio equipment for a future project. So, we'll see what happens. I encourage you to check out Family Medicine Rocks Episode 303.​

​I'm very excited for next week's show in which I'll be interviewing the hosts of The Your Health Talk Podcast. These are medical students from the Kansas City area who write, produce, and direct these podcast episodes. This will be a Live Show at 11am on Thursday, May 16, 2013 on the Family Medicine Rocks podcast.

In addition on episode 303, I talk about a future podcast where I am the person being interviewed. I invite you to check out The Just Talking Podcast with host Chris. The podcast will be released later this month. Then, Chris will be a guest on my podcast and we'll give you a behind the scenes of our chat. That will be fun.​

Don't forget to subscribe to the Family Medicine Rocks podcast on iTunes. You can also directly download Episode 303 right here. You can also listen in the player above. Also check me out on twitter, Facebook, youtube, and linked-in. Enjoy!​