Previewing #NCCL2015 Leadership Conference

Thanks to our pal Kim Yu for joining Gerry Tolbert and me on tonight's edition of Countdown to #AAFP2014. For the first portion of tonight's show, Gerry and talked about the first part of the week which will be the AAFP Congress of Delegates meeting.

Then, we received a message from Kim if she could join the show. And, yes, it took me 18 minutes to figure out how to do that - Sheesh. Even though Kim was feeling ill, she felt strongly about joining us for "the big reveal" of our promo video.

The AAFP National Conference of Constituency Leaders will take place in April 2015, and during tonight's show, we premiered a promo video with a Star Trek theme with the cooperation of AAFP Board leaders. You'll see the video at the bottom of this post, and you can also access at http://bit.ly/NCCL2015

As I've said previously, I'm part of an awesome team of people who will be Social Media Ambassadors at the #AAFP2014 conference. We'll be tweeting out using the hashtag. We'll be taking photos and posting places like instagram. We'll be recording video interviews, and doing other cool stuff.

The new promo video is below. Please, please, please share the link on your twitter and Facebook feeds. I'm really hoping to have a bunch of views going into the DC meeting in a couple of weeks. In addition, for you audio listeners, you can download the audio podcast at this link, or just listen in the player below. I'm trying this out to see if there is interest in this. I'll try pretty much any social media format, and you know I have! Enjoy!

#AAFP2014 In Less Than Two Weeks

It's hard to believe that it's less than 2 weeks until the best Family Medicine conference of the year which will be the 2014 American Academy of Family Physicians Assembly in Washington, DC. The hashtag for the meeting will be #AAFP2014. I talked a little bit about the meeting in a previous post.

Along with my good friend Dr. Gerry Tolbert, we'll be hosting a Google Hangout on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 9pm Eastern Time at this link to talk further about #AAFP2014. In addition to this, we'll be talking about the policy part of the week called the Congress of Delegates.

Finally, we'll be making a HUGE announcement with regard to the AAFP spring leadership meeting now called the AAFP Leadership Conference for Current and Aspiring Leaders, the Annual Chapter Leader Forum, and the National Conference of Constituency Leaders (#aafpNCCL). The one clue you get is the picture below. Hope to see you for the show!

Photo Credit Above: Shutterstock

Dear Facebook: Stay Out Of Health Care

Last week, the internet was a twitter (see what I did there) about the major health care story of ebola in the United States. However, there was also a interesting rumor announced at the end of last week, to which people should really be paying attention.

As reported by Reuters, Facebook is taking aim at health care, YOUR health care. "The company is exploring creating online 'support communities' that would connect Facebook users suffering from various ailments. A small team is also considering new 'preventative care' applications that would help improve their lifestyles," the article states.

Six years ago in 2008, I remember when Google tried to make a big splash with their Google Health product. That is now discontinued. I also remember in 2007 when Microsoft tried to make an impact with Healthvault. Of course, this year, Apple is trying to make in roads with their Health Kit software (I've written about that in the past at this link).

Will Facebook really make this happen? I don't think they should, and here are three reasons they should not:

• People's Lack Of Trust In Facebook: There are many stories about Facebook "Asking For Forgiveness" in breaking users privacy, instead of Facebook "Asking For Permission." I mean, people get upset if private photos get mistakenly shown on Facebook. What will happen if their private health information gets out there?
• Online Support Communities Already Exist: I really enjoyed listening to the vocal E-Patient community respond to this. "Hey Zuck, there are already communities out here. Contact us and we'll tell you about it." Don't quote me, but I think our pal Dr. Larry Chu, the Dean of Stanford Medicine X, and E-patient Champion, said that quote :)
• Potentially Less Sharing on Facebook: I've already written about "The End of the Medical Chart" in which patients would potentially ask their physician to not include information because of fear of hacking. People will do the same thing if this Facebook initiative happens.

However, here are three reasons why Facebook will ignore me, and many other people, and absolutely make this happen:

• Everyone Is On Facebook: Every time there is some kind of privacy breach, people get upset and threaten to leave, but they don't. Every few months, a new website like Ello comes along claiming to the anti-Facebook, but no one leaves to go there. Facebook will be around, and when it comes down to it, we put up with the Facebook screw-ups, and continue using the service.
• Lessons Learned: I think that Facebook has done its homework and has learned from the failed Google Health and Microsoft Healthvault examples of the past. It will be interesting to see how they roll this out when they're ready.
• No One Is Going To Stop Them: We, in the healthcare field, have been asking mainstream tech companies to look more at health care as an opportunity. 2015 will be the year that the major Silicon Valley players will be looking at how to make our health better. Will physicians, providers, patients, and the industry be ready?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Countdown To #AAFP2014 & Conference Overview

Thanks to our pal Dr. Gerry Tolbert for the fun show tonight where we mostly talked about the upcoming 2014 American Academy of Family Physicians Assembly which will take place October 21-25, 2014 in Washington, DC.

We reviewed many of the exciting elements of the meeting including the conference app, the conference brochure, and the upcoming announcement of Family Medicine For America's Health initiative. The main stage speakers include Dr. Eric Topol, Anna Quindlen, and Dr. Dike Drummond. There will also be some specialized content tracks during the conference in the areas of Direct Primary Care, ICD-10, and Patient Centered Medical Home.

There will also be numerous networking and social events during the conference. The Member Interest Groups that will be meeting include Direct Primary Care, Rural Health, Hospital Medicine, Independent Solo/Small Group Practices, and Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care.

I'm excited to announce that I will be a part of a small group of AAFP members designated as "Social Media Ambassadors" during the conference who will be using twitter (the official hashtag is #AAFP2014), Facebook, instagram, and other social media platforms. Our group hopes to bring you some behind the scenes access to some aspects of the conference.

Towards the end of the show, we talked about yesterday's announcement about the first diagnosed case of Ebola in the United States. During the show, Gerry showed pictures of their newborn twins. And, there were even live technical glitches which we had to deal with. It's live internet broadcasting, you know.

This show was merely a warm up to next week's extravaganza! Please join us on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 9pm Eastern Time at this link where we will share with you something that we created having to do with leadership, Family Medicine, the AAFP, and our friends! It's going to be very exciting, and you just have to be there live!

#AAFP2014 in Three Short Weeks

In Washington, DC, the annual conference of the American Academy of Family Physicians will take place from October 19-25, 2014. A variety of events will take place including policy making for the organization, educational programs, social events, and more! Check out the official conference program at this link. 

Through this website in the next three weeks, not only do I hope to communicate how much I'm looking forward to this year's meeting, but I also hope to excite the Family Medicine community (some known as the #FMRevolution community) and everyone else to the yearly Family Medicine showcase that is this conference!

To kick things off, I invite you to a Google Hangout that will take place this Wednesday, October 1st, 2014 at 9pm Eastern Time at this link. My good friend, Gerry Tolbert, and I will talk about the upcoming meeting, along with some surprises to share with the live audience. Can't join us live, then no worries. You can always check it out later on my youtube page. And, as always, I'll post on this website as well for your review and enjoyment.

Gerry and I have been doing some "test" shows in the past few weeks. An example of this is the video above where we do talk about this year's #AAFP2014 meeting (this will be the official hashtag of the meeting). In addition, I encourage you to download the conference app. Get more information at this link. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: Just to be clear, the views and opinions expressed on this website are not necessarily those of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the organization is not compensating me for any conference coverage on this website or publicity via other social media channels.)

Stanford Medicine X: Apply For 2015

Applications are now open for the 2015 Stanford Medicine X E-Patient Scholarship program. Definitely get more information at this link on the MedX website. Get working on it now, because the deadline is November 1, 2014.

I would imagine that applications for speaker and panel presentations will also be announced soon. I may get the courage up to complete one of those applications to have a side panel session or even go for a (gasp) main stage panel discussion. I'll have to get together with my peeps on that one.

Thanks to our pal Chris Snider for including my 2014 MedX thoughts on his most recent podcast talking about the meeting. Check out part one here, and part two (the one where my quote is at) is in the audio player above or at this link, too.

One of the best aspects of MedX are the "E-Patient Ignite" talks in which speakers have just a few minutes to tell their story and to share some slides, if they like. There is an example of a few speakers in the video above. And, let me tell you, these are all well done. They are inspiring, and they usually have twitter abuzz with chatter during and following these talks.

MedX is starting to put some of the main stage speakers, main stage panels, and side panel sessions on their youtube site. If you don't find them there yet, they did archive most of the raw video stream feed on their livestream site. Check out this link to see the end of Friday, most of Saturday, and most of Sunday from the main stage. Thanks MedX for the unprecedented access to conference sessions!

As usually happens, during and following awesome conferences like this one, I have all of these ideas about blog posts to write, podcasts to record, and videos to do. Unfortunately, life and work have gotten in the way of all of these grand plans. I have so many blog posts in "draft" stage that will probably remain unfinished.

Don't get me wrong, this MedX conference recharged my social media passion, but life is preventing these awesome social media ideas into becoming reality. My 2014 MedX Hangover is over, and I'm moving on to other projects, and getting ready for future conferences, particularly the upcoming #AAFP2014 meeting next month...

2014 Stanford Medicine X: Online Patient Communities

"Communicating The Experience Of Illness In The Digital Age" is the title of a panel from the 2014 Stanford Medicine X conference. This panel was moderated by Pam Ressler with panelists Susannah Fox, Meredith Gould, and Colleen Young. The video is above from the MedX YouTube page. The text summary is from this storify account. Also check out the groups pre-conference notes.

Do online communities matter? Of course, they do. But, what IS an online community? How do you define it? That's a more difficult question. Does just telling your story get you into an online community? Does self-disclosure get you into an online community? This panel was one of the ones that I was really looking forward to, especially with my pre-conference chat with our pal Meredith Gould in the video below.

Here are some of my reactions to some things that happened in the panel discussion and beyond:

• Communicating Illness In The Digital Age: I read the pre-conference notes from this group. The idea of this panel started with a very public attack on someone who disclosed their illness online.  As I read more about this controversy, I saw that the online community rose up to respond to this bullying tactic. People should be able to disclose this type of information out there online. In a recent post of mine, there was a nasty comment left by a reader. Revealing and discussing your illness online should be allowed, and I'm glad this group had that discussion.
• My Self-Disclosure Story: I started my online life as an anonymous blogger. But, as I started to connect with the people who were leaving comments on by blog posts (this was before twitter & facebook), I felt compelled to reveal myself, little by little. I started with really grainy out-of focus black-and-white pictures to see what the reaction was. Then, I began the slow process of revealing my true name and photo, etc. At first, I received some private and public attacks. But with time, I was able to accept that with self-disclosure comes good and bad, and you have to be able to handle both. I totally understand people who are hesitant to get out there and tell their story on social media. The panelists in this discussion did a good job in outlining both the positive and negatives of self-disclosure.
• The Role of Self-Disclosure in Online Communities: Just because you have a group of people together, they don't necessarily make an online community. Self-disclosure is certainly one of the first steps. But, you need a community manager and community members to be ready to receive self-disclosures from members. It is definitely a big leap for a person to self-disclose something that may have them harshly judged by others. This should be celebrated and hopefully foster further self-disclosure. "The value of online communities lie with the community managers who drive them."
• "How might we, make this look less like witchcraft, because that's what people outside the community, sometimes think of us?" - Susannah Fox. This is a great question and something similar that I get asked a lot. It is very difficult to explain the connection that people have to one another, whether it's an in-person community, or an online community. For those on the outside, it can definitely look "cult-like" and weird. People have a need to belong and people have a need NOT to feel alone. Communities, whether online or in-person, satisfy this need. 

In my closing thought, even though this is entitled "Online Patient Communities," all these ideas and concepts can apply to any online community. I think about my own peer group of Family Physician social media activists called the #FMRevolution (meaning Family Medicine Revolution). Our numbers could be stronger and our activity on twitter centers around our own Family Medicine conferences. But, definitely something missing is the role of digital self-disclosure. When we get together in person, I treasure those times with my FM peers as we catch up. But, could our online community strengthen if I could decrease the discomfort of digital self-disclosure? I will certainly try to answer that question...

2014 Stanford Medicine X: Depression & Chronic Illness

On Day Two at the 2014 Stanford Medicine X Conference, the best panel ever done in the history of meeting happened. And, no one saw it. Why? Well, it was the very last session at the end of the day, and many people were getting ready for the cocktail reception outside and enjoying a beautiful night in Palo Alto. I don't blame them. However, through the wisdom of the conference organizers, this panel was placed on the main stage, which meant that it would be broadcast and recorded for all of you. That video is above.

"This is going to be a conversation that is going to be a little bit of a challenging one for each of us individually, and possible for the for community at large, because of the heavy issues that we're dealing with," moderator Sarah Kucharski said opening up the panel entitled "Depression in Chronic Illness and Coping Through Online Communities." The panelists were Hugo Campos, Ann Becker-Schutte, Gonzalo Bacigalupe, Erin Moore, and Scott Strange.

It was clear to me that some of these panelists have not discussed this topic in public before, and it was clear that they did not fully realize this until they began speaking on stage. This is why, I believe, that this was the best panel ever done at MedX.

This panel could not have been done in year one or year two of this conference. This is a sign of the maturing of the meeting and the maturing of the rich conversation. This conference and these brave people on stage are not afraid to push the limits of discomfort and awkwardness (in a good way) to talk about the topics that need talked about. Well done!

What follows below are my observations from this 45 minute session. I encourage you to watch the entire session, because I know that you will be able to pull more out of this fascinating conversation.

• Self-care is so important and needs to be talked about more
  • It doesn't matter if you're a patient, a caregiver, a physician/provider, or a mix of all three. Care of oneself is something that is desperately needed to make sure that you can care for others. I'm a Family Physician, and I know that this is something that is not talked about publicly in medical education as far as taking care of yourself as a medical student, resident, and attending physician. I know that I need to take care of my own health so that I can take better care of my patients, but sometimes it feels selfish to do the things that I need to do for me. I know I'm not the only one who thinks like this.
• The thinking that there is always someone worse than me
  • Denial of your own feelings and your own care is common, especially if you tell yourself that "well that person or that patient is worse" so I'm ok. The fact is that you may not be ok, and you need the courage to face those feelings
• When facing these anxiety and depression feelings, initially it is common to go outside of your familiar community and seek out an outsider
  • It was fascinating hearing that even though you have a friend or friends in an online community, their initial thoughts was to not ask their own illness/disease communities first, because they thought it may be seen as weakness
  • "We shouldn't be afraid to say I am suffering today. This hurts today. I don't know which way to go today. That's not weakness. That's honesty," Ann Becker-Schutte said later at about 36 minutes in the vid.
• "Physicians need to accept that the mental health stuff is part of what's going on, but not a reason to stop looking for answers," Ann Becker-Schutte says about 26 minutes into the video above
  • I agree that this is happening out there, and I don't make excuses for it. Earlier in the day, there was a session that mentioned the frustrations of the 10 minute office visit. As a Family Physician, I feel those time restraints and to focus the interview on one problem. But, it is true that just because someone has a mental health diagnosis, that is not a reason to stop looking for answers for other symptoms. This comment really resonated with me.
• How do you find the right mental health professional?
  • One of the panelists found a counselor/therapist on twitter
  • Another panelists said that "I didn't know how to tell them what was wrong with me when I was asked. Very uncomfortable"
  • The tip was to call 2-3 people and interview them over the phone before you take that big step to go to their office
  • This part of the discussion really made me think, because I was thinking about an earlier session in the day called "How To Find The Right Doctor" in which they were looking at numbers, and I hear all the time about physician rating sites. Makes me think that recommendations to mental health professionals are probably a lot different than recommendations to non-mental health professionals
• The panel beautifully got to the point about talking about the online community. Yes, there are strengths of your own online community. Being a part of the community, finding the strength to talk about your feelings to your empowerment community can be tough, but needs to be done. For the community, they have to be ready to hear from individuals and offer support and not give them the impression of weakness. Meeting halfway and supporting each other is the strength of the community.

Sorry for the rambling, but this panel really made me think. And, on this last day of 2014 #MedX, there will be another panel on mental health/wellness issues that I will be looking forward to.

This will be my last post that I write while I'm out here at Stanford, as I will be going home tonight, and back to work tomorrow. I will undoubtedly have more to say as I further process this #MedX experience. Thanks to Dr. Larry Chu, the meeting organizers, the meeting sponsors, and all of the participants (both in person and online) for making this a fabulous experience for me, and what I really needed both professionally and personally as I continue sharing my story....

Most Compelling Stories of 2014 Stanford Medicine X Day One

As I write this, it is after 1am in my home time zone. Yet, I feel inspired to write about my experience at Day One of the 2014 Stanford Medicine X Meeting. What you see above is the famous badge that this meeting is known for. In addition to the enormous size of the badge itself, it is also a book which holds the meeting schedule inside and other information like the wifi password, etc. There are QR codes all over the place here, so on the badge as well. One day, all meetings will have a cool badge like this.

The three most compelling stories (in my humble opinion) follow below. They also include a video piece which I stole from the conference video feed at this link. Now before you ask me, the link is only for the last couple of hours of Day One, not the entire day. Hopefully, the conference organizers will make the entire day available sometime soon.

"These prosthetics turn kids into superheroes," is a quote from Jon Schull from E-Nabling The Future. This is a passionate group of people in the Maker Faire tradition of creating cool stuff. This group is passionate about using 3D Printers to create prostheses (artificial limbs like artificial arms) for people who need them.

Jon told a fascinating story about how they use technology to make an artificial arm a reality for a child. In the video above, you see the end of the presentation in which a child is brought up to show off her new arm and share how she feels about it. Cool story on how technology can make things better for a little girl.

THE most powerful three minutes of Day One was by someone who wasn't even at #MedX in person....

"The underserved are not separate or different from us. The underserved could be any of the people in this room. I'm appalled at times to see how separated people are from those they are ostensibly helping. We need it to be not 'Us versus Them.' Some of us have been or will become them. I AM THEM." This is part of the powerful ignite talk entitled "The Underserved Patient" by Erin Gilmer (on twitter @GilmerHealthLaw). 

The video you can see above. She could not attend in person, but she did pre-record her talk. The power of her voice and her storytelling is something I'm still thinking about and processing. This talk was a smaller piece of a full letter that she wrote to conference organizers. The full letter can be found at this link via Heart Sisters.

Finally, the panel that had twitter abuzz, was focused on a guy who is not even on twitter, not even in the program schedule, and proudly proclaims that he avoids smartphones....

"Most technology solutions are great for everyone except the end user," Devon Low proudly said while sitting on a panel entitied "The No SmartPhone Patient" moderated by our pal Dana Lewis. San Francisco General Hospital connected with Mr. Low and asked him to be on this panel.

I encourage you to watch the edited video above which I focused on Mr Low. There are so many pearls of wisdom in this 20 minute video. He starts out by sharing his story about being diagnosed with chronic lung disease. He doesn't use a smartphone for any kind of tracking, but he does carry paper chart/records with him when he sees his primary care physician and his specialists.

How did he learn about his disease? Through public library computer access. He challenges physicians, providers, and anyone who will listen - to share as much relevant information with patients. "If you want me to be an active participant in my care, then physicians/providers should make my health information interesting and compelling so I want to look at those statistics."

Our pal Chris Snider tweeted, "Devon Low is grounding this entire conference in a much needed dose of reality. Living in the cloud can create tunnel vision." Now, later in the panel, Mr. Low said that he is not on twitter and hesitant to be on social media, at this point. I totally understand that. But, I hope that he continues to tell his story and to consider include digital communication (like social media) to share his story...

Selected for TedXYoungstown 2015

I've always dreamed of being on stage to deliver a TED-like talk. I've watched TED and TEDMED talks for a long time and dreamed of an opportunity to take the stage at one of those venues. TEDX is marketed as the "minor league" for events like TED and TEDMED. I'm happy to announce that I have been selected to speak at a TEDX event in our local community of Youngstown, Ohio.

TEDxYoungstown will take place on Friday, January 23, 2015 on the campus of Youngstown State University. Take a look at the fabulous speakers list at this link. I'm honored to be included on this list of excellent speakers! The first meeting of the TedXYoungstown speakers will be next week, and I'm looking forward to meeting them and the organizing team!

According to the TedxYo site, my topic will be "Medical Professionals and Social Media." For about 2 years now, I have been giving talks talking about Medicine & Social Media, Family Medicine & Social Media, and similarly titled talks.

To be honest, I'm totally intimidated with the process of putting together a TEDX talk. I've seen the videos. I've talked with people who have seen them in person. I mean, these are really good talks. Can I do that? How do I have to prepare to give a great TedX talk?

One of the things that I'm doing to prepare is attending to this weekend's Stanford Medicine X conference in which there are great speakers and great topics. As I have written in a previous post, I'm looking for inspiration in general, but I'm also looking for inspiration for the construction of my January TedXYoungstown talk.

I'm a self-admitted perfectionist, and there is no one that puts more pressure on me - than me. But, I enjoy setting a high bar for myself to deliver an oration that will be unique, that will be inspirational, that will have people talking for a long time.

The reality is that I really haven't figured out anything yet for this speech. I have a million ideas, but I need a way to focus this nervous energy and just get to work to assemble my message. I'm telling you right now, this will be the most difficult, yet (I hope) the most gratifying speech that I have ever written. Have I raised the bar too much? I hope so. If you don't expect the best out of yourself, then no one will...