May 17th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Medical Meetings, Pharma, Self-Promotion, Twitter, Twitter Feed, Twitter Stream, Wrong Way To Use Twitter
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I’ve been to several major medical meetings recently and Twitter is beginning to see traction. Slowly but surely Twitter hashtag use among doctors at meetings is growing. The vendors are there, too. I attended AGA/Digestive Disease Week this week and I have been unimpressed with the attempts of vendors to participate in the back channel. Those trying seem inept at real dialog.
Remember that a meeting’s Twitter feed is a communication channel, not an opportunity for spam. Go ahead and remind us about your booth but only after contributing in a way that serves everyone in a non-promotional way (one pitch tweet for 10-20 informational tweets).
What works is sharing, not selling. Take interest in the attendees. Watch the feed. Listen. Re-tweet the interesting stuff. Share some breaking medical information. Reach out to attendees in a genuine, respectful way. And fear is no excuse – because the most memorable dialog will not involve your drug or medical device.
Start there and Twitter will work for not only for you but everyone.
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
May 17th, 2011 by Stanley Feld, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: bureaucracy, Costs, Don Berwick, Healthcare reform, NHS, Obamacare
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“The media is the message.” It does not matter if the policy has failed previously. All that is important is the effectiveness of the policy’s presentation and its ability to manipulate the polls.
The government’s purpose is to work for the people who elected it. It does not seem to be working that way at present. Bureaucrats create rules or regulations as they interpret the laws made by congress and the president. Regulations are controlled by the administration’s ideology. Many times the regulations in one area nullify the intended effect in another area.
Regulations and bureaucracy inhibit the use of common sense in policy making for the benefit of the people.
The people did not have an outlet to express their opinions or frustrations until blogging came into its own seven years ago.
Americans do not like President Obama’s healthcare reform act. They also do not like Dr. Don Berwick’s apparent disrespect for their intelligence and his infatuation with the British healthcare system.
“I am romantic about the NHS (British National Health Service); I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*
May 17th, 2011 by John Di Saia, M.D. in Opinion
Tags: Cosmetic Surgery, Doctors, Insurance Companies, Liability, Obesity, Overweight, Plastic Surgery, Refusal, Risk
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In a nation with 93 million obese people, a few ob-gyn doctors in South Florida now refuse to see otherwise healthy women solely because they are overweight. Fifteen obstetrics-gynecology practices out of 105 polled by the Sun Sentinel said they have set weight cut-offs for new patients starting at 200 pounds or based on measures of obesity — and turn down women who are heavier. Some of the doctors said the main reason was their exam tables or other equipment can’t handle people over a certain weight. But at least six said they were trying to avoid obese patients because they have a higher risk of complications.
Source: visiontoamerica.org/719/report-doctors-refusing-to-treat-overweight-patients/
While I have not specifically “refused to treat” obese patients, I have in a few cases recommended against surgery or recommended weight loss and re-evaluation later. Than again I am not in primary care and do understand what these OB/GYNs are saying. Obese patients do represent more risk when it comes to surgery and that would of course cover pregnancy and child bearing.
Take into account that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*
May 16th, 2011 by Michael Sevilla, M.D. in Opinion
Tags: AAFP, Blogging, Facebook, Family Medicine, Let Your Voice Be Heard, Physicians, Social Media, Twitter
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I wasn’t able to attend the Annual Leadership Forum (ALF) and the National Conference of Special Constituencies (NCSC) meetings in person this year. This is an annual meeting in Kansas City put on by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). I know that it can be hard to believe that someone actually likes going to a meeting. However, for me, these meetings always re-energize me and connect me with people with a passion for Family Medicine.
In 2010, there were only a few of us utilizing social media tools like twitter and facebook (including my blog posts from Thursday & Friday). However, just a year later, there seems to have been an explosion of people utilizing these platforms to a point yesterday when I saw a bunch of people signing up for the first time during the meeting. Even members of the AAFP Board of Directors were creating twitter accounts yesterday. Wow!
I really believe that this year, 2011, is when the Family Medicine community will more fully embrace social media, not only as a means of socialization, but also as a means of advocacy for our specialty. Here are some other reasons why I believe that Family Medicine needs social media: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Family Medicine Rocks Blog - Mike Sevilla, MD*
May 14th, 2011 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in News, Opinion
Tags: Cardiology, Heart Sounds, Mobile Ultrasounds, Physical Exam, Stethoscopes, Technology, Ultrasound
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Recently, the Wall Street Journal did a great piece on how mobile technology is being used in medicine. They looked at the major avenues of use — from the hospital to personal to emergency care settings.
They gave an example of how a cardiologist has stopped carrying a stethoscope, and now just uses mobile ultrasound, a modality we have highlighted numerous times in the past.
Dr. Topol, a cardiologist in San Diego, carries with him instead a portable ultrasound device roughly the size of a cellphone. When he puts it to a patient’s chest, the device allows him to peer directly into the heart. The patient looks, too; together, they check out the muscle, the valves, the rhythm, the blood flow.
“Why would I listen to ‘lub dub’ when I can see everything?” Dr. Topol says. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
