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Family Medicine Residents And Students Discuss Leadership And Advocacy

Just wanted to get some initial thoughts down following the Family Medicine Summit organized by the California Academy of Family Physicians. I’ll have some more developed thoughts in a later post. These initial thoughts were from the plane going from that meeting to the Mayo Clinic Social Media Summit – the meeting I’m at right now.

First of all, thanks again to the California Academy of Family Physicians for the invitation to speak. The audience was mainly Family Medicine Residents and medical students. From my understanding, the registration numbers exceeded expectations (I take full credit for that – Hehe). It’s always energizing to me to present to residents & students.

The opening keynote was from CAFP President Dr. Carol Havens. She asked the audience for words that they think of when you hear “Family Physician.” And, as you can see from this twitpic, the audience came up with a huge list of Family Physician qualities. My favorites are “comprehensive care,” “revolution,” and, of course, “Love.”

My leadership & advocacy sessions Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Family Medicine Rocks Blog*

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Afib

September is Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month. Lots of folks don’t know too much about the condition, which is an irregular heart beat that can lead to serious complications such as dementia, heart failure, stroke or even death. To help spread the word, StopAfib.org presents these 10 afib facts and figures that will probably surprise even

some healthcare professionals:

  1. Afib affects lots of people. Currently up to 5.1 million people are affected by afib. And that’s just in America. By 2050, the number of people in the United States with afib may increase to as much as 15.9 million. About 350,000 hospitalizations a year in the U.S. are attributed to afib. In addition, people over the age of 40 have a one in four chance of developing afib in their lifetime.
  2. Afib is a leading cause of strokes. Nearly 35 percent of all afib patients will have a stroke at some time. In addition to leaving sufferers feeling weak, tired or even incapacitated, afib can allow blood to pool in the atria, creating blood clots, which may move throughout the body, causing a stroke. To make matters worse, Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Atrial Fibrillation Blog*

What Patients Really Need: A 360 Degree View Of Their Illness

As we often say at Patient Power, there is no one source for medical information. The same is true when it comes to support for patients. No one organization is THE place to go and has all the answers.

That may sound obvious. But just as it has taken a long time to dislodge the “Doctor as God” perception or “I’m the doctor and you’re not” put-down of “problem patients,” there have been some non-profit advocacy groups that have seen themselves as the “be all and end all” for conditions they cover. In both cases, the arrogant doctor and the “100,000 pound gorilla” organization, neither took what I call the “big tent” view. In their view, they were the tent and there was no room for anyone else. That’s never been our view and I wanted to tell you how we are celebrating our relationships with a multitude of partners, many of whom are becoming friends. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*

Diabetes, Blogging, And Health Advocacy

RAISE!  YOUR!  VOICE!  Wherever you see fit.  :)As a kid, I wasn’t an advocate for type 1 diabetes.  I was a kid.  I went to diabetes camp (CBC 4 LIFE) but that was the extent of my involvement with any kind of diabetes community.  It wasn’t until I was out of college and feeling like I existed on a diabetes island that I began to crave interaction with and understanding from other people with diabetes.  So, at Chris’ suggestion, I started a blaaaaaagh and everything just got all sorts of exciting.  Namely, I had finally connected with other people living with diabetes. And it felt gooooood.

Now that there is an established online community for people with diabetes (PWDs, caregivers, and loved ones alike), there are a lot of opportunities for engagement and advocacy.  The DOC isn’t limited to adults living with diabetes; there are blogs written by parents of CWD, spouses and significant others of PWD, and even doctors who care for PWD.  And it’s not even limited to people who are interacting online – the diabetes community is offline, and on.  And after meeting with the new CEO of the JDRF, Jeffrey Brewer, last week in DC, I realized once again that we’re all in this together.  This guy gets it.  His kid has diabetes, making me realize that Jeffrey is just like my mother in that he wants what is best for his child. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*

Writing Skills And When Having A Physician Friend Can Save Your Life

I’ve always wanted to be a doctor.

Never a writer.

With a new year and a new decade, I am determined to become a better writer not because of some childhood dream or expectation from others, but because of a near mishap that occurred at the beginning of 2000. A simple phone call changed the destiny of my brother from having a good outcome to having a great outcome. A simple phone call may have been the difference between “you are cancer free” to “I’m sorry to tell you it’s come back.” Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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