Crowdsourcing and Health Care Reformation

                        

Two terms I have encountered recently are “collective consciousness “  and crowdsourcing.  Collective consciousness has been around for some time, and now with social media it takes on a new power magnified almost infinitely as social media platforms integrate and share data.

A new form of venture capital has emerged as a result of the internet and social media, called ‘kick starter funding”  and “crowdsourcing’.  Thus far little of this has been applied to HIT, or healthcare in general. It could be very valuable for developing health resources in underfunded projects, away from conventional rules.

                                

Enthusiasm seems to be the main stimulant rather than a financial return on investment.  There are many crowdsourcing projects which are available.  

There are many sources of information on how to crowdsource.^1,2,3    

How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

We Are Smarter Than Me: Crowdsourcing New Businesses

The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation (Theory in Practice)

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Crowdsourcing [Kindle Edition] This is readily available as a kindle sample and can be downloaded to the Kindle Cloud or smartphone or iPad reader for free.  This is also  true of some of the above titles.

              

Crowdsourcing is facilitated by the use of social media collaboration to collect a like minded group of people for a project.

In heath care it could be one of the following, as well as many additional ones

Cost effective mobile health applications to be developed by ‘indies’

Rural health development

Remote monitoring

Public Health Concerns

Health in the inner-city

Medical Device Funding

Crowdsourcing and/or Kickstarter funding is not necessarily a cash contribution, it can be things such as any ‘in kind’ legal services, accounting services, office space, utilities, office equipment, computers, printers, supplies, advertising, sponsoring speakers, educational materials, and whatever overhead is required.  The principals seeking funding detail what is needed, project management, and budgets, and also may contribute financially or with free services until such time as the business becomes self-sustaining.

This unusual form of starting an enterprise is popular in some circles, and may also find advantage in health care circles..

In some sense this mechanism is already in action for hospital foundation funding for new equipment, new hospital wings, education centers and more.  Even here social media, facebook pages, twitter, and Google plus could magnify those efforts.

 

Technorati Tags: kickstarter,crowdsourcing,collective consciousness,collaboration,social media,healthcare

After the Supreme Court: Moving Ahead to Implement the Affordable Care Act, Improve Health and Health Care and Lower Costs Tuesday, July 17, 2012, National Press Club, Washington, DC

 

                      

Prominent Health Care Leaders spoke today at the National Press Club, a well known and respected venue for disseminating important news in many sphere of influence. 

Health Affairs  Conference:

 “After the Supreme Court, Moving Ahead To Implement Affordable Care act Improve Health and Health Care and Lower Costs”

I am a well known skeptic regarding our present law designed to reform the U.S. Health Care System.  However health reform is what we need and the present law can and should be carefully read and amended. PPACA has been in existence for almost two years and has now been exposed to public scrutiny.

The Video of the Presentation

Most physicians will face a duality, a decline in reimbursements, and a concern is also, “How so I learn to do this?”

 

Technorati Tags: ppaca,affordable care act,national press club,scotus,health affairs

10 Things You didn't Know were in The Affordable Care Act

          

If you are curious what the details of the Patient Protection and Affordability Act that could make it 1000 pages in length.  Here are some of them. This should be required reading for high school students. It will affect the rest of their lives.

The Kaiser Foundation reports:

So you think the Suprneme Court upheld a law that requires most people to buy health insurance? That's only part of it. The measure's hundreds of pages touch on a variety of issues and initiatives that have, for the most part, remained under the public's radar. Here's a sampling:  

Postpartum Depression (Sec. 2952)
Urges the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct a multi-year study into the causes and effects of postpartum depression. It authorized $3 million in 2010 and such sums as necessary in 2011 and 2012 to provide services to women at risk of postpartum depression.

Abstinence Education (Sec. 2954)
Reauthorizes funding through 2014 for states to provide abstinence-only sex education programs that teach students abstinence is "the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems." Federal funding for these programs expired in 2003.

Power-Driven Wheelchairs (Sec. 3136)
Revises Medicare payment levels for power-driven wheelchairs and makes it so that only "complex" and "rehabilitative" wheelchairs can be purchased; all others must be rented.

Oral Health Care (Sec. 4102)
Instructs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to embark on a five-year national public education campaign to promote oral health care measures such as "community water fluoridation and dental sealants."

Privacy Breaks for Nursing Mothers (Sec. 4207)
Requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide a private location at their worksites where nursing mothers "can express breast milk." Employers must also provide employees with "a reasonable break time" to do this, though employers are not required to pay their employees during these nursing breaks.

Transparency on Drug Samples (Sec. 6004)
Requires pharmaceutical manufacturers that provide doctors or hospitals with samples of their drugs to submit to the Department of Health and Human Services the names and addresses of the providers that requested the samples, as well as the amount of drugs they received. 

Face-to-Face Encounters (Sec. 6407)
Changes eligibility for home health services and durable medical equipment, requiring Medicare beneficiaries to have a "face-to-face" encounter with their physician or a similarly qualified individual within six months of when the health professional writes the order for such services or equipment.

Diabetes & Death Certificates (Sec. 10407)
Directs the CDC and the HHS Secretary to encourage states to adopt new standards for issuing death certificates that include information about whether the deceased had diabetes.

Breast Cancer Awareness (Sec. 10413)
Instructs the CDC to conduct an education campaign to raise young women's awareness regarding "the occurrence of breast cancer and the general and specific risk factors in women who may be at high risk for breast cancer based on familial, racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds such as Ashkenazi Jewish populations."

Assisted Suicide (Sec. 1553)
Forbids the federal government or anyone receiving federal health funds from discriminating against any health care entity that won't provide an "item or service furnished for the purpose of causing … the death of any individual, such as by assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing."

Reprinted with permission from Kaiser Health News

Comments:

Witchrunner:   There's lots not to like here. 1. Postpartum Depression: There's already been studies. Why waste more money? 2. Abstinence Education: Why is any money spent on this? Does it really cost money for a teacher to say "the only way to make sure you don't get pregnant, gets std's, and other sex related conditions is not to have sex?" 3. Power Driven Wheel-chairs: Rent 'em all? Talk about increasing costs! It might make sense if someone isn't expected to live long, but it's not easy to see that this could increase costs by 1,000 times. Just go to your rent-a-center and rent your furniture. After 6 months to a year you'd have owned it outright. 4. Oral Healthcare: Already done! 5. May or may not be feasible, depends on situation. 6. Ridiculous amount of paperwork required for this, and to what end? 7. Too broad and probably unnecessary in a lot of cases. If the physician sees the need for a 6 month check up then it is already being done. 8. Diabetes? A total waste of money! Five people die in a car wreck and all the bodies have to go to a coroner to determine whether they had diabetes? 9. Duplication of what is already being done. 10. Can't argue with this. May not be government's job, but since they have a ton of regulations, might as well have this one.

CM6969: Why cherry-pick a few problematic areas and pretend the whole thing needs to be discarded due to easily fixable problems? n this case, the problems were: Insurers denying expensive health care, causing suffering and death. Insurers putting annual or lifetime "caps" on coverage, again causing suffering and death. Medical costs not covered by insurers leading to financial hardship or bankruptcy. People with "pre-existing conditions" unable to obtain insurance, sometimes after loosing their job (and employer provided coverage) or after their old insurer dropped their policy. Children with birth defects being denied medical coverage due to "pre-existing conditions" (absurd, but it was happening) People without health insurance relying on expensive emergency room care, unable to pay, and the costs being transferred to paying or insured patients.

WhatHappened:   Health care should never be about proving a profit for an insurance company. It should be about providing health care services and treatments to people in need. And the only way you can do that is by putting the insurance companies in their proper place of providing supplemental services to the people who who have the need of their services.

We will never have a national health care program that works as long as the health insurance companies are calling the shots. They aren't in business to provide health care services or treatments, they are in business to make a profit.

 

Technorati Tags: ppaca,affordable care act,birth defects,pre-existing conditions,post partum depression,euthanasia,abstinence,oral healthcare,diabetes,death certificates,wheel chairs

Telehealth or Telehell ?

It is touted that telehealth, video conferencing, telemedicine and mobile health applications will assist in reducing the cost of medical visits.  However, CMS has thus far not addressed reimbursed issues which is a major deterrent.  At first glance this may be true, however nothing is that simple and technology and regulations always alter the equation.

TeleMedicine encompasses many functions

Remote monitoring

Physician-patient video conferencing, email or chat

Physician-physician consultation ie,

 

Ultrasound

Video documentation:

Hospital internal conferencing

 

Because of recent intense interest I did some research on this issue and found many states are outlining the requirements for telemedicine.

Health Providers have no difficulty proposing cost effective uses for tele medicine. The issues are that regulations and fear that privacy would be breached. Thus far I have not seen any rules regarding  patient and provider waiving HIPAA rights.  Does anyone know anything about waiving HIPAA? Leave a comment or tweet me @glevin1

California has issued guidelines for telemedicine on their California Board of Medicine online website.

Recently, the Medical Board received an inquiry regarding informed consent and whose obligation it was to obtain the necessary consent from the patient who would be undergoing the medical procedure.  Specifically, the question was whether physicians could delegate this task to another licensed health care provider or other personnel under their supervision.  While the Board could find no statutory or regulatory bar to this proposed process, the Board suggests that public policy is best served when the physician performing the procedure secures the consent from the pa tient.  In this manner, if the patient has questions or concerns, the physician is in the best position to address those matters.  The following is provided as a reminder of the legal requirements when practicing medicine via telehealth: Telehealth (previously called telemedicine) is seen as a tool in medical practice, not a separate form of medicine.  There are no legal prohibitions to using technology in the practice of medicine, as long as the practice is done by a California licensed physician.  Telehealth is not a telephone conversation, e-mail/ instant messaging conversation, or fax; it typically involves the application of videoconferencing or store- and-forward technology to provide or support health care delivery.

Business and Professions Code §2290.5 (b) states: “Prior to the delivery of health care via telehealth, the health care provider at the originating site shall verbally inform the patient that telehealth may be used and obtain verbal consent from the patient for this use.  The verbal consent shall be documented in the patient’s medical record.” This is important:  Please note that the standard of care is the same whether the pa- ent is seen in- person, through telehealth, or other methods of electronically enabled health care.  The Medical Practice Act, including informed consent laws, applies in every area of medicine and in every practice setting and circumstance.  California laws pertaining to the use of telehealth should not be construed to alter the scope of practice of any health care provider or authorize the delivery of health care services in a setting, or in a manner, not otherwise authorized by law.  Physicians need not reside in California, as long as they have a valid, current California license.

Many individual States are preparing or already have issued guidelines and/or regulations regarding Telehealth and Telemedicine.

Provided here are sources of information for those considering adding telemedicine to your  practice.

New CMS Rule on Telemedicine Credentialing and Privileging

Federal Spotlight on VA's SCAN-ECHO

Some perils of telemedicine

New York Statement on Telemedicine

State Reimbursement Policy appears to be addressed in New York

AN OVERVIEW OF STATE LAWS AND APPROACHES (2001-2002)

HHS reports progress on telehealth regulations

Regulations for tele-medicine are developing very rapidly and are in a state of flux.  Those considering tele-health in their  practice are advised to review current law and regulations from their state licensing authority. Most articles are dated, and incomplete.

 

Technorati Tags: telehealth,telemedicne,hipaa,california medical board telemedicine,california medical board,video conferencing

America, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, and Home of the Unhealthy

 

               

“There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”
Robert Kennedy

This often quoted statement is very applicable to today’s conundrum of providing health care to all American’s

“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.”

“I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.”
Robert Kennedy

These quotes from R.F.K. ring in the ears of those who knew the man in the 1960s.  It was true then as Americans traversed the world of civil rights and inequality.

Today we also have marked inequalities  in health care,  some due to inherent systemic flaws, some due to our present economic morass, and some due to an obsolete medical bureaucracy.

Healthcare is in a state of flux, not from medical advances, although rapid progress is continuing in genomics, proteomics, diagnostics and all the other ‘ics”. but in how we fund health and wellness, along with treating chronic illnesses. Some illness is acute and brief, some develops from acute illness followed by prolonged chronic illness, and/or disability.  Along with these economic demands and included in chronic illnesses is prevention of disability and ongoing rehabilitation.

Loss of employability contributes great dependency and further economic stress on our economy.   It frequently severs the ability to earn income.

Important items missing from PPACA are tort reform and re-organizing medico-legal adversity.

Republicans and Democrats need to step back and look at the goals for health care in America.  This is a non-partisan issue, however self-interest and fear of economic failure dominate the process, not just for individuals, but industry as well.

 

                                        

 

Technorati Tags: robert kennedy,robert kennedy quotes,ppaca,health reform,non- partisan,healthcare,medical bureaucracy,chronic illness

<a rel=”author” href “https://plus.google.com/114503806689722509896”>Gary Levin on Google+</a>

Organ Donors Simplified

 

 

Infographic Printing Human Organs

A New Epidemic

 

Epidemic?  Most think of some serious or potentially fatal disease sweeping a country or around the world. This one is different, and perhaps beneficial.

You have “webitis”. No, its not a new medical malady inflicted by endless moussing, clicking, surfing, emailing or participating in social media.

Chances are however that you are among the millions who search the internet for information about what ails you.  Your last doctor visit went off well, but there were some issues you did not understand and your doctor ran off (since he only has about ten minutes to spend with you,(most of the time) without being sure you knew what ‘webitis’ really is.

You are among those who search for health care information on the internet. The phenomenon continues to grow rapidly.

Health Site Audience Grows 60 Percent Over Past Three Years
Over the past three years, U.S. Internet users have shown a steadily increasing trend in visitors to sites in the Health category, which range from general health content sites to branded pharmaceutical sites. The number of total unique visitors accessing these sites on a monthly basis has increased from 86.9 million in June 2008 to 139.1 million in June 2011, representing a 60-percent increase.

Interestingly, the rate of growth in visitors to health properties over the past three years outpaces the growth of the total U.S. Internet audience by more than a factor of 4 (60 percent vs. 13 percent), showing the demand for health information continued to increase at a strong pace.

Even more telling is the growth in audience penetration of Health properties over the past few years. Three years ago, less than half of the total U.S. online population visited health sites. Currently, health sites now reach approximately 2 out of every 3 Americans going online monthly, an increase in penetration of nearly 20-percentage points since June 2008.

 

Mobile health is also experiencing a rise in those seeking health information, which parallels the growth of mobile apps overall. This may also indicate the importance of your web information being programmed for best visibility on tablet pcs or smartphones.  Patients look for information on the fly, perhaps even as they leave your clinic on the way home, or on the way to the pharmacy following a clinic visit.

At the end of the day, these trends we’re seeing from comScore data show the demand for online health information to be far from waning and the prospect for sustained health visitation to be strong. Consumers have never before had as much ability to find health information to inform their health care decisions as they do now, and with the proliferation of connected devices enabling greater access and constant connectivity, it is only likely that the use of online health sources to engage with health information will continue to grow.

source:

 

Technorati Tags: comscore,mobile health apps,web search,health

The Singularity of Health Reform

 

Medicine in the United States is approaching a singularity, the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. The occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as an intellectual event horizon, beyond which events cannot be predicted or understood. Proponents of the singularity typically state that an "intelligence explosion"[2][3] is a key factor of the Singularity where super intelligences design successive generations of increasingly powerful minds. (Wikipedia)

Big Data and advancing algorithms are approaching a singularity as current ideas  studying outcomes, and analysis of practice standards merge together.

The effects of health reform as mandated by PPACA attempts to control the “butterfly” (chaos theory) with micro-management of reform.  Nevertheless an ‘event horizon’ quickly appears in the equation. Micro-management inevitably devolves into inefficiency when an entity is given free reign without an expiration date for it’s authority.

For the purpose of writing this article I shall incorrectly assign the title “Obama Care” to the PPACA. Like it’s non-decipherable eponym the contents of Obamacare are overwhelmingly written in government-ese.  The Law requires over 11oo pages, and 2.75bmb of data.  It already has been amended several times with numerous waivers and has faced one serious challenge before the Supreme Court..

Amendments

House of Representatives Passes Amendments to Defund PPACA

The 2011 budget agreement just passed by U.S. Congress on April 14, 2011, contains provisions that repeal and de-fund certain provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) (PPACA).

Complexity abounds: Health Care Reform for Cafeteria, HRA and Wrap plans

Some changes to PPACA original requirements already have been made both at the legislative and regulatory levels.  For example, the Republicans succeeded in repealing the infamous 1099 filing requirement earlier this spring -- albeit through a bipartisan vote

The Cooperative Health Insurance Program Repealed

Free Choice Voucher Program Takes a Hit

Medical Liability Reform has yet to be addressed, and does contribute significantly to cost containment, and defensive medicine.

 

LiveJournal Tags: ppaca,obamacare,chaos theory,singularity,event horizon,defund,repeal

Social Media Is No longer Just Social

 

Mission creep  is the descriptive term which explains how a previously focused goal becomes another things .

For those who use social media in healthcare regularly this apparent.. The internet began as a ‘sideshow’ and within five to ten years it became a necessity. If you are not using social media you would not be aware of the advantages and power of the social media sphere.

   

HOW TO Sell Social Media to Cynics, Skeptics & Luddites

For example: (personal uses)

1. Twitter , along with use of hashtags provides the opportunity to direct traffic to your web site, blog, and/or even Google Drive or Live drive.  GDrive provides sharing to anyone who has the link to that document (or folder).

2. Information source: Many physicians and others regularly tweet from meetings and symposia using a meeting hashtag.  Specific hashtags can be found on Symplur, a site devoted to medical hashtags with some specificity.  It’s not just for social contact at the meeting, (ie, “meet me at Starbuck’s afterward”). Tweets can be linked with photos and/or graphic using a smartphone or tablet with Flickr, yFrog, and other photo sharing sites. (most are free with limited storage capacity) Videos can be uploaded to YouTube and linked to Twitter announcements.  Imagination leads one to many other outbound messages. The 2012 Top Ten Photo Sharing Sites.

3. Search on twitter using hashtags is a primitive form of search, limited only by your knowledge of which hashtags are useful in the area you are interested in. Unfortunately at this time hashtags seem to appear by popular  acclaim and usage. There is as yet no nomenclature that is officially blessed by the twitter community.

4. Facebook and Google can be used as well, offering more than 140 characters. (I preface this with the fact that there are several url shorteners, as well as text abbreviation services which truncate tweets longer than 140 characters, providing a link within your tweet.  Linkedin is well known among professionals. It offers much to professionals. This sleeper network has become more popular and is now more integrated with other social media sites.  Although Linkedin recently prevented twitter feeds to their site, the reverse is not true, allowing a Linkedin  user to simultaneously tweet.

5. Many applications have been developed which offer simultaneous social media messages across multiple applications. Tweetdeck allows a single tweet to also be placed Facebook, and Linked in.  A  post on a Google stream can be shared on Twitter, or  Facebook. Google is closely linked with YouTube, and can be used for live video and Google on Air Hangouts. Buffer app creates the ability to send your tweets repeatedly during a 24 hour period (at times when most users are active). Inserting a hashtag improves the chance that your recipients get the message(s).

6. Analytics, BuddyMedia,  Social Media Examiner,  SocialBro,  Sprout Social (free trial), Google Analytics,  Twitter Analytics are available to measure your impact, followers, networking, influence and the times your tweets are most read.  It is possible to schedule your tweets at those times. MentionMapp is one of the coolest maps of  the twitter universe. Type in your “twitter handle” and presto you have a map of your own twitter galaxy. For those of you proficient in spreadsheets and APIs there are a host of free Macros and apps.

7 Facebook uses “friends” or ‘likes’. Google Plus for Business as well as Personal Google Plus  uses “circles”. Twitter uses “followers” to organize your audience.  There are some nuances, which go beyond the limits of my blog.

8. Blogs and web sites provide insider information about health and facilities as well as providing meeting schedules, agendas, and speaker lists.

  Microsoft has already said that Windows 8 tablets, irrespective of their x86 or ARM underpinnings, are PCs.

9. Web 2.0 and Health 2.0 may be ending to be replaced by Mobile    Studies and surveys indicate that mobile applications in health care will multiply exponentially in 2012.  They also reveal a relative decrease in laptop, and desktop computers as compared to sales of tablet pc and smartphones. Almost everyone will use their mobile device much like a pc, giving facebook, twitter and google plus an advantage with applications designed especially for mobile, and consumers carry them wherever they are, waiting for your message.   And yes all of this is coming to an EMR for your examining room. Just like your progress notes used to be.

  

After all isn’t this what separated the MDs from the RNs and others? (Illegibility) And this is probably why CPT codes and ICDs evolved.

If you are not using social media for some vague reason such  as stereotyping, you are cheating yourself out of an efficient and powerful medium. The caveat is ‘learn how to use it”

Mayo Clinic even offers a Residency in Health Care Social Media .

Social Media Toolkit from Doctors 2.0  2012 Meeting

Let’s talk about the Internet & Social Media in Healthcare – Kathi Apostolidis

“Come on, Dad, get with it”  (a favorite lecture from my kids).

 

LiveJournal Tags: google,twitter,linkedin,analytics,#hcsm,mayo clinic,social media,heathcare,hashtags,yFrog,skydrive,google drive,flikr,photobucket mobile app,web 2.0

Doctors 4 Patient Care on The Health Train Express

 

TESTIMONY BEFORE CONGRESS  Doctors 4 Patient Care

Tomorrow, July 10th Doctors 4 Patient Care will give testimony in Congress regarding the impact of the Patient Protection Affordability Care Act. Never before has a Law had such an oxymoron for a title. The law is not about patients, not about protection, not about care. It however is an  act….an imaginary folly created by who knows.

Included in today’s post is the link to testimony of the participants.  Erick Novak MD states the issues simply, and without useless rhetoric.   Most of what you read here is read by you the “choir”.  It’s meant for our patients and governmental officials to read.

Please forward this to all your contacts

I urge you to respond with a ‘ROAR’

 

Technorati Tags: ppaca,patient care and affordability act,congress,docs4patientcare

This Week on Health Train Express

Mark your calendars; set your iPhones - Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare this Friday on Voice of the Doctor http://bit.ly/MMr0y9
What’s In Your Record? Contest on Challenge.gov http://bit.ly/NDjO4n
How does Your EHR Calculate Meaningful Use Measures? http://bit.ly/PBAJZk

Mayo Clinic Offers Two Day Program on Social Media in Healthcare http://bit.ly/Pvatje

Latest on MGMA Conference in October in San Antonio http://bit.ly/M4dZLa
Our Health IT Business News Wrap-up for week ending July 6, 2012 http://bit.ly/MOORgF
Listen to HealthcareNOWradio.com  http://www.hitechanswers.net/
Latest post on ONC Health T Buzz: National Priorities for Research on the Use of Health IT http://bit.ly/ND6ayp
Live Webcast Thursday from NeHC: Beacon Communities and EHR Vendors Working Together to Accelerate Interoperability and Exchange http://bit.ly/OU2auC
Missed these recent great articles?
OIG Study Shows EHR Use in Medicare Physicians http://bit.ly/LCVpQe
Protocol for HIPAA Audits Released http://bit.ly/MGxdf7
American Medical Association Takes Up ICD-11 Cause http://bit.ly/OhSkET
A classic post from the archives:
Confessions of an EHR Project Manager http://bit.ly/ndJTlY
Miss tuning in weekly to MU Live!? Don't worry -- we'll be back starting August 14, gearing up for the release of all those final rules. Sign up here to be notified of upcoming guests and topics http://bit.ly/odbatZ

 

And who doesn't like free white papers?
2012 HIPAA Audits: Will the Past Predict the Future...Preparing for HIPAA Security Rule Again...Do EHRs Increase Liability and others. Get them all here: http://www.hitechanswers.net/free-downloads/

All this and more from Hitech Answers
Carol Flagg
Group Manager
www.hitechanswers.net
www.healthcareNOWradio.com

Technorati Tags: mayo clinic,artificial intelligence,social media in healthcare,hipaa,ehr adoption,ama,beacon communities,health it,mgma,onc

Social Media Nihilist…are you one of them?

Social Media Nihilist…are you one of them?

Social Media Nihilist…are you one of them?

 

The term Nihilist encompasses a broad array of issues. I am not one to write dispassionately about the impact and/or importance of social media in healthcare.

Others do not agree. In the interest of fairness many MDs are downright negative about social media.

Some would call it a waste of time and perhaps even dangerous.   HappyMD sees it as adding another theme hastening  “burnout” for MDs who use or anticipate using social media in medicine.

I personally disagree with him, although if you see social media as just another burden, or  more bureaucracy, don’t do it….it’s meant to be fun!  Some practices ‘outsource’ their blogging and/or social media. It’s not expensive and can be done with free lance writers available at eLance.com, and you will find them on Facebook, Twitter or G+.

Dike Drummond MD is an  expert on counseling physicians on burnout, he provides a needed and urgent service to you. MDs are not immune to drug dependency, alcoholism, depression, acting out behavior, nor the  ever mounting aspects of frustrations with daily life, at home, at the hospital and in the office.  In today’s disruptive health reform, many are not the masters of their own office or space, a once prominent feature of solo or small group practice where you have the ultimate control of your destiny, finances, and choices. Many occupational psychology surveys reveal how these changes have led to more dissatisfaction at work.