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Healthcare Blogging: Web Traffic And Trends

An interesting blog article from the folks at Compete came to my attention recently. Compete for those who don’t know is a fantastic analytics site to see how ANY website is doing in terms of popularity (number of visitors in a given time period). The basic data is free. For more in depth information, there’s a charge.

For example, for our practice’s website, here is the Compete data I pulled which is pretty accurate based on my own analytics information:

My nearest local competitor in terms of website popularity is the hospital, Fauquier Health System: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Fauquier ENT Blog*

Reader’s Digest Publishes 50 Secrets That Nurses Won’t Tell You

Reader’s Digest has published an article, “50 Secrets Nurses Won’t Tell You“. The link will take you to the article itself, and Sandy Summers has written a review of the article at The Truth About Nursing.

There are some interesting “secrets” here – and you’ll recognize a few of the names!

Gina from Code Blog is in there, and so is Jo from Head Nurse!

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I’ll be the first person to tell you that I am not a perfect person, and not a perfect nurse, but two of these “secrets” really ticked me off.

Royally.

The first one: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Emergiblog*

Using Social Media To Change The Public’s Perception Of Family Medicine

How should physicians utilize social media in their professional lives? In this video, I was interviewed by Family Practice News at the 2011 American Academy of Family Physicians Annual Scientific Assembly meeting in Orlando. Check out this blog post where there are slides of my presentation at that meeting about social media. (Also FYI, as of this posting, the video above has the most hits of any on the Global Medical News Network channel – Yay!)

Especially for Family Medicine, using social media is very important, in my opinion, to help tell our story. For too long, I believe that we, as a specialty, have let others define who we are. Social media has a chance to change that.

As far as initial use of social media, I advise physicians Read more »

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

Five Fresh Medical Bloggers

I love finding new physician voices.  Here are a few that I’ve been peeking at over the past couple months.  They’re worth checking out.

Linda Pourmassina.  Linda is an internist in Seattle and one of the finest writers in the medical blogosphere.   You can find her over at Pulsus where she offers commentary on an eclectic mix of medical goodness ranging from social media to the subtleties of patient interaction.  Really good stuff.  Check out The Internet and Delusional Thinking.  Beyond her blog, Linda’s Twitter output is the perfect balance of valuable links and dialog.  Put her in your feed and she’ll bring you good things.

Chris Porter.  Chris is a surgeon who has been writing at On Surgery, Etc. since April.  This guy has an incredible voice and offers rare insight into the experience of the surgeon.  He has a remarkable way of seeing medicine at its most granular level.  When he corrals his narrative in just the right way I expect we may see him on the new release table at Barnes & Noble.  Check out his experience as a surgeon in Guatemala.  And from the narrow column Blogger template to the liberal use of crazy images, his site offers the raw feel of some of the vintage medical bloggers.  His bio reflects the mindset of a next-gen physician: I’m Phoenix-based and world oriented.  How can you resist that? Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Results Of ShrinkRap Blog’s Survey On Attitudes Towards Psychiatry

Aloha from the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting in Honolulu! The weather is gorgeous here and it’s been a great meeting. Yesterday, I heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak, and today, I listened to “Conversations” with Lorraine Bracco–also known as Dr. Melfi from The Sopranos. The beach is nice, too, and Clink has been scuba diving. Should I tell you she just learned to swim this past winter? She is amazing!

In a few hours, we will be giving our workshop, The Accessible Psychiatry Project: The Public Face of Psychiatry in New Media. We are telling the audience that the survey we did was not validated, was not statistically analyzed, and is not real science. Mostly, it was about how cool it is that we can even do this at all (ask questions, interact with readers, have an impact). I thought I’d share the survey results with everyone here. If you took the survey, thank you, again.

702 responses Summary See complete responses Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*

Latest Interviews

The Surprising Economic Burden Of ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

If you can read this you need to download a more recent browser It is estimated that as many as million U.S. adults have ADHD Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder A recent research study publication-pending suggests that the economic burden of ADHD on America could be as high as billion annually. I…

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Is The Adderall Shortage A Harbinger Of Future Drug Supply Problems?

If you can read this you need to download a more recent browser Today most- if not all- Doctor’s offices are strained by the shortage of some prescription medication or vaccine. A month ago President Obama signed his executive order directing the FDA to take steps to reduce drug shortages…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: The First Step To Improve Health Care Is A Close Examination Of How It’s Delivered

My friend and former Chair of the CFAH Board of Trustees Doug Kamerow has written a book that I think you will like. Besides being a mensch and witty as heck Doug is a family doctor and a preventive medicine specialist. In his new book Dissecting American Health Care Commentaries…

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“Your Medical Mind” Explores Factors That Influence A Patient’s Medical Decisions

Recently I had a conversation with Shannon Brownlee the widely respected science journalist and acting director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation about whether men should continue to have access to the PSA test for prostate cancer screening despite the overwhelming evidence that it extends few…

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Book Review: Food Truths, Food Lies

Food Truths Food Lies written by family physician Eric Marcotte M.D. may be the most refreshingly evidence-based diet book of the decade. You will not find a single mention of super-foods magical berries or supplement must-haves in the entire book. What you will find is the cold hard truth about…

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