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Latest Posts

Social Networks For Doctors: One Place At A Time

I suspect that in the next couple of years we’ll see the emergence of a viable social network for physicians. It hasn’t happened yet, but I suspect that we’re getting close. Physicians are increasingly dabbling in mainstream social sites.

But maybe that’s a problem. After all, a doctor can only hang in so many places. If you have “The Facebook for Doctors,” do you expect us to spend our time there instead of on Facebook itself? Maybe we will, and maybe we won’t.

Beyond the obvious requirement of a network to deliver value, I think the rate-limiting factor is old-fashioned bandwidth. You can only be one place at a time. If I spend my days on Twitter, I’m not likely to spend my days on said doctor’s network. I will go there for particular things and to talk to certain people about specific issues, but like most doctors I’m not sure I can tell you exactly what I want. I’ll know it when I see it. (Actually I do, but I’m keeping it tip-top secret.) Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Gather Professional Opinions From Your “medCrowd”

medCrowd is the 52nd in my list of biomedical community sites and maybe the first one using crowdsourcing. From medCrowd:

Perhaps, you have a patient with a rare condition and you don’t know the best treatment. Or you are treating a patient and you have heard there have been recent developments in the field, but you are not sure how these actually affect your patient’s day-to-day management.

The problem is finding the best solution for your patient. What you need is help finding it.

medCrowd enables you to find the best solution for your patient by collecting your peers’ professional opinions, simply and in one place. This is called crowdsourcing.

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

Social Media Managers: Can They Get More Doctors To Go Online?

A social media manager is becoming an imperative position for hospitals.

Medical institutions are waking up to the fact that they need to engage their patients and physicians online. Nowhere is there more fertile growth than in the various social media platforms that are prevalent today — like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

American Medical News recently profiled the phenomenon, highlighting the position of social media manager, which some institutions pay between $60,000 and $80,000 per year.

As it stands, many hospitals are tiptoeing into the world of social networks, guided by the able hands of select online mavens like Mayo Clinic’s Lee Aase and Swedish Medical Center’s Dana Lewis. However, convincing executives of the return on investment remains a challenge. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*

Doximity: The Private Facebook For Doctors

home page.PNGDoximity is an app that launched on the App Store just over a week ago and has the potential to significantly change the way physicians use their smartphones.

The main focus of the app is physician communication, and for this it incorporates an innovative, secure SMS-like text service. But its real power lies in its deep incorporation of multiple databases of physician and related information.

In particular, the makers of the app carefully integrated data from the physician NPI and Medicare databases as well as lists of medical schools, hospitals, imaging centers and pharmacies. What they’ve produced is a surprisingly refined version 1 product that can quickly answer the myriad of small, practice-related questions that pop up all day long during a busy schedule. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*

The Top Doctors On Twitter

 

 

 

 

Twitter Doctors is a new site that lists and ranks all the doctors who are active on Twitter based on the number of followers, retweets, etc. Currently I’m in the top 5 (Twitter.com/Berci), and I hope to stay there for awhile. If you aren’t included in the list, tweet about the website and follow @dawson to be included.

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

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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