Is there a growing interest in non-clinical careers among physicians

In my other blog (http://www.nonclinicaljobs.com), I write exclusively about non-clinical career opportunities for physicians and other healthcare professionals. Recently, I have noticed a significant increase in traffic to http://www.nonclinicaljobs.com directed from Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. People are typing "non clinical physician jobs" into search engines and they are ending up on my site. This trend makes me wonder: are more physicians searching for non-clinical jobs these days? Are all these debates and discussions regarding health care reform causing physicians to re-consider their "calling" into medicine? Perhaps they wish to stay connected with the science of medicine but maybe they wish to get out of direct patient care. Maybe physicians are exploring their options and developing contingency plans. After all, they may not wish to practice medicine in the setting of reformed health care (although some are reforming their own practice by converting to concierge medicine - which is also often called boutique medicine).

Our nation already faces a shortage of physicians (some may argue this point), but there's no doubt that certain areas of this country have a significant lack of healthcare providers. What will happen if more physicians decide to leave clinical medicine to pursue non-clinical careers?

Health 2.0

The Health 2.0 conference began today in San Francisco. I wish I could be there for this event, but I'm tied up with other responsibilities at the moment. I hope that someday I'll have the opportunity to attend Health 2.0 and even blog about the conference.

Some of you may be wondering, "what is Health 2.0?"

Let me refer you to this "tradition" definition that can be found on the Health 2.0 wiki site:

"The use of social software and light-weight tools to promote collaboration between patients, their caregivers, medical professionals, and other stakeholders in health" Source: Adapted from Jane Sarasohn-Kahn's "Wisdom of Patients" report, by Matthew Holt.

As the world of social media rapidly evolves, I wonder how all of this will impact health care in the setting of major health care reform in this country.

Medgadget has joined the HCP Live Network!

I love the blog Medgadget. I think it's great that Medgadget has now joined the HCP Live network. I joined this network earlier this year and I feel honored to be on the same network as KevinMD and now Medgadget.

If you go to HCPLive.com, you'll see a list of sites and blogs at the very top section of the home page. That's where you'll see my 4 sites, along with KevinMD and Medgadget. 

Doctors discussing H1N1 vaccination

Doctors on Sermo are so many different views on the new H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine. Primary care providers, emergency medicine physicians, and hospital physicians are most likely to get exposed. If you're a subspecialist, then maybe your patients will stay at home if they have flu-like symptoms.

So, are doctors eager to get the swine flu vaccine? Are they waiting in line? Some are, but others are reluctant and hesitant. Scattered witihin the flurry of posts regarding health care reform, physicians are debating the public health implications of H1N1. Will H1N1 be like any other seasonal flu? You're going to find that some physicians don't get the seasonal flu vaccine for a variety of reasons. Will H1N1 be worse than the seasonal flu? Will we see more fatalities this flu season because of the H1N1 pandemic mixed with seasonal flu? Some people fear the unknown safety of this new flu vaccine. Will the potential risks outweigh its benefits, or will it be the other way around?

I think that every healthcare provider who has any directly patient contact should receive the H1N1 vaccine. So, if you're a radiologist and you're working out of a dark computer lab and you never interact with patients, then maybe you'll have minimal exposure. However, if you're a hospital physician or a primary care provider, then I think you'd be out of your mind to skip the H1N1 flu vaccine.

MSN and personal health management

Microsoft got into the personal health record (PHR) business through HealthVault. Now, they have launched "My Health Info," a personal health management service. Store your data on HealthVault and then manage your health using My Health Info.

The names seem a bit confusing to me. The name "My Health Info" seems to reflect another PHR. After all, your health record is information. Is Microsoft evolving HealthVault and simply adding a few widgets, or are they really trying to launch an entirely different service that goes beyond the PHR?

AMA vs. Sermo on Twitter

The AMA (American Medical Association) has been working hard to leverage social media for its organization. Sermo is naturally a social media platform: a physician-only forum. Twitter is getting quite popular these days. So how many followers do the AMA and Sermo have?

• AMA: 5,448 followers (@AmerMedicalAssn)  - no, it's not @AMA
  
• Sermo: 465 followers (@SermoTeam)  - no, it's not @Sermo
  

For comparison, let's take a look at my Twitter profile:

• Dr. Joseph Kim: 22,159 followers (@DrJosephKim)
  

When will the AMA and Sermo launch a major initiative to grow their Twitter follower counts? Maybe they already have done what they can do. Maybe the AMA has leveraged so many followers because they also market their organization to medical students and residents. Sermo is only open to licensed U.S. physicians.

Well, at the end of the day, it's interesting to see how the use of Twitter is evolving, even in the professional world of healthcare.

HPV vaccine probably did not cause sudden death in this young girl

A young girl receives an HPV vaccine at school and then suddenly dies. Was the vaccine the cause of sudden death? In this case, it appears that Natalie Morton (age 14) had a serious medical condition and even a large tumor in her chest. According to a news story on Medscape:

preliminary postmortem revealed that she had "a serious underlying medical condition which was likely to have caused death," according to Caron Grainger, MD, joint director of public health in Coventry.

Regardless, several health authorities in the United Kingdom announced that they were temporarily suspending their HPV vaccination programs.

This story on the BBC reveals that this girl had a large infiltrating tumor in her chest and this tumor was affecting her heart and her lungs. Since both are vital organs, it's possible that the timing of the vaccine simply had nothing to do with her death. In any case, this is a sad story and my heart goes out to her family and loved ones.

Is Twitter losing steam?

I admit that I haven't had much time for Twitter these days. For me, the last few weeks have been overwhelmingly busy. Our family just moved into another house and we still have some boxes all over the place.

So, when I think about how busy I've been (moving, traveling for work, blogging, etc.), it's no wonder that Twitter falls to the bottom of the priority list (family always comes first). Although I use Twitter to broadcast my blog posts, I'd like to use it more for social networking like I've done in the past.

As I reflect on how I've used Twitter, I wonder if Twitter is losing steam. Do people eventually give up on Twitter? Is the excitement fading for people? Or, is the fall just a really busy time for most people? Is Twitter simply a fad that will die away by the middle of 2010? Or, will it continue to gain momentum as people recognize the value of this social media outlet for professional and personal broadcasting?

Top posts on Medicine and Technology in September 2009

The top posts on Medicine and Technology for September 2009 include the following:

1. Bioject Zetajet: Injections without Needles
2. Remember Fetal Alcohol Syndrome today (9/9/09)
3. Your thighs and your risk for heart disease. It's not what you think 
4. Jobs for Physicians with No Residency Experience
5. A non-controlled substance drug for ADHD: Intuniv (guanfacine) ER 

Post #4 above was written in June 2008. It still attracts many readers and I hope they eventually find my other dedicated blog: http://www.nonclinicaljobs.com/

More thoughts about health insurance and health care reform

The other night, my wife and I were discussing some of the issues surrounding health care reform. She's a family physician and she works in private practice. The topic of discussion was: what do we do about all the uninsured?

So many people don't have health insurance. Among the young adult population who lack health insurance, some of them may choose to spend a few hundred dollars per month so they can afford cable TV and a nice large plasma TV. Others may have large cell phone bills. To many, they don't see health insurance as a high priority. After all, they tend to be relatively healthy and they don't want to spend money on expensive health insurance plans.

It's a sad reality, but many commercial health insurance plans are simply too expensive for many people. At the same time, many uninsured don't qualify for Medicaid. But then again, what good is Medicaid if you can't find a healthcare provider who accepts Medicaid? Will the public option suffer a similar fate as Medicaid? Will physicians refuse to accept the public option? (that may also mean that they have to give up Medicaid and Medicare, but some won't mind) What about all those docs out there who aren't accepting any new patients? How many people will have a difficult time scheduling an appointment with a healthcare provider?