Freelance MD, a community of physicians that gives you more control of your career, income, and lifestyle. Join us. It's free, which is a terrific price. Grab Some Free Deals
Search Freelance MD

Freelance MD RSS    Freelance MD Twitter     Freelance MD Facebook       Freelance MD Group on LinkedIn      Email

Sponsors

2nd MD Special Offer

ExpedMed CME

Medvoy Society of Physician Entrepreneurs

20 Newest Comments
Newest Nonclinical Physician Jobs
Thoughtstream
This area does not yet contain any content.
Navigation

Entries in Medical Fusion Conference (20)

Sunday
Sep042011

Concierge Medicine

Here at Freelance MD we get a lot of questions about various trends in medicine.

One of the most rapidly growing clinical practice models in the US these days is Concierge Medicine, and many Freelance MD readers have expressed interest in learning more about this practice model.  

In Concierge Medicine, a physician cuts out third-party payers and contracts directly with his or her patients.  The patients pay a retainer and the physician agrees to limit the practice size so he or she can provide exceptional access to these patients.

While this model has become very popular with a certain segment of the population and many physicians, it is not without critics.  I wrote a recent article here on Freelance MD about the ethics of Concierge Medicine and the arguments for and against this model. 

Since we've received so many inquiries about Concierge Medicine, I decided to post some resources here about the subject.  In addition, for those of you who will be attending the Medical Fusion Conference this November, you'll be able to hear one of the leading experts on Concierge Medicine, Dr. Steven Knope, discuss the subject personally (and have the opportunity to sit down with Steve individually at our Accelerator sessions).  Steve is the author of the book, Concierge Medicine: A New System to Get the Best Healthcare.  

Here's a video interview with Dr. Steven Knope describing Concierge Medicine:

 

Here's another interview with Dr. Knope that appeared on FOX Business:

 

Here's a short video in which I describe Concierge Medicine and how we'll be discussing Concierge Medicine at the Medical Fusion Conference:

For those who want further information on Concierge Medicine, check out the following resources...  

Articles

The Ethics of Concierge Medicine by Dr. Greg Bledsoe

The PGA Golf Tour, Concierge Medicine, & Hitting Your Next Shot as a Physician  by Dr. Greg Bledsoe

The Need for Concierge Medicine  by Dr. Steven Knope

New Concierge Medicine Series: Royal Pains  by Mr. Jeff Barson

Health Matters  by Melinda Beck of the Wall Street Journal

Worldwide Wellness in Outside Go magazine

Total Access: Concierge Medicine Puts a New Spin on Healthcare  in The New Yorker magazine

Are Physicians Pawns in Our Healthcare System?  in AzMedicine magazine

Doctors Switch to 'Concierge' Practices  in Arizona Republic

Books

Concierge Medicine: A New System to Get the Best Healthcare  by Dr. Steven Knope

Podcasts

Dr. Steven Knope: Concierge Medicine  on MedicalSpaMD.com     

Dr. Knope Reveal All  on The Entrepreneurial MD 

Personal Pediatrics Delivers Care Right to Your Bedroom  on  The Entrepreneurial MD 

Organizations

The American Academy of Private Physicians 

Franchise Models

MD VIP

Personal Medicine 

MD2

Saturday
Jul022011

The Medical Fusion Conference Accelerator Sessions

Our next Medical Fusion Conference is just a few months away and we've changed up the Medical Fusion Conference website and added a blog to it.  This Medical Fusion Conference blog will be focused mainly on the event, but we'll post more general information on the site from time to time.

In an effort to get the word out about our event, I've started a video blog to highlight some of the important features and topics of the Medical Fusion Conference.

In the first installment of this video blog I discuss a unique feature of the Medical Fusion Conference-- the Accelerator sessions.  These sessions are scheduled at the end of the first two days of the Medical Fusion Conference and allow conference participants to spend considerable time with the Medical Fusion faculty.

Here's the video describing the Accelerator sessions and why I believe they are so important:

 

I've also posted a quick video clip of one of the Accelerator sessions to demonstrate how these sessions work "in vivo."  Notice in this video clip that each faculty member sits at a table and participants have direct access to them.  These Accelerator sessions last 1.5 hours and are scheduled for the end of the first two days of the event.

 

 

If you are interested in not only learning about various niche areas within medicine but also building a network of mentors and peers who can help you build towards your career goals, there is no better resource than the Medical Fusion Conference.  We hope many of our Freelance MD readers can join us at our next event this November in Las Vegas.

Monday
Apr182011

Dr. Michael Callahan and the Medical Fusion Conference

Not long ago I caught up with my friend, Dr. Michael Callahan, and got his thoughts on our new Medical Fusion Conference.

Michael is an Infectious Disease specialist from Harvard who works with DARPA and the U.S. Defense Department in various niche areas.  He's an expert on reptile envenomations, high altitude acclimitization, and international search and rescue.  Each year we have the privilege of learning from Michael at our Expedition Medicine National Conference in Washington, DC. 

As an individual who has broadened his career to include many interesting and unique areas, I was curious what Michael thought of our Medical Fusion Conference .  Check out the video below to get his insights...

Sunday
Mar272011

Physicians & Evil Plans

Ahhhhhhh....

That's me relaxing in my favorite place in the world...Saint Simons Island, Georgia.

Just recently got back home and I am loving it.  

Most people have one of those places, a geographic location that just seems soothing.  For me, it's a little coastal island community of 15,000 people just off the coast of Georgia.  My mom grew up here.  My second daughter was born here.  My wife and I own a house here and when we are not otherwise occupied, this is where we reside.

It's my first morning back in town and already I feel better about the world.  I walked down to the ocean, called Larry over at St. Simons Outfitters about my new fishing rod, and am writing this while drinking a cup of hot chocolate in one of the two great local coffee shops on the island.  Life is good.

One of the best parts of living the island life is having some time to read an excellent book or two.  My most recent read was Hugh MacLeod's new book, Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination .  I have heard about Hugh for a while, and when my fellow Freelance MD writer, Dr. Mehul Sheth, mentioned him in a recent post I thought it was a good time to jump into Hugh's latest book.

For those of you who might not be familiar with Hugh's work, he is a blogger who writes at GapingVoid.com , an artist who began by drawing comics on the back of business cards, and is now a best-selling author who discusses things like creativity and how to escape the rat race we're all in.

In his latest book, Evil Plans, Hugh talks about the importance of developing an "evil plan" if you want to escape the system and begin living your life, begin being who you were meant to be.  Here's an excerpt from the book's intro...

Everybody needs an Evil Plan.  Everybody needs that crazy, out-there idea that allows them to actually start doing something they love, doing something that matters.  Everybody needs an Evil Plan that gets them the hell out of the rat race, away from lousy bosses, away from boring, dead-end jobs that they hate.  Life is short.

Every person who ever managed to do this, every person who managed to escape the cubicle farm and start doing something  interesting and meaningful, started off with their own Evil Plan.  And yeah, pretty much everyone around them-- friends, family, colleagues-- thought they were nuts.

So there it is.  Physicians need an Evil Plan.  You, specifically, need an Evil Plan.  If you're frustrated with your career.  If you want more meaning. If you have the relentless urge to create something bigger, then you need an Evil Plan and you really should read Hugh's book.

Here are some other quotes in Evil Plans that grabbed me:

  • It's not that people don't want you to be successful-- they just don't want you to be successful in ways they aspire to be but cannot be themselves.
  • It's better to practice a musical instrument for five minutes a day than to practice for two hours once a week.
  • All artists are entrepreneurs, and all entrepreneurs are artists.  Though their tools and products may differ, both entrepreneurs and artists are in the same game-- the making and selling of work that is personally and emotionally important to them.
  • The sacrifices are utterly, utterly enormous to be the best in the world at something-- or even really good at it. 

Hugh goes on to explain that while you're working in a career or job that doesn't seem right to you, begin formulating your own Evil Plan of escape.  Don't quit your day job, just begin formulating your Evil Plan and begin moving forward on it.

The beauty of living in this epoch of time is that while everything in health care seems to be going haywire right now, the internet gives us the ability to launch our Evil Plans with very little financial risk.  [Note: A blog is a good place to start. In our upcoming 2011 Medical Fusion Conference we're going to be teaching specifically about using the internet to launch your new career.  Topics such as monetizing your blog, using social networking tools, developing your own brand, etc...will all be discussed.] Had all these changes in medicine occurred a generation ago things would have been very bleak for those interested in escaping their careers.  The internet is the great equalizer, allowing Evil Plans to go forward and be adjusted/perfected with minimal expense.  

Of course, even with the internet (or especially with the internet), you still have to work at it.  Really, really work at it.

It will be excruciating.  It will be gut-wrenching. It will be breathtaking.

But when you make it, you'll be free.

So what are you waiting for?

Right now, today, begin developing your own Evil Plan.  Take that first step towards a more fulfilling destiny.  If you don't know where to begin, get a copy of Hugh's book and read it from cover to cover.  It won't take long-- it's a short book and an effortless read-- and it just might strike that spark that gets you moving forward. 

 

Wednesday
Mar022011

2011 Medical Fusion Conference Faculty and Agenda

At every Medical Fusion Conference we attempt to cover the most pertinent topics for clinical physicians who are attempting to branch out from their clinical careers.  

For 2011, we've once again assembled a stellar faculty comprised of leaders in many diverse niches from around the country, and have included many hot topics that physicians should be exposed to in this ever-changing healthcare environment.

Our 2011 faculty list was recently published here on Freelance MD, but we've added a few more names so I've decided to list our entire 2011 Medical Fusion Conference faculty once again.  Many of these faculty members are authors here on Freelance MD so you can read about their backgrounds and perspectives here. I'm also listing our agenda below so you can get an idea of what's going to be discussed at this year's event.  Remember, the 2011 Medical Fusion Conference is November 11-13, 2011 and space is limited.  If you're interested in attending you can register online or call 866-924-7969 .

Our 2011 Medical Fusion Conference faculty:

Our conference topics this year are wide-ranging and cover many niches within and around clinical medicine.  Our 2011 agenda is the following:

Friday, November 11th
8:00-9:00  Leaving the Tribe, Silbaugh
9:00-10:00  Physician Career Transition, Wendel
10:00-10:30  Break
10:30-11:30  Prescriptions for Financial Success, Mazumdar
11:30-12:30  Living and Working Abroad, Bledsoe
12:30-2:00  Lunch
2:00-3:00  Concierge Medicine, Knope
3:00-4:00  Cosmetic Medicine Profits Blueprint, Barson
4:00-5:00  Real Estate Investing, Taff
5:00-6:00  Should You Get Your MBA?, Cohn
6:00-7:30  Accelerator I
Saturday, November 12th
8:00-9:00  Writing & Publishing I, Silver
9:00-10:00  Writing & Publishing II, Silver
10:00-10:30  Break
10:30-11:30  Internet Entrepreneurship I, Woo-Ming
11:30-12:30  Internet Entrepreneurship II,  Woo-Ming
12:30-2:30  Lunch
2:30-3:30  Product Development, Silver
3:30-4:30  How to be a Rockstar Physician, Barson
4:30-5:30  Independent Consulting, Cohn
5:30-7:00  Accelerator II
Sunday, November 13th
8:00-9:00  Believe Me: The Importance of Building an Unforgettable Brand, Gulati
9:00-10:00  Careers for Physicians in Managed Care and Health Insurance, Peskin
10:00-10:30  Break
10:30-11:30  Introduction to Disability Review, Neuren
11:30-12:30  Online Marketing for Physicians: The Essentials, Quatre

 

I wanted to make sure I highlighted our two Accelerator sessions at the end of each day.  Our Accelerators are some of our most popular times spent at the Medical Fusion Conference since each faculty and mentor has a table, and participants are allowed to wander from faculty member to faculty member and ask any and all questions of the speakers.  No other event allows you this much face-time with nationally known leaders.  Our participants raved about our Accelerator sessions in 2010 and we know that our 2011 participants will also enjoy this time.  

As you can see from our faculty list and our agenda, Medical Fusion participants will be given exposure to a wide array of interesting topics and significant time with our stellar faculty.  There's no event like the Medical Fusion Conference and there's only one Medical Fusion Conference in 2011: November 11-13, at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Register today to ensure your place at the most exciting and invigorating medical conference in the country.

Tuesday
Mar012011

The PGA Golf Tour, Concierge Medicine, & Hitting Your Next Shot As A Physician

Forget about yesterday and refocus your energies on hitting your next shot.

Well, it's good to be back.  

This past week I had the pleasure of taking a trip out to Arizona where I took in the PGA event at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club and caught up with my friend Dr. Steven Knope, author of Concierge Medicine: A New System to Get the Best Healthcare .

It was a whirlwind tour, but one that left me with some time to think about the state of clinical medicine and our place as physicians within it.

During the flight to Arizona, I whipped out my new iPad and finished reading Steve's book using the iPad Kindle application.  It's a great read, and for those of you who have questions about Concierge Medicine, I would certainly recommend it.  Be forewarned, the book is not a "how to" book that tells you how to set up your clinical practice in a concierge or retainer style; it's basically a narrative of how Steve ended up in his current form of medicine and some of the arguments for and against the model.  I found it fascinating and after reading it I was even more eager to meet with Steve and bounce some questions off of him.

However, before I met with Steve, I had the opportunity to attend the World Golf Championship-Accenture Match Play Championship on Wednesday.  If you're not a golf fan, basically this tournament includes the top 64 golfers in the world who compete head to head in a single-elimination format until the champion is crowned five days later.

I'm not a golfer, but walking around the course during this PGA event, watching the top 64 players in the world compete, I was really amazed.  Even a non-player like myself could appreciate the talent and dedication it takes to be able to consistently hit shot after shot, all the while battling strong gusts of wind, fairways lined with crowds, and television cameras on every corner.  

What I found most inspiring, though, was not the incredibly placed shots that seemed to occur on a regular basis, but the imperfect ones that took a wrong bounce or caught an errant gust of wind and were pushed into the rough (or worse).  More precisely, it wasn't the bad shots themselves that were all that inspiring as were the responses of the pros who hit those shots.

Yes, there were a few fits of frustration when shots went awry, but to a man, every one of those pros recentered themselves when they went to follow up.  Often enough, when a pro hit a bad shot, he followed it up with an incredible adjustment shot and ended up close to where he would have been in the first place.  I observed multiple shots from bunkers, the rough, and out of bounds, that ended on the green near the hole.  It was as if the player wiped his mind clean as he approached his botched shot and made the best of the situation.  The memory of his "failure" was seemingly forgotten, and his focus was turned towards his current challenge with renewed intensity.

It was a great character lesson, to be sure, and provided me with much to think about as I headed to my meeting with Steve towards the end of the week.

For those of you who do not know Dr. Steven Knope, he was one of the first Concierge Medicine physicians in the country and wrote one of the most popular books on the subject.  He's been interviewed by multiple media outlets and was a speaker at our 2010 Medical Fusion Conference.  Steve is intelligent and candid, and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with him about Concierge Medicine, his practice, writing his book, and his views of the changing face of clinical medicine.

During our talk, one of the things that came up was a recent article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal .  Steve had forwarded me a link to the article prior to our meeting, and we took some time to dissect its meaning for Concierge Medicine and clinical medicine in general. 

In this article, the author points out that the recently passed healthcare legislation has already significantly changed the healthcare landscape.

Here's a excerpt:

The most significant change is a wave of frantic consolidation in the health industry. Because the law mandates that insurers accept all patients regardless of pre-existing conditions, insurers will not make money with their current premium and provider-payment structures. As a result, they have already started to raise premiums and cut payments to doctors and hospitals. Smaller and weaker insurers are being forced to sell themselves to larger entities.

Doctors and hospitals, meanwhile, have decided that they cannot survive unless they achieve massive size—and fast. Six years ago, doctors owned more than two-thirds of U.S. medical practices, according to the Medical Group Management Association. By next year, nearly two-thirds will be salaried employees of larger institutions.

Very interesting stuff.

It seems that many physicians have seen the proverbial "writing on the wall" and are selling out in an attempt to protect themselves from what's coming.

Look, I'm not saying that every physician job in a large institution is a bad one and I'm also not saying that every physician has a desire to run his or her own practice.  However, when the percentage of doctor-owned practices goes from more that two-thirds to approximately one-third in such a short time, something is amiss.

The simple fact is that today, more than any time previously, physicians are under attack.  A clinical physician today was already being squeezed by an out-of-control malpractice environment, falling reimbursements, huge student loan debt, and increasing paperwork and regulation.  With the added pressures of the new healthcare laws, many are simply saying "enough is enough" and throwing in the towel.  Conformity and subservience is preferred to bankruptcy, or so the thinking most likely goes, and at a time when we desperately need physician-leaders, many seem to be simply checking out.

In any event, Steve had some great insights into how Concierge Medicine fits into the big picture of American healthcare these days (more on this in a later post) and when I began thinking about things after our chat, my mind began drifting back to those golf pros from the PGA and how they handle their difficulties on the links.

When I watched those athletes, it became very clear that the line separating their talent was very thin.  On any given day, the winner-- more often than not-- is simply the guy who can refocus himself after a tough go of it and remain mentally tough in spite of trying circumstances.  

As physicians today, it's obvious that we've received more than our share of frustrating circumstances and difficulties. The key, though, is in how we approach these circumstances.  We can check out, certainly, or obsess about the past and "what might have been."  We can stew in our frustration and bask in the collective pity-party in the doctor's lounge, or we can begin looking for ways to move forward.

What if we took a tip from the pros in the PGA and stopped looking backwards and began to look forward once again?  Why not wipe the past away, focus on what we can change,  and begin to move forward?  What if we all stopped worrying about the ultimate outcome and... just hit the next shot.

The purpose of Freelance MD and our Medical Fusion Conference is to provide resources to help all of us do this.  We've assembled an incredible team of career coaches, entrepreneurs, non-clinical job experts, and many other talented individuals to help physicians focus our energies on hitting the next shot well, and begin looking forward with hope instead of backwards with regret.

How do you take the first step?

Well, begin by registering for Freelance MD and joining our community.  We're going to be sending out special information to our members and discounts from our various Select Partners.  

Next, become active in the Freelance MD community.  Don't just read the blog, write a comment or two, let us know your opinion, engage.  We need to hear from you and you'll profit from the lively interaction.

Last, consider attending our Medical Fusion Conference.  The dates are November 11-13, 2011 and we're already getting registrations.  There's limited space so please register early-- we don't want anyone to be left out!  Remember, this year we'll be staying at the incredible Aria Resort & Casino, a Five-Diamond property on the Las Vegas Strip-- a fun place to rejuvenate while connecting with interesting and motivated peers from around the country.

Over the next few weeks we're going to be going deeper into a variety of topics, Concierge Medicine included, and we're glad you've stopped by the blog to check us out.  Thanks for your interest. If you like what we're up to, or even if you don't, please leave us a comment to let us know how we're doing. 

Tuesday
Feb082011

Medical Fusion in the "News"

The good folks at Health 2.0 mentioned our Medical Fusion Conference in one of their recent News &Updates posts.

You can check out their news piece here. We've been told this particular news post has already had a large number of page views, so we're happy to keep the momentum rolling.

It's exciting for us here at Freelance MD to see more and more people become enthusiastic about Medical Fusion and our other learning opportunities.  Thanks to Health 2.0 for helping spread the word.

Be sure to stop by the Health 2.0 site sometime and try to attend one of their inspiring events in the near future.

Join Freelance MD

captcha
Freelance MD is an active community of doctors.

All rights reserved.

LEGAL NOTICE & TERMS OF SERVICE