2011 Medical Fusion Conference Faculty

Medical Fusion faculty members talk between sessions. From left to right: Dr. Natalie Hodge, founder of Personal Medicine; Dr. John LaPuma, New York Times best-selling author and founder of ChefMD; Dr. Jeffrey Segal, founder of Medical Justice; Dr. Steven Peskin, Executive VP and CMO of MediMedia

The next Medical Fusion Conference will be November 11-13, 2011 at the Aria Resort in the new City Center development on the Strip in Las Vegas.  

For those of you who have never attended one of our Medical Fusion events, the purpose of this conference is to help physicians learn how to apply their medical training in unique ways.  We scour the country to find experts who can help those in clinical medicine develop career niches using their medical expertise, and we have a good time learning from these experts while we hang out at a fabulous Vegas resort.  

Basically, the Medical Fusion Conference is Freelance MD come to life, a place where you can meet and interact face to face with many of the authors and experts here at Freelance MD.

For 2011, I am pleased to announce yet another incredible faculty list.  We have individuals from many niche areas who will be teaching conference participants how to take control of their careers and apply their medical knowledge in many unique ways.

So without further ado, here's our 2011 Medical Fusion Conference faculty:

• Dr. Julie Silver, Chief Editor of Harvard Health Publications
• Dr. Steven Knope, author of Concierge Medicine: A New System to Get the Best Healthcare
• Dr. Barry Silbaugh, president of the American College of Physician Executives
• Dr. Setu Mazumdar, founder of Lotus Wealth Solutions
• Dr. Kenneth Cohn, author and founder of HealthcareCollaboration.com
• Dr. Mike Woo-Ming, internet entrepreneur and founder of IncomeMD.com
• Jeff Barson, founder of MedicalSpaMD.com , co-founder of FreelanceMD.com
• Dr. Alan Neuren, independent disability consultant
• Ms. Ashley Wendel, consultant for physicians pursuing nonclinical careers
• Dr. Gary Taff, serial entrepreneur and real estate investor

Together this faculty represents the best source of information for physicians interested in developing a unique and meaningful career.  

Topics for the 2011 Medical Fusion Conference include concierge medicine, monetizing your blog, cosmetic medicine, product development, writing/publishing, internet entrepreneurship, real estate investment, developing your niche as a consultant, physician career transition, financial management, and much more.

I'll be writing more in the future about this faculty and some of the interesting personalities you'll meet at our event.  

If you're interested in attending the Medical Fusion Conference or just have some questions for us, feel free to contact us here at Freelance MD or call our event offices at 866-924-7929 .  Be sure not to wait around, though, since this event will fill up quickly and we want every one of our Freelance MD readers to have the opportunity to attend.  

If you like Freelance MD, you'll love the Medical Fusion Conference and we'd love to have the opportunity to meet you face to face.

Carpe Diem: Freelance MD 2011 CME Conference Schedule

It's 2011 and we've got lots of fantastic CME physician conferences scheduled.

Over the next few months we'll be offering numerous opportunities for our Freelance MD members to connect with one another at live events around the country, and earn a little CME as well.

With everything that's happening I thought I would write a quick post detailing our upcoming events for the next 18 months so everyone is able to get them on their calendars. Every year, just before a major event, I get a steady stream of emails from individuals saying "if I only would have known."  For whatever reason they didn't find out until too late about one of our events and they're left waiting until the following year to join us.  Don't let that be you!  For any of our events you can contact us here at Freelance MD or call our registration center at 866-924-7929 to reserve your place.  

Here are the upcoming events that everyone will be talking about...

Expedition Medicine National Conference: September 16-18, 2011

This September 16th-18th will be the five-year anniversary of our Expedition Medicine National Conference.  We hold this event every year in Washington, DC and always receive rave reviews.  Here are a few of the comments from past participants of our Expedition Medicine National Conference:

“Very well done – well organized! Great venue! Speakers are excellent. I would recommend this course and plan to attend again!" -Craig Hollinger MD, California

“This was a wonderful conference!  For the first time, I’ve met so many doctors who also like wilderness and adventure!  The speakers were amazing!” -Margaret Budzianowska-Kwiatkowski MD, British Columbia

"This conference is truly one of the best I have attended in 50+ years of actively practicing medicine. All of your speakers were outstanding. The material was very interesting and useful to my activities.” -Joseph English MD, Pennsylvania

Participants at this event will receive 20 hours of Category I CME taught by renowned experts from around the world and all will also receive our Expedition & Wilderness Medicine textbook ($150 value) free.  The event will be at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.

ExpedMed CME Polar Bear Adventure: October 20-25, 2011

In October, ExpedMed will be teaming up with Frontiers North Adventures to take a handful of hardy souls to visit the polar bears of Churchill, Canada.  During the months of September and October, Churchill is the best place in the world to see polar bears in the wild.  We'll be staying at the famed Tundra Buggy Lodge and earning 25 hours of Category I CME (20 hours online prior to the trip and 5 hours of live instruction during the trip). 

This trip is going to be one of those rare experiences that create lifelong memories, and yes, spouses and non-medical people are welcome.

For more information on this trip, feel free to call our registration number (866-924-7929), visit the Frontiers North website, or read our information page on the trip here at Freelance MD. 

Medical Fusion Conference: November 11-13, 2011

I've mentioned it before but it's worth repeating, our 2011 Medical Fusion Conference will be November 11th-13th at the amazing Aria Resort on the Strip in Las Vegas.  We'll be announcing our 2011 faculty very soon, but suffice it to say that this year will be an incredible opportunity for you to learn more about how you can use your medical training in unique ways.  Topics for 2011 include internet entrepreneurship, monetizing your blog, cosmetic medicine practice, becoming an independent consultant, writing and publishing, concierge medicine, and much more.  Stay tuned to Freelance MD for more announcements regarding this event, and book early since space is limited.

ExpedMed CME Kilimanjaro Climb: March 24-April 6, 2012

For those of you who want to strike something off your "bucket list" and earn CME along the way, you really need to check out our ExpedMed CME Kilimanjaro climb.

ExpedMed has partnered with Tusker Trail to provide an excellent opportunity for participants to learn Expedition and Wilderness Medicine while climbing one of the world's most famous peaks.  Tusker is one of the premiere safari and climbing outfits in the world, and were our chosen team to support ExpedMed's 2009 Kilimanjaro summit.  

Check out this trip early as space is very limited, and be watching Freelance MD for more information on this incredible opportunity to have a little educational adventure in 2012.

So there you have it.  Four excellent ways for you to connect with others and learn skills that will further your career.  If you have any questions, feel free to let us know and of course, if you're interested in attending any of these events, please book early as they always fill up very quickly.

2011 Medical Fusion Conference: November 11-13, 2011

This is just a quick post to ask everyone to mark their calendars for the 2011 Medical Fusion Conference that will be at the incredible Aria Resort at the City Center in Las Vegas. Dates for the Medical Fusion Conference are November 11-13, 2011.

The Aria Resort is a Five Diamond Award winning property in the heart of the new City Center development on the Strip in Las Vegas.  Room rates for this exclusive resort are an incredible $179 (plus a resort fee of $20) if you are a participant with Medical Fusion.

The Medical Fusion Conference is the only national medical conference where physicians learn cutting edge ways to expand their careers.  Our faculty are true experts and many are featured authors here on Freelance MD.  

Topics discussed at recent Medical Fusion conferences include telemedicine, concierge medicine, internet marketing, real estate investing, consulting to industry, international work, writing/publishing, and much more.

Continue to monitor Freelance MD for announcements about Medical Fusion faculty, topics, and special discounts to Freelance MD members.

For more information about the Medical Fusion Conference, please call  866-924-7929 .

Is Medicine Destroying Our Young Physicians?

I came across a blog post not long ago that's a great read. The title of the blog is the Traveling Medicine Show and the specific post is entitled, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?—Leaving Medicine the First Time.

This post is a very interesting and humorous story about how the author—a first-year Neurology resident at the time—decides to leave his residency on an impulse after a spontaneous marriage to his girlfriend.  The story is well-written and quite funny, and it's easy to identify with the author who is so frustrated with medicine but can't seem to quite find a life outside of medicine either.  Here's how it begins:

After the third month of my neurology residency in Chicago, I took a trip out to New Mexico and never came back.

No one leaves medicine. It’s just not done. Or rarely. There was the guy in my medical school who was so twisted, that even after repeated reprimands for being inappropriate with female patients and colleagues, he couldn’t get it together. Though not by choice, he left. Or the anesthesiology resident found dead of an overdose in his call room, a surreptitious IV catheter still taped to his ankle. He left. These were the role models.

I had fantasized about leaving medicine for years. By my second year of med school, I had the feeling that I had boarded the wrong train, but I kept on clunking down the wrong track, hoping things would improve as I passed into each new stage of training. Things would be better when I was in the clinical years. Clunk. Clunk. When I get to my internship. Clunk Clunk. I couldn’t find the strength to leave something that seemed so successful, even noble. Anyway, the ticket had been so exorbitant, and soon so many miles had flown by that getting off was simply not an option.

I won't ruin the story and tell you how it all ends, but suffice it to say that it is worth reading.  I know many physicians who have felt, and still feel, like this author but only discuss these feelings behind closed doors to their closest confidants, if at all.

What's particularly poignant about this post, however, are the comments at the end.  The post was written in 2007, but the comments have been building since then and emote a sense of desperation amongst the writers. "Glad to know I'm not the only one who feels this way," reads one comment.  "I wish I had never done [medical school]—just look what they make you give," reads another. 

The comments continue: "I just left residency after two years of medicine...," and "I'm in my first semester of med school and I hate it," and "I’m a family doc, have been practicing for eight years. Recently hit with two meritless, frivolous, ridiculous lawsuits… both still pending, one I’ve fought for two years now... I'm getting out."

There are more comments, but you get the point.

What most disturbs me about these comments is that they are all from individuals at the beginning of their careers in medicine. It's one thing to have a cohort of physicians towards the end of their careers, complaining about changes in medicine and longing for "the good old days." But these writers are all young, early in their careers—and desperate to get out.

Our colleague Dr. Ryan Flesher produced an entire documentary film on this subject entitled The Vanishing Oath.  Ryan's film sheds light on the problem of early burnout in young physicians, and after watching his film, it caused me to be seriously concerned whether there would be anyone left in medicine to care for my family and me when we're older.

When I read comments like the ones mentioned earlier, or see a film like The Vanishing Oath, or speak to colleagues who are overwhelmed by their careers and stressed to the hilt, it makes me even more committed to what we're doing here at Freelance MD.  

You see, I come from a family of medical people. Between the stories I've personally heard and the stories told to me by other family members, I have had a growing concern that the practice of medicine is becoming increasingly toxic to those who practice it. Medicine is devouring its young.

This unfortunate truth is why Freelance MD and the Medical Fusion Conference were developed—to help physicians navigate the now treacherous waters of modern medicine.  

We'll be discussing physician burnout and other indicators of the problems in medicine in more depth, but our hope is that the discussion won't simply digress into a complaint session. We've created this site as a place not to simply document the obvious problems in medicine, but to offer direction for those who are struggling and connect them to leaders who can help them progress into a career that is fulfilling.

So take advantage of the resources here at Freelance MD and begin building towards a better career.  

We need you in medicine.

Interview With The Entrepreneurial MD

Dr. Philippa Kennealy interviewed me not long ago for her Conversations with Trailblazers podcast on The Entrepreneurial MD blog.  

You can read her blog post here or skip directly to the podcast by clicking here .  

In the podcast entitled Bitten by the travel bug, this MD wants to get you going places, we discuss the transition to being an entrepreneur, taking measured risk, the beginnings of ExpedMed and the Medical Fusion Conference, and our vision for physician career change.

Medical Fusion Conference

The Medical Fusion Conference was held this last weekend in Las Vegas.

A number of the physicians that I've interviewed on the Medical Spa MD Podcast were there as speakers, and a number of physicians that I met at the conference are going to be on the podast.

The Medical Fusion Conference is still relatively small. I think there were less than 100 physicians attending.

(There were a few Medical Spa MD Members that I got to say hello to which was very nice. I didn't come close to going bankrupt with my offer to pay for a month of Frontdesk SEO oursource marketing services which I think of with somewhat mixed blessings.)

I'd attended the conference for a number of reasons; Medical Fusion is a Select Partner for both Freelance MD and Medical Spa MD, I wanted to find out what value the conference held for physicians, and I wanted to guage the reaction of the physicians who attended.

Across the board it was all positive. Every physician I spoke to gave the conference two thumbs up and described it as an excellent overview of potential options in non-clinical medicine that had the wheels spinning.

One of the take-aways was that every physician is looking for what the military world calls 'actionable intelligence', ways to put these strategies and information into action. The result? Freelance MD.