A Harvard Doctor’s Cancer Survivors Startup: Julie Sivler MD

Oncology Rehab Partners is looking to better cancer survivors quality of life.

Dr. Julie Silver is pretty damn busy these days. She's an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and  the Chief Editor of Books at Harvard Health Publications, the consumer health branch of Harvard Medical School, and the director of the Harvard CME course  "Publishing Books, Memoirs and Other Creative Nonfiction", Julie has founded and runs a medical startup focused on accrediting hospitals through Oncology Rehab Partners.

She's also an author here on Freelance MD of course. Read all of Julie Silver's posts here.

From the Bloomburg article

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For All Of The Doctors On Call Over Christmas

A tribute to healthcare peeps working over the hollidays; Feed The Wards (Do They Know It's Christmas Time?)

There comes a time... when we heed a certain call... when the world must come together as one.

This is NOT one of those times.

But it is the Holidays, so we should probably take a moment to think of those less fortunate than ourselves. People who go hungry while others feast. People without a single shred of hope remaining. I’m talking about healthcare workers taking call during the Holidays.

It’s not enough to give lip service to their sacrifice. That’s why Dr. Harry challenged me to put my mouth where my mouth is and DO SOMETHING this year.

Hence the genesis of a grand telethon to benefit these poor needy souls. The main draw: a collection of pop music’s finest stars, gathered together as Band-Aged to belt out a stirring tribute to the selfless heroes of medicine. Sure, the pop stars all look vaguely like me. And sure, British amalgamation Band-Aid did something vaguely reminiscent in the 80′s. But everyone knows that no one speaks British anymore. It’s time for a remake. It’s time to feed the wards...

Interview: Steven Knope MD & The How To's Of Concierge Medicine

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In this Interview, Steven Knope MD discusses Concierge Medicine

This interview was first published as a physician interview on Medical Spa MD so you'll rear that referenced at the beginning and at the end.

Dr. Knope is a board-certified internist and sports medicine expert. He completed his premedical studies at Columbia University and graduated with honors in internal medicine from Cornell University Medical College in 1988. He completed his residency training at UCLA, where he was awarded the first Sherman Melinkoff Teacher of the Year Award. He has served as Chief of Medicine, Chairman of the Department of Medicine, and Director of the ICU in the Carondelet system in Tucson, Arizona. He is a pioneer in the field of concierge medicine, opening one of the first concierge practices in America in December 2000. He authored the first book on concierge medicine entitled, Concierge Medicine; A New System to Get the Best Healthcare (Praeger, 2008).

Knope has received local and national media attention for his work as an uncompromising patient advocate and opponent of the HMO industry. He has been covered in the Arizona Daily Star, Moneymagazine and The Wall Street Journal. In his fight against a local HMO, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and inventor of the cardiac defibrillator, Dr. Bernard Lown, praised Knope as “courageous” and “deeply principled.”

Knope has served as the official internist for the Colorado Rockies baseball team during their spring training in Tucson and has been a member of the editorial board of The American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal. He is a highly regarded national speaker on the subjects of obesity, fitness and exercise.

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Interview: Zubin Damania MD aka ZDoggMD

Interview with hard-rhymin rapper and hospitalist Zubin Damania MD (ZDogg MD) Slightly funnier than pacebo.

Did you ever wonder what kind of doctor you were going to be when you grew up? A hard-rapping stand up comic hospitalist with a penchant for drafting lyrics like, "I remembered she's demented with a nasty case of C.diff", and "I got one glove like Michael Jackson, but it's made of latex and it's your prostate I'm waxin'!" or calling Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz 'Sucker MDs' might not be it.

But that's exactly what Zubin Damania MD does, and it's worked.

Zubin started out as a mullet-wearing, Costco card carrying rockabilly and ended up (so far) working as a hospitalist at Stanford and making video satire with his pediatrician buddy Dr. Harry on ZDoggMD.com (winner of the MedGadget Best New Weblog of 2010) as well as writing for Freelance MD. You can read all of Zubin's posts on Freelance MD here.

In this interview, Zubin discusses where he started and puts his current practice as well as his passion for combining entertainment and patient education in clear perspective.

ZDogg MD Video: Doctors Today

Interview with ZDoggMD

Part 1: Where did you come from?

In this video: oranges, UC Berkeley, UCSF, Stanford, Costco, physician parents, residency, Gastroenterology, feculent smelling burp juice, working for someone else, hospitalist, comedy, UCSF graduation speech, slightly funnier than placebo, youtube.

Part 2: Why are you doing what you're doing?

In this video: passion, entrepreneurship, opportunity, preventing ulcer disease, safe sex, physician burnout, testicular self exam, megalomania.

Part 3: What advice would you give to medstudents?

In this video: medical school advice, who you are, niches in medicine, pressure, jerks and homeless patients, kids, purpose and passion, picking a specialty, residency, real doctors, friends and rectums, vasovagal party jokes.

Part 4: What mistakes have you made and learned from?

In this video: Mistakes, lifeinthefastlane.com, Mike Cadogan, wasting time, making money, cynicism, jerks, doctors and credibility, Osamacare, targeting your audience, standup comedy, hearing aids and dying onstage.

Techcrunch Interview (includes Hemorrhoid rap!)

In this video from Techcrunch Rhymes and Medicine: Hemorrhoid rap, Snoop Dog, Tony Hsieh, Zappos, Delivering Happiness, educating, Youtube, unprofessional behavior, a human face on medicine, internet patients and Google, medical technology, iPad, medicines culture of unhappiness.

Like this interview with ZDoggMD? Leave your thoughs in the comments below.

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Stop Asking Permission

Here's to the crazy ones.

When we talk to our physician readers at conferences or during coaching sessions, several themes keep coming up again and again: Doctors think they don’t have enough time, enough money or both.

When we coach them, we usually ask them “What could be a way out?”. Very often the response is – silence. Physicians are very often unispired when it comes to creative solutions to their own job frustrations.

Why is this so? We think that it’s the physician-mindset which is the problem. We, as physicians, have a permission-based approach to work. All our lives, we had to get permission for doing stuff: we had to get permission to attend a good high-school, a good college, a good medical school etc. After graduating from medical school, we had the permission to practice medicine as a resident, after the board exam we got another permission, then we go into a sub-specialty and we get yet another……you probably guess it: permission.

So whenever we ask our readers, friends and clients: “…you have passion xyz, why don’t you just try to make it a side-busienss?”, we usually hear: “because I was not trained to do that.” Which basically means: “nobody gave me permission.” Do you think Steve Jobs would have come up with the Apple empire if he had a physician-mindset? Do you think that Mahatma Gandhi was trained to be the leader of a peaceful revolution? Do you think that Richard Branson got permission from anyone to start his multimillion empire? The answer is of course – “No”. And why “No”? Because most of them were the first ones to do the shitake they were doing. There just was no one around to teach that stuff.

So what do these successful people have in common?

1. They had an idea
2. The courage to start
3. The self-discipline to follow-through
4. The abilities of an autodidact

You passed all those difficult hurdles, you went through medical school and you probably are used to busy and exhausting work of a healthcare setting. So it is very likely that you have the stamina to follow through. We also assume, you are a quick and autonomous learner. Moreover, as we know from our talks with many of you, you might even have an idea. It is cristal clear, what’s holding most of you back from just f*n doing it is: FEAR. You don’t yet have the courage to start. And we will change that.

Doctors Underestimate Their Options

Most of us who studied medicine went into medical school thinking that they were going into the coolest profession that was ever invented. It’s exciting, it’s intellectually stimulating, it’s well respected, it’s well paid etc. etc.

Many of us started to work as physicians after medschool and realized that there were parts to our work that we did not like that much: the long hours, death, grief, paperwork, administrators, bad pay (but everyone told us that doctors were rich?).

Some of us did not get over these undesirable aspects of the physician life, they are unhappy with what they are doing but unable to quit….after all, this is supposed to be the coolest profession (remember?). Plus, what would my friends, parents, grandparents, …. (fill in blank) think of me?

Very few of us jump in at the deep end and either don’t start to work in medicine or quit this highly respected profession to do whatever feels best to them. Many of those who are stuck, who don’t dare to exit think that there is really nothing else they can do. Think twice. You are highly educated, smart, creative, eloquent, analytical. Otherwise you would have never made it into medical school.

There are tons of jobs out there waiting for you: be it as a medical writer, entrepreneur, public health expert, medical advisor to the industry, teacher, speaker, blogger, coach, psychotherapist, angel investor etc. etc. etc. If you are one of those people who think that you are not creative enough to come up with alternatives to your current job, this video is for you.

A Lighter Look at Coaching Med Students on Choosing a Specialty

These doctors are funny!

I just came across Freelance MD's new sister site dedicated to med students (Uncommon Student MD) and in curiosity clicked on this video. To all our physicians out there, I DARE you to try not to laugh.

And I see that one of these intrepid beat boxers is now part of FreelanceMD's author group - fantastic!  It's great to see people who teach us all not to take ourselves too seriously. Enjoy!