Masterminding With Physicians: Forming A Strategic & Successful Alliance

Why do some entrepreneurs fail and other’s succeed?

I do not think I would have been able to successfully grow my business if I did not secure a few mentors early in my business career, and surrounding myself with an outstanding support team.   Of course, I wouldn’t have done this without the blessing and support of my loving wife and family.

But I also had another  support “family”  a network, a safety net – fellow entrepreneurs many of whom who were running and growing their own successful  businesses, that I could pick up a phone call or meet on a regular basis, giving me a blueprint that I could hone and follow.

For the last several years, I’ve belonged to and run mastermind groups, both in my office, or at quarterly and yearly meetings, as well as virtually on bi-weekly and monthly conference calls.  And I am starting yet another one for this summer for physicians and health care professionals.

And our businesses has grown exponentially because of it!

Why mastermind groups?

Mastermind groups allow you to challenge yourself, brainstorm ideas, and serve a common purpose with others. It also puts yourself accountable to other members, leveraging the experience and knowledge of the group.

 The concept of the Mastermind Group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in the early 1900's.  "Think And Grow Rich" was a book I read back in medical school.  Hill writes about the Mastermind principle as:

"The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony."

At our meeting there is a shared camaraderie and a spirit of helping each other, because, running an online business can get to be lonely. As I have pointed out in the past, doctors often have a “lone wolf” mentality, which may not translate well into the business world. It is vitally important also to have people in the group with vast knowledge and experience to help guide you, or that can bring different skill sets to the group.

Each format of a mastermind group runs differently but a fundamental component is where each person states "here is where I am in my business, here are my successes, and here are my needs or stumbling blocks"  Ideas are then shared rapidly in the group and solutions are then sought.  A key component is also having goals and milestones for the next time we meet.

If you feel your business is stuck in neutral, consider joining a high-level mastermind group.  Mastermind groups  can truly be a key pillar to your success.

Transitioning From Residency To Clinical Practice

By Dr. Thuc Huynh

In 74 days, thousands of residents will be graduating residency; I being one of them.

For me, it’s been 13 years since beginning college and finishing as a family practice physician. For others in surgical residencies or other fellowships, their road has been much longer. As our days of leaning on our attendings come to an end, it’s now time for us to transition to our new role and acquire a greater deal of responsibility. Now, it’s time for us to be the attendings that others rely on. Are you ready?

Take a break

Before you dive into this newfound responsibility. Take a break. We’ve been at it for years; this grind of education. If you think about it, there are very few times in our life that we will be able to take a long break. It’s a trend that with every major task completed, there has always been a nice break for me. I took 2 months off after high school before college, 2 months off before medical school, and 2 months before residency. So it’s only natural that I take 2 months off before starting my next adventure. With every break, I’ve used the time to recuperate from the toils of the recently completed task and re-energize for the future. It works. Take a break after residency. Do what you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t because of all those 30 hour calls. You’ll enter your next job with a brighter outlook and well rested.

Get into the groove

Let’s face it. We’re going to be slow with productivity at the start. It’s okay. Our bosses know that we have no clue about their system, paperwork, and sometimes not even their geographical area. As we get used to our new surroundings, we’ll get faster. In addition, most jobs will start you off with fewer patients because they anticipate we’ll be slower. Eventually, they’ll add more patients to your schedule. Become familiar with the available resources at your disposal. Look online, ask your nurses, ask your colleagues.

Don’t be afraid to ask

We’re not expected to know everything. Just because we’ve graduated residency, it doesn’t mean we’re now know-it-alls. Don’t be afraid to ask your partners for their opinions on cases. They have years of experience and are a valuable resource. I’ve already let my current attendings know that I’ll be calling them from time to time over my career.

Don’t stop learning

This one goes with the topic right above. If you don’t know something, improve yourself. A career in medicine essentially means you’ll be learning for life. New guidelines and breakthroughs in medicine require us to stay updated in order to practice the best standards of care for our patients. Get involved with CME classes, conferences, or credits online.

Finally, don’t burn yourself out We’ll be in this business for years, whether it’s practicing medicine or moving into nonclinical roles. To avoid burnout, remember to take a break. Not a 2 month break like we talked about before; but a mini-break. Use up those vacation days. Engage yourself in hobbies like joining a book club or work on your garden. For me, I enjoy working on my websites and actively engaging in social media. Do anything that will take your mind off of medicine for a while so you can rest and re-energize.

Keep in mind these simple principles as you transition from residency to clinical practice. I wish all of us a rewarding and successful career. Congratulations Class of 2011!

About: Dr. Thuc Huynh is a family practice physician and physician technologist. Her main interest lies around how medicine can play a role with web 2.0 and social media. Dr. Huynh is currently Chief Resident at her Family Medicine Residency in Rapid City, SD and CEO of ScrubdIN, a startup company that aims to help health professionals and e-patients choose their next medical app. She blogs at http://thuchuynh.com

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The Nocebo Effect

There is an everyday  occurrence in modern clinical  psychiatry that is seldom discussed, poorly understood and constantly overlooked in daily practice.

It has a myriad of clinical, social and psychological consequences. It facilitates the bashing  of the pharmaceutical industry and modern psychiatry, it promotes the so prevalent negative stigma towards mental illness. The treatment for it is usually meaningful psychotherapy, but most therapists don’t know much about it, and many have never even heard of the concept. The phenomenon is present in just about every specialty in medicine, with the exception of maybe pathology or diagnostic radiology. Ironically it drives up the cost of health care, increases the practice of defensive, if not paranoid medicine, and sends us into a quandary when trying to help our patients. It leads us on quests and safaris to find a treatment, any treatment that will be beneficial, and somewhere along the lines we end up working a lot harder than the patient, to try to help and improve the patient’s well-being. Working and trying harder than the patient, is a political powder-keg and a taboo and unacceptable thing for doctors to admit on the internet or anywhere else. Yet at least in psychiatry it can be quite diagnostic of the phenomenon.

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ExpedMed Participant Interviews

Well, our Expedition Medicine National Conference is just a few months away so I thought it would be a good idea to post some past participant interviews.

The conference will be in Washington, DC, during September 16-18, 2011 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel and participants this year will receive 20 hours of Category I CME credits as well as our 700 page hardcover textbook entitled Expedition & Wilderness Medicine.

When watching these interviews, notice the diversity of the participants. They come from many different specialities and plan to use the training from this event in many different ways.  Some participants really don't travel to remote areas themselves, but they found the teaching useful even though they don't consider themselves "true" expedition physicians.

We'd love to meet many of our Freelance MD readers at our event this September, so if you want a fun and efficient way to earn your 2011 CME credits, swing by the Omni in DC this fall.

Physician Career Diversity and Matt Dancing Around the World

As physicians, it's easy to get stuck in a rut.

By nature and training, we're more prone to the "track" mentality, ie- this step leads to that step which leads to that step...you get the idea.

Many physicians I know are dissatisfied with their careers, but they have a difficult time trying to think of unique ways to use their talents.  They go to career fairs and speak to their physician colleagues but still can't seem to break free.

In my opinion, one of the problems we have as physicians is being waaay too narrow when we think about outside endeavors.  We only look at medical niches and don't even consider alternative areas.  We never take the time to read outside the medical field so we have no idea what others are saying outside of medicine.  We're all drinking from the same well, so it's no wonder we find it difficult to change perspectives.

As an example of someone with a very original career pursuit outside of medicine, I recently came across a video of a guy named Matt who filmed himself dancing in various locations all over the world.  Matter of fact, his video was so successful, Stride gum sponsored him to do a few more trips on their dime (note: this guy is not a professional dancer or anything like that...at best I would describe his dancing as an awkward, silly jig.  Matt simply describes his dancing as "bad.").  Matt is now a quasi-famous individual who does not have a "real" job, travels all over the world, and writes on his website entitled Where the Hell is Matt?

For those of you who might need a little bit of inspiration, check out Matt's video above and read his blog. If a guy can carve out a career niche dancing in remote locations around the world, then maybe there's hope for all the physicians out there who simply want a little career diversity.

Adherence Challenges For Physicians & Patients

One of the great challenges physicians face is getting patients to take their medications properly and on a regular, continuing basis.  

All too often, patients skip doses, take drug holidays, discontinue treatment early, or even fail to initiate a recommended course of treatment.  These issues are particularly problematic in the treatment of chronic diseases, leading to treatment failure and to frustration for both patients and their doctors.

Oddly, Nobel prize-winning work on microlending may provide a window on how to enhance patients’ adherence to treatment (http://www.tocatchadollar.com).  Microlending—giving poor people tiny loans to start small businesses—has been extremely effective at helping poor women achieve a greater degree of self-sufficiency.  Compliance with loan repayment has been extraordinarily high.  In theory, these programs are supposed to work because people need money in order to make money.  Perhaps far more important to the success of these programs, however, is the support system that complements the loan.

Successful microlending programs have borrowers organized into small teams that meet once a week, reporting what was purchased with the loan and what is being done to sell product in the business.  Each week, borrowers are expected to make a small re-payment toward the loan and to set aside a small amount in their savings account.  If borrowers miss meetings or are otherwise unable to meet the requirements of their borrowing contract, they suffer the social pressure of their team.

These weekly visits are powerful motivators that drive loan repayment compliance.  The visits foster the discipline and provide the social support needed for spending and selling behaviors that result in business success.  Without this discipline and support, it is unlikely that just giving the borrowers a bolus of money would result in a high level of successful business outcomes.

Too often in medical practice, prescriptions of medication are handed to patients without the support needed to get patients to use their medications regularly.  While research studies may have weekly visits to record changes in disease severity—visits that drive patients’ adherence behavior—in clinical practice, medications may be given with no follow up scheduled for months, perhaps without any planned follow up.  Expecting patients to use their medications successfully under those conditions would be like expecting borrowers to use the loan wisely without timely follow up.

Like the weekly visits in the microlending program, office visits with physicians are a powerful social motivator for patients to adhere to their doctors’ recommendations.  I’m not entirely sure why, but the phenomenon is powerful and ubiquitous, explaining why people floss their teeth right before visits to the dentist, why they practice piano just before the lessons, why medications work better in drug studies than they do in real life practice, and why so, so many patients report, “Doctor, you always catch it on a good day.”

Weekly visits to a physician may not be practical or efficient.  But one follow up visit or phone call contact shortly after initiating treatment may be enough to encourage more patients to fill and start their prescriptions.  If patients do use their medication well at first, they may develop the habit of using medication, resulting in a long-term pattern of regular use.  That would be a huge help in our management of patients with chronic illnesses.  Other approaches that solicit regular feedback from patients on the effectiveness, safety and tolerability of their treatment—particularly approaches that give patients a sense of watchful caring from their physician—would add to the support (and perhaps pressure) needed for patients to successfully adhere to the recommended treatment regimen.

About: Steve Feldman, MD, PhD, is founder of the www.DrScore.com physician rating website and author of the book Compartments. He is Professor of Dermatology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Physicians & The Accidental Billionaires

Accidental Billionaires?

Last week with my time on the island I had the opportunity to catch up on some reading.

Nothing too earth-shattering or intellectual, but I did make it through a couple of good books.

One book I had considered reading for a while now actually turned out to be rather good.  The book was The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich.  

For those of you who have been living in a cave the past few years, The Accidental Billionaires is a sort of fictionalized account of the rise of Facebook, and was recently turned into a popular movie called The Social Network.

I was hesitant to read the book simply because it has been criticized as too fictional.  Mark Zuckerberg-- the person most associated with the founding of Facebook and the current CEO of the company-- did not make himself available for interviews with the author.  Additionally, many of the individuals used as primary sources for the text have openly stated their animosity towards Zuckerberg and/or the company, Facebook.  These foes include Edaurdo Saverin-- a college friend of Zuckerberg and co-founder of Facebook-- and the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, who are still in ongoing litigation with the company.

Th book reads like fiction-- Mezrich openly admits he had to use literary technique to bridge gaps in the historical accounts-- but it ends up being an interesting and quick read.  Suffice it to say that if you like the movie, you'll find the book interesting.

Personally, I enjoyed the read simply because while it is obviously one-sided, it does give you one person's (ie- Saverin's) account of the founding of the company and the whirlwind development of Facebook from dorm room daydream to corporate force.  For those who have been involved with any sort of start-up company, the themes of the book ring true:  the initial excitement, the overwhelming work, the near misses and mistakes, the infighting and jealousy, and the eventual victory.

I also enjoyed the characters of the book, many of whom are well-known entities in the world of Silicon Valley.  The anecdotes about "bad boy" Sean Parker, the brilliance of Peter Thiel, the competitive drive of the Winklevoss twins, and the descriptions of life as an undergrad at Harvard were all very intriguing.  

Anyway, if you have any interest in entrepreneurship, venture capital, technology, or start-up companies, then I believe you will find The Accidental Billionaires a fun read.  I enjoyed it and while some parts are somewhat sinister, and others downright bizarre, I think this fictionalized account of one person's view of the Facebook founding is entertaining and worth the short time investment necessary to breeze through its pages.