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Friday
Jan212011

ExpedMed's CME Polar Bear Adventure: Why You Should Go

Hopefully, you've seen the advertisement here on Freelance MD about our 2011 ExpedMed CME Polar Bear Adventure (during October 20-25, 2011). However, I wanted to take a moment and explain why I think this is such an incredible opportunity for our Freelance MD readers.

In a recent Freelance MD post, Dr. Barry Silbaugh, president of the Americal College of Physician Executives, mentioned that it sometimes takes getting away from it all to have one of those "epiphany" moments that end up being life-changing.  

Here at Freelance MD we're committed to providing opportunities for our readers. We provide these opportunities in multiple ways-- by recruiting excellent authors for our site, by recommending products and services that we believe can be beneficial to today's modern physician, and by creating events in which our readers can participate that can lead to significiant life-change. The ExpedMed CME Polar Bear Adventure is one of those potentially life-changing events.

In late October I will be leading a team of adventurous medical professionals to Churchill, Canada to see the famed polar bears of this region. Churchill is located right on the Hudson Bay, one of the first portions of the Arctic ocean that freezes every winter. In September and October, polar bears come from miles around to await the freeze so they can move onto the ice to hunt seals.  During these months, there is no better place to see polar bears in the wild than Churchill, Canada.

You can read more about the specifics of the trip on our here.  I'll summarize the page simply by saying that the trip will be a lot of fun, you'll earn 25 hours of CME credits for your participation, and you'll get two nights in the famous Tundra Buggy Lodge during your five day adventure. 

However, this trip is more than polar bears and earning a chunk of CME credit.

When I speak with physicians around the US-- and I speak to a lot of them each year-- many seem overwhelmed, despondent, trapped. They're not sure what their next step should be and they're afraid of making a mistake. They're in need of more than simply a job tweak, they're really in need of some life inspiration.

Yes, there are those who have been inspired in their daily work environments, but there's just something about leaving the comforts of your home, going some place truly wild, and taking your mind off your practice and your daily woes that helps refocus your energies and plant the seeds of something new and exciting in your life. It's difficult to be distracted by the problems with your medical billing company when a 1,500 lb creature is staring at you from a few feet away. It's much easier to dream big dreams when your cell phone and pager aren't constantly buzzing and the only "static" you're taking in is the snowfall on the Canadian tundra.

Life is busy. Medical life is especially busy.  This CME adventure is designed to slow everything down and take you away...far, far away.

Ultimately, our hope with this CME adventure is to take you out of your comfort zone, expose you to a magnificent wilderness and some incredibly majestic wild creatures, and help you get your priorities in order (and give your problems a little perspective). You can't do this at home and you can't do this online.  You have to untether yourself from your busy world and make a break for it.  

If you've been looking for an excuse to take a break, this is your opportunity.  This trip will enable you to create memories with other like-minded individuals in a remote wilderness setting that you'll never forget.  

Come with us to Churchill in October and meet other members of the ExpedMed and Freelance MD communities. Earn some CME credits and return home recharged and refocused. Stop making excuses and quit the whining. Take charge of your career and remember this quote from Helen Keller: "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."  

Thursday
Jan202011

The ExpedMed Textbook: Expedition & Wilderness Medicine 

For those of you who are interested in learning more about Expedition Medicine or Wilderness Medicine, I'd like to mention our textbook, Expedition & Wilderness Medicine, that was recently published by Cambridge University Press.

This textbook is used as the syllabus for our Expedition Medicine National Conference and also as a teaching tool for many other courses and organizations around the globe.

The textbook is a hardcover text over 700 pages in length, with full-color photos and diagrams.  We recruited more than sixty experts from around the world who contributed content for this project.  Contributors include many notable individuals such as 

Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS: 17th Surgeon General of the United States

Luanne Freer, MD, FACEP, FAWM: past president of the Wilderness Medical Society and founder and director of Everest ER

Ken Kamler, MD: Vice President of The Explorers Club and author of Doctor on Everest

Richard Williams, MD, FACS: Chief Health and Medical Officer for NASA

Peter Hackett, MD: Director, Institute of Altitude Medicine

We have been pleased to read many favorable reviews of our book in multiple journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. Here's an excerpt from the JAMA review:

Expedition&Wilderness Medicine, edited by Bledsoe, Manyak, and Townes, is a comprehensive guide to the multitude of issues facing the expedition physician. The book is organized into 3 sections covering expedition planning, specific and unique environments, and specific wilderness illnesses and injuries. The comprehensive and often humorous chapters have been edited in a style that allows for easy reading, and they include numerous excellent illustrations.

Several of the chapters are written by some of the world’s authorities on the topic. Not only have many of the authors published widely on their areas of expertise, they have spent considerable time in the field. The authors have diverse experience ranging from serving as the expedition physician on a climb of an 8000-m peak in the Himalayas to providing medical care to a patient injured thousands of feet underground in a Mexican cave. This experience—and the willingness of many of the authors to illustrate ways to avoid future problems by describing their own misadventures in the field—contribute to the strength of this text.

Expedition & Wilderness Medicine is a must-read before any expedition. It carefully details what an expedition medical kit should contain, along with details on what to consider taking along for toxicological and dental emergencies. Although this book is aimed at the expedition and wilderness medicine physician, many of the chapters are superb summaries of core emergency medicine knowledge that are better distilled and presented than chapters in some more traditional textbooks of emergency medicine. We recommend this text to all who practice acute care medicine and all physicians who hike, climb, or vacation outside the city or who might encounter anyone else who does.

Jones ID, and CM Slovis. JAMA. 2009;302(4):442-44

We'll be writing more about opportunities in Wilderness Medicine and Expedition Medicine here on Freelance MD, but for those of you who need something to begin your journey, pick up a copy of our textbook online or attend our Expedition Medicine National Conference and receive the book for free.

Wednesday
Jan192011

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.

Wednesday
Jan192011

What Healthcare Can Learn From 5 Other Industries

There are 4 major consumer trends that are rippling through healthcare.

A recent Booze Company report analyzed how 5 industries are hitting the reset button as they emerge from the global recession. Healthcare should pay attention.

For example, the 4 trends cited in the report for the consumer products industry are frugality with a twist (paying a little more for creature comforts), an aging and health conscious population, digital customers and large, emerging markets.

All of these trends present great opportunities for bioentrepreneurs in health and wellness products and services, global care, digital and social network healthcare marketing and high value, differentiated medical products and services designed for those willing to pay more.

We have a lot to learn from telecom, consumer products, automotive , financial services and telecommunications. Innovation is almost always a visitor, not someone who lives in your house.

Tuesday
Jan182011

Disability Insurance: Know Your Occupation

Disability insurance is one of the foundations of a solid financial plan for physicians. Yet I’ve seen numerous mistakes financial advisors (read “insurance salesman”) have made when it comes to disability insurance for physicians.

If you do a Google search on “disability insurance for physicians” you’ll come across a large number of insurance salesman that claim to specialize in physician disability insurance. It’s easy to understand why: after all insurance products pay some hefty commissions. For most of these guys, it’s “sell and go away.” Once you’re sold the product that’s generally where the relationship ends. Some of these guys have sold disability policies that are woefully inadequate to several of my physician clients.

I’ve seen this happen with the most important aspect of disability insurance, and that’s the definition of disability. You need to look at your policy and determine exactly what “total disability” means. While you may think that total disability is a uniform definition, it’s actually defined in 3 general ways.

The first definition of total disability is “any occupation.” This means that if you become totally disabled, your disability policy will pay your monthly benefit as long as you do not work in any other occupation. In other words let’s say you’re a surgeon and you develop a herniated disc in your neck causing persistent radiculopathy. If this is a long term disability that precludes you from performing surgery and you have an “any occupation” disability definition in your disability policy, then you won’t be allowed to work at Starbucks serving coffee. If you do then your disability benefits will stop.

The second definition is “own occupation.” This means that even if you become totally disabled in your current occupation, your disability policy will pay your monthly benefit even if you work in another occupation. So going back to the example of the surgeon above, you could still receive disability benefits at the same time as serving coffee at Starbucks. So as you can see having an “own occupation” definition of total disability is far more desirable than “any occupation” coverage. 

The third definition is “modified own occupation.” A lot of physicians disability policies allow “own occupation” coverage for the first 2 or 3 years of disability and then change that to “any occupation” coverage after that time. So the surgeon who becomes disabled and works at Starbucks would be able to get disability benefits for the first 2-3 years and then those benefits would stop. Look at your disability policy to see if you have this mixed definition. When disability insurance for physicians became more restrictive several years ago, these types of policies were common.

Recently insurance companies have loosened up a bit on the definition of disability for physicians. So if you have an “any occupation” or “modified any occupation” disability policy, you should inquire about “own occupation” coverage. There is even one company that now writes specialty specific “own occupation” coverage. So if you’re a gastroenterologist and you become disabled, you could still practice medicine (say urgent care) and still receive disability benefits.

Tuesday
Jan182011

Writing Your First Book As A Physician

Looking to write your first book as a physician?

“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.” 

So wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson in “Self-Reliance.” Those words published in 1841 have reached out to me over the past several decades and led to several publications:

  • a song (later a book) about DNA: “the DOUBLE talking HELIX blues” (a Vertebral Disc, the flip side of which is “The Battle of Gross Anatomy”)
  • a textbook on the interface between medicine and psychiatry: “Pediatrics, Neurology, and Psychiatry: Common Ground” (with N. Paul Rosman, M.D.)
  • a diet book: “The Popcorn-Plus Diet” (featured in a People Magazine story)
  • a book on depression in childhood: “Is Your Child Depressed?” (which I wrote because far more children and adolescents in my practice had headaches due to mood disorder than to the much-feared brain tumor)
  • a song pertaining to sexual abuse: “Tell It Again” (which received airplay on National Public Radio)
  • a book of original limericks: “For Better or Verse” (quite clean; reviewed favorably in limerick form in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
  • a play based upon a Berton Rouché piece from the New Yorker: “Twisted: A Mind-Body Mystery” (which I presented in a solo dramatic reading in Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and Heidelberg, Germany – the last in German), and most recently
  • a book about a very important, largely unrecognized health problem: “Swallow Safely – How Swallowing Problems Threaten the Elderly and Others. A Caregiver’s Guide to Recognition, Treatment, and Prevention” (with my wife, Roya Sayadi, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, as first author). 

Was I an English major in college? No. Actually, I majored in music at Princeton, taking premedical courses on the side.

Do I have a background in theatre? Hardly. Not unless you count an unsuccessful tryout for “Frosty the Snowman” as a fifth-grader in Bloomington, Indiana.

Emerson’s words have been a further inspiration and goad. For he goes on to say (in the same essay): “In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”

That feeling does not sit well with me.  And I agree with Emerson that “The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray.”

Sometimes this ray is simply an awareness of my own ignorance.  Let me give you an example. It was years before I realized that (1) my wife, a speech-language pathologist, spent a large part of her practice dealing with swallowing problems and (2) she knew a heck of a lot more about swallowing than I, as a pediatric neurologist, ever did.  I figured — if I’m lacking this kind of information, there must be plenty others in the same boat.

Fifteen months later we were the proud parents of “SWALLOW SAFELY: How Swallowing Problems Threaten the Elderly and Others. A Caregiver’s Guide to Recognition, Treatment, and Prevention.” My wife is the first author. We have self-published the book and made it available for $14.95 through www.SwallowSafely.com, Amazon.com (including a Kindle version), and as an iBook. 

It has been received warmly by patients, family caregivers, professionals, and independent reviewers. A towering figure in the field of swallowing and its disorders, Dr. Jeri Logemann, a professor at Northwestern University and Medical School, felt that our book “will be very helpful to dysphagic patients, their families and all of us who love to eat.”

An independent reviewer, ForeWord Reviews, called the book “…a well-researched, informative guide for those caring for the elderly or the ill.” It concluded: “This book will save lives.”

The good news is that “SWALLOW SAFELY” is the first (and only) book for the general public that deals with this very important subject. The bad news is that, while many people these days know about the dangers of falling in the elderly, they may not realize that swallowing problems, too, account for tens of thousands of lives lost annually in this country. Deaths come about through choking, aspiration pneumonia, and malnutrition.

Now that the book has been written and published, we spend our time wrestling with the 800-lb. gorilla known as marketing. After all, books gathering dust in the garage or basement will not save lives or recoup our out-of-pocket expenses.

We’ve been active with the media, made presentations at public libraries, Parkinson’s disease support groups, and senior center meetings. My wife and I have greatly enjoyed doing this project together. We’ve had our challenges, but fewer than anticipated. But then again, our relationship survived — indeed, was fortified by — a two-year home remodeling project.

About: Joel Herskowitz, M.D., is a member of the Boston University School of Medicine faculty, a staff pediatric neurologist at Boston Medical Center. E-mail: herskowitzjoel@aol.com.

Submit a guest post and be heard.

Monday
Jan172011

2 Tips For Writing Your Physician Memoir

Many doctors ask me about writing memoirs. It seems that everyone has a story to tell and many want to share it in book form.

My own bias is that everyone does have a fascinating story to tell (I think every life is interesting and can make a compelling story). BUT, and this is a big BUT, not everyone can tell their story in a way that interests others. 

So, what does make a great memoir? Good question!  Here's my response: Read at least 20 best-selling memoirs, and you'll likely be able to answer that for yourself. If I could summarize the answer quickly, I would.  However, that's not really possible. If you want to write a great memoir, it really helps to read quite a few great ones first. The voice, tone, cadence, length, details and lots of other things in the stories will help you to figure out how to tell your own. That's tip #1--read memoirs if you want to write one.

Tip #2 is a little harder. This has to do with what an editor once said to me. He said, "You need to tell authors that there needs to be a reason why I'd interrupt my really interesting life to read about yours.  And, pay $20 to do it!" Okay, so why would someone pay $20 and interrupt his or her life to read about yours? The answer is: great memoirs transcend any one person's story and resonate with many people.  In short, there has to be more to your story than just your story. What is this book really about? Maybe it's about overcoming tremendous adversity--a theme many of us can relate to. Or, maybe it's about wanderlust or a mid-life crisis or any number of other themes that strike a chord in the hearts of millions. 

Anyway, if you are writing your memoir and you want people to read it, be sure that it is about more than just your story. 

Two tips in one blog is enough, I think. I'll be writing more about what makes a memoir really fantastic, but this these two tips will get you pretty far down the road to writing a great one!

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