Expedition Medicine National Conference

I wanted to make sure that the Freelance MD community knew that our 2011 Expedition Medicine National Conference will be this September 16th-18th at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.

This is the five-year anniversary of our event in Washington, DC and it's been gratifying to receive all the positive feedback about the event from the hundreds of physicians, nurses, paramedics, and other medial professionals who have attended past conferences.  Here's a sampling of quotes we've received on our evaluation forms:

“Great conference…first class…the first CME event I have ever attended where I felt I got my money’s worth."  -Richard Knight, MD, Emergency Medicine, Ft. Worth, Texas

“Great experience…incredible speakers who have traveled all over the world and are speaking and educating from firsthand experience…lessons learned are priceless! Thank you." -Sapna Parikh, MD, Fox News Medical Correspondent, New York, New York

“Sorry, all 5s on the evaluation doesn’t help much, but it was that awesome!” -Mark Schwab MD, San Diego, CA

“This was the first conference I’ve attended where I’ve gone to ALL the lectures and looked forward to the next day! The speakers were great – knowledgeable, passionate about what they do, entertaining. I also like the historical info on the infectious diseases and the personal adventure stories.” -Alexia Gordon MD, Virginia

“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

This year, we have an incredible line up of expert faculty and topics for participants.  For those who have never attended one of our events, we take pride in advertising our faculty as the "best in the business" for medical education.  Our experts our selected based on their demonstrated expertise in their content areas, their significant field experience, and their teaching ability.

Since this conference is about medicine in wilderness areas and on expeditions, it does you, the participant, no good to hear canned lectures from speakers who have never been "in the field." At the Expedition Medicine National Conference all our faculty have significant field experience and are teaching what they actually do when they work in austere environments (not just what they've heard works in these locations). 

Each of our faculty also are excellent communicators and many have received national teaching awards for their demonstrated excellence as educators.  Our course participants remark each year how amazingly talented our faculty are at communicating their material, and how delighted they were to hear the presentations.

For 2011, the following faculty will be teaching at our Expedition Medicine National Conference:

Dr. David Shlim, co-editor of the CDC "Yellow Book" and Travel Medicine expert from Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Dr. Michael Callahan, Infectious Disease specialist from Harvard and Darpa

Dr. David Townes, Associate Professor at the University of Washington and co-editor of Expedition & Wilderness Medicine 

Dr. Eric Johnson, past president of the Wilderness Medical Society and international expedition physician

Dr. Alan Magill, president of the International Society of Travel Medicine and co-editor of the CDC "Yellow Book"

Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at George Washington University 

Dr. Christina Catlett, Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR)

Dr. Tim Erickson, Director of Clinical Toxicology and Vice Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Illinois-Chicago

Topics scheduled for our 2011 course include malaria, travel immunizations, hypothermia, high altitude medicine, dive medicine, lightning injuries, reptile envenomations, expedition toxicology, rabies, and disaster medicine among others.

All participants will receive 20 Category I CME credits and a free copy of our textbook Expedition & Wilderness Medicine (sells for $150).

Anyone interested in a possible career change into international health or simply wanting to learn more about some very cool topics (and meet some very cool faculty) is encouraged to attend this event.  I'll be there and I hope we have a good turnout of people from the Freelance MD community.

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.

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."  

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.

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.

Plan Your Non-Clinical Career Escape As A Physician: Building Your Team

Building your team to suport your non-clinical or non-traditional career moves.

I just finished reading a very interesting book entitled The Art of Non-Conformity by a guy named Chris Guillebeau.  I mentioned Chris' blog in a recent post on Lifestyle Design, and I thought I'd download his new book to see what I thought.

The book is an interesting read, mainly because Chris is an interesting guy and looks at things in a unique way.  The focus on the book is breaking free form our default patterns of living and stepping out into something more purposeful, more directed, and hopefully, more fulfilling.

At some point in the future I'd like to write an entire entry about Chris' book and give the Freelance MD crowd a rundown of my thoughts on this text, but suffice it to say I thought it was a good book and it helped refocus my energies on building Freelance MD.

If you've been reading much of Freelance MD, you know that we're offering various forms of career modification to physicians.  All life modifications-- regardless of their scope-- require a little risk, and it's this risk that holds many people back. The few individuals who do modify their careers or lives in some way often only do so when the pain of change is less than the pain of staying in the same place.  This push towards change is discussed in Chris' book and made me think some more about Freelance MD and what we could do to offer more practical goals so individuals who were considering change could begin stepping out in little steps.  Hopefully, these little steps would assuage their fear while at the same time help them make some forward progress with the hope that the inertia would eventually carry them through to something substantial.

It's in this spirit that I offer this post.  It's a sort of beginners guide to building a team that you will need once you launch out on your own.  You may see little need for the entire team right now, but once you go "over the wire" to a new life, these are the individuals you'll be tapping for expertise in a variety of crucial areas.

Team Member #1: Your Financial Advisor

The first person I suggest you recruit if you're going to move forward in your career is your financial manager.  A good financial manager is difficult to find since many are predators who do little to build wealth for you and lots to build wealth for themselves.  The unscrupulous in this field begin to salivate when they meet naive individuals with high incomes and little understanding of the financial industry (think, young newly graduated physicians).  However, a good financial manager can evaluate your financial situation and set you up with a plan to take you from where you are to where you want to be in 5, 10, or 30 years.

Freelance MD has recruited a great financial manager as an author in Dr. Setu Mazumdar who, in addition to being a board certified Emergency Medicine physician, also runs Lotus Wealth Solutions and specializes in helping physicians make good financial management decisions.  Another good outfit is Martin & Wight based in Hunt Valley, Maryland.  The folks at Martin & Wight have managed my finances for the past six years, and I've found them to be very approachable and honorable in their business dealings.  Both Setu at Lotus Wealth Solutions and the folks at Martin & Wight specialize in the financial management of physicians, something that is a huge help when discussing things such as disability insurance and other issues specific to physicans.

Please know that I am not a trained financial person and my experience with any financial management company is, at its core, anecdotal.  You need to use your own judgment when considering anyone to handle your finances, but these mentioned entities are a good place to begin. 

Red flags when meeting a financial manager that indicate you need to run screaming from the room?  Any sort of pressured sales job to sell you any products, especially in the beginning, or any requirement that you submit a large, up front cash payment to secure their services.  Either of these indicators are big warnings.  Maybe there are exceptions, but I would proceed with extreme caution and make sure I spoke to multiple references prior to signing anything binding.

Team Member #2:  Your Attorney

In medicine, when we think of attorneys we almost universally think of the profession in a negative light.  This is due to years of conditioning from hours upon hours of paperwork that we are required to fill out on every patient simply to make sure all the "legalese" is in its proper order, and the specter of a malpractice suit that colors every patient interaction.

However, once you begin to delve into business, you find that your attorney can be one of the most valuable members of your team.  You go to him (or her) for advice when you set up your company and when things need to be restructured as the company grows.  You also know that you have a dog in the fight if you ever do need to do legal battle, and in this day and age, this is a great comfort.

As you begin to broaden your career to do consulting, entrepreneurship, or even write a book, it's good to have an attorney around that you trust.  A good attorney can walk you through such issues as how you form your own company, writing or reviewing contracts, discussing ways to limit your exposure to lawsuits, and many other legal issues that might arise as your begin your new pursuits.

So how do you find a good attorney?

Well, you don't find one by asking your doctor buddies who they'd recommend.  They'll most likely end up recommending one of their golf buddies, or someone who they know who works in or around the medical field. 

The best way to find a good attorney (as well as the third member of your team that we'll be discussing very shortly) is by going to the best small business person you know and getting a recommendation.  A small businessman or businesswoman is an expert in the area you are just getting into, whether it's consulting, writing, or anything else-- small business.  These hardy individuals will recommend someone who also knows small business and can help you navigate through the mine fields of your new endeavor.

The culture these days is highly litigious and a good attorney is worth their weight in gold.  Get a good recommendation, build a relationship with an attorney, and listen to their advice as you begin to expand your career.

Team Member #3:  Your Accountant

This final team member is important because as a physician, your number one expense is your taxes.

As you begin to branch out from your current career into other areas, you should begin receiving income from entities other than your main source of income now.  When this happens, your tax situation can become very complex very quickly, and it is very important that you have a good accountant around to help you sort through the dos-and-don'ts of things like tax write-offs, expense accounts, savings plans, debt exposure, and the like.

A good accountant can give you advice on ways to invest your income into your business, and limit your exposure to unnecessary taxes.  Notice that I say unnecessary taxes since I want to be clear that I am not advocating for cheating on your taxes or not paying what you are legally bound to pay.  However, paying more than your share of taxes simply due to ignorance or laziness is not "patriotic" as some politicians have implied, but foolish and short-sighted.  If you believe you should be paying more taxes, fine, that's your prerogative.  I personally think it's wiser to pay what you owe and then take whatever savings your accountant can find and invest them into your company, or simply donate them to a charity of your choosing.

The point is that a good accountant is a huge help when you start expanding your career, and once you've found a good one (through recommendations from small business owners once again), listen to their advice.  Beginning a new endeavor is tough, and it would be incredibly unfortunate to take that first step towards freedom, only to have it dashed due to poor bookkeeping or foolish business practices.

So there you have a basic guide to building your team.  Start with a good financial advisor and as you get ready to branch out, find a good attorney and accountant. 

In future posts we'll be giving you some more specific tasks to take to your various team members, so you can continue to grow your competence little by little. 

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 .