Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Blogging gives voice to doctors in the trenches
My name is Dr. Rob, and I am the newest contributor to the ACP Internist blog. (That sounds a lot like a 12-step meeting, doesn't it?) Perhaps that's appropriate, as many of us internists feel powerless at this point in time, and we could certainly use help from a higher power (or at least from Washington, D.C.)
Since I will be a regular contributor, I thought a little bit of background information is appropriate:
--My full name is Rob Lamberts, ACP Member, and I am part of a private practice in suburban Augusta, Ga. I grew up in New York and went to medical school at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Read between the lines: I get called "Yankee" a lot.
--I did a combined internal medicine/pediatric residency at Indiana University and my practice is a mix of both. Read between the lines: I have a masochistic streak.
--Our office has been on electronic medical records since 1996, and was recognized by Health Information and Management Systems Society for our excellent implementation, receiving the Davies Award for 2003. Read between the lines: I am a geek.
--Since 2006, I have authored the blog Musings of a Distractible Mind, which is a mix of personal musings about life as a doctor, an insider's view of our ridiculous system, and humor (with the inexplicable appearance of llamas in an inordinate number of posts). Read between the lines: I write whatever strikes me at the time.
--Since July of 2009, I have hosted The House Call Doctor podcast, part of the Quick and Dirty Tips family of podcasts. My goal is to give concise and accurate medical information that the general public can understand. Read between the lines: the apocalypse may already be upon us.
One of my main passions--and what I will concentrate on in this blog--is to give a voice to the practicing internist. The health care debate rages in Washington, lobbyists vie for influence, and bills are passed; yet, the people who are at the center of the whole debate have very little voice. Doctors do have their advocacy groups (ACP is among the best), but even those representatives don't truly understand our situation.
I make my living off of seeing patients in my office. I have to meet payroll, pay rent, and cover my other expenses before I can get paid at all. This means that I don't have time to spend in Washington giving my very important perspective. I only get paid for days I am at work.
Blogging has given the doctors "in the trenches" a voice. I have been honored to be able to actually have some influence on the debate through my blog. I have been cited by the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, and have appeared on NPR. I contribute to the website MedPage Today. It boggles my mind that a practicing doctor in the deep south could actually have the opportunities to voice my views before such a large audience; but, the reason I have gotten this opportunity is that I voice a very important perspective that is rarely heard.
So I hope you enjoy my contributions to this fine blog. I am going to start out re-posting some of my more popular posts. Read between the lines: I am being a little lazy but will cover hot topics when they come up. I am truly honored to be part of ACP, and relish the opportunity to contribute on this blog. I doubt llamas will come up much. Read between the lines: It's irony.
Rob Lamberts, ACP Member, writes the blog Musings of a Distractible Mind and is on Twitter. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and was an early adopter of electronic medical records.
Labels: advocacy, health care reform, health information technology, humor, Rob Lamberts, social media
posted by Dr. Rob at
8:00 AM
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Blog log
Members of the American College of Physicians contribute posts from their own sites to ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist. Contributors include:
Albert Fuchs, MD
Albert Fuchs, MD, FACP,
graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles School of
Medicine, where he also did his internal medicine training.
Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Fuchs
spent three years as a full-time faculty member at UCLA School of
Medicine before opening his private practice in Beverly Hills in
2000.
David Katz, MD
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACP, is an internationally renowned
authority on nutrition, weight management, and the prevention of
chronic disease, and an internationally recognized leader in
integrative medicine and patient-centered care.
DrDialogue
Juliet K. Mavromatis, MD, FACP, provides a conversation about
health topics for patients and health professionals.
Dr. Mintz' Blog
Matthew Mintz, MD, FACP, has practiced internal medicine for more
than a decade and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at an
academic medical center on the East Coast. His time is split
between teaching medical students and residents, and caring for
patients.
Everything Health
Toni Brayer, MD, FACP, blogs about the rapid changes in science,
medicine, health and healing in the 21st century.
FutureDocs
Vineet Arora, MD, FACP, is Associate Program Director for the
Internal Medicine Residency and Assistant Dean of Scholarship &
Discovery at the Pritzker School of Medicine for the University of
Chicago. Her education and research focus is on resident duty
hours, patient handoffs, medical professionalism, and quality of
hospital care. She is also an academic hospitalist.
Glass
Hospital
John H. Schumann, MD, FACP, provides transparency on the workings
of medical practice and the complexities of hospital care,
illuminates the emotional and cognitive aspects of caregiving and
decision-making from the perspective of an active primary care
physician, and offers behind-the-scenes portraits of hospital
sanctums and the people who inhabit them.
Gut Check
Ryan Madanick, MD, ACP Member, is a gastroenterologist at the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and the Program
Director for the GI & Hepatology Fellowship Program. He
specializes in diseases of the esophagus, with a strong interest in
the diagnosis and treatment of patients who have
difficult-to-manage esophageal problems such as refractory GERD,
heartburn, and chest pain.
I'm dok
ACP Member Mike Aref, MD, PhD, ACP Member, is an academic
hospitalist with an interest in basic and clinical science and
education, with interests in noninvasive monitoring and diagnostic
testing using novel bedside imaging modalities, diagnostic
reasoning, medical informatics, new medical education modalities,
pre-code/code management, palliative care, patient-physician
communication, quality improvement, and quantitative biomedical
imaging.
Just Oncology
Richard Just, MD, ACP Member, has 36 years in clinical practice of hematology and medical oncology. His blog is a joint publication with Gregg Masters, MPH.
KevinMD
Kevin Pho, MD, ACP Member, offers one of the Web's definitive sites
for influential health commentary.
MD
Whistleblower
Michael Kirsch, MD, FACP, addresses the joys and challenges of
medical practice, including controversies in the doctor-patient
relationship, medical ethics and measuring medical quality. When
he's not writing, he's performing colonoscopies.
Medical
Lessons
Elaine Schattner, MD, ACP Member, shares her ideas on education,
ethics in medicine, health care news and culture. Her views on
medicine are informed by her past experiences in caring for
patients, as a researcher in cancer immunology, and as a patient
who's had breast cancer.
Prescriptions
David M. Sack, MD, FACP, practices general gastroenterology at a
small community hospital in Connecticut. His blog is a series of
musings on medicine, medical care, the health care system and
medical ethics, in no particular order.
Reflections
of a Grady Doctor
Kimberly Manning, MD, FACP, reflects on the personal side of being
a doctor in a community hospital in Atlanta.
Technology in (Medical) Education
Neil Mehta, MBBS, MS, FACP, is interested in use of technology in
education, social media and networking, practice management and
evidence-based medicine tools, personal information and knowledge
management.
White Coat Underground
Peter A. Lipson, MD, ACP Member, is a practicing internist and
teaching physician in Southeast Michigan. The blog, which has been
around in various forms since 2007, offers musings on the
intersection of science, medicine, and culture.
ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist also contribute to and draw upon content from Get Better Health, a network created by Val Jones, MD, to support and promote health care professional bloggers, provide insightful and trustworthy health commentary, and help to inform health policy makers about the clinician's point of view on health care reform, science, research and patient care.
Other blogs of note:
American
Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine
publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in
internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and
community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, MD, ACP
Member, associate program director at New York University Medical
Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents
and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news,
commentary and more.
db's Medical
Rants
Robert M. Centor, MD, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating
medicine and the health care system.
Interact
MD
Michael Benjamin, MD, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so
he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the
Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news
of the day.
PLoS
Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a
blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by an emergency
room physician.
1 Comments:
Great to read your thoughts, Dr. Rob
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