A picture is worth a thousand words...

... and here it is. The Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis -- courtesy of the personal finance blog, mintTM  

Wishing you an abundance of Thanks

Perhaps because it is finally raining today in Los Angeles, which makes my office seem cosier than usual, or perhaps it's just that time of the year (how rapidly November is fleeing the scene!), I'm in a reflective mood.

Despite the depressing and scary news that pervades our hallways and homes, on the eve of my favorite holiday (which I have gleefully adopted) I am deeply thankful for:

• the health of my family
• my own health
• the wealth of friendship I have
• the joy and sense of purpose my work brings me
• an election that demonstrates how a great country can choose its future and accept the outcome peacefully and in some parts, with elation
• the chance to witness and be aware of history in the making
• the opportunity my second home in the world, the USA, still presents in spite of this downturn
• the pleasure I get from hearing from you from time to time, and reading your comments
• the humor and grace and intelligence that I encounter in great abundance in our enormous Internet community - from blogs to YouTube videos to Twitter patter to the email jokes that make the rounds!

I wish you a very happy, unstressful Thanksgiving (just imagine - the burned turkey or whiskey-soaked Uncle Jack's crude jokes will provide you with "remember when" memories to chuckle over for years to come).

What are you willing to let go of, in order to truly have a thankful day?

Secrets of an accidental physician entrepreneur

What do you get when you mix passion with expertise and curiosity?

You get Dr. Steven Ponder, a committed pediatric endocrinologist and diabetologist, who has become an equally enthusiastic entrepreneurial physician.

As a Type I diabetic since age 9, Dr. Ponder knows diabetes!

In addition to practicing medicine, Steve is also a business owner in MyGluco.com and DiabetesHousecall.com - two highly innovative companies involved in the delivery of healthcare to specialized populations.

In this week's 25-minute podcast interview, you will hear Dr. Ponder describe how he became an accidental entrepreneur, what he had to learn to build his business expertise and how he and his business partner have taken advantage of technology to deliver care to a far-flung population of diabetic children in Texas.

What the podcast doesn't do justice to are the additional "smart marketing" activities I discovered post-interview that Dr Ponder is engaged in:

• writing a blog
• writing a health column for a local newspaper
• doing a radio show that is picked up by his local PBS station.

As a contemporary "marketer" (this modest guy would hate to think of himself as such --  he would only think of himself as an educator) who is using all the recommended strategies for getting the word out,  it is no wonder he is "slightly famous" in his community.

Twitter for the entrepreneurial physician business owner

Okay - I know it's alarming to have to contend having me in your face with Facebook and LinkedIn, so if you are already overwhelmed by that much social networking, it's time to shut your ears or step away from this page right now.

I'm about to tell you about Twitter! So hang in, if you are intrigued by this contemporary marketing and social networking stuff. Otherwise, goodbye - have a nice weekend.

From Wikipedia:

Twitter is a free social networking and "micro-blogging" service, that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.

At first, I didn't get it. "My dog ate my kid's homework" -- arghhh! "Off to the movies now" -- oh boy. Who cares?

Until I realized that these were phrases snatched from the midst of a dialog between a twitterer and his or her followers.

And that Twitter was where I could get the latest updates on the election or our Southern California fires, or links to top-notch articles of interest to physicians, or information about new technology I was considering using.

As I started to build my small "tribe" of followers, I could ask questions, search for resources ("Anyone know anything about the new google phone? How happy are you with it?") and just reveal who I am and have some fun. I won't say I am addicted and I try to post mostly relevant stuff (like every new blog post!), but my Twitter page is open all day and I refresh it and browse it many times a day. I like feeling connected and discovering all kinds of fascinating information "out there".

As long as I can do it succinctly in 140 characters (including spaces) or less.

I'm not going to do the heavy lifting of explaining Twitter here. Instead, I'm going to let other experts do it for you, via some great resources. Not only will they tell you what Twitter is, but also why you should care about it as a tool to communicate about your business to those who choose to follow you!

This is the ultimate in permission-based marketing.

Here are the best that I have come across:

How to Use Twitter for Marketing & PR

How I Use Twitter to Promote My Blog

How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands

Twitter: Use it Productively

Any other good ones to share?

And if you want to send me a tweet, I'm @pippak on Twitter!

(Reminder - here's a "how-to" post devoted to LinkedIn)

Angry primary care physicians are just saying "no"

Guess what? Docs are in the news today - specifically primary care physicians who are mad and apparently aren't going to take it any longer.

• Up to 50% of primary care docs intend to cut back or quit (Physicians Foundation report released today).
• 60% of 12,000 general practice physicians surveyed said they would not recommend medicine as a career.
• South Florida... is hit hard, with dozens or even hundreds of primary-care doctors giving up their practices in recent years because of slow-growing income, increased business headaches and unpredictable hours.
• Only 2% of medical students are considering going into primary care as internists.

Hear for yourself: 

So what's next for doctors? Care to share your plans?

And what's going to happen to us all when we really need care?

Update on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 11:57AM by Philippa Kennealy

Here's a helpful piece from the ACP, along with their link to their white paper.