I'm spending the day on Seattle's Pier 66 at the ACP Conference. Diana, Jennifer, and I are talking to physicians, recruiting new advisors, and playing Operation. We're having a contest at our booth to see which doctor can successfully remove the most pieces in 45 seconds. This doctor got 9 pieces out! At this point it looks like he may be the winner, but if any of you are going to here tomorrow (Saturday, Nov 3rd), stop by and try.

iMedExchange debuted recently on the Seattle Startup Index (SSI), a monthly listing of website rankings for Seattle-based Web 2.0 startup companies. iMedExchange ranked 167 out of 210, a respectable debut, especially given the incomplete data that was available to the SSI at the time the rankings were set.

The accuracy and relevancy of both the Alexa and Compete rankings, and the averaging-approach that SSI uses, are highly debatable; but in the realm of Internet traffic metrics there is no perfection. Each month I will update you on our rank, hopefully as it continues to move up the chart.

Yesterday we received responses from Governor Bill Richardson to 6 of the physician video questions. The Governor and his campaign office were so responsive and thorough in choosing and answering these questions. Regardless of your political views, I hope everyone checks out the iMedExchange video page to read his personal responses. Its very exciting for us to see our physicians' questions getting attention.

For a few months we've been working on a new look for iMedExchange. This is a major overhaul including a new logo, new colors, and a redesigned website. Our physician advisors previewed the new look last week, and today I wanted to give everyone a look at the new logo.

Who better to inspire our new look than the physicians in the community? And that's exactly what happened... This logo was directly influenced by one of our physician advisors: Dr. Ward. He suggested that we use the shorthand for 'exchange' and we worked with that idea. Thanks Dr. Ward - you'll always have an honorary seat in our design meetings!
We hope to have the new look for iMedExchange up in this Friday's build (November 16th).

Today in our 6th physician profile, you will meet iMedExchange Senior Advisor, Dr. Cindy Haines.

Name: Cindy Haines, MD

Specialty: Family Physician

Location: St. Louis, MO

Medical School: St. Louis University School of Medicine

How I chose my specialty: My father, who is also one of my biggest role models, is a family physician and I saw how he was able to positively influence many people’s lives through his life calling. I wanted to emulate that in my own journey.

Practice Environment: I manage a news service for health care professionals called HealthDay-Physician’s Briefing. I also oversee a full-service medical communications and consulting firm. In addition, I am active staff at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis, MO and faculty at SLUSOM.

If I wasn’t a physician I would be: Years ago, my answer to this was “teacher”. I now have to say I would go into business. Or maybe I could be Oprah if she gets tired of it. I would also like to host SNL.

After months of intensive work, we have finally launched our new website along with the new and improved branding and functionality. The process of re-branding and re-designing the site was truly a collaborative effort...thanks to all of our physician advisors and staff for making it happen. It has been incredible watching physicians all over the country spend time on the site giving feedback to my team.

You, our physician Advisors, have truly taken ownership of the site and are ensuring that when we introduce iMedExchange to your colleagues nationwide, your thumbprint will be all over the effort.

We are ready to move forward with a more functional and secure platform. The plumbing is in place to take iMedExchange into unprecedented territory to the benefit of our physician members. We have lots of work to do...so we'll celebrate and rest over Thanksgiving...and get back at it hard next Monday!

Many thanks to everyone and I look forward to several more months of aggressive Beta development! The day is fast approaching when we will begin to unveil new partnerships and tools that will render iMedExchange the most useful online resource for physicians.

Floyd Mc Feely

As I get ready to take a few days off to celebrate Thanksgiving, I want to briefly reflect on the many things here at iMedExchange that I have to be thankful for.

First, I have an incredible team. I have worked with a lot of sharp folks over the years and the iMedExchange group is truly world-class. I appreciate their dedication to the company and the mission at hand. I appreciate the fun they create despite challenging deadlines and the periodic chaos of an early stage venture.

Second, I am thankful for our incredible cadre of physician advisors and investors. Hundreds and hundreds of high quality physicians across the country have joined our little movement knowing that it can become a significant resource for the physician community. I am honored that you have taken your valuable time, and in many cases, your hard earned money and entrusted us to facilitate the building of iMedExchange.

Finally, I am perhaps most grateful to my terrific family (Jennifer, Emma and Ubu) and the wonderful families of our team members. We work extended hours and you have been unwavering in your support. God bless you all and may the Holiday Season be a terrific one for each and every one of you.

It was a late night for me last night as iMedExchange hosted the inaugural Seattle Poker 2.0 tournament at our offices. The purpose of the event was to bring together folks from Seattle-based startup companies to meet, hear about what's happening, share ideas, commiserate and have a good time in the process. We had two dozen attendees, all of which were startup company founders, execs or investors and most of them in the technology and/or internet space.

We started play at around 6:30 with 17 players and played until the first, second and third place winners were decided at around 11:15. I was fortunate enough to last until the final table but was then summarily dismissed within just a couple of hands. Fellow iMedExchanger Cliff Chirls (who you will be hearing more about soon) finished just out of the money in fourth place. The big winners were Cliff Monlux (1st) and Erik Jansen (2nd), both from the local Seattle private equity firm, Ramp Equity Partners. They both took a fair bit of trash talk for being the only investor types in the group and walking away with most of the money -- as "vulture capitalists" are frequently known to do. Cliff and Erik were both good sports about it and Erik generously offered to funnel his winnings back to group to sponsor the next event. Bravo, Erik! Third place went to Ian Gorrie, a local entrepreneurial technologist.

It was a great bunch of guys and they were all a blast to play poker with. However, the highlight for me was seeing the connections and hearing the conversations happening between players. The motivation for putting on the event was to foster useful dialog and synergies between Seattle area startups in a fun environment. My hat goes off to everyone who attended and made the event a success!

Bob Crimmins

We've created a montage of some of the physician video questions and put it on our YouTube channel. Please turn up your speakers and watch it!

I love New York City. L-O-V-E it!! Recently, I visited to see Wicked and Jersey Boys. The day of my arrival was the 1st day of the production and stage hands’ strike. They remained on strike for my entire week’s visit. No shows. Always one to make the best of any situation, the shows’ cancellations forced me to discover parts of the city that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Some of my favorites include riding the subway down to the Brooklyn Bridge stop and walking across to Brooklyn, and then spending time on Old Fulton Street, where a B-movie was being filmed, and I sat down for an authentic pizza at Grimaldi’s. I also ate at some of my other favorite restaurants in the city: The Little Owl in Greenwich, Carnegie’s deli on W. 7th, and Felidia’s on E. 58th. Oh - and, Tiramisu on the Upper West Side! I had the spinach gnocchi. They were lighter and fluffier than cotton balls and melted in my mouth. Of course, I took in a comedy show and had wonderful late night drinks at the Oriental Mandarin. Next time you're in NY, I highly recommend these places. And if you have a great restaurant to recommend, please join the doctors in the Lifestyles forum, under Hobbies & Passions, where they're discussing favorite restaurants.

Tonight, CNN hosted the CNN/YouTube Republican Presidential debate from Florida. Despite the fact that healthcare is listed in virtually every recent poll as the most pressing issue on the minds of Americans, CNN failed to pick one question on the topic of healthcare to pose to the candidates.

Physicians from all over the country have made the effort to formulate and upload questions for the presidential candidates. While CNN was given a slow pitch right over the plate, they selected questions related to Mars exploration, bridge repair and the flying of the confederate flag to name a few…issues which clearly pale in comparison to healthcare.

Although I am sorely disappointed in CNN’s editorial work, we know the 2008 presidential candidates understand that the healthcare topic is of vital importance. iMedExchange continues to get responses directly from the candidates and welcomes those forthcoming.