Today I'd like to introduce our newest partner, Physician's Medical Law Letter (PMLL). PMLL is a timely interpretive report of CaseLawStories™ pertinent to the practicing physician. PMLL focuses on all medical specialties, including primary care and subspecialties. PMLL's CaseLawStories are derived from actual medicolegal case histories, written in its unique, easy-to-read, award-winning format. We're happy to provide PMLL Law Studies and Featured Cases to iMedExchange members. Login to iMedExchange now to check out PMLL.

We have some really interesting physicians as members of iMedExchange, and since those of you that aren't members don't get to hear from them, we'll continue to profile some of them in our blog. Today I'd like to introduce you to Jeffrey Atkins, MD. Dr. Atkins is a physician who lives in St. Louis, MO and is currently leaving private practice and going into Urgent Care practice.

How do you spend your time off? My time off is spent mostly with my family. I have a daughter and two sons. My daughter is in her senior year at Bryant University. She plays Division I Volleyball and I love to track the team's season, which is fairly easy to do because many of her matches are webcasted either in video or audio. My older son is in his senior year of high school. He plays soccer year round and I try to make all the games I can. We'll travel a couple of times the bonding time spent is terrific. He's in the process of narrowing down universities for us to make visits to. My younger son is five years old and constantly on the go. He loves school, plays soccer and baseball and is nonstop. Between all the children and my wife, I am blessed and happy to spend most of my time with them.

I'm pleased to introduce you to our newest iMedExchange partner: Seattle Coffee Works. Founded in 2006 and located on Pike Street steps from Seattle's famous Pike Place Market, Seattle Coffee Works is a 'must-see' for any coffee lover. As Emma mentioned in an earlier post, Seattle Coffee Works was kind enough to host a coffee tasting for iMedExchange where, after lots of tasting, we picked our favorites and Seattle Coffee Works used our preferences to create our very own iMedExchange 'Physician's Blend'.

Through iMedExchange, physicians can access Seattle Coffee Works' resources including coffee tips, information about the Physician's Blend and more. Welcome, Seattle Coffee Works!

In celebration of the partnership, a few members of the iMedExchange team headed over to Seattle Coffee Works where we loaded up on Physician's Blend lattes, espressos and hot chocolate! Just click the play button to watch a slideshow of our field trip!

I am currently in San Francisco attending the Health 2.0 Conference. I was here last year for their inaugural event and was pleasantly surprised to see over double the attendance this year.

It was fascinating to hear what companies are doing to marry Web 2.0 technology and healthcare. This conference has migrated to be mostly consumer healthcare oriented with a little physician focus sprinkled in to round out the picture.

On the consumer front there are a lot of efforts underway to tackle the "long tail" challenge and optimize health search. Frankly, most of these companies are in for a long hard road. That's not to say there aren't really interesting communities evolving or improvements to search engines...but many of the business models are fragile to say the least. A growing development my physician friends found troubling is the seeming fascination and encouragement of self-diagnosis coming out of a number of these ventures.

This afternoon I was on a panel of physician-centric social networks. While I had previously met Enoch Choi, MD the moderator, I had no previous experience with the rest of the group. My impression...a sharp group with very interesting and legitimate efforts to serve physician needs. Represented was MyPacs/McKesson, Ozmosis, MedicalPlexus and Within3. Truly I would have no problem recommending any of them to a physician. All are free to doctors and make their money in diverse ways including enterprise sales, advertising and premium services.

Over the last couple of weeks, one of the most popular topics on iMedExchange has been the Family Medicine recertification process. A Family Physician in Florida is sharing his concerns and frustrations with the process of recertification and many colleagues are weighing-in on the situation and discussing how it differs throughout the country. Members can login to iMedExchange now to view and participate in the conversation.

As an iMedExchange member, you can also connect with physicians in your specialty in the Clinical Forums or check out what's new in the Business and Personal Forums.

We have some really interesting physicians as members of iMedExchange, and since those of you that aren't members don't get to hear from them, we'll continue to profile some of them in our blog. Today I'd like to introduce you to Carolyn McDougald, MD. Dr. McDougald is a family physician who lives in Texas and is currently starting her own clinic just south of Houston.

Growing up, did you plan to be a doctor? I'm not the average doc, I'm a late bloomer - I have always loved medicine and science, but my family was all blue collar who felt women married, had children, and could work, but not have a career. Neither of my parents finished high school, although my mom did go back later and get her GED when I was about 10. I was the oldest and wanted to go to college, but I did not know enough how to make it happen at the time so I worked at various jobs from retail to waitressing, until I stumbled across Law Enforcement. I became a Deputy Sheriff at the ripe old age of 21! I learned a lot in seven years about life and myself before I realized I needed more, so as a 27 year old single mom of a two year boy, I took my retirement money out, quit the Sheriff's Department and started on a long journey. I went to the University of Houston and attended medical school at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Ft Worth, where I also did my residency in Family Medicine at the now demolished Osteopathic Medical Center of Texas. I finished residency in 2001.

So on the theme of not being the average doc, have you done anything out of the ordinary recently? Actually, I initially found your site while I was researching Alaska - I was trying to decide about doing a Locums position there in Nome, Kotzebue or Bethel. I came across the Alaska Docs group at your site and joined up. I just got back from spending an incredible 5 months with my sons in Nome practicing Bush medicine - what a great refresher course on Family Medicine! Actually, I did things there I would never been able to do in the lower-forty eight because we had no choice - you do it or patients do without! I plan on going back next summer.

Having worked to deliver technology solutions to physicians for almost a decade now, I am incensed when I hear of yet another politician or group trying to solve some healthcare objective at the expense of physicians...literally. Pennysylvania and Ed Rendell are the latest culprits in a list that seems to be growing. Check out Fred Jarret's article in the Wall Street Journal called "Pennsylvania is Driving Doctors Away" for a solid overview of the growing litany of untenable "solutions."

Physicians are the foundation of our healthcare system and with even the slightest bit of research one would realize the economics of becoming and staying a physician are going in the wrong direction.

Today, iMedExchange is launching a groundbreaking set of financial resources to benefit US physicians. iMedExchange's Financial Resource Center has been developed in response to our members' specific requests to share proprietary research, provide access to respected financial experts and to support the collaboration of physicians around financial matters. Money management is always important for physicians, but it's importance has been significantly heightened since world financial matters have been in crisis.

An important part of iMedExchange's physician-focused Financial Resource Center is the launch of the Financial Crisis Speaker Series. The Series kicks off at 7pm EST on Tuesday November 4 with a keynote presentation by Michael Ryan, the head of research for UBS. In addition to UBS, the series will feature nationally renowned financial experts from Abernathy Group, Sinnot Wealth Management, Biotech Monthly, speciality fund managers, research departments of global banks and more.

Each speaker will participate in a live conference call and respond to questions from physicians. The calls will be recorded and posted on the iMedExchange Financial Resource Center for members to review at any time.

In addition to the weekly speaker series, very insightful content, much of it written specifically for iMedExchange members, will be added to the site from the Company's growing list of financial partners. In addition to research from our partners, iMedExchange is also launching a new daily publication, Vital Signs, which will summarize the important financial news story with analysis specially for our physician members.

Vital Signs and the Speaker Series, and the additional resources we will be adding on a weekly basis, will be available only to US physicians who are members of the growing iMedExchange community. iMedExchange is a FREE online place for physicians to connect with one other, great content and now experts. If you are a US physician and not yet a member, please go to www.imedexchange.com to fill out a simple application and join the fastest growing community of physicians in the country.

If you are a financial expert or media and want to talk more about this effort, please feel free to reach me at: info@imedexchange.com.

Financial Crisis Education Series Schedule
What Happened: The Crisis in Context - Nov 4, 2008 - 7PM EST
Perspective on Asset Allocation - Nov 10, 2008 - 6PM EST
Sound Investment Principles - Nov 18, 2008 - 6PM EST
The Bail Out in Perspective - TBA
Update on the Markets - TBA
The Impact on Physician Practices and Finances - TBA
Health Care Outlook: 2009 - TBA

Join iMedExchange now for access to these valuable presentations.

I'm so happy to introduce the first speaker in our Financial Crisis Education Series: Michael Ryan . Michael is Head of Wealth Management Research-Americas at UBS.
He directs teams of approximately 70 investment strategists and analysts in the Americas, Asia and Europe who are dedicated exclusively to serving the investment needs of individual investors. With more than 20 years experience in the financial industry, he is widely recognized as an expert on fixed income markets.
Michael has appeared on CNN, CNBC, CNBC Europe, TV Tokyo and Bloomberg Television. He is frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones News Services, Reuters, Financial Times, Nikkei news and Bloomberg.
Michael will speak to iMedExchange members on Tuesday, November 4th at 7pm EST. Members may sign up for this free conference call by emailing info@imedexchange.com.