A quick progress update on our quest to have physicians from all 50 states participating in iMedExchange before our official launch. We are happy to take New Mexico and Utah off our shrinking list of unrepresented states! Welcome to our new members, we're happy you joined.

As of today we have physicians using iMedExchange from 43 of the states. This is a call out to all of you in the remaining 7 states - Delaware, Idaho, New Mexico, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming - to come join us! I'll keep you updated on our countdown to all 50 states.

iMedExchange is working hard to create the most useful online place for physicians. To that end, we just opened our Palo Alto, California office. This office creates a strategic presence for the company in the heart of Silicon Valley and gives us access to some of the top web development and Internet marketing talent on the planet. Now, we get the best of two top-tier technology markets in Seattle and Silicon Valley.

For the past 6 months the team has worked in an interim facility in the heart of San Francisco, but growth of the team required a larger more accessible space. Congratulations to Chip Vanek, our VP of Engineering and the growing team based in Palo Alto, CA!

iMedExchange continues to climb the Seattle Startup Index... without yet even trying! I'm not sure what this says about the Index but I'll opt for the charitable view: i.e., that we're moving up in advance of our formal attempt to recruit members simply because we've captured the imagination of our market place. In any case, we continue to fire on all cylinders and are gathering lots of momentum. The results from January: we moved up five positions to 138 out of 260 on the overall ranking, 25 out of 39 in the Web Business to Business category (WBB) and 124 out of 206 among all web-based startups. We'll continue to have fun watching our ranking, especially as we begin to actively seek out new members.

As an aside, I noticed that skillbit (the company founded by the Seattle Startup Weekend that I mentioned in my last post) debuted at position 134 out of 260 -- actually ahead of iMedExchange! I know that the skillbit team has some smart folks working to ensure search engine optimization (SEO) so this shouldn't surprise anyone. That said, I consider it a worthy challenge to chase them up the ranks. ;)

We announced a new partnership with MDNG New Media on Friday. Their banner is now on the iMedExchange home page, and our Drs. Stanley and Patel are featured in a rotating banner on their site. Welcome MDNG visitors! Here's the announcement of the partnership. And here is our information as you'll see it on their site:

The development team in San Francisco came up to our Seattle offices for a few days of meetings and fun times. The pictures of the meetings are pretty boring, but we all dressed up one night and went to Teatro Zinzanni - and that picture is exciting enough to share. What a great event! If you're ever in Seattle, I highly recommend it. We even got Tobin to wear a boa - now that's a good CEO. Thanks for the visit guys - hope to see you again in person soon!

iMedExchange continued to move its way up the Seattle Startup Index to close out 2007 at position 143 out of 243, up 10 spots from the previous month. This is especially good news since we have yet to even publically lauch or even do much at all in terms of marketing! Of course, the SSI is hardly a statistically accurate indicator of... well... anything. But it's fun to watch and I thank Marcelo Calbucci at Seattle 2.0 for keeping it going month after month.

Happy New Year everyone! I have been fortunate to spend the past several weeks enjoying the snow in Colorado with my family, but I am excited to get back to work preparing to officially launch iMedExchange in just a few short months.

Reflecting back on 2007, the growth of our team and of iMedExchange has been rewarding. While we have been in various stages of Beta development, the enthusiasm from physicians has been very encouraging. Doctors of all practice types, specialties and geographic regions have joined us in our goal of building the most useful online resource for physicians. We have a ton of work to do in the coming months, and I look forward with great anticipation to reaching our goal.

From the iMedExchange team, I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year!

On Friday evening we had a casual holiday get-together at the iMedExchange offices. Here are a few pictures from the team to get you in the holiday spirit. First is Tobin's baby Emma, and wife Jennifer:


Senior Designer Todd played Rock Band with daughter Abby on drums:



Back at home, Advisor Manager Diana's husband and daughter had their own fun:

My dog Nico tolerated the Christmas spirit that was imposed on him:

The new build we've been working on was released on Friday. Doctors can now participate in Clinical forums on iMedExchange! Another new forum category I'm excited about is Residency forums. This is a place for residents to talk to each other about issues like fellowships, finances, life as a resident, and their future plans. We also have a place in the residency forums called 'Pearls' which is a place for residents and more senior doctors to share 'pearls' of wisdom they've learned along the way. I know we have some new resident members joining us, so welcome to you, and let us know if there's anything we can do to help!

I know the blog has been kind of quiet the last week, and I thought I'd take a minute to say 'we're still here'! We've been so busy working on our next release, so it's all we've been focusing on. It's an exciting release coming up - we'll have Clinical forums, which lots of doctors have been asking us for, so I'm really looking forward to everyone being able to see it. I can't give you an exact time, but it's coming soon, so if you're a member - keep checking in!

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

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).

It's an understatement to say that coffee is a part of life in Seattle. (There are 65 Starbucks within 2 miles of the iMedExchange offices!) But just as with beer, wine and other fine foods, some of the best quality is most often found from artisan businesses. Such is the case with Seattle Coffee Works, a great new coffee venue founded by Sebastian Simsch.
The iMedExchange office just got a new Concordia espresso machine - so to celebrate we invited Sebastian to lead a coffee tasting. Sebastian not only provided a great opportunity to compare top quality coffees from Costa Rica, Mexico, Kenya and Tanzania, he provided a history and culture lesson to go with the coffees.
Now that we have the knowledge and equipment to make our own espresso drinks, all physicians and friends that find themselves near our downtown Seattle office....please remember that the coffee is always ready and you are always welcome.

This past week-end I had the privilege of being interviewed by InTimeTV. InTimeTV is a unique, Chicago based company that produces web-based video programs primarily for physicians. There are some talented people behind the InTimeTV organization including the Executive Producer Jack McInerney and John Cieslik. Jack is a veteran entrepreneur and has worked hard to develop a product that allows for virtually seamless streaming of high quality content.

It was fascinating to watch the process by which this group creates shows ranging from "Insights in Medicine" to "i-Harvard" to "Healthcare Executive." Physicians host the programs and invite colleagues from around the country to join them for a discussion of anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes.

You can view the program in which I was interviewed by Ogan Gurel, MD/MPhil on Saturday October 6 by clicking HERE. The programs stream live as they are filmed, then they are placed on the web site as an archived show. Viewers are able to send in questions to the hosts via email if they are watching and want to interact.

Keep an eye on this organization, they are really developing some nice content and physicians I have talked with seem to enjoy the variety and quality of programs.