One of the great Seattle traditions is SeaFair. While the celebration technically includes lots of events, the highlight is the final week-end of hydroplane races combined with a spectacular air-show. Where else can you get boats and planes all doing their thing on a beautiful lake setting?

One of the great SeaFair traditions is the Navy Blue Angel demonstration. The Blue Angels begin practicing on Thursday and get the entire town into a frenzy. One co-worker commented that only the Blue Angels can turn an entire downtown of adults into gawking kids.

The iMedExchange team gathered just up the street from the SeaFair venue to enjoy sun, food, kids, boats, Blue Angels etc.

We look forward to making this an annual event... so mark your calendars next year and come join in the fun.

iMedExchange just moved across the street from the historic Medical Dental Building in downtown Seattle. The structure was built over eight decades ago by a group of entrepreneurial Physicians and Dentists. To introduce ourselves to our new neighbors, the iMedExchange team hosted breakfast and lunch for the physicians.

The Winter Garden Café housed in the building was the scene for the meet and greet events. A special thanks to the Winter Garden Cafe owners who served up healthy and very tasty food and drinks. If you haven't visited their café, it's a very cool setting with a fireplace and seating that overlooks the climbing wall of the brand new Executive Allstar Fitness Gym.

I'm happy to report that the Physicians of the Medical Dental Building were excited about the resource iMedExchange is offering to Physicians nationwide. To quote one new physician adviser from the building, "I often feel on an island as a sole practitioner. Joining the iMedExchange Consultant Network (iCN) will give me the opportunity to contribute to a new community that will connect me with physicians facing the same daily challenges."

To make iMedExchange the most useful online place for Physicians, we will have plenty of focus groups and events for our iCN participants. Physicians in the Medical / Dental Building are great candidates to join our team because of their close proximity. So, today I challenge those of you who weren't able to meet us last week to visit www.whoisdrstanley.com to learn more about us. We'd love to have you join the team and help prepare for the movement we are about to launch.

We promise not to be rowdy neighbors, but we will definitely have some fun...so come join in!

Today our team experienced a growth milestone. Over the week-end we moved out of the offices that facilitated our formative period, and moved into a beautiful downtown Seattle office that will nicely facilitate our growth.

Our office mascot (Ubu), and Director of Security, isnt quite sure he's as excited as we are, but he'll adjust.

Reflecting back, I thought I'd list a few of the 3 best things that we learned, or that happened, in our first office space:

1. Creativity: Our office space was located in a turn-of-the-century warehouse in the South of Downtown (SODO) area of Seattle. The amenities were lean, but it forced us to be creative and open-minded as we made the space our home away from home. The same creativity is clearly going into the development of iMedExchange, as the physician community will soon see. (I don't want to insinuate that we lived in complete austerity...we had a Starbucks Coffee next door and a Krispy Kreme on the other side. This, however, is trumped in the new office by a Starbucks in the lobby, 3 additional cafes within a block and a state-of-the-art espresso machine in our expansive kitchen. Does it seem like caffeine is important to us?)

2. Resourcefulness: We have run a lean and mean operation from Day 1. I believe our "hungry" attitude would have been spoiled had we immediately pursued institutional capital, plush benefits etc. With iMedExchange, each and every member of the team is passionate about creating the greatest physician experience to date. So, we gave up our plush benefits, high paying jobs etc and are focused on building a world-class company. We also made a deliberate decision to fund this company from within the physician community and management team. Everyone wants a "piece" of physicians. We, on the other hand, want to give back to the physician community, and there isn't a better way to do that than letting physicians participate in the success of iMedExchange.

3. Team: We have a team comprised of amazing healthcare, software, web 2.0 and marketing experts. The heart and soul of iMedExchange is the collection of folks that have put their blood, sweat and tears into the company...and we are in Chapter 1 of a 30 Chapter book. Over the past year we have bonded, learned about one another's strengths and weaknesses and a lot more as we shared an often cramped space. In the end, our office will hold some great memories of the "early" days.

Hi everyone. I'm really happy to say that our iMedExchange introduction is up and running now! Anyone who regularly reads Dr. Kevin's blog has probably seen Dr. Patel located on the right side of the page. If you haven't seen it, you should check out his blog. I am impressed with how often he posts and the quality of the posts.

We are working to add more physicians to our iMedExchange Consultant Network (iCN). To date, this team has been extremely helpful with every aspect of product development and marketing. We showed the introduction to our current iCN members last Thursday, and they had lots of great feedback that we used to make changes right up to launch. If you haven't seen it yet, please turn up your speakers and click on the link above - we'd love to get your feedback too. And if you're a physician who is not a part of our iCN, please consider applying.

For those of you who are in iCN, thank you so much for your help. We review all of the feedback you provide, and take your opinions very seriously. I'm looking forward to even more interaction with you and all our new iCN physicians in the coming months as we prepare to launch the most useful online place for physicians anywhere on the planet.

In April, the Massachusetts legislature approved a very controversial bill requiring all 6.5 million residents of the state to have health insurance or face penalties. Last week the law was enacted, stipulating that residents with annual incomes below the federal poverty level are eligible for no-cost care. Residents with annual incomes up to three times the poverty level can enroll in state subsidized plans, while those with incomes more than three times the poverty level can choose their own coverage from new, lower-cost private plans if they are not offered coverage through their employer. Needless to say, other states are watching closely.

The movement in Massachusetts, Michael Moore's "Sicko", and other highly publicized healthcare stories are setting the stage for a very active debate on US healthcare during the upcoming Presidential election. Heavily affected by the outcomes of this debate, Physicians have a vested interest to remain well-informed and organized with respect to the public dialog.

After working with physicians for years, I am keenly aware of the myriad of challenges you already face...many of which are interconnected. Few professionals deal with the level of complexity involved in delivering both optimal and cost effective medical care in addition to managing a career, practice and caring for family.

Dr. Subrahmanyam Karuturi recently summarized a number of social networking sites aimed at the physician community. This list is useful, especially for physicians who are looking for or need resources. And, the sites listed are interesting.

One comment following Dr. Karuturi's blog entry raises the question of what constitutes a social network and what does not. This current debate is a component of the larger discussion related to the definition of Web 2.0. Wikipedia provides a definition as good as any. As an aside, a quiz in a recent eWeek article included the following question: "What did Tim O'Reilly (of Silicon Valley publishing fame) say about companies that advertise themselves as Web 2.0? Answer: That if a company advertises themselves as Web 2.0, then they probably aren't."

From my perspective, forums and message boards continue to be helpful vehicles tools for online discussion and can offer value as components of often more extensive social networking environments. In fact, many of today's more robust "social networking" sites are really direct descendants of the forum genre.

Furthermore, while debates may continue as to whether certain physician-oriented sites, such as Sermo.com or StudentDoctor.net qualify as social networks, I believe it is more important to focus on the fact that more and more tools and "online communities" are being introduced for physicians. This is clearly in response to the increasingly challenging role physicians hold. As in any marketplace, more options and competition mean more value for the customer.

I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Patel...the newest member of the iMedExchange team.

For the last few weeks I've been working on an animated presentation that introduces our first two spokespeople and gives a quick overview of what iMedExchange is all about. Our spokespeople are fictional physicians, Dr. Stanley and Dr. Patel, two fun physician characters developed by a world-class illustrator from New York. The animation script has been written and recorded in studio, and the development team is currently working on the actual animation with the Macromedia Flash tool. It's been a very exciting process, and has been more involved than I thought!

The presentation should be ready in 2 weeks, but I thought it would be fun to give you a sneak peek of Dr. Patel. Just yesterday we approved the final Dr. Patel sketch, which means today the illustrator is filling in her colors.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you think of the presentation, and I'll probably do a few more updates as things move forward. Finally, I cant share a lot, but I can tell you that in addition to seeing more of Dr. Patel and Dr. Stanley...there will be some fun opportunities involving future characters....stay tuned.

Around our office you will regularly hear that iMedExchange is being built by, for and of physicians. This started to take on more significance a few months back with a single call group, whose practices are to the South of Seattle. The lead member of the group, and a personal friend, joined me and a few other members of the leadership team to talk in depth about iMedExchange. At that meeting, we first shared the concept of iMedExchange, the iCN and our Physician Investment opportunity. Thanks to this physician and his colleagues in the South Sound, we are well on our way to a robust advisory and financial team of terrific physicians from all across the country.

So, I send a salute to the South Sound crew, who were the first group of physicians to believe in our vision, consistently give us feedback and get involved financially. It's not easy to be the first to the dance, but as with any great movement....it starts with a few passionate and insightful individuals getting involved and creating a snowball effect.

The final move of my career in pharmaceuticals was to the Pacific Northwest in 2004 to manage a team of Pharmaceutical Representatives in Washington and Alaska...Yes Alaska as in the northernmost state in the union.

I relocated to the Wild West to identify solutions to mend the rocky relationship between the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Physicians/Healthcare System in the Pacific Northwest. Alaska, much to my surprise, had a Healthcare Delivery process that was 180 degrees different from the constraints of the heavily managed environment in the "Lower 48" (Alaskan lingo for the 48 states to the south). For example, physicians average more time with each patient visit and less hassle over reimbursement. This also poses an interesting perspective on what Alaskan physicians told us would be helpful as iMedExchange progresses - different priorities than their colleagues in the Lower 48. After the CEO of the company and I met with physicians in Anchorage, we reflected that we've got a lot of work to do in order to effectively serve this audience. Nevertheless, we are confident that iMedExchange will create lots of value for the docs in the Great White North.

As a product company, we need to take into account the things that are important to our Alaskan physicians. It is evident how much they focus on balancing their work and personal lives by embracing the outdoor opportunities around them. For example, it's not uncommon to stop by a practice and see a sign that the physician is off fishing for a couple days. For me, the Alaskan lifestyle reminds me to take a breath from time to time and enjoy the environment around me and what it has to offer.

Every region in the country has different focuses when it comes to the delivery of healthcare. Today I pose a question to the physicians of Alaska. What would you like to share with other practitioners' across the US about why you've chosen to practice in the 50th state?

After earning my stripes in the St. Louis healthcare market, my antics as a rep earned me a promotion to Kansas City. I worked in Institutions with the State and Federal government coverage of psychiatric medications. Yes, I said Psychiatry.

Rarely am I intimidated, but working with psychiatrists, psychiatry residents and institutional C-levels who psychoanalyze people for a living, made me question my move across Missouri - but not for long.

This week I returned back to Kansas City to visit friends and former clients at KU Med, the VA's of VISIN 15 and Truman/Western Missouri Mental Health. For three years, I worked with the Psychiatrists, Case Workers and Nurses who bring hope to mentally ill patients and their families. They graciously de-sensitized me to the many common misrepresentations of the mentally ill and even motivated me to volunteer time towards the plight of the mentally ill. It was good to be back, getting ideas on how we at iMedExchange can bring value to this specialty and inviting physicians in this great community to join iCN and our growing team of physician investors.

By way of introduction, I am Emma Squillace, the Director of Training and Support at iMedExchange. In my work, I spend lots of time talking with physicians about blogs, forums and web based tools they use in their daily routine, and understanding how technology is helping physicians. I am especially interested in what we can do to make things better. I am going to blog periodically about interesting tricks and tips I pick up on blogs and forums. My first post will feature one I found recently...

There's a time-management trick called the 10 minute rule that I really like. Basically it says that if there's something you're putting off, just commit to doing it for 10 minutes. After that time is up you can stop. Most of the time, at 10 minutes into a task it doesn't seem nearly as bad as it did before you started. I've been trying to incorporate the 10 minute rule into my life lately, and I've had pretty good results. Here are a few of my latest successes (plus a failure):

Successes:
 Cleaning out/organizing my email at work.
 Switching out my winter clothes to summer clothes (still have some organizing to do, but at least the mountain-sized pile is more like a hill).
 Reading the new time-management book that Tobin lent me (I've had it for a long time, and yes... I do see the irony in 'not having enough time' to learn how to be more efficient).

Failure:
Instead of listing a few failures, I'm going to go into a little detail on my nutritionally-motivated, badly-executed produce failure. So...this weekend I bought a lot of fruits and vegetables at the farmers market. Usually what happens is I buy them on Sunday with the intention to eat them all week, but if I don't wash/prep them before the work week starts, all of a sudden it's Friday and they're not quite as appealing. So I decided to try the 10 minute rule. 10 minutes into the washing/prepping process I had half a mangled watermelon, a gallon-sized bag full of cabbage shreds, and some clean cherries. But I also had 2 bags of untouched produce, a bunch of asparagus wilting in the colander, 3 hungry dogs, a 'hill' of clothes to put away, and I was getting hungry. Another hour and a half later everything was done, and I have some really good Asian-style coleslaw with me for lunch today, but I was also kind of resenting the 10 minute rule. I think where I went wrong was trying to do too much. There should be a '1 vegetable at a time' rule, where you're not allowed to start on a new vegetable until the previous one is nicely bagged and in the refrigerator. I guess if you learn from your failure, and it saves you even more time in the future, then it was a mistake worth making.

In any case, when used well, the 10 minute rule comes highly recommended by me. Has anyone used this, or have a time-management trick that they love?

First, let me introduce myself. I am Rebecca Winter, the Director of Business Development here at iMedExchange. Out of the gate I am working to accomplish two things: recruit hundreds of top physicians from around the country into our iMedExchange Consultant Network (iCN), and introduce as many physicians as possible to the investment opportunity in the company. I am so excited about this company that I left a great career in the pharmaceutical industry and actually invested my own money the day I joined iMedExchange...so if I come across a little excited it's because I am.

I'm not catholic and don't intend to blog about religion, however St. Anthony, the patron saint of things lost or stolen, brought some light to the first phase of our nationwide tour just a week and a half ago.

St. Anthony's Hospital, and the area around it in South St. Louis, Missouri, is where I cut my teeth in Healthcare. Eight years ago, I was introduced to about 120 physicians as a pharmaceutical rep. With a new job, three months of pharmacology under my belt and a big grin, the community embraced me... not only as a young professional, but a friend. It probably helped that I humbled myself by wearing fungus feet to peddle my drug and elicit a smile from the time-pressed physicians and their staff.

Five years have passed since my days in St. Louis, but we started our nationwide campaign in my old backyard. Since my departure, buildings tripled in size and all kind of changes were in store for me. I've attached some pictures of the area. It was great to return home and I am so excited that many of my old friends are joining the iMedExchange movement as advisors and investors.

So, St. Anthony, thanks for returning me home.

On behalf of the iMedExchange (iMX) team, welcome to the brand new iMedExchange Blog! The iMX Blog will serve as an important communication tool as we collectively build iMedExchange. Well, you've found the blog and we are honored that you've taken a few minutes to stay.

A little about what to expect from the blog: Various members of the iMedExchange team will be posting on a regular basis, most often blogging about areas related to their role in the company and their interests...professional and sometimes personal. We'll also periodically post material that we think is entertaining or provides a little insight into the world and team behind the scenes of this exciting venture. Our goal, however, is not to blog for the sake of blogging...as with everything we do, we want to deliver value to our physician customers and we'll be relying on you to tell us how we can make this tool more useful.

We also encourage you to communicate with us, and one another, through the blog. Tell us about yourself. What are the challenges you face as a physician? Tell us about your experience with the web, technology, blogs etc. As we release iMedExchange (Beta release scheduled for Fall 2007) we'll be eager for product feedback and ideas on how we can better serve you. Good, bad or otherwise, we want your feedback and we hope you'll feel comfortable giving the blog a try. Our aim is to make this informative and useful, and hopefully we can have some fun in the process.

Again, Welcome!!!