I hope all you fathers had a great Father's Day. I thought I'd write from beautiful Omaha, Nebraska where I have been fortunate enough to spend the past several days taking in the first round of the College World Series. While I planned the trip some time ago, it also turned out to be a good break before iMedExchange officially goes live next week. The team is working hard this week in preparation for the unveiling.

As for the CWS...what a terrific event! This was my second time in attendance and the people of Omaha are amazing hosts. Everyone in the town seems to be involved or heavily interested in the event, which is rare for any sporting event and its host town. It's also impossible not to notice how nice the people in Omaha are....as an example, a woman slowed her car down to let us know we didn't need to feed the meter on Saturday evening. Who stops to save you a few quarters? People in Omaha do.

4 great CWS games have already been played with Fresno State coming out the biggest surprise. They entered the tournament the lowest seed to ever make the tournament and they demolished Rice 17-5. Stanford, Miami and North Carolina finished out the winner's bracket. Games resume today at Rosenblatt Stadium, in its final few years until Omaha erects a new stadium near Qwest Center downtown.

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!

Today in Seattle is Blue Friday in honor of the Seahawks upcoming playoff game this weekend. Despite public opinion, we at iMedExchange are very excited for the Seahawks and think they have a great chance at Green Bay this weekend! Here we are showing our pride.

I know it looks a little strange that a bunch of us tried to stand in one cubicle. We really wanted a picture with the 12th-man-flag on top of the Space Needle in the background. That didn't quite work out, so here's a separate picture of the flag. Please use your imagination and picture one very dramatic, award-winning photo with all of us standing in front of the space needle and flag. Go Hawks!!

On Tuesday night we hosted another poker night for Seattle area technology startups. The turnout was once again fantastic, with 17 fun folks representing more than a dozen different startup companies. The final table battled it out until 10:15pm when finally Casey Muller (JamGlue.com) emerged as the winner and claimed the first place prize. Second, third and fourth place finishes went to Shan Sinha (DocVerse.com), Jeff Khadavi (stealth startup), and Phuc Vu (InCampus.com).

Thanks to the great suggestion of Marcelo Calbucci of Sampa.com we reserved a seat at the tables for charity. Marcello recently implemented a charitable donation feature on his web site that makes it effortless for users to make charitable donations. For our part, we set up a side pot that everyone could donate to and then we let the winner chose a charity to send the money to. We're going to use Marcelo's web site to make the contribution -- which turned out to be $45 this time. The night's winner, Casey, chose UNICEF to receive the funds.

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.

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

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.

Though I love being a part of the exciting happenings each week at iMedExchange, it was a little hard to return this Monday, because I cut out early on Friday afternoon to take the ferry over to Whidbey Island, WA to stay at one of my favorite places with my husband: The Inn at Langley.

We left our two, beautiful girls, ages 7 and 13, in the care of their grandparents and arrived at the Inn shortly after 4pm. We took advantage of the big Jacuzzi tub that overlooks the water, bundled up on our waterfront deck, and watched the birds and clouds float by. We enjoyed our dinner in front of the fire and watched the full moon reflect all its brightness. We had the best night’s sleep in a very long time.

The next morning we read the paper over the complimentary and delicious breakfast at the Inn and then spent an hour getting massages with Kara at the Inn’s Spa Essencia.

We took a leisurely drive out to South Whidbey State Park to enjoy the nature of the island. From there, our craving for local Penn Cove mussels drove us to Toby’s Tavern in Coupeville where we ate every one of our 2lb bowl. The mussels were so good we went back the next day for another pound and ended up sharing a table with a great couple who shared my husband’s love for photography.

We love the island and all its offerings. If you have the chance, I highly recommend a visit. And, if you have a favorite place to visit, I hope you will tell your colleagues about it in the Forums under Travel.

Tivo is one of the best technology gadgets because I can watch my favorite shows after my business travels. A consistent favorite of mine is the Discovery Channel’s World’s Deadliest Catch. Much to my surprise, while settling in for my four hour flight from Seattle to Anchorage this week, I saw a very familiar face. It was Captain John Hilstrand from the Time Bandit fishing boat based in Homer, Alaska and star of World's Deadliest Catch!

In my youth, my father frequently said, “It never hurts to ask", advice I use every day in my work. With that attitude, I engaged with Captain John mid-flight. I hesitated a little, knowing that people with new-found fame often want to keep their anonymity from time to time. But if you know any Alaskans, you probably know they’re some of the friendliest folks around. After casually turning to the Captain and saying, “Heading up to throw a few pots?” he kindly engaged in conversation and shared many tidbits about his business and life.

So to Captain John, I wish you a restful few days with your grandmother and may your boat be blessed with safety and countless crab in the Bering Sea.

As Emma wrote in her recent post, a community involves sharing and getting to know one another. To that end, I thought I'd share a recent discovery and a little about one of my hobbies.
One of my favorite hobbies is reading. In addition to my Entreprenurial studies in college, I majored in English. By the time I graduated, I had a book collection exceeding 2,000 volumes...perhaps excessive for a guy in his early twenties.

To the point...I have been very reluctant to embrace digital books. I have always loved the feel of a book and the sense of accomplishment upon turning the final page. That is, until recently. I was convinced by another frequent traveller that the Sony digital reader was extremely handy because it's light and allows you to essentially carry hundreds of books...generally I would be quite happy with a few...just for variety. After my first few plane flights with the device, I am hooked. It took a little adjusting, but less than expected.

There is a good entry on Web 2.0 & Medicine if you have an interest in this subject. I know lots of physicians are avid readers, so take a gander.

iMedExchange is being built to facilitate fun among other benefits. Our team, including the physicians that work with us, are always looking for interesting opportunities to enjoy time away from the office or practice. Pictured below are iCN Advisor Dr Scott Lieberman an OB/GYN from St Louis, MO and Laurie Lieberman the iMedExchange Regional Network Consultant from St. Louis on their recent trip to Manitoba, Canada.