If you look at the date of this post…and the date of my last one, I think the reason will be obvious.

Podfading, or postfading, or whatever you choose to call it, are very real issues for medpros. In MEDicine, the tendency is to be hyper diligent, and as a PROfessional, you want your output to be polished, and assume that your audience expects the same.

Add that all up, and you can get some pretty long gaps between your posts. And your show can disappear entirely, if you’re not careful.

(more…)

I’ve been in medical podcasting for close to 2 years now — about half the duration it’s been fairly popular as a new medium. (That’s not me in the pic, BTW, it’s an older gent, courtesy of iStockphoto, embodying today’s theme: maturity is a good thing.)

I started out as an interested rank beginner who knew squat about recording and Internet dissemination of audio, but who was totally taken with the possibility of getting my own shows out there.

Besotted, I met some wonderful folk, asked tons of questions, and went to my first Podcast and New Media Expo.

And I noticed something. And thank God I only slowed down instead of stopping.

If you’re not careful, you’ll notice it, too — and be tempted to make a potentially crappy decision.

(more…)

Or for that matter, to enter the New Media space in any way, as a medical professional.

Today’s show answers the “Why now?” question using an analogy any medpro can relate to: the elective timing of a necessary surgery.

• You can “pay me now,” taking care of the inevitable on your own terms, at the lowest risk to you, with the greatest chance of success.
• Or you can “pay me later,” when you’re dragged puking and feverish into an emergency operation, with all your important choices being made by others.

The digital — or New Medical Media — space, is wide open, for now. But like any rich and unoccupied niche, it’s only a matter of time before it gets filled. Once it does, by your competitors or colleagues, it’ll be much harder for you to stand out, and be chosen by new patients searching for health care providers on the Internet.

And believe it: it is only a matter of time before you are pushed or pulled into the digital space, by the organizational forces you are beholden to, or your patients. EVERYONE is either communicating here, or will be.

It’s time.

Stake out your corner of the Internet if you haven’t, and dust off all your social weapons if you have.

If you’re a practicing medical professional, there’s no better or more advantageous time to enter this space, using tools like blogging, social networking, and of course, podcasting.

Next time, on Podcasting For Medical Professionals.

The critical stuff.

Health and Human Services Director, Michael Leavitt, recently put it like this:

It’s obvious that the medical establishment has yet to complete the jump to the Internet Age. Our health care system has fallen behind every sector of our economy, from car repairs to manufacturing to air travel, for no good reason. There’s something wrong when you can walk away from a bank or mechanic with a detailed, easy-to-read printout but, when it comes to your health, you’re left hoping the pharmacist can make out the doctor’s handwriting.

He was referring specifically to the lack of EMR adoption in 90% of doctors’ offices, but the problem goes way beyond that. For the vast majority of American medpros, it’s an Internet mindset problem of epidemic proportions.

If you’re reading this, you’re by definition ahead of 99% of our profession. You know what a blog is, what a podcast is, and you’re likely familiar with terms like RSS, social networking, and New Media.

Even if you’re not a podcaster, you likely communicate via email, use computers in your daily personal or professional life, and garner information about The World via online news services or feed readers.

Many of our colleagues still vaguely think of the Internet as a collection of fancy, online Smith Corona typewriters. You don’t want to know how many.

Check out the following YouTube video, and compare your tech competence to some savvy power users. Only, this isn’t about how businessmen in Belgium communicate and think via the Internet, or surgical chiefs in Hanover, or even Silicon Valley geeks.

It’s about how typical American college students — the cream of the world’s crop, the pinnacle of human intellectual development — have integrated the Internet and social media into every aspect of their lives, of which studying is (still) a tiny part.

Sobering, yes?

If you’ve followed Podcasting For Medical Professionals since it started in late 2006, you’ll know it’s gone through a few iterations on its “skin.” I’ve been real partial to Chris Pearson’s design work, using Cutline up until now, and think this is his best work, yet.

I use another of his themes, Copyblogger, on my other site on electronic medical records. That theme really kicks it, bigtime, and is truly my favorite — but Neoclassical gets the nod when it comes to elegance, a 3-column design, and a large header image space (with random shuffling between selected images, no less).

Let me know what you think!

When you’re interviewing two folks who blow standard definitions right out of the water. From the OC Podcasters‘ booth at the Podcast And New Media Expo, I was lucky enough to snag Tee Morris of Podcasting For Dummies fame, and Cirina Catania, a multimedia film and video content creator. Both brought years of experience to their interpretations of audio and video podcasting: what the media has become, where it’s headed, and what it does best.

Tee Morris is arguably the best known front man for the podcasting movement at the grass roots level. In addition to his passion for family, scotch of debatable quality, writing, writers, and public speaking, he loves teaching people how to podcast. Together with the equally prolific and Web 2.0 savvy Evo Terra, he co-wrote the book Podcasting For Dummies, soon to enter an updated print run as THE book for entry-level podcasters.

As you can hear in the show, interviewing Tee is like using a firehose: point him in a direction, away he goes, and you hang on for dear life. That exuberance is what can make podcasting from an event — be it a New Media expo or a health faire — such a riveting experience.

As he calls out to passersby, friends or total strangers, everyone stops to listen. Set up a podcasting rig at an event, with the headphones and the pro-looking mics connected to a PA system…and passersby are, as Jason Van Orden would say, “reeled in like helpless little fish.” There’s no better way to draw attention to your table — or a cause you care deeply about. Tee specifically refers to Give Us A Minute, his medical podcast on leiomyosarcoma dedicated to his friend and fellow podcaster, Joe Murphy, who passed away this April from the disease.

Cirina Catania has years of broadcast radio experience in college and the Armed Forces Radio Network, as well as Hollywood and independent film and video production, event promotion, and celebrity interviews. Chivas Regal, The Discovery Channel, and Microsoft are among her corporate clients; she recently produced the Mission Impossible 3 “Making Of” featurette; and her 50+ celebrity interviewee list includes Halle Berry, Danny Glover, and Whoopi Goldberg.

Like Mark Jensen of PodSqod with his broadcast radio background, Cirina has the advantage seeing a lot of this before, both the best beginnings and the worst decays. And thankfully, she radiates confidence and enthusiasm for podcasting as the newest-but-now-maturing communication medium with legs.

Otherwise, I’d be looking to sell some podcasting gear on eBay.

If you liked this post and show, leave a comment! Sign up for email updates! Tell a friend! Or leave a voicemail comment at (949) 242-0202!

The sessions, or classes, are very much like a medical convention’s: you can attend any of them, and different themed sessions are all running simultaneously: Podcasting 101, Attracting/Growing Your Audience, Business & Monetization, Advanced Creation Techniques (like videocasting), and New Media For Special Interests (like education, or non-profits). Combined with the Podango network’s mini-convention sessions on the showroom floor, that makes about 60+ sessions over the two and a half days of the conference, and all are applicable to some aspect of medical podcasting.

I’ll discuss the Expo in future posts, but here are some notable highlights:

• an emphasis on production streamlining, and getting a pro sound
• making and distributing videocasts
• liability issues when speaking to the public
• Jason Van Orden’s stellar talk on providing value to your audience
• the Aphex 230, omigosh (full review to follow)

This second year, I spent less time in the classes (they are all recorded and available to attendees for later download), and more time networking on the floor. Seeing familiar faces and how they continue to evolve with the medium, like David Lawrence of Finding Your Natural Voice and The David Lawrence Show, Mark Jensen of PodSqod, and the aforementioned Jason Van Orden of Internet Business Mastery and Podcasting Underground, is always heartening.

I’ll also be posting a podcast on my interview from the floor of Tee Morris, of Podcasting For Dummies fame, and Cirina Catania, who will bring years of radio and video production experience to her new podcasting efforts. I mention Cirina specifically because of her unique perspective on becoming a podcasting “newbie,” given her current video production work, her Hollywood experiences, and her radio background going back to Armed Forces Radio overseas.

To her, podcasting is a joyous and vibrant medium, that brings back what she loved best about terrestrial (non-satellite) radio before it became too corporate and creatively restrictive. It allows an interested, passionate individual to podcast about any topic of their choice to similarly interested listeners. And these can be anywhere on earth, listening at any time and place they want to hear their shows.

It’s exciting for the listener, hearing about relevant and riveting material, from someone they trust. But it’s no accident that it’s incredibly exciting for the podcast creator as well, and that there’s a buzz on the Expo floor and in podcasting gatherings worldwide.

We could all of us use some more of that mojo.

If you liked this post, please Leave A Comment, or Click Here to get future updates by email!

Even though talking to patients is more practice than most podcasters get (nearly zero prep time, covering multiple topics, and projecting a relaxed professionalism), there IS a difference between the give-and-take of an office interaction, and sitting down solo with your mic.

If you’ve found making that transition a bit difficult, give today’s show a listen, and take advantage of a flow state that nearly all of us access on a daily basis.

Disclaimer: if you have trouble chewing gum and walking at the same time — or driving and talking out loud — this method is not for you!

Let me hear from you!

But first: thank you, for sticking around through my summer hiatus — okay, podfade. Sometimes, the rate limiting step isn’t a big-ticket item like how you approach recording and post-production, but something small and funny in retrospect. And just as much of a show-killer.

Basic take-home: whatever obstructs your podcasting efforts, no matter how seemingly small, if you’re not putting out shows as regularly as you’d like, you have to respect it and deal with it. ‘Nuff said.

Today’s show addresses a very common show-killer, or at least blocker: a podcasting workflow that makes your production time 2-5 times longer than it needs to be. Read the related detailed blog post on this, but essentially, for under $300 and using a different approach to recording your shows, you can bypass literally hours of needless post-recording production.

And hours less time per show means your odds of regularly podcasting go waaay up.

The 3rd annual Podcasting and New Media Expo is coming up in just under two months in Ontario, California. And there’s still time to sign up for 3 of the best days in podcasting on earth, bar none.

If you are considering podcasting to promote your medical practice, I strongly suggest you attend this conference. Everyone who is anyone in podcasting will be there, as well as folks all along the podcasting spectrum, from newbies on up (most of us will always be newbies at some level).

You can link up with folks who don’t know an XLR from an AST, or bloggers looking to add audio, or educators using videocasts in their classrooms, or radio broadcasters looking to do it all. All of whom are more than happy to share.

Classes run continuously, just like any medical convention, clustered around general themes (beginning podcasting, hobbyists, monetizing your shows, podcasting and blogging for corporate and business purposes, educational uses, etc). And the expo floor has every vendor of note, displaying the latest software, hardware, and audio gee-gaw to die for.

I don’t get anything for plugging this, except knowing that I’m passing on a major resource that has helped me tremendously.

Hope to see you there!

Though that seems premature, it raises concerns among the lawsuit-leery medical community, about starting to blog and podcast. One blogger who went offline was involved in litigation, and was commenting on matters pertaining to the case. Another stated it was just a matter of time before attorneys hunt down the anonymous subjects of medical blogs, and pursue them for legal action.

What is a medical blogger or podcaster to do?

First, there’s a basic difference between medical podcasting and blogging (henceforth “P&B”) for outreach among the medical community, and for outreach to current and prospective patients. While the former definitely has its place, it is fraught with personal liability exposure risks — primarily, that patient details you P&B about could be traced back to your particular patient, and you as their caregiver.

(more…)

1. Get a hardware box (a “vocal strip” or “mic processor”) to professionally clarify your sound.
2. Use cart software and a one-take recording technique to put your show into its final form while you dictate it.
3. Briefly dash-off a show note while the audio compiles.

This works terrifically for the majority of medical podcasting needs — you only need half an hour of work to record a 20 minute show, and get a pro audio sound throughout.

The process I’m actually using these days is the opposite, what I call “reverse podcasting“: start with the writing, then finish with the audio.

It actually takes longer — anywhere from 1-3 hours per article, currently — but makes better use of blogging’s 2 great strengths: easy content creation, and SEO enhancement. Reverse podcasting also allows you to update your content in layers. You start with the writing that you can create at any time, no matter how noisy your environment is. And if for any reason you never get around to recording the podcast, you still have a quality blog post.

(more…)

You can make a quality sounding show, or a so-so quickly done show, but not a quality sounding, quickly done show.

Yet that’s exactly what a busy medpro needs to accomplish. You don’t have an infinite amount of time to correct goofs in your recordings, or splice together the musical interludes and sound effects, etc. If you spend 3 hours of production per 20 minute show, you won’t end up with enough shows to help your practice, or enjoy making them.

Here’s how to get it done efficiently, in 4 steps.
(more…)

Doctors, he notes, are extremely busy — I mean extremely busy. Especially compared to years gone by, with older physicians recalling — and much missing — a clearly different sense of camaraderie that we no longer seem to have time for.

If he — a young MD recently out of residency — is so rushed that he emails his wife, how much more so are the older generation of physicians?

Information Overload Is A Chronic State Of Being

As a modern medpro, you juggle email, prescription refills, lab reviews, decreasing reimbursement, marketing responsibilities, staffing issues,

“Just Work Faster And Harder” may have worked in the 19th century. But it’s information that is snowing you under, not physical objects, and information can accumulate at the speed of light.

EMR, CME, and malpractice worries, and that’s just during your day job. The most common strategy to deal with all this seems to be “Just Work Faster And Harder” — see more patients, take more calls, speak faster on the phone.

That may have worked in the 19th century. But it’s information that is snowing you under, not physical objects, and information can accumulate at the speed of light.

Try to deal with your morass of tasks the old fashioned way, and you’ll likely hit “the engine ceiling,” as I referred to it. You can only race your internal “engine” so fast before you reach your limit, or break down. Burn out, missing irreplaceable family time, or feeling professionally isolated is the result.

If you count yourself among the medpros in this situation, you may be wondering as Dr. Nguyen is, Am I supposed to adopt new blogging and podcasting technologies, on top of everything else?

Absolutely.

(more…)