If you’re one of 2500 patients who have been assigned to the same doctor (yep, that’s right, 2500 - that’s average), and that doctor works 50 weeks a year, with a very strict limit of only 10 federal holidays, and the office closed two days a week, with 2 hours a day of admin time, then you “own” only (50 weeks X 40 hours, minus 10 X 8 hours, minus 50 weeks X 8 hours; divided by 2500) 36 minutes a year of your doctor’s time.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gurley/detail?blogid=114&entry_id=41698#ixzz0hcJyGtPv

that’s for the year.  and it doesn’t factor in the sicker patients a doctor can have with multiple problems which will increase their visit time but decrease the time available for yours.

that’s why i don’t want to do traditional medicine.  that’s why i want to open my own practice following the Ideal Medical Practice model and use Hello Health as my EMR.  it will give my patients 30 minutes to an hour PER VISIT.

GE created a beautiful interactive infographic for people to understand the cost of sickness. Health insurance premiums double every eight years and the cost of managing chronic illness is becoming increasingly out of financial reach for the majority of Americans. People are starting to realize that affordable products and services that empower us to manage our chronic disease will, by far, be the most affordable way to keep our bank accounts and bodies healthy. Especially when considering:

Let’s say you’re a 22-year-old single employee at my company today, starting out at a $30,000 annual salary. Let’s assume you’ll get married in six years, support two children for 20 years, retire at 65, and die at 80. Now let’s make a crazy assumption: insurance premiums, Medicare taxes and premiums, and out-of-pocket costs will grow no faster than your earnings—say, 3 percent a year. By the end of your working days, your annual salary will be up to $107,000. And over your lifetime, you and your employer together will have paid $1.77 million for your family’s health care. $1.77 million! And that’s only after assuming the taming of costs! In recent years, health-care costs have actually grown 2 to 3 percent faster than the economy. If that continues, your 22-year-old self is looking at an additional $2 million or so in expenses over your lifetime—roughly $4 million in total.

Those companies that help people manage their financial health will be the big winners in the future.

click on the image and it will send you to the full interactive graphic.  then, if you hover your mouse over an item, it will tell you what people take that supplement for.  and if you look to the left, you’ll see which level of evidence that supplement has for doing what it says its supposed to be doing.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-supplements/

The ZocDoc interns went on a mission to find out just how much health care costs, and what you can do to afford it.

Affording Health Care from ZocDoc on Vimeo.

getting your state license can take a long time, sometimes 6 months or more.  so if i want to work right outside of residency, i should apply for a license by december of 2010.

now, in order to apply for a license, you have to complete step 3 and pass.  it takes a couple months to find out your score.  and factor in if you fail, you need to retake it.  so i should take the test no later than september 2010.

i’ve always had dedicated study time when taking any of the USMLE steps.  meaning i didn’t work or do any clinical rotations during the time i was studying.  i even flew to vietnam to study for one month in solitude for step 2 ck.  but this time for step 3, i have my residency responsibilities to uphold.  which means i only have a couple hours a day to study.  it’s nerve racking for me.  but im hoping it will all be okay.

so this is my plan :

feb, mar, apr – read
may, jun, jul – qbanks
aug – review
sep – take exam

wish me luck !

this year’s conference is held in Atlanta, Georgia, March 1-4.

they will have a booth where you can meet people who are involved in health and social media.  the description reads :

Meet the Bloggers

These roundtable discussions connect attendees with industry bloggers and give them a behind-the-scenes look at the responsibilities and dedication required to develop and maintain a successful blog and following. Each discussion will have a different focus and will be moderated by Cesar Torres, Manager, Web Services, HIMSS.

of the industry bloggers attending is one of my favorites, Dr. Joseph Kim, who writes on 4 blogs.  i love his nonclinical blog the most.

other notable names at the event will be Dr. Ted Eytan from Washington DC and Matthew Holt, keeper of The Health Care Blog and co-founder of the Health 2.0 conference.  i got to attend the Health 2.0 conference last April, which was AWEsome, thanks to Mr. Nat Findlay of Myca / Hello Health.

the HiMSS10 conference will also have other social media events such as

• twitter 101 : tweeting for health IT
• linkedin 101 : it’s more than a virtual resume
• facebook 101 : engaging with the health it community
• how HiMSS convenes the health it community around its mission
• HiMSS e-learning academy 101 : cost-effective self-directed learning
• daily network meetups
• one-on-one instruction