Recently the New York Times unpacked Gwyneth Paltrow’s blockbuster lifestyle brand, Goop. Brilliantly written by Taffy Brodesser-Anker it shows how calculated controversy (generated in part by vagina steaming and coffee enemas) is part of the strategic plan for this 250 million dollar media company. Check out The Guardian follow-up that captures how Goop has built its ... Continue Reading about Goop Effect – How Outrage Drives Bad Health Information
How a Language Barrier Creates Opportunity
As a physician in one of the most diverse cities in the United States I often communicate with families with the help of an interpreter. Some see the language barrier as a compromise and a challenge. But it’s really an opportunity. What we fail to achieve with use of words we can bridge with non-verbal communication. Expression, touch, tone, and animation will ... Continue Reading about How a Language Barrier Creates Opportunity
The Twitter Education of Dr. Milton Packer
Last week cardiologist Dr. Milton Packer offered a skewed perspective on Twitter. His piece, Do You Practice Twitter-Based Medicine, published in MedPage Today called into question the value of Twitter and drew harsh blowback from physicians. What stood out was Packer’s misunderstanding of not only Twitter as a platform but the broader role of public dialog among ... Continue Reading about The Twitter Education of Dr. Milton Packer
Voalte Phones and the Fantasy of Real-Time Physician Communication
I have a friend who’s a hospitalist. His team carries Voalte phones for communication within the hospital. The Voalte phone is an enterprise mobile device that allows communication by voice and text. For those trying to reach the doctor there is no waiting for a call back after a page. You just call directly. On the surface this seems like it would improve ... Continue Reading about Voalte Phones and the Fantasy of Real-Time Physician Communication
Writing as Public Process, Not Product
A reader asked me to expand on a tweet that I sent last week. It was part of a thread about doctors, peer review and publishing. I was building the point that we now publish for reasons other that the creation of polished journal articles. Certain kinds of public thinking are a key element in the development of ideas. The democratization of media has created new ... Continue Reading about Writing as Public Process, Not Product
Stock and Flow
I struggle with the idea of where to put my ideas. In the past I’ve thought about this as the Medical Media Continuum. So I ran across this post by Austin Kleon. He sees his output in two buckets, stock and flow. Flow is your feed and stock is your durable output. It’s drawn from a 2010 post on the subject by Robin Sloan: Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the ... Continue Reading about Stock and Flow