On Wednesday, SFMS physicians met with pediatrician and State Assemblymember Richard Pan, MD to discuss the importance of physician representation in Sacramento.
By Kim Newell, MD
Our patients are getting overloaded with health information from more and more sources, and yet they often don’t get to the right answer. Recent studies have shown that more than 98% of the online health-related discussions take place without the input of a health care professional.
How do we make sure that we remain an integral part of our patient’s health care conversations? As a pediatrician in an increasingly complex health care delivery system, in which I must provide more care with higher levels of service to increasingly savvy patients in less time, I have begun to turn to technology, the Internet, and especially social media to help me do my job better.
There are many compelling reasons that I am active in social media.
There was a time when we physicians didn’t have to compete for our patients’ attention—we were the one voice in the room. I believe that the core of our healing still happens one on one, with patients in our examining rooms. However, we must also begin to meet our patients where they are: on their smartphones and tablets and computers, doing research and engaging in discussions on Twitter and Facebook and in the blogosphere.
There’s a conversation going on. About health.
In the end, the key is not in the technology or the tweets: It is in the trust that we build with patients. We, as a medical community, must figure out how to be not only a part of the health-related conversations happening in social media but also to lead those discussions. We can and must use these channels to combat misinformation, promote health, and engage the trust of our patients.
This article originally appeared in the May 2013 issue of San Francisco Medicine.
Dr. Kim Newell is a general pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente and a member of the SFMS board. She began to learn about technology and medicine upon moving to San Francisco for residency at UCSF and is now a technology lead at Kaiser, where she also teaches a class about vaccine safety for parents and helps lead an innovative obesity management program. She tweets at @drkimmd and sometimes blogs at drkimmd.com.
Qing Dong, MD, PhD is a board certified pediatrician who specializes in general pediatrics and endocrinology. She established Sound Pediatrics in 2010 after spending more than 20 years on medical research and clinical practice dedicating to provide comprehensive pediatric care.
Dr. Dong received her medical degree from Tongji Medical University in Wuhan China, and completed a general pediatric residency at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis as well as a clinical fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at UCSF.
A physician scientist at heart, Dr. Dong has published many papers in the field of cancer research, endocrine, and metabolism. Her current research focuses on calcium homeostasis, as she has discovered several novel mutations in the calcium-sensing receptors.
To view Dr. Dong's practice information, please click here.
I am a SFMS member because SFMS is a professional home that unites physicians from all specialties and health care sectors, and provides a venue for independent physicians in private practice like me to stay connected with my colleagues. I joined SFMS at the advice of my practice consultant who teaches practice management for private physicians.
I think the most helpful SFMS member resource is the practice promotion assistance I received through the online Physician Finder tool and the SFMS patient referral hotline.
What are some of the biggest opportunities or challenges you see in health care within the next five years?
I think patients need doctors, not robots. The transformation of health care from volume-based system to a value-based system—with the goal of improving efficiency, access and outcomes while reducing costs—will enable physicians to focus on patient care.
I love practicing Pediatrics because I am able to follow a child from birth to adulthood. Every time I see a newborn, I still feel the excitement of the first time parent. Being able to follow the growth and development of my patients from baby years to adulthood is probably my greatest joy. Also, over time I really feel like I become part of the patient’s extended family. This often gives my well-child-care visits a sense of catching up on life, just like we do with relatives and friends who live many miles away. Since I opened my own private practice, my extended families have been growing exponentially.
What is your favorite restaurant in San Francisco?
This is a tough one. There are too many good ones out there that cater all tastes and budgets. I used to follow Michael Bauer’s top 100 guide when I first moved to the city. Now, I prefer to explore different parts of the city to find small eatery from different regions of the world. I still enjoy reading Michael Bauer’s long and elaborated articles about his restaurant adventures. I always wonder how he makes a living on that.
If I wasn't a physician, I would like to be a stand-up comedian. I memorized every 单口相声 (an equivalent of monologue) available in China when I was a child. When I first came to America, I learned English partly by watching Johnny Carson. I hardly missed his shows. I am always amazed by the creativity and the ability of making people laugh. Life is over when you lose the ability to laugh.
By David Kornguth, MD
As a physician at Golden Gate Urology (GGU), I see the human toll of prostate cancer on a daily basis. All of us at GGU seek to help patients and their families stay healthy. This is the reason why my colleagues and I decided to sponsor an event benefitting men and their families who face prostate cancer and draw awareness to prostate cancer prevention and screening.
The ZERO Prostate Cancer Run is the first Bay Area prostate cancer run. It’s part of the ZERO Prostate Cancer Challenge, that brings together athletes, physicians, cancer survivors, and those who care about them to help fund research to end prostate cancer and to provide free testing and education.
The June 15th event includes fun and interactive activities to educate and raise awareness of the disease. In addition to the 5K run/walk, we are organizing a shorter walk that allows patients to learn about prostate cancer in a healthy environment.
At GGU, our vision is to lead the transformation of health care in the bay area by partnering with patients, doctors and researchers in providing better urologic care and enhanced patient education as we strengthen our community outreach to create a lasting positive impact in our field. We want men to know the truth about prostate cancer treatment so their lives are healthier and enjoyable. For those with prostate cancer, we want to cure them.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer found in men with over 200,000 men diagnosed each year. Fortunately, most men are diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer and can be cured. A simple blood test called a PSA can help find even early prostate cancers. PSA tests save lives, yet many men do not get screened. If more men learn about modern treatment techniques and the truth about prostate cancer, fewer men will die or develop disability because of advanced prostate cancer.
The goal of the ZERO Prostate Cancer Run is to promote prostate cancer education and prevention. I hope you will consider joining GGU and fellow colleagues in this event.
The 2012 SFMS delegation to the California Medical Association’s (CMA) annual House of Delegates meeting took a wide range of proposed resolutions for consideration by the statewide gathering. Each resolution, some with modification, moved important health care issues forward in the areas of health care delivery, health care mandates, and pharmaceutical industry issues, including medication disposal and insurance coverage.
Our roster of policy proposals this year, with outcomes, included:
Tracking Prescriptions to Curtail Medication Abuse (Rokeach, Loring, Turner): CMA supports the development of a fully functional, Web-based prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP), whether it be an improved CURES (Controlled Substances Review and Evaluation System) program or a new one that should be fully funded, including through a fee-per-prescription paid by manufacturers and suppliers of drugs monitored.
Reducing Overutilization: Physician Leadership (Denys, Fung, Eng): CMA supports physician-led, evidence-based efforts to improve appropriate use of medical services and will educate physicians, hospitals, health care leaders, and patients about the need for physician-led, evidence-based efforts to improve appropriate use of medical services. This resolution originally referred to the “Choosing Wisely” effort that will be the topic of the January/February 2013 edition of San Francisco Medicine.
"Pay for Delay" Practices on Generic Medications (Susens): CMA will ask AMA to support federal legislation that makes tactics delaying conversion of medications to generic status, also known as “pay for delay,” illegal in the United States. As noted in a recent NEJM piece, that might already be the case!
Increasing Utilization of POLST Orders (Newman, Schickedanz, Lopato): CMA encourages physicians to become educated about all aspects of the POLST form and to integrate discussions about, and use, POLST in all appropriate instances where medical services are provided to patients at the end of life. Surprisingly to many, this was perhaps the most hotly debated resolution of the year, as our original allowed for nurse practitioners to fill out POLST forms for physician confirmation, as is done in some other states.
Medical Mandates for Insurance Coverage and Medi-Cal (Chan): CMA supports the principle that mandated coverage for private insurers should also apply to publicly financed entities, when appropriate; and will advocate that the state legislature must budget for the increased cost to Medi-Cal and enrollees of the California Health Benefit Exchange when passing mandated coverage.
Promoting Quality and Transparency in Graduate Medical Education (Schickedanz): CMA supports efforts to urgently address the anticipated imbalance between the number of medical school graduates and available residency training positions; and greater transparency at all levels in the calculation, distribution, and tracking of graduate medical education (GME) funding; and will petition the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to address perceived disparities in the distribution of GME funding.
Cell Phone Use in Cars (Udovic-Constant, Fouras): CMA will support public education efforts regarding the dangers of distracted driving, particularly activities that take drivers’ eyes off the road, and will ask the AMA to do likewise. Our original was more forceful, asking for more severe penalties and even bans.
There was much more, with something of interest to every specialty, practice setting, and personality.
Interested in submitting a resolution or suggesting a resolution idea for 2013 HOD? Please contact SFMS at membership@sfms.org.