Thanks again to Chip Teel, MD - Family Physician and author of the book Alone And Invisible: Averting Disaster In Aging America. He was the guest on Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Number 6. We had a great conversation about how he came to find Family Medicine as a career, how he ended up in Maine following residency, and the origins of his passion to make sure older Americans are as indepenent as possible for as long as possible. (Also check out the video post above)
At the beginning of the interview, Dr. Teel was very nervous. But, if you stick with the show, towards the end of the interview, the people in the live chat room really remarked about hearing the passion in his voice as he told some stories about his patients and how they are living their lives independently and not in what they call a "typical nursing home setting." (You can also download the file from the show's iTunes page)
I also invite you to check out his site Full Circle America and to contact him via e-mail at Dr.Teel@FullCircleAmerica.com - to ask questions and to see how you can try to utilize some of these concepts where you live. There was even someone who called in and went after Dr. Teel a little bit (not really) - but it was good discussion in the midst of the show.
Finally, the first ever twitter chat for friends of Family Medicine called #FamMedChat took place during the end of the show. Shout out to Mark Ryan, Kevin Bernstein, and Pat Jonas for taking leadership roles to pull this together. Also shout out to Dana Lewis and #hcsm for being an inspiration for us. You can check out the archived #FamMedChat below. I even did a post chat session on ustream in which I got some good feedback on future chats. Thanks so much for all the support for the show and for the chat!
Question 1: How can Family Medicine expand our role in the care of an aging America? (as discussed on http://tinyurl.com/3un77qa) #FamMedChat
Question 2: What are you or your colleagues in Family Medicine doing to improve your care of elders?#FamMedChat
Question 3: With Family Medicine leadership, how might the patient-centered medical home #PCMH enhance care for America's elders? #FamMedChat