Hey There Everyone,
I know many of you are wondering where we have been. Life has been very crazy and we have needed to attend to many different problems. But it sure feels good to see you all here and to be posting just a bit.
As an east coaster, sort of, as well as the fact that Jon wouldn't have as much expense and trouble to travel his staff to and from the conference, Nancy and I certainly like the idea of the east coast. We even have some family there we might just visit and this time Bert will have no excuses for missing out. Tag you're it!
We also agree with the idea of perhaps moving the thing around so everybody gets a chance at a reasonable travel situation. Also perhaps with Jon's user data we could try to pick towns that are close to clusters of users so again we assist as many folks as possible in at least attending one of these in the next few years.
A few other suggestions are as follows: Here in many parts of NYS school doesn't let out until almost the last few days of June, so even though most of you others have little kids and school conflicts, we certainly did, and that is one reason we did not attend last year even though we really were chomping at the bit to get out there. Let's shoot for early to mid July if possible so those of us with family and pain in the neck school districts feel free to join in. Thanks.
Because we couldn't attend last year in light of the above conflict, Nancy and I attended one of the best little conferences we have both ever attended It was very local in Rochester NY, only an hour from here in Syracuse and allowed us to attend all without the school schedule issues mentioned above. But both conferences were held on the same weekend.
It was the IMP Camp, which stands for Ideal Medical Practice's. At least a third or more of these folks are AC users and the ones that aren't should be. It was almost all super small solo PCP's who were very nice and inclusive and laid back. The IMP movement is trying to improve healthcare via getting back to all the important basics and to get the interlopers out of the doctor patient relationship. What ever date we do go with in the end, we can not stress strongly enough that it should not in anyway, conflict with IMP Camp 2009. I promise you that many folks are going to want to attempt to attend both. If we could afford it, we certainly would. I'm sure that Gordon and the gang over at IMP would be more than willing to work together to make sure that the two groups don't overlap. We highly recommend attending an IMP Camp too for anyone wanting to open up or re-create their small or solo practice and return to quality and sanity of practice.
Lastly, some of us small users who are AC's target audience are in increasingly hard times financially. It would be ashame for many folks to have to self-exclude themselves because of related costs of attending. We are certainly in that boat at this time and most of us know why... So considerations about cheap easy flights for those from far away, reasonably priced venue and hotels and the like I feel would certainly help more solo/solo's and other struggling practices to attend. If held in Boston or RI, we will certainly be driving the 300 plus miles to help save on expenses and to have a Jeep to get around in when we get there.
Anyway, Merry and happy holidays to all from this mixed family. I will probably not be posting much for some time to come as we still have lots of stuff to straighten up around here. But it sure was nice to be able to drop in and create one of my famous long posts.... Miss you all very, very much. Keep up the great work one and all. Nancy and I might be giving a talk about AC in the solo setting at the local county medical society's HIT meeting soon. And Jon, once again, thanks for the best little EMR on the market today.
Be healthly, stay well and be safe these next few weeks....
Paul and Nancy
