My meeting with the Pediafed folks was fascinating! I'll have some more to report in the not-too-distant future, I suspect, but it turns out that we have more common goals than I originally understood. One thing that impressed me was how, when I described the challenge of figuring out which of the different buying groups made sense for our customers, they were very open to making the details of their offers available so that smart practices can compare!

Sadly, too many practices don't do anything at all. So, here's my $50,000/year piece of advice: if you are not presently in an immunizations purchasing group, JOIN ONE. If you're in one, call Pediafed to see if they make sense for you. I can't judge, obviously, but the call is free. I had dinner with the doctors from four different practices last night, and two of them don't belong to buying groups! They know better, but just get "too busy" to deal with it or distracted by something else. But we're talking about tens of thousands of dollars a years, maybe more!

Meanwhile, I was told, yesterday, that the AAP is putting together a "shopping list" (my words, not theirs) of the various buying groups and assembling information about them in a central location. Cool.

In addition to some mutual projects we are both considering, Pediafed told me about docsbuyonline.com, their expansion into the medical supply business. Again, if your practice is paying list price on anything from exam table paper to office supplies...stop. Pediafed, Physician's Alliance, someone will take care of you.

I know it's only Saturday, but I have two huge news items (one involving our favorite MCO and another involving pediatric clinical content) that I have to sit on until Monday. Both good news.

More later, as I sit through the SOAPM meeting.