[Most of this blog was originally 'penned' live from the NCE, but a conspiracy of time-consuming events - namely, dining out with Friends of PCC - kept me from completing it on time.]

I'm seated at our booth (1827 I think), debriefing myself about yesterday's events. Whew, busy time.  We must have 2x more staff here than at any show I can remember, but it's not enough to get to it all.  I missed the Offitt talk!

Highlights:

- Dr. Zarin wins the Buzzy award, excellent choice. Proud to support the award.

- The PPMA meeting seemed to come off well.  Amazing how many non-American docs were in the room (Syria, Kenya, etc.). Can't figure that out. We need to get more office managers to that meeting, though. There were more docs than managers.

My talk about vaccine financing was OK.  It was hard to stuff that talk into the time frame, but I did my best and, considering the "dryness" of the subject, I can't complain. I hope they invite me back to do more.

- A doctor who will remain nameless dropped the f-bomb during one of the early SOAPM sessions.  However, it was as appropriate and well timed as anything and I applaud the effort.  I missed most of the SOAPM day in general due to other commitments, but I got the feeling that the best practice management sessions happened outside the SOAPM track itself.

I was disappointed in the SOAPM turnout.  Too many of the same faces.  Yes, they are pretty, friendly faces of people I like, but we're not attracting new attendees as well as I would like.  Good idea to combine the meeting with the senior section, but SOAPM really needs to get more butts in the seats.

- Our first stab at the Documentation Challenge was fun. We didn't get to show off 1/2 of what we can do because we ran out of time (20 min just isn't enough), but I was stunned to have so many people stop by our booth or at our spot in the Pediatric Office of the Future after seeing
it. I didn't even think there were that many people in the audience!  The refrain we heard over and over was that people like how the EHR looks - it's clean, it's simple.

There were two notable absences at the Challenge.  One of the vendors on the list didn't show up, which is too bad (PCC has more than a dozen mutual clients).  Another major EHR vendor hasn't been in two years because, and I apparently quote, "...they don't need to participate in the challenge any more," which is interpreted to mean that they don't target individual practices, but know they are going to pick up more than they can handle from their big health system/hospital/IPA work.  Sadly, I believe them.

- Speaking of our booth, we debuted a new booth on this event.  I'd love to hear from anyone what they thought of it.  Again, simplicity is the goal...for the first time in 20 years, I don't think we had anyone come up to us and ask, "So, what do you do?"

I was very pleasantly surprised by the volume of traffic at the POF (good work, Dr. Alexander).

- Some of the sessions generated a lot of conversation. Herschel Lessin's piece with Donelle Holle was standing room only. Three people told me that Dr. Oken's plenary about the endangerment of private pediatric offices ranged from excellent to "the best plenary ever."

- Spent some good time with Andrew Johnson of Pediafed and got to meet Jeff Winokur of Atlantic Health Partners in person.  Of course, I spent a lot of time with the founders of National Discount Vaccine Alliance.

- I'm particularly grateful for some introductions...Kathy Cain delivering us to the AAP media crew, Todd Wolynn making the AHP connection above, Dr. Oken giving me a great reference to a practice in CA who really needs our help.  Really, it's those interactions that make the week away from home worth it.

- I think we were able to take out 30 of our friends every single night!  Crazy!   There's nothing like not knowing if you're going to get 15 or 20 or 25 or 35 of your clients and should-be clients to the restaurant on time.  John Canning did a lot of work managing it all, fortunately.

- As always, it's always nice to coordinate some time with Susanne Madden.

- The last-second informal "Alternative Practice Discsussion" was great.  Although it got quite heated in the room during the discussion, there is no question that there is great interested and demand for more information in this issue.  The AAP needs 2-3 sessions about this subject - concierge pediatrics? microcapitation? hybrid models? - next year.  One or two "How To's", one about the philosophy, etc.  You may enjoy these two shots I took during the discussion- can you ID your favorite SOAPM posters below?  Some of the most prolific among us are there!

Click on either for a close up. Can you spot Igor?

I would really like to thank the VA AAP Chapter for their generosity in letting us use the room...and enjoy some of their refreshments.  Thanks Dr. Kraft!

Some links I picked up during the discussion: Lipton Health, American Pediatric Consultants, Discovery Pediatrics.

- We bid a fond farewell to Dr. Lander's tenure as SOAPM chair, but not to Dr. Lander himself.  I look forward to Dr. Stoller's reign...