Mastodon Pallimed 10th Anniversary 2005-2015 ~ Pallimed

Monday, June 8, 2015

Pallimed 10th Anniversary 2005-2015

By Christian Sinclair

It is quite amazing how far we have come with digital media tools. In 2005, YouTube had just started and was in public beta, Facebook, had just changed from thefacebook.com to facebook.com and was still mulling the decision to let in more than just elite college students, and Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest didn't even exist.

Back in 2005, when Drew Rosielle started Pallimed, blogs were beginning to enter the mainstream as a form of participatory journalism. With more free publishing tools at your disposal, you could spend an hour or two writing an opinion or analysis and instantly share it with everyone with the click of the publish button. Blogs were really the beginning of modern social media since their rise in popularity in the early 2000's and they had a fairly strong base in medicine.  Kevin MD, The Cheerful Oncologist, DB's Medrants, Respectful Insolence, Dr. Wes, Intueri, Clinical Cases and Images, Emergiblog and others helped give a voice to clinicians in the field who wanted to teach and share what they were seeing. Some of those blogs have closed, some have moved to more formal media sites. Not many blogs last 10 months, let alone 10 years. It is exciting to see Pallimed is still here after 10 years.

As the Editor of Pallimed since 2010, I have learned so much from the 70+ writers who have contributed to this site. Pallimed has really become a crowd-sourced endeavor through writing contributions. Many, many heartfelt thanks to them.  If you know one of them, please feel free to buy them a coffee, or write them a nice letter

Looking forward to the next ten years we have a lot more we can accomplish as a group.  Over this week, we will be announcing a few new initiatives which will help us build a better resource to share great information from clinicians, researchers and advocates seeing the great impact of hospice and palliative care every single day.

But today let's just celebrate all the efforts of those who write, share, read, comment, like, and tweet about hospice and palliative care.  Many hands make light work.

A few people you may know wanted to share some kind words about what we have been able to accomplish here at Pallimed.  If you want to share your own feelings, please comment below.
“Actually, I can’t believe Pallimed is only turning 10. It’s hard to remember a time before Pallimed. I feel like I’ve been reading the insightful, knowledgeable, and sometimes hilarious blogging at Pallimed my whole life. Medical literature has become so arcane. Authors write in “researchese” (the language of researchers) to satisfy editors. This makes it so much harder for practicing clinicians to read. But Google search any topic in palliative care and you’re almost inevitably going to get a Pallimed post that you will want to read first. Pallimed breaks down research papers into clear, plain, English the practicing clinician can understand. They address that all important question, “How will this effect my practice?” And they have a great time doing it. More than the posts, Pallimed has become doorway into a larger community of people who are passionate about using Social Media to transform the care of people living with serious illness. Pallimed isn’t just a blog anymore. It’s a movement." - Alex Smith, MD, MPH, at UCSF, GeriPal co-founder

Pallimed is a trusted source for news, commentary and analysis of issues involving care at the at end of life that is invaluable not only for hospice and palliative care professionals, but for all those interested in the health care continuum. Pallimed also engages in digital dialog that is timely and useful – it’s a site everyone should save as a favorite."- Don Schumacher, PsyD, President and CEO of NHPCO

"From the funny to the serious, Pallimed posts have served as an inspiration for the hospice and palliative care community, particularly on how to educate and advocate outside of the standard academic publishing route. Pallimed was a model for us to develop our own blog and it’s editors have been a source of expertise in how to enter into the world of social media. My only concern about the future of Pallimed is their questionable judgment when picking teams to bet on in the World Series…" - Eric Widera,  MD at UCSF, GeriPal co-founder

"10 years ago, Pallimed created a new vehicle and voice for Hospice and Palliative Medicine. For the first time, ideas, issues, perspectives and timely topics were accessible to all. It remains innovative, introspective and simplistic. Pallimed has also introduced us to emerging thought leaders and even social media. It has been exciting to see this online resource evolve and expand. Congratulations to everyone involved in Pallimed for your amazing achievements and contributions over the past decade!" - Steve Smith, MS CAE, Executive Director/CEO of AAHPM

"Every community needs places to meet, comfortable venues where people can share concerns, debate opinions, and, sometimes, come up with creative approaches. Pallimed has become one of those places. Not unlike a favorite neighborhood coffee shop it’s a daily venue for people to exchange ideas – from formal to fanciful – essays, scientific tidbits, photos and video clips, nuggets of poetry, narrative, and humor. The dialog it hosts knits us together and advances our field. At this point, it’s hard to think of the hospice and palliative care community in America without Pallimed." - Ira Byock, MD, author of The Best Care Possible and The Four Things That Matter Most

"Pallimed has not only been a #SOCmed leader in #hpm, but a leader in #HCSM! Congrats on the 10th anniversary!" - Jim Cleary, MD at Univ of Wisconsin via Twitter

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