Mastodon Pallimed 5th Anniversary ~ Pallimed

Monday, June 7, 2010

Pallimed 5th Anniversary

On June 8th, 2005 Drew wrote a simple 86 word post on pallimed.blogspot.com titled "First post: good news":

Well this is my first post. Hopefully in the next few days I'll fill out the links & other supplemental info sections (not that anyone is going to be reading this immediately anyway). Today is an auspicious day to begin my blog as I just learned that the American Board of Internal Medicine and the Family Medicine Board have decided to recognize palliative medicine as an official subspecialty! This info was from an acquaintance, so I'll be digging around for confirmation in the next few days.
He makes the obvious realization that he is talking to nobody yet it was the beginning of talking to everybody all at the same time.  If you haven't thought about how polarized it is to write this way, just take a second!

To demonstrate how long Drew was writing without feedback I went through the first year of posts to find the 'first' comment; the first real tangible proof that someone was listening. It was 'Dave' who commented in August 2005 on Drew's 38th post on the subject of transmucosal fentanyl dosing.  Just a simple comment, but apparently enough to keep Drew moving along, thank goodness.
When Drew was starting Pallimed, he was at the end of his 3rd year of residency about to start his HPM fellowship. It basically started as Drew's personal library of thoughts about journal articles and a few interesting pieces found in the media about HPM. From this simple concept of open access discussion of research findings and media coverage a whole community began to emerge.

Blogging as a communication platform allowed us to delve further into research and the potential application to our patients, to cover how hospices respond to natural disasters like floods and hurricanes, to help sound the alarm about government policies affecting our field, to analyze how HPM is portrayed in the media, to nurture and support other great writers and blogs covering HPM, to listen and respond to your input about what is important as our field grows, and to interact with the major organizations and leaders that shape our field.

Many of leads on stories and articles have come from our readers. We appreciate all the comments on the site and also the tips and feedback we get by email. Keep up the good work!

To mark this anniversary here are some important milestones and statistics about Pallimed, the contributors and the readers who support Pallimed in the past 5 years:
  • Founded: June 8, 2005
  • Total number of subscribers across all blogs and platforms: 5355 (as of today)
  • Approx # of hits: more than 200,000 in 5y
  • Approx # of pageviews: more than 300,000 in 5y
  • First makeover and establishment of pallimed.org: January 2007
  • Second makeover: June 2010
  • Total 5 year investment: less than $500 (site hosting, guerrilla marketing)
  • Total 5 year time invested: less and more than you think
  • Total ad revenue generated: $0
  • Added Sister blogs of 'Arts and Humanities' and 'Case Conferences': May 2007
  • 2009 AAHPM/PDIA Palliative Medicine Community Leadership Award
  • 3 successful guerrilla marketing escapades by the Pallimed Street Team 2008-10
  • Support for electing a member to the AAHPM Board of Directors: Fall 2008
  • Support for a hub of HPM blogs through Palliative Care Grand Rounds
  • Successful engagement and message management utilizing social media
  • Invitation for special presentation at the 2010 AAHPM/HPNA Annual Assembly on blogs and social media
  • 4 years of having a Pallimed Readers party at the Annual Assembly
  • Creation of a Pallimed iPhone app

Month reaching # of subscribers (Email + RSS + Twitter):
10: Oct 2006
100: April 2007
500: March 2008
1000: December 2008
2000: May 2009
3000: June 2010

Posts/year:
2005-6: 204
2006-7: 152
2007-8: 131
2008-9: 277
2009-10: 194

Approximate # of website hits per year:

2005-6: 900
2006-7: 16,000
2007-8: 42,000
2008-9: 105,000
2009-10: 116,000


A very big thank you to our current and past contributors:
Drew Rosielle, Christian Sinclair, Amber Wollesen, Amy Clarkson, Lyle Fettig, Suzana Makowski, Brian McMichael, Thomas Quinn

And a special special thank you to all the supporters, readers, lurkers, commenters, bloggers, Tweeple, Facebook fans, iPhone app users. Keep sharing and spreading the word about HPM. Thanks for being a part of this spectacular group of people. Every node and every connection helps.

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