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I will be attending NEJM Horizons Conference to push the boundaries of traditional medical publishing, suggestions welcomed

October 22nd, 2008

This weekend, the New England Journal of Medicine “will bring together a group of visionary medical students and trainees to help NEJM push the boundaries of traditional medical publishing. They are looking for creative minds to join the editors for a weekend to explore what’s possible.”

In July, the Editor for Medical Education of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) asked me to inform my readers (2,200 daily RSS subscribers plus 1,600 visitors) that the journal is seeking applications from interested residents and students to join them in Boston from October 24-26th, 2008 to discuss the future information needs of physicians and physicians in training. I was intrigued enough to apply as well, and was honored to be invited to participate in the NEJM Horizons Conference along with 20 of the brightest people from around the world (which automatically makes me a misfit).

The organizers of the NEJM Horizons Conference used a Ning-based social network to get the participants to know each other and foster collaboration before the meeting. Some of my posts to the network are shown below. One of my other projects, the Annual Perioperative Medicine Summit started using Facebook for a similar purpose this year. Do you see a trend?

Suggestions for NEJM.com posted at the conference social network

Just a few ideas:

- Add comment sections to the online articles
- Start an editor(s) blog
- Start a Twitter micro-blog
- Add a social network similar to Sermo
- Allow for embeddable articles/images/videos similar to the newly-launched embeddable Google Books
- Have the editor make the weekly podcast, similar to JAMA, Annals of Int Med and The Lancet
- Add tag clouds to NEJM articles
- Add Text-to-Speech and convert to MP3 to NEJM articles

NEJM is a Journal (Only) No More

Text-to-Speech for Mobile RSS Reader and Cell Phone

This is an application I would like to have:

A mobile text-to-speech reader which:
- reads selected (full-length) feeds from my mobile RSS reader (cell phone)
- reads articles (NEJM, NYT, WSJ, etc.) from my cell phone

I could use the time to exercise or just walk in the park.

After I announced my participation in the NEJM Horizons Conference on Twitter, Scanman (a radiologist from India) and Sandnsurf (an ER physician from Australia) had some suggestions, shown below:

Twitter Discussion (oldest post at the bottom, newest at the top)

	AllergyNotes @scanman Sure. Planning to talk about RSS and mobile text-to-speech as application of choice. about 3 hours ago from web in reply to scanman
	AllergyNotes Selected to participate in the Annual ACAAI FIT Bowl competition. Have to submit 10 questions. Any suggestions? http://tinyurl.com/6y7ac9 about 3 hours ago from web
	scanman @AllergyNotes Good luck & have fun at the conference. Tell the other participants to join the gang at twitter/friendfeed etc about 3 hours ago from twhirl in reply to AllergyNotes
	AllergyNotes @scanman NDA is pretty typical when you discuss new projects. I do not know if NEJM will use one. Lancet did not when I consulted for them. about 3 hours ago from web in reply to scanman
	AllergyNotes @scanman To give credit when credit is due, NEJM is the journal with the best Web 2.0 offerings, by far. about 3 hours ago from web in reply to scanman
	AllergyNotes @scanman Well, NEJM is using the Ning social network for the conference and that’s a good start. about 3 hours ago from web in reply to scanman
	scanman @AllergyNotes Let’s hope for the best. They may allow you to live tweet. But the prospect of asking their permission to do so rankles >. about 3 hours ago from FriendFeed in reply to AllergyNotes
	scanman @AllergyNotes How the heck do they think they’re going to innovate w a bunch of youngsters in a conference if they don’t embrace new media? about 3 hours ago from FriendFeed in reply to AllergyNotes
	AllergyNotes Planning to update Twitter live from the ACAAI meeting in November, will be presenting AllergyCases.org there: http://allergycases.org/ about 3 hours ago from web
	scanman @AllergyNotes That’s exactly what is SO WRONG about NEJM & the other suffy med journals. NDAs & copyright Boo about 3 hours ago from FriendFeed in reply to AllergyNotes
	AllergyNotes @scanman I would be happy to update Twitter from the NEJM conference after I make sure it’s OK with NEJM and see the NDA, if there is one. about 3 hours ago from web in reply to scanman
	scanman We’ve got 2 votes already for @AllergyNotes as the representative of medtwits & live-tweeter at NEJM Horizons Conference http://is.gd/4wFK about 3 hours ago from twhirl
	sandnsurf @scanman @allergynotes AGREED looking forward to some great discussion. We have linked medical publishers in the medtwitts…. about 3 hours ago from web in reply to scanman
	scanman @AllergyNotes You HAVE TO live tweet from the NEJM Horizons Conference. I nominate u as the representative of the medtwits about 3 hours ago from twhirl in reply to AllergyNotes
	scanman Most traditional medical publishers send emails & give RSS feed of TOC and a few short snippets on podcasts & think they’ve reached the… about 3 hours ago from twhirl
	scanman @AllergyNotes Open source is the 1st thing that NEJM has to adopt if they hope ‘to push the boundaries of traditional medical publishing’ about 3 hours ago from twhirl in reply to AllergyNotes
	scanman @AllergyNotes Wow! Congrats. Don’t be too modest. You’d fit right in. Teach the old codgers about Web 2.0 about 4 hours ago from TwitterFox in reply to AllergyNotes
	AllergyNotes Periop Medicine summit is starting to use Facebook for the same purpose. Do you see a trend? http://periopmedicine.org/ about 4 hours ago from web
	AllergyNotes NEJM Horizons Conference https://secure.nejm.org/hor… about 4 hours ago from web

	AllergyNotes The organizers of the NEJM Horizons Conference used a Ning-based social network to get to know and foster collaboration before the meeting. about 4 hours ago from web
	AllergyNotes Getting ready to attend NEJM Horizons Conference with 20 of the brightest people from around the world which automatically makes me a misfit about 4 hours ago from web

At the reception dinner, I will be seated next to the Jeff Drazen, the Editor-in-Chief of NEJM, therefore, I would like to solicit any suggestions for NEJM you may have. Please submit them in the comments section below.

References:
NEJM Invites Students and Residents to IT Horizons Conference