I should trademark my blog name

Today I attended a blog launching event for Disruptive Women in Healthcare(TM), a blog created and promoted by the CEO of Amplify Public Affairs. The event and the blog bugged me on a variety of levels.

1) They started the event 40 minutes late. That is just rude.
2) The blog's name is trademarked. I don't think I've ever seen this before, and I think it runs counter to everything a blog stands for. Blogs are supposed to be about openness and collaboration and the sharing of ideas, and trademarking implies just the opposite. It screams, "This name is mine, don't you dare try to use it in anyway." It screams corporate.
3) At the event, each of the "guest bloggers" as they are called (this is their name for all the bloggers, of which there about about 20) in attendance talked for a couple of minutes about why they are a "disruptive woman" and what their first post is about. This took all of 20 minutes, and then they didn't take any questions. This wasn't exactly a hostile crowd. [In fact, I would say it seemed most everyone knew each other.] Why wouldn't they take questions? Were they afraid they'd get asked something tough/uncomfortable? Blogs are about having a conversation... why wouldn't they get that conversation started at the launch?

The whole thing smacks of being corporate. I know there are corporate blogs out there (I run one), but I do think there should have been an attempt to be less so. I think they wanted to come off as, "look we know how to run a corporate blog," and really I left thinking that they know nothing about the purpose of blogs at all. To be honest, they didn't even give a great explanation as to why only women are writing it. That women can change the health care landscape is a given, it's not a reason for launching a blog.

Overall, though, I think it's a great concept, I just wish it had been started by someone a little more knowledgeable about blogs and a little more open to openess. To see all those powerful women up there talking about their views on health care was great. I think it has great potential, I just hope its brainchild doesn't screw it up.

In Massachusetts, you better hope nothing's wrong with you

Lots of coverage today of a Boston Globe article citing the difficulties of Massachusetts residents in finding a primary care doctor, with waits for appointments as long as 100 days. Luckily, the government sees what a problem this is and is taking action:

Now, as the state's health insurance mandate threatens to make a chronic doctor shortage worse, the Legislature has approved an unprecedented set of financial incentives for young physicians, and other programs to attract primary care doctors. But healthcare leaders fear the new measures will take several years to ease the shortage.

I personally agree that action needs to be taken ... but not just in Massachusetts; it needs to happen across the country. There was a study recently that found that the number of medical students entering primary care or internal medicine is dropping, which over time is going to lead to even less access. If people with decent health insurance (I would consider myself one of them) have difficulty find a physician to see them within a decent period of time, the government needs to step in and increase the incentives for medical students to become PCPs.

See additional coverage here, here and here.