just got back from two days of presentation/communications skills training. In 20 hours of instruction, I made 6 presentations (all of which were videotaped), critiqued 36 presentations made by my classmates, was made to stand on pieces of paper, and was made to "punch" the screen with big gestures. We learned about the 6 types of evidence we should give in support of our points: experience, expert, example, fact, analogy, and statistic - more on these later.

As I get back to the office tomorrow morning after this intensive training & my trip to san fran, I'm sure the blogging will be light for the rest of the week as I catch up on work & try to absorb all these new realities/insights.

by Tony Chen

I'm here in San Fran for a technology transfer conference. Will be trying to soak up as much as possible about this mysterious art of "technology transfer". How do we best leverage the patents, inventions, and discoveries coming from our physicians and researchers? On the one hand, it's relatively straightforward - it's like selling real estate. Get the marketing together, target likely buyers, highlight the best/unique features, get a signed contract. On the other hand, there is a whole set of strategies and thought processes that are based on legal, intellectual property, pharma industry, and patenting considerations. Most inventors don't realize that the work done to get the patent is probably only 3-5% of the work.

I finally got to meet fellow Hospital Impact blogger Andrew Barna face-to-face. Yes, the power of blogging. Two random hospital administrators 2,000 miles away. Through this thing thing called the blogosphere, we are colleagues and friends. It really is a real, living community - and now we have a lunch at a nice Cuban restaurant to prove it.

Anyway, probably light blogging for the rest of the week. Be back in full force next week.