Success.

Success isn’t just about what you do with your life, it’s about what you inspire others to do.

My life is wonderful. Although I had no idea how my career would evolve when I started my practice in September 2007, I wouldn’t have changed a single thing. I’ve been extremely fortunate. 

Everything that’s ever come to me has been because I publish on my blog. It’s that simple.

Through publishing, I’ve been lucky enough to serve as a magnet for innovative doctors. I get a few emails a day from doctors all over the world introducing themselves or telling me about the innovative things they’re doing in their practices. 

One of those people who reached out to me is Matthew DiPaola. Matthew was finishing his residency in orthopedics last year here in NYC and shot me an email so we met up for a beer. I encouraged him to use tumblr and to publish his thoughts. He did. Months later, he called me to tell me that he met a like-minded doctor on tumblr and that they had this great new idea— he wanted to start a company that builds software to help doctors, residents, nurse practioners, etc. sign out to each other when they’re changing shifts. The sign out process is a mess. Critical information can be lost or miscommunicated. It’s one of the reasons why contact with the US Healthcare Industry is the fifth leading cause of death in America.

So Matthew decided to do something about it— it’s called Touch Consult. According to Matthew:

In a little under a year we’ve defined a problem, conceived our software solution and now are happy to announce are running version 1.0 on our own server.  We’ve lined up a few test sites (and are open to accept more if you or someone you know might be interested), and are ready to  get this show on the road.

This makes me extremely happy. In fact, this is my definition of success.