Dear Doctor, you are cordially invited to the GP FOAM party…

Hello readers – especially to all you GPs / Family Physicians / Primary Care Providers out there.

This is a special post – not one of any clinical merit.  This is an invitation to become a part of the free, open-access medical education (FOAM) world for GPs.  For too long the ED / crit care Docs have had all the fun in online learning – and I believe that this medium is ideally suited to busy, isolated or knowledge-hungry GPs.

This week a long-dreamt up vision has become a reality.  A group of FOAMite GPs with an interest in online education have launched a new blog / website / repository which is aimed specifically at GPs, GPs in training and those of us who are far enough down the learning road to need a refresher in the basics.

The new website is called  FOAM4GP.com

Who is running this site – well this is a collaborative effort, the founding authors include:

Dr MInh Le Cong,

Dr Tim Leeuwenberg,

Dr Gerry Considine,

Dr Melanie Clothier and

Dr Jonathan Ramachenderan….

oh… and me of course!

So how does it work, and how can you get involved?

This website is different to the others out there aimed at GP education – this is not a static library of material – this is an interactive forum, supported by Social Media platforms.  This is not a one man show or a money-making exercise – we want to have a thousand authors, and we will not make a cent.

Think of this as your local study group gone viral, or a hallway chat in the ether.  We want as many trainees and older heads to get involved in the conversation.  Teach each other online and provide a really dynamic learning tool.

Now – I know, most of you are super busy and could think of 1000 things more fun than learning how to write a blog post, or produce a podcast.  However,  you are all super smart and contain pearls of wisdom that we need to share, stories from which we can all learn.

So here is the offer – if you can write an email, or use a telephone then you can become an author of this mega-project.  All you need to do is let me (or one of the other founders) know – send us an email, tweet or call us up.  You can write about what you are passionate about, something you have developed an expertise in through necessity or just something that tickles your fancy.

If writing is not your thing we can arrange to do a spoken interview with you and put it up as a podcast for all to hear.

Or maybe you know of an awesome learning resource out there that we can utilise and share through the blog.

And no, this is not just for Aussies – we take all flavours of Generalists – even New Zealanders.

Still not sure?  Well just read the site for a while, get a feel for the ethos and when you get inspired – just let me know.  WE WANT YOU to teach us.  We’ll do the annoying hard work on the technical side – you just need to share your wonderful knowledge.

In case you cannot tell – this is really exciting for me.  This could be the start of a great thing

Please come to the party!

Casey

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