Memo From The Editor

Take the challenge

Marianne Dekker Mattera

Most doctors love challenges. After all, what is medicine but a series of challenges? What's wrong with this patient? Why isn't this one responding well to treatment? Will this one profit from this procedure? Well, this month, we inaugurate our own Medical Economics challenge. It'll require a little bit of work on your part, but we think you'll find the rewards worth it. They're twofold.

The first level of reward is what everyone who buys lottery or raffle tickets hopes for—winning that glitzy prize. We've got that. Between now and next May, we'll be giving away 30 digital cameras. Next August, we'll award the grand prize—a wide-screen HDTV and a $5,000 check for any practice upgrade you want. Computers in the exam rooms, a new piece of software, a microwave in the break room, an aquarium for the waiting room. Whatever!

You'll find the contest rules and entry form on our Web site, but let me review them here. In the first issue of each month, we'll ask a multiple-choice question based on one of the articles or departments in that issue. Check off the answer, fill in your contact information, and fax us the form or a copy of it. Or mail it in.

Yes, you have to answer a question, but it's not a hard one, and we tell you where to find the answer. What could be simpler?

Each month, we'll pick the camera winners from among the entries with the correct answer. We'll save those correct entries from month to month and draw the grand prize winner from among all the correct entries. So even if you're not one of the monthly winners, you can still have a shot at the grand prize. The more you enter—month in and month out—the better your chances of winning.

The second level of reward is the increased knowledge you'll come away with just by finding the answer.

It's that reward that we hope will have an even longer lifespan than the cameras, the HDTV, or the practice upgrade. And it's delivering on that reward that serves as our challenge each and every issue. What we try to do is give you the tools you need to run a successful medical practice and handle the financial rewards it provides.

We think we do a darn good job of that, and we expect that this contest will help showcase just how valuable we can be to you. We figure that when you look for the page number of the contest on the Table of Contents every month, you'll notice the wealth of information you're getting in the issue. (I'll bet that there'll be at least one article you'll just have to read.) We hope that in flipping through to the contest announcement or back to the pages where you'll find the answer you'll also find two, or three, or four articles or departments that you'll want to be sure to read.

The prizes are also a reflection of the image we want you to have of Medical Economics. We're the only nonclinical professional publication that captures the whole professional picture. Only Medical Economics covers practice management, personal finance, compensation, staff relations, patient relations, investments and retirement planning, malpractice, coding and reimbursement, technology, ethics, government initiatives, taxes, career issues. Only Medical Economics gives you the wide angle view, the complete picture.

Take our challenge!

 

Marianne Mattera. Memo from the Editor: Take the challenge. Medical Economics 2002;15:7.