THE DELTA-EXCHANGE

Imagine, if you will, a large boardroom with a mahogany table. Around this table sit the 500 smartest people in the world. In the front of the room is a fully connected white board that collects the myriad of ideas that this group generates. This miracle of science categorizes all the great ideas generated by this august body. It allows other members to comment and refine these ideas. It automatically links these ideas to information resources. You also notice that in front of each of the guests around the table sits a toolbox. In this toolbox there are thousands of resources already created by the myriad of smart people who have sat at this table before. These tools are categorized, and easily accessible. Those around the table have gathered to solve the problems that family medicine faces. You then notice that all the guests are wearing their pajamas and slippers. If you have this picture in your mind, you now understand the potential of Delta-Exchange.

As its name implies the Delta-Exchange is a tool to create, refine, and disseminate change. It provides a place to “ask the experts” about an issue or topic. It allows one to disseminate and view online seminars. It contains “how to” articles on things like group visits and building teams. It allows us to build a wiki—a Web site developed collaboratively by a community where members can add and edit content using interlinked Web pages. It allows us to post ideas and build on them as a community. In essence, it is our asynchronous boardroom.

The problem is that the big mahogany table, our fancy whiteboard, and our cool toolbox are completely useless without those 500 smart people sitting around the table. Therefore, the AFMRD, whose strategic plan calls for new forms of communication, needs you to take a chance and sit at the table (bunny slippers allowed). We cannot tackle problems such as innovation in residency training, a Residency Performance Index (RPI), RC-FM changes, changes to our certification exam, or a national curriculum for family medicine without you (the smart people). So we challenge you to sign on today at http://www.deltaexchange.net, post a question or a really cool article, read about ACOs, create a tool to be used on our RPI. Let us begin the task of taking our specialty training to the next level by more effectively collaborating and solving these very difficult challenges.

• © Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.