The MedBiq Song

The MedBiq Song

Last night, I briefly performed at the 2006 Annual Conference of the MedBiquitous Consortium in Baltimore, MD. MedBiq is a standards development organization whose mission is to create a technology blueprint for professional healthcare education. I been serving on their Executive Committee for a few years, so when they found out that I had written a song for NCPDP's annual conference last year called "The Legend of Bob the DERF", they felt a little neglected. So I promised them a song too. (HL7 made the same request for their meeting coming up in September. At this rate, I figure I'll be able to put out a new CD - "Dr. Martin Does the Standards" - in a year or two.)

Here's the way I introduced the song and the lyrics. You can find a copy of the MP3 here.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is indeed an honor and a privilege to stand before you today and offer up this little ditty – a trifle, really. I recall with delight the day our own Dr. Peter Greene requested that I pen a musical work worthy of the institution that bears the name MedBiquitous.

MedBiquitous! Why, one requires a graduate degree to simply utter the word! No doubt, a banal pop song or a hippie folk tune or – God forbid! – a Country Western ballad would never suffice. For MedBiquitous was not slapped together by coin-counting merchants in the back alley of commerce – or hacked by pocket protector donning computer geeks locked deep in the fluorescently lit bowels of some faceless monolith – no! MedBiquitous was conceived in the hallowed halls of academia – even more, within the dome of Johns Hopkins University itself.

Clearly, there is but one musical genre sophisticated – yet playful – enough to satisfy the need of an institution of such noble birth and regal bearing – the operetta!

So I do hope that Masters Gilbert and Sullivan are shining down on us now as we present to you the world premier of “The MedBiq Song”. Maestro, if you please…

The MedBiq Song
(To the tune of “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” by Gilbert and Sullivan)

If you want quality in CME activities to demonstrate
Or virtual reality for surgery to simulate
Or methods for ensuring that your Med Ed content's shareable
You'll find that there are many ways to do this that are terrible

If you need messages for transferring credentials proving licensure
Or means for tracking competence in ways you've never done before
Before you write me off and say this guy is just a dumb buffoon
Keep listening – I promise that you'll have your answer very soon

If you are posting all your healthcare publications on the Internet
But find that, when you search for them on Google, crap is all you get
Don't give up hope or sing the blues
Don't hang yourself or make a fuss
You'll be a hero if you use
Our standards from MedBiquitous

Yes, we have SCORM and LOM and XML and RSS as well as MEMS
And several more ridiculously complicated acronyms
That seem to have the solitary purpose of confusing you
Or making me seem smarter than the people I am singing to

But what we really seek are fundamental changes in the quality
Of everything related to all Med Ed methodology
We do this out of altruistic duty to posterity
(Though making loads of money in the process would be fine with me)

So if I've managed to persuade you or have piqued your curiosity
Please take to time to analyze MedBiquitous more carefully
And hurry down to Baltimore
Where all this stuff is happening
Whatever Med Ed has in store
You'll find our standards just the thing

Our task is great – we cannot do
This work alone, so join with us
Or kindy make a check out to
The order of MedBiquitous

© 2006 Ross D. Martin, MD, MHA
15 January 2006