What is a Medical Blog? Dr. Schwimmer Gives a Good Roundup of the Medical Blogosphere

Do you know that a new blog is created every second?

"The best way to learn about blogs is to read them. There are many excellent blogs out there", writes Dr. Schwimmer. So very true...

Read more in Basic Blogging: An Introduction to Medical Blogs for the Renal Community on iKidney.com.

And if you want to keep up with all those 100+ medical blogs, do not forget to subscribe to some of them on Bloglines.

Medical blogging is generally a good thing but of course it has its own critics.

George D. Lundberg, M.D. is the Editor-in-Chief of the online Medscape General Medicine and he asks Is There a Place for Medical Blogs in a Medical Media Company? (you need a free Medscape registration to see the video). His answer seems to be "no" because "A blog may well be ultimate communication anarchy... the blogger may be the author, editor, publisher, advertiser, critic, reviewer, and owner -- all at the same time -- and fake the whole thing". Hmm... Is Kevin, M.D. fake? How about Robert Centor? I don't think so. I respect Dr. Lundberg's opinion but it reminds me of the person who claimed that podcasts are just "streaming audio". It is much more than that.

The issue of credibility is resolved the Scoble's way - by including your name, email and phone number on your website. Robert Scoble is a Microsoft employee and probably one of the most famous bloggers in the world.