Medical bloggers are now media and have a first-hand look, experience and credibility

A few thought from my Twitter stream:

The editors of Emergency Medicine News decided to place the article "Do Physician Blogs Betray Patient Privacy?" just next to "Paramedics Accused of Molesting Patients" http://bit.ly/A29tT in the latest issue of the publication. Those 2 pieces are followed by "I Feel So Dirty and Used!" http://bit.ly/C4eK1. Quite depressing indeed.

Despite the first line from the Emergency Medicine News article that claims that "Everybody's blogging, it seems." http://bit.ly/gOivC , in fact, very few doctors blog compared to other professional fields.

Dr. Lagu recommends blogging guidelines by professional societies and training in medical school, not more formal policing, which is a reasonable stand.

It is also time for some medical journals and other publications to stop behaving like "medical blogger" is a dirty word.

A Nature editorial recently asked to "Stop blogging during scientific meetings" http://bit.ly/DdjPH - To quote from the editorial, "Most researchers, if they're aware of social-networking applications, are likely to regard them as distractions at best."

Blogging and microblogging via Twitter and Facebook are natural communication tools nowadays and part of the culture of the new generation. Conference organizers may need to talk to their kids more often.

Believe it or not, the medical bloggers are now media and have a first-hand look, experience and credibility.

For example, see who is representing the physicians in Washington, DC - at least half of them are proven and respected medical bloggers... http://bit.ly/QTzcM

A professional blog is also one of the best ways to establish your online identity in a search engined dominated online world.

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.