Lessons from 12 Years of Blogging (from woodtang)

Spoken like a true blogger:

"I started this site 12 years ago. That’s longer than my marriage, longer than any job I’ve held, longer than I’ve lived anywhere since I was a kid. Even though I stopped a started blogging here too many times to count, that’s a long time. I feel like that counts for something on the web and I ought to give it some love.

My interest in blogging waned when I started using Twitter, but I’ve always felt something missing when I wanted to write a few paragraphs about something and be done with it."

Read the rest at woodtang.com http://bit.ly/VPuEaP

“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary”, said Pablo Picasso. Blogging is similar in a way but it also helps to collect important ideas, archive news items and create an educational portfolio that is easily shareable with students, colleagues and patients.

In my personal experience, blogging fits nicely in what I call the Cycle of Online Information and Physician Education (click here to enlarge the image).





Comments from Twitter:

Heidi Allen @dreamingspires: Lessons from 12 Years of Blogging (from woodtang) casesblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/lesson… impressive - and makes it sound simple

The #FOAMed revolution (Free Open Access Medical education)

From Mike Cadogan:

"The net effect of #FOAM has taken me quite by surprise (editor's note: #FOAMed is Free Open Access Medical education). Despite a complete lack of evidence, peer review, mission statements OR Big Pharma backing – the FOAMed revolution continues to infiltrate the psyche of the everyday healthcare professional. The ability to intelligently review, discuss and develop hypotheses, guidelines and issues; the sense of community; the sense of rebellious augmented learning and the joy of independence is rife…and contagious.

There are now an amazing 180 emergency medicine and critical care blogs. Bloggers write from 21 different countries. GMEP – ‘the Facebook of Medicine’ has just welcomed it’s 800th new member, 2 weeks after launch." http://buff.ly/12lzWzs

Here is my comment: Congratulations, Mike! These are amazing stats that illustrate an inspiring success! "Facebook of medicine", indeed. Let's keep it growing.

Do You Have Time To Blog?

Time for an update on my blogging progress.  Last month I decided to focus more on my blog topics. Here is my original post: Future Blog Topics: Family Fun.  By listing what I intended to write about I am finding that it has helped me to stay on task.  So far I have completed half of my list!  I may have to make a new list soon!  I'd love to know what your tips & tricks are for managing time for blogging.  I'm always looking for ways to get the most out of what little bits of time I can find! I found my past blog post from last year and I have come a such long way since then. Now I have Time or at least I'm much better at managing it. Yay for progress.  I could still use your tips since I have so much room for improvement!

Stay tuned for these post topics:

Mr. & Mrs. Done 11/101/12
Family Time Done 10/27/12
Balloon Animals Done 10/23/12
Moms Night Out Done 10/30/12
Halloween Done 10/29/12
Holiday Treats
30 Day Fitness Challenge
Diet & Weight Loss Done 11/08
My Marvelous Mom
Food Favorites

Enough about ME. What are YOU blogging about these days?

Numbered Page Navigation For Blogger a Simple Step

Page Navigation facilitates visitors to explore our blog and view page per page. Blogger did not facilitate page navigation. Page Navigation is a really awesome and long awaited feature. Muhammad Rias of Techie Blogger had already developed a page navigation system for blogger.It really was an awesome trick which was made at a time when nobody could even think of implementing it on blogger.It had some minor bugs and now Abu Farhan has perfected it and he has now given us the perfect page navigation solution.

For WordPress users must already be familiar with page navigation. For Blogger users let's do this.

Here are the steps:

1.Login to Blogger Dashboard and navigate to Layout > Edit Html

2.Checkbox which says 'Expand Widget Templates'

3.Now find

]]></b:skin>

and replace it with

.showpageArea {
padding:10px;
}
.showpageArea a {
text-decoration:underline;
}
.showpageNum a {
text-decoration:none;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
margin:0 5px;
padding:5px;
background:#fff;
}
.showpageNum a:hover {
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background-color:#f0f0f0;
}
.showpagePoint {
color:#333;
text-decoration:none;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background: #f0f0f0;
margin:0 5px;
padding:5px;
}
.showpageOf {
text-decoration:none;
padding:5px;
margin: 0 5px 0 0;
}
.showpage a {
text-decoration:none;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
padding:5px;
background:#fff;
}
.showpage a:hover {
text-decoration:none;
background:#f0f0f0;
}
.showpageNum a:link,.showpage a:link {
text-decoration:none;
color:#333;
}
]]></b:skin>

This is the CSS part which defines the look and feel of the page navigation.You can modify it according to your need

4.Next is the JavaScript part. Find

</body>

and replace it with

<!--Page Navigation Starts-->
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "static_page"'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var pageCount=5;
var displayPageNum=5;
var upPageWord ='Previous';
var downPageWord ='Next';
</script>
<script src='http://bloggergadgets.googlecode.com/files/blogger_pagenavi_min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</b:if>
</b:if>
<!--Page Navigation Ends -->
</body>

5.Now SAVE

How to find Blogger's blog ID number?

Sign into Blogger. In the list of blogs, tick on the blog which ID number you want (see screen shot below):

Look at the address bar with the blog URL at the top of the browser and you will see ID=1234567891011121314 as highlighted in blue in the screen shot below:

Those numbers are your blog ID number

How to change maximum number of posts in Blogger label page

Blogger has set a default maximum 20 blog posts in its label page (category page). This may or may not suit your preference or your purpose in setting up the label page. You may want to decrease it to increase download time. Alternatively, you may want to increase the maximum number of posts to show all posts with the same label (category).

If you want to change this default maximum number of post, you will have to edit the template. First, backup your blog template (Dashboard > Template > Backup (at the top right corner) > Download full template > All files)

Now you got to open the template editor (Dashboard > Template > Edit HTML). Tick [ ] Expand Widget Templates

Now use ctrl+F to help you find the following codes:

expr:href='data:label.url'

Replace the above with the following (I used the number 150 because I want all posts to be displayed in the label page. You may use other numbers in place of 150):

expr:href='data:label.url + "?max-results=5"'

Repeat this for all instances of expr:href='data:label.url' that you can find. I think for the Simple template, there will be 3 instances, so the above will have to be repeated 3 times.

When done, save template and exit.

The evolution of a physician's blog

Dr. Smith presents his research poster, which charts the tremendous growth of his eponymous blog, Dr Smith’s ECG blog. The blog is practically free to maintain, hosted by Google's service, Blogger.com, and will break 1,000,000 page views this year. The site itself represents a living and breathing, dynamic textbook: http://hqmeded-ecg.blogspot.com



Dr. Stephen W. Smith is a faculty physician in the Emergency Medicine Residency at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in Minneapolis, MN, and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

How to have a successful blog - with slow, steady growth

Tips from ProBlogger on how to have a successful blog:

- Regular useful content: Daily “how to” posts that solved problems and showed people how to achieve their goals, 90%

- Shareable content: inspirational posts, breaking news, humor, controversy, grand list posts, 5%

- Community: reader discussions, debates, polls, forum, 5%

- Email newsletter: collect people’s email addresses and send them weekly updates/newsletters

Here is a great quote from another blog: "Blogging is teaching, whether it’s yourself or others, and that’s the best feeling in the world" http://goo.gl/hCpF8

References:

2 Different Tales of Blog Growth. ProBlogger.

What is the minimal webmaster competence for running a medical blog?

"What is the minimal webmaster competence for running a medical blog?", asked a relatively new blogger recently. My suggestions are listed below.

Keep it simple, and free

If your blog content is great and compelling, you don't need much HTML, CSS, etc. knowledge. Knowing HTML doesn't hurt, of course, but it's not essential.

Keep it simple, and free. Many doctors are wrongly advised to spend time and money on custom installations of WordPress, hosting, and social media consultatants when all they need is a free Google/Blogger blog with a custom domain name.

"Blogging is teaching, whether it’s yourself or others, and that’s the best feeling in the world" 

Speaking from personal experience, my blogs reached more than 8 million page views and I've never used outside help for blog launch or maintenance. I don't think my blog content is that great or original apart from a few mind map diagrams, mnemonics and social media how-to articles - it's just my personal digital netbook that I share with the world.

I typically publish one post per day during the week at CasesBlog and AllergyNotes. They are scheduled 2-3 months in advance, and publish automatically, unless I edit them the day before they are due for posting.

"Blogging is teaching, whether it’s yourself or others, and that’s the best feeling in the world" http://goo.gl/hCpF8

Comments from Google Plus and Twitter:

Ahmad Gandour, Jan 25, 2012: This is a great advice i will consider starting a blog in the near future .you really post interesting post i check your post every day in the morning while i am checking journal watch and BEJM news letter thanks for these great post .

Ves Dimov, M.D., Jan 25, 2012: Thank you for your interest. I typically publish one post per day during the week at CasesBlog and AllergyNotes. They are scheduled 2-3 months in advance, and publish automatically, unless I edit them the day before they are due for posting.

Ahmad Gandour, Jan 25, 2012: Thanks for the info i booked marked the both pages i am going to check it every day

Ves Dimov, M.D., Jan 25, 2012: You can subscribe to the RSS feeds - this way there is no need to visit the website every day - the new post gets delivered to your RSS reader (Google Reader) or email.

Ahmad Gandour, Jan 25, 2012: Done :)

Jill Celeste, Jan 25, 2012: Blogger is the perfect tool for a doctor. Great post!

Heidi Allen @dreamingspires: What is the minimal webmaster competence for running a medical blog? casesblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-i… Keep it simple and free. Teach yourself and others

6 Reasons Why Doctors Blog

Here are the 6 Reasons Why Doctors Blog, according to Dr. John M., a cardiologist and electrophysiologist:

Here are the top six reasons why I and other doctors choose to author medical blogs:

1. The Practice of Medicine inspires
2. To educate
3. To better mankind
4. To give a look behind the curtain
5. To archive useful information
6. To display our humanness

My comment is here:

Thank you for the wonderful post and sharing insights, John.

Blogging "To better mankind" is beyond reach for me, I think. However, I hope that my blogs helped "To educate" at least some of the readers who flipped through more than 8 million pages since 2005...

Doctors are highly-qualified experts who limit their impact only to patients they see - if they don't publish, give lectures - and blog. In most cases, benefits far outweigh the risk and doctors should be encouraged to at least give it a try.

I tried to describe a practical and time-efficient approach here:

Social media in medicine: How to be a Twitter superstar and help your patients and your practice
http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/social-media-in-medicine-how-to-be.html

Blogging also keeps you grounded and humble. Critical comments prompt you to back your clinical opinion, expressed in a blog post, with solid scientific references and that's a good thing.

Comments from Google Plus:

Gary Levin, Jan 22, 2012: Ves, I agree with all of the above and welcome to G+ Let's hangout sometime soon. I will send you an invite..

Sherri Vance, Jan 22, 2012: Dr. Ves, I love your blogs. As for reasons why MDs should blog, I think the view behind the curtain (#4) is the most important. Given that our nation is weighing a myriad of conflicting viewpoints on how to fix our healthcare system, understanding these issues from the doctor's viewpoint is vital. Thanks! 

Carlo V Caballero-Uribe, Jan 26, 2012: Excelllent. I am sharing this post with my residents and students. They will discuss about it in a seminar. Many of #hscm its centered on engagement with patients and public its ok but engagement with your students and peers in several ways that social media offers its very important

As some example some of our use include:
Twitter for journal clubs
Google plus circles to clinical cases discussions
Google docs to edit papers
Slideshare for seminars presentations
Below in the link its a post about it in my blog. Sorry its in spanish but the translator helps.
Thanks for your posts and example.

http://carvica1.blogspot.com/2011/12/como-podemos-usar-las-redes-sociales-en.html

Blogging is good for you - and for most people who read blogs

From The Economist:

"Academic papers cited by bloggers are far more likely to be downloaded. Blogging economists are regarded more highly than non-bloggers with the same publishing record.

The back-and-forth between bloggers resembles the informal chats, in university hallways and coffee rooms, that have always stimulated economic research, argues Paul Krugman, a Nobel-prize winning economist who blogs at the New York Times. But moving the conversation online means that far more people can take part.

Despite the low barriers to entry, blogs do impose some intellectual standards. Errors of fact or logic are spotted, ridiculed and corrected. Areas of disagreement are highlighted and sometimes even narrowed."

Similar dynamics are in work on many medical blogs authored by physicians.

WIN-WIN, as the author of the blog "The Happy Hospitalist" likes to say.

References:

Economics blogs. A less dismal debate. The Economist, 01/2011.

Capture that idea - blogging is about ideas

We know that great things start with a small idea and yet not all ideas that occur to us are able to see the light of day in terms of a considered piece of writing. But if you are into blogging then you will know that once a great idea is there a great blog post is just a little more time away. And we all would have experienced how difficult it can be to come up with an idea on demand. Even for some of the very creative ones amongst us.

Though once we recognize that ideas are of great importance we can learn to respect them and treat them with care so that ideas that occur to us do not evaporate away as other events in our life pile up one on top of the other.

So what can one do to increase our ability to care for our ideas? Well to start with one must recognize that a good idea does not come all fleshed out in great detail, it usually comes along as a seed of an idea that we then build it into a great idea. Once we have a great idea we care for it and perhaps may jot it down, but while it is still a seed we may not be as careful and there would be seeds of ideas that occurred to us but were later forgotten and were never allowed to evolve further. And that is not the best way for a blog writer. A better way is to jot down every seed of an idea as it occurs to us in a fleeting manner. For doing this you can use a pen and paper handy or you could use your cell phone to record a brief line about the seed of the idea which you can use later to refresh your memory.

Later when we have more time we can check out the thoughts that we have jotted down and start to develop them further. This method will allow us to do justice to all ideas that occur to us without worrying about how to remember them.

I often need to write on digital scales and if a fleeting though occurs to me I use my cell phone and speak out the idea briefly. Later I do the research related to the idea and write out the full article. I hope you find this approach useful as well.

Author bio : Mark Floyd has over 15 years experience in the digital scales industry. He has been a part of it, as better products have been launched over the years & have changed how weight is measured around the world. You can know more about floor scale, NTEP floor scale and other scales at his web site www.buyfloorscale.com.

A blog can help your career - and even if it doesn't, it's still good for you

From CNN:

There is strong evidence that people who use their blog as a career tool do better. In 2005, a Pew survey found that people who blog are generally higher earners. People who use social media end up finding jobs that are a better fit.

Changing your career and skipping entry-level positions can be easier if you have a blog.

Most importantly, a blog is a great platform for networking. Just look at this picture from the annual CME meeting Essentials of EM 2011.

A blog is a good way to meet other people who think like you do and who are in your field. It helps you to make real connections with them based on ideas and passions.

Social media use allows you to focus your connections on other top performers, since blogging about career topics probably self-selects for engaged and motivated people.

Social media in medicine: How to be a Twitter superstar and help your patients and your practice

The key concept is TIC, Two Interlocking Cycles:

- Cycle of Patient Education
- Cycle of Online Information and Physician Education

The two cycles work together as two interlocking cogwheels (TIC).



Cycle of Patient Education (click here to enlarge the image). An editable copy for your presentation is available at Google Docs.



Cycle of Online Information and Physician Education (click here to enlarge the image). An editable copy for your presentation is available at Google Docs. Feel free to use the images in your own presentations with credit to AllergyCases.org.



References:

Blog your way to a better career. CNN.

Social media in medicine: How to be a Twitter superstar and help your patients and your practice

Patients directed to online tools don't necessarily use them: 25% checked website vs. 42% read same material on paper. Am Medical News, 2012.

Comments from Twitter:

Julie Meadows-Keefe @esq140: Challenge is finding time.

A doctor admits: "I love to blog but I still don’t really know why"

From Mike Cadogan, the founder of one the most popular medical blogs Life in The Fast Lane, based in Australia:

I blog to vent, to educate, to converse, to cogitate, to archive thoughts and to stimulate discussion.

I love the concept of a launching a thought, an image, a moment… into the inferno of the blogosphere, and observing the response.

With the average blog-reader attention span being around 90 seconds, I find that most of my ‘good’ posts – thoroughly researched, with well constructed arguments and propositions… are lost on this ‘average‘ reader… Yet, strangely I feel better having taken the time to arrange my thoughts, review the evidence and archive the information.

The advent of Facebook and Twitter has changed the way readers comment and share, and in many cases the promoted discussion continues out-with the confines of the original medium…

I love to blog but I still don’t really know why…

My reply is here:

You blog because you have to, Mike. And we are lucky to have you as a writer.

I have more prosaic and simple reasons to keep several blogs focused on different aspects of clinical practice: internal medicine, allergy and immunology, pediatrics, and IT.

I simply blog as a way to keep track of the new developments in medicine that are relevant to my practice and patients. The blog is a digital notebook and an archive accessible from any place and device with an internet connection.

A lot of people find it useful and that's great but this is an added bonus. If I don't find a blog post interesting and useful, I don't hit the "publish" button. A custom-made Google search engine makes it all searchable in 0.2 seconds. It just works.

Quotes from an interview with Seth Godin and Tom Peters:

"Blogging is free. It doesn’t matter if anyone reads it. What matters is the humility that comes from writing it. What matters is the metacognition of thinking about what you’re going to say.

No single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life, it has changed my perspective, it has changed my intellectual outlook, it’s changed my emotional outlook.

And it’s free."



Comments from Google Plus:

Neil Mehta - Loved your poetic post. I attempted to reflect on this earlier this year and came up with some reasons http://blogedutech.blogspot.com/2011/05/reflections-on-why-do-i-blog.html but find that it does not come close to your beautiful prose. Thanks for sharing.

References:

Why I Blog?
Why I Blog: Andrew Sullivan from The Atlantic Shares His Thoughts on Blogging
Why Do I Blog?
Why blog? Notes from Dr. RW. A perfectly reasonable list. All doctors should consider blogging. It's do-it-yourself CME.
"One of the best decisions I’ve made in my career was to start a blog and a wiki, leaving a paper trail of ideas" http://bit.ly/GX7Z6C

Why you shouldn't close your blog and Twitter account

A few months ago, @Doctor_V and an anonymous doctor on Twitter had an argument, she closed her account and now DrV's blog is the only one left to tell the story: http://goo.gl/mIS3N

I understand and appreciate the arguments of both parties. However, when she deleted her Twitter account, we lost one side of the story forever.

All doctors should consider having online presence because they need to tell their side of the story.

For example, if the majority of pediatricians had blogs, the false autism/immunization link would not have become accepted by celebrities and misled a large part of the general public.

Comments from Google Plus:

Arin Basu: Excellent point by Ves about how false findings spread (read the bit about immunization and autism). I think by the same stretch of logic, I'd strongly vouch for clinician-epidemiologists, and epidemiologists should have their own blogs, and take part in social media more often and raise awareness about findings and interpretation of studies. Well said, Ves.

Related reading:

Why blog? Notes from Dr. RW. A perfectly reasonable list. All doctors should consider blogging. It's do-it-yourself CME.

TIME

I've noticed that lately all I've been posting is "Wordless Wednesday" posts! My excuse has been lack of time. It IS the truth. However, I cannot call myself a blogger if I haven't been blogging! I truly WANT to but I just can find a moment to sit down & get my thoughts together. I am tired of being silenced by time (lack of time that is).  I am putting this in writing so HOPEFULLY I can hold myself to this:

I will BLOG more often!

THERE, I've said it. Please pray for me that I can do it!

How do YOU find time to keep up with your blogging?  P L E A S E share your tips. I need help.

Photo Credit: Google Images

Note: I have a 16 month old, I work 40 hrs/week outside of the home, and I'm 40 years old! Some (MOST) days I'm just too dang tired! Thankfully I have a supportive husband that helps me with the day to day things around our home.

Blogging is a happy medium and it's never too late to start

Blogging helps you grow and meet wonderful people all over the world

"What have I learned as a blogger?", a 79-year-old blogger counts the ways:

1. Blogging gives me a focus

2. Blogging helps me stay young

3. Blogging helps me meet wonderful people all over the world

4. Blogging gives me an opportunity to grow

5. Blogging has the potential to create an income

It doesn’t matter if anyone reads it

From an interview of Seth Godin and Tom Peters:

"Blogging is free. It doesn’t matter if anyone reads it. What matters is the humility that comes from writing it. What matters is the metacognition of thinking about what you’re going to say. No single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life, it has changed my perspective, it has changed my intellectual outlook, it’s changed my emotional outlook. And it’s free."



Doctor, you can be a Twitter superstar in two easy steps

Here is how to start a medical blog today: For doctors: How to start using social media. Indeed, you can be a Twitter superstar in two easy steps.

My advice for doctors who are interested in using social media for professional purposes is simple:

- Start on Twitter, expand to a blog as natural progression.

- Input your blog posts automatically to a Facebook like/fan page.

- Listen to the leading physicians, nurses and patients' voices on Twitter, and reply.

- Comment on blogs.

- Do not be afraid to share your expertise.

- Comply with HIPAA and common sense.

References

Is it Too Late to Start Blogging?

Why you should start blogging in 2011

Doctors are natural communicators - social media is extension of what they do every day

Doctors are natural communicators

My Google+ Circle labeled "Social Media in Medicine" now has 140 members - just one month after Google+ was launched. I think that's great.

Doctors are natural communicators and should do very well on social media platforms. Patients, and society in general, would only benefit from physicians who share ideas and focus on education.

Simple guidance for social media use

The suggested guidance for social media use by health professionals is very simple and based on a recent book by a nurse and social media advocate:

1. Remember the basics:

- your professional focus

- the laws around patient privacy (HIPAA in the U.S.)

- the professional standards of regulatory bodies and of your employers

2. After that, explore all the different social media tools that are out there.

Will Google+ have an effect on blogging? Undoubtedly. Will it "kill" blogging, as some have suggested? Of course not.

The Cycle of Online Information

Google+ is just another communication platform that fits nicely in what I called the "The Circle of Online Information" in 2009.

Here is how to facilitate the Rise of the ePhysican who works hand in hand with the ePatient:

1. Inbox for the web, receive information. Receive updates from selected RSS feeds (Google Reader) and Twitter accounts. See the list of suggested RSS feeds and Twitter accounts at the end of this post.

2. Digital outposts, share information on social networks. Share interesting links and ideas on the 3 main social networks, Twitter/Facebook/Google+, curate the inflow of information.

3. Get feedback. Get feedback from your followers on Twitter/Facebook/Google+, see what works.

4. Publish at your homebase, blog. Write a blog post using the ideas, updates and feedback from Twitter/Facebook/Google+. Expand on them. Aim for a blog post on Monday/Wednesday/Friday.

5. Share your expert opinion. Share the link to your blog post via RSS and the 3 main social networks, Twitter/Facebook/Google+. Go back to step 1 to continue the circle.

Different styles/same goal

The two videos below show different communication styles but both are authored by physicians who use social media as extension of their everyday practice - they educate patients and colleagues and address their questions and concern.

The first video is by an orthopedic surgeon and the second by a pediatrician. They are both gifted natural communicators.


Do your patients speak "Doctor"?


Seattle Mama Doc 101 - Teething and Fever

RSS bundles of medical news

You can use the following RSS bundles to subscribe to medical news items. The bundles are exported from my Google Reader account. They update automatically several times per day. When in Google Reader, just select the ones that you find interesting and share them on Twitter. Add your own comments to some of the tweets.

Top Twitter Doctors

This is a list of the Top Twitter Doctors arranged by specialty in alphabetical order - feel free to add your own suggestions. The list is open to anybody to edit:

Comments from Google+:

Sina Neda - Good to see that the medical community is gathering on Google+, I'm still trying to find interesting people to follow in the medical field. Also want to remind everyone that is interested in MED-networking to add your Google+ and Twitter handles on the following list.

Neil Mehta - I for one would be very sad to see blogs go away. I find them to be the best place for "quiet" reflection, where you can think, write, cite, and then present to the society for feedback - a good example for social constructionism.

Art Gross - Every new social platform is always said to kill blogging. So far none of them have. Blogging is where content is created. Twitter, Google+ is where it is shared. Although the feedback on Google+ adds a new dimension and one that should add value to blogs. BLOGGING IS NOT DEAD YET! :)

Ves Dimov - "Blogging is where content is created. Twitter, Google+ is where it is shared." - Example: "The circle of online information"

Arin Basu - To some extent Google plus is essentially a microblogging/lifestreaming platform. As you wrote, it will change blogging but don't see how blogging will go away.

Related reading

Assessing Patients' Interest in Social Media: 83% used it, 56% wanted providers to use social media http://goo.gl/yD63V
The central part of medicine is patients - don't push them out of social media

For doctors: How to be a Twitter superstar in two easy steps

How to deal with the information overload from blogs, RSS and Twitter?

29 Debates About the "Right Way" to Blog

For doctors: How to start using social media

Bloggers: Google+ is coming to annihilate you
What are the Downsides of Social Media for Doctors? Dr. Wes shares insights from 6 years of blogging

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

The Final Stretch!

While you are voting for Viva la Feminista, take a moment to also vote for the other feminist moms on the list such as my bloggy BFFs PunditMom, Gloria Feldt and Write like She Talks. There are also other fab feminists on the list too. Thanks for your support!

The central part of medicine is patients - don't push them out of social media

Clinical medicine is disappearing fast as topic for blog posts

Something happened to medical blogs in the past 6-12 months. They now seem a lot less interesting, more industrialized and aggregated. They have also become "too safe", generic and detached for regular reading.

There seems to be a rise of group blogs, guest posts and semi-syndicated contents. Several "clinic-focused" health bloggers have retired due to a variety of professional and HIPAA-related concerns.

It looks like clinical medicine is disappearing fast as a topic for blog posts in the U.S., replaced by posts about social media itself. As a side note, "social media" is actually a plural noun (media vs. medium), but it seems to be used mostly in singular form nowadays.

The central part of medicine is patients - don't push them out of social media

The central part of medicine is patients. Yet, we tell doctors: "never, ever blog about patients". This somewhat misguided advice displaces the most important part of the equation - the patients themselves.

Some health bloggers claim that we have to "aim above HIPAA" to avoid privacy breaches and comply with the highest standard of professionalism required by our occupation as physicians. How high "above HIPAA" is good enough though? In most clinical scenarios, the compliance with omitting the 18 unique HIPAA identifiers strikes the right balance.

Physicians must maintain appropriate boundaries of the patient-physician relationship in accordance with professional ethical guidelines just, as they would in any other context. When physicians see content posted by colleagues that appears unprofessional they have a responsibility to bring that content first to the attention of the individual, so that he or she can remove it and/or take other appropriate actions. If the behavior significantly violates professional norms and the individual does not take appropriate action to resolve the situation, the physician should report the matter to appropriate authorities (Source: AMA Policy: Professionalism in the Use of Social Media, 2011; my edits are in bold in the text above).

Different standards for individual doctors vs. health system conglomerates

There seems to be a discrepancy of the methods employed by doctors and institutions when using social media. We tell doctors: "never answer patient questions on Twitter". Yet, Cleveland Clinic runs regular Twitter chats soliciting patient questions which are then answered by doctors and healthcare personnel. Mayo Clinic and other institutions do the same.

A blog is your notebook for lifelong learning

Don't forget the most important thing: A blog is your notebook for lifelong learning. Doctors learn from their patients every day. Patients learn from their doctors every day too. Both groups must try their best to excel in the joint quest to achieve the best possible outcome.

Comments from Twitter

@scanman (Vijay): 3 doctors, @kmathan @razmohan & I, set up a twitter account @DrTamil to answer medical queries from Tamil tweeters.

@DrVes: You know the comment that you are going to get, right? "It will never happen here."

@DrVes: New trend: Hospitals tell doctors-in-training point-blank during orientation: "Don't blog. Don't tweet." Consequently, interns close blogs and Twitter accounts (confirmed via email from a trainee).

@macobgyn (MacArthur Obgyn) why do you think that is?

@SarahStewart (SarahStewart): I wonder if medical blogs are reacting to fear of litigation etc.

@DrVes: I'm sure they are. The community itself is not making things easier either.

@Skepticscalpel (Skeptical Scalpel): You're reading the wrong blogs. Try mine http://skepticalscalpel.blogspot.com

@CardioNP (Cardio NP): mirroring medicine in general? Agree w you re blogs; miss the early years ~2004-5. Agree skeptic that ur blog is a nice welcome addition

@marciovm (marcio von muhlen): will change as social media permeates society, informed consent will be feasible re: sharing medical info. Difficult to explain now.

@scanman (Vijay) This tweet - http://bit.ly/mpPL0P - by @DrVes, one of the most consistent medical bloggers, was meant for the Social Media Moral Police.

@vincristine (Vincristine): Who is 'we'? I imagine doctors will tweet what, where and how they choose to tweet, no matter what 'we' say

@laikas Laika (Jacqueline): A lot of interesting observations by @DrVes on the evolvement of medical blogs & social media use. I will take up my #FF habit #ff @DrVes

References

“The powers of medicines and the practice of healing - to exercise the quiet art” - Virgil, Aeneid http://goo.gl/5BUb3

The making of a modern physician - The Lancet http://goo.gl/SYfTu

Strictly speaking, “Doctor” is a word incorrectly applied to most medical practitioners http://goo.gl/wjA0S

Despite the dire warnings, use of social media among emergency physicians is unusually strong http://goo.gl/QlqnK

AMA Policy: Professionalism in the Use of Social Media, 2011.
Image source: Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.

Related reading

Why I became an oncologist - by the president of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists - a patient defined his professional life. CNN, 2011.

Patients can teach us so much. We must pay attention. And yet some people want to silence their voice on blogs and Twitter.
Keeping all regulations in mind, a medical student soon finds there is nothing to blog about: http://goo.gl/541pj
HIPAA found in Hippocratic Oath: Keep the patients’ secrets a secret. Also: My colleagues will be my brothers and sisters http://bit.ly/pGObLI

Disclaimer

I am the Editor-in-Chief of several case-based curricula of medicine and related specialties. This is the information regarding patient data: There is no real life patient data on this website. Please note: we do not write or “blog” about patients. All case descriptions are fictional, similar to the descriptions you can find in a multiple choice questions textbook for board exam preparation. Case courses and descriptions do not follow real cases.