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The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) Bloggers Join The Better Health Team!

It is with great pleasure that I welcome our CDC colleagues to the Better Health blog team. Going forward, Better Health will feature content from the CDC blogs on a weekly basis, and our collaborative efforts will be highlighted on the CDC blog pages as appropriate.

Better Health and the CDC share a common mission: to reach as many Americans as possible with scientifically accurate, trustworthy, and helpful medical information. As social media platforms (such as blogs, Twitter, and Facebook) become a gathering place for people seeking health information – it is important for experts to be able to provide content through these channels. The CDC’s relationship with Better Health is an excellent example of a public-private partnership that can magnify reach and relevance.

By becoming a content partner with Better Health, the CDC joins a prestigious international team of physicians, nurses, health experts and patient advocates, including notable organizations such as the American College of Physicians blogs, Harvard Health Publications, Diario Medico, Healthline, the Center For Advancing Health, and the Columbia University Department of Surgery. Read more »

Cancer Patient Threatened With Legal Action Because He Blogged About Bad Hospital Experience

I’ve recently come across a really controversial story about a cancer patient who blogged and complained about his hospital treatment and has been threatened with legal action by an NHS trust.

Daniel Sencier was worried about delays at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary and had surgery at another hospital. He complained to North Cumbria University Hospital Trust and it came up with an action plan to improve care.

But Mr Sencier, 59, of Penrith, then received a letter threatening legal action. The trust declined to comment.

Mr Sencier, a photography student, had expected an apology but then received a letter saying the trust would consider legal action if his blog contained “unsubstantiated criticism”.

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

Five Fresh Medical Bloggers

I love finding new physician voices.  Here are a few that I’ve been peeking at over the past couple months.  They’re worth checking out.

Linda Pourmassina.  Linda is an internist in Seattle and one of the finest writers in the medical blogosphere.   You can find her over at Pulsus where she offers commentary on an eclectic mix of medical goodness ranging from social media to the subtleties of patient interaction.  Really good stuff.  Check out The Internet and Delusional Thinking.  Beyond her blog, Linda’s Twitter output is the perfect balance of valuable links and dialog.  Put her in your feed and she’ll bring you good things.

Chris Porter.  Chris is a surgeon who has been writing at On Surgery, Etc. since April.  This guy has an incredible voice and offers rare insight into the experience of the surgeon.  He has a remarkable way of seeing medicine at its most granular level.  When he corrals his narrative in just the right way I expect we may see him on the new release table at Barnes & Noble.  Check out his experience as a surgeon in Guatemala.  And from the narrow column Blogger template to the liberal use of crazy images, his site offers the raw feel of some of the vintage medical bloggers.  His bio reflects the mindset of a next-gen physician: I’m Phoenix-based and world oriented.  How can you resist that? Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Blogging Guidelines For Physicians

There’s been quite a kerfuffle over the “Unprofessional” post Dr V wrote. A lot of people have been very shrill in denouncing physicians who write about their experiences using social media — blogs, twitter, facebook, etc — with particular emphasis on those who do not use their real names.

So, while I won’t tell someone how they should blog/tweet, or try to impose my vision of professional standards on a community that clearly is still coming to consensus with public conversations by healthcare workers, I will offer you my personal guidelines and values that I use in determining what I am willing to put into the public domain. These are just my opinions; your mileage may vary.

As a general principle: patients give physicians and nurses access to intimate details of their lives and they have a reasonable and valid expectations that we will respect their privacy and dignity. When using social media, that does need to be maintained. How you do that requires careful attention and may be controversial regardless of your approach.

Don’t blog or tweet anything that you wouldn’t want you boss/hospital administration to read. Stress test yourself by informing your employer or CEO about your blog and invite them to read it. That will keep you honest! Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*

Why Family Medicine Needs Social Media

I wasn’t able to attend the Annual Leadership Forum (ALF) and the National Conference of Special Constituencies (NCSC) meetings in person this year. This is an annual meeting in Kansas City put on by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). I know that it can be hard to believe that someone actually likes going to a meeting. However, for me, these meetings always re-energize me and connect me with people with a passion for Family Medicine.

In 2010, there were only a few of us utilizing social media tools like twitter and facebook (including my blog posts from Thursday & Friday). However, just a year later, there seems to have been an explosion of people utilizing these platforms to a point yesterday when I saw a bunch of people signing up for the first time during the meeting. Even members of the AAFP Board of Directors were creating twitter accounts yesterday. Wow!

I really believe that this year, 2011, is when the Family Medicine community will more fully embrace social media, not only as a means of socialization, but also as a means of advocacy for our specialty. Here are some other reasons why I believe that Family Medicine needs social media: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Family Medicine Rocks Blog - Mike Sevilla, MD*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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