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Diabetes Advocate Asks PR Companies To Stop Exploiting Patient Bloggers

January 12th, 2010 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, Medblogger Shout Outs, Opinion, Patient Interviews
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Quick post to the PR professionals in the healthcare sphere:

When someone dies, it is terrible tragedy.  That person leaves behind a family, loved ones, and – especially when they die young – their future.  If someone dies as a result of diabetes, or due to complications from diabetes, or from something else entirely but they happened to have diabetes, and you decide to exploit their death to gain pageviews for your website?  (See also:  Brittany Murphy, Casey Johnson)

Come on.

There’s a difference between passing on information that could help people improve their lives, and then there’s pure, TMZ-style exploitation.   Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*

Flu Shots: Another Vocal Minority Influences The Media Disproportionately

December 1st, 2009 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Opinion
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My position on the H1N1 flu vaccine is clear: everyone should get it.

But not every physician shares that sentiment. The Washington Post reports that there are a minority who are unconvinced of the vaccine’s safety and believe the H1N1 pandemic is over-hyped.

Worse, they aren’t vaccinating their patients. And when you’re talking about pediatricians, that can mean trouble for their patients; children who are most susceptible to the damage caused by H1N1. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*