Pharmacy & Therapeutics - March 2009 - (Page 154) COMMENTARY: Health Care Blog Watch IS THERE A DOCTOR ON THE BLOG? Not everyone in the health care community has been hesitant to hop on the blogging bandwagon. Physicians increasingly have been turning to blogging as a way to share patient cases, discuss medical studies, and vent about tort reform, reimbursement rates, and other concerns that affect their clinical practice. Kevin MD (www.kevin.md.com/blog) is one of the most famous bloggers in this niche. He is Dr. Kevin Pho, a New Hampshire internist who writes candidly about a wide range of topics from unusual medical cases to health policy. At another popular site, Musings of a Distractible Mind (http://distractible.org), Robert Lambert, MD, of Georgia (also known as Dr. Rob) ponders topics both light-hearted and serious. In one recent post that elicited comments from The New York Times and several other bloggers, Dr. Rob raises the question of how physicians should approach their overweight patients: Perhaps I am too easy on people, but I don’t like to lecture people on things they already know. …Obese people are rarely under the impression that it is perfectly fine that they are overweight. They rarely are surprised to hear a person saying that their weight is at the root of many of their problems. Obese people are the new pariahs in our culture; it used to be smokers, but now it is the overweight. for the latest information about symptoms, diagnoses, and therapies for a particular disease or condition. Diabetes Mine (www.diabetesmine.com), a widely read and award-winning site, is written by Amy Tenderich, a self-described “patient pundit,” who looks at the disease from all angles. In one guest post on her blog, a compliance analyst at a major drug company discusses the new regulating laws and policies concerning pharmaceutical activities and their impact on patients and providers. Another site garnering praise is Chronic Babe (www. chronicbabe.com), an online community for younger women with chronic health problems. Created by a freelance writer with fibromyalgia and asthma, this trendy, uplifting blog offers patients hundreds of resources designed to help them “keep on being a Babe,” even with their chronic illnesses. Patient blogs obviously offer a venue for personal expression and peer emotional support, but they are also changing the way patients educate themselves. In a post at PatientsLikeMe (http://blog.patientslikeme.com), an online social network where patients can share their personal health data, blogger Lori Scanlon writes: Patients are talking with one another about treatment and symptoms experiences to achieve better living. Our patient members today feel empowered to take back their health, and this kind of commitment will lead to better research, better health care and better quality of life. Many medical bloggers choose to remain anonymous, such as GruntDoc (http://gruntdoc.com), a Texas emergency medicine physician, who contemplates everything from his DirectTV service to the spate of emergency medical helicopter crashes over the years, as documented in Annals of Emergency Medicine (2006;47:351–356). Meanwhile, the anonymously written Notes from the Countr y Doctor (www. notesfromcountrydoctor.blogspot.com) offers a glimpse into rural family medicine, with one post poignantly describing a time that the blogger gave an obstetrical patient and her two young boys a ride home so they would not have to walk an hour and a half in the rain. Blogging allows physicians and other health care providers to connect in a humane and almost intimate way with their patients and peers, but there is also a potential downside to this pastime. Some worry that medical blogging often steps too close to the limits of patient privacy and claim that discussing a specific case on a blog can sometimes be traced back to the patient through identifiable information. Many medical blogs now include not only disclaimers but also advice for other bloggers on how to comply with HIPAA privacy rules and how to avoid potential liability lawsuits. In addition, a new ethical code has been designed specifically for bloggers in health care. The Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics (HBCE) (http://medbloggercode.com) allows bloggers to identify the standards covering topics pertaining to confidentiality, privacy, and commercial disclosure. Both medical and patient bloggers can apply for HBCE membership and can display its logo on their sites. Although patients’ blogs are still new, they already appear to be having a positive effect on bloggers’ own health. Indeed, a study of 50 blogs by cancer patients concluded that writing about the rigors of their illness online seemed to help them cope.2 These personal blogs can also offer valuable information to health care providers about patients’ experiences, opinions, habits, and actions. In another study, researchers used a blog search engine (www.blogsearch.google.com) to find more than 100 blogs of patients with uveitis.3 By reading the blogs, the researchers were able to identify the most common sources of patients’ anxiety, providing insight into how physicians might better treat and counsel individuals with this condition. There is no doubt that blogs are here to stay; they have already crossed the threshold into mainstream acceptance.4 The health care community, in particular, is ripe for blogging and is looking for new ways to promote transparency, to educate and empower patients, and to enhance the exchange of ideas among physicians and other health care providers. And although health-related sites still account for a small percentage of the blogosphere, they are emerging rapidly and poised to have a significant impact on the health care industry. REFERENCES 1. Scoble R, Israel S. Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. New York: Wiley; 2006. 2. Munshi N. Cancer blogs become part of treatment. Boston Globe, August 20, 2008. 3. Mehta SA. What can physicians learn from the blogs of patients with uveitis? Ocul Immunol Inflamm 2007;15:421–423. 4. State of the blogosphere—2008. Technorati. Available at: http:// technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere. Accessed November 1, 2008. I PATIENTS BLOG FOR HEALTH According to the blog search engine Technorati, hundreds of thousands of patient blogs are out there, serving as sources 154 P&T® • March 2009 • Vol. 34 No. 3 http://www.diabetesmine.com http://kevin.md.com/blog http://www.chronicbabe.com http://www.chronicbabe.com http://distractible.org http://blog.patientslikeme.com http://gruntdoc.com http://www.notesfromcountrydoctor.blogspot.com http://www.notesfromcountrydoctor.blogspot.com http://www.blogsearch.google.com http://medbloggercode.com http://www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere http://www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere
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