Medical Blogging: One Physician's Journey

Blogging can be hard work. I know this from experience, although admittedly I don't spend as much time on this blog as many "professional" bloggers do on theirs. And while this blog primarily deals with technology and social media concepts that I hope are educational and useful for physicians, I am not a physician and so I don't tackle specific medical topics. I leave that to the experts, like KevinMD, DocV, and others. I've previously written about the importance and potential of social media for educational purposes, and I have highlighted several physician bloggers that I like to follow and included lists, like I did here and again here. Go check it out if you want to get some examples or if you missed those posts.

Any physician considering doing a blog or whose practice or institution is considering hosting a blog needs to think about a number of questions. For example: what exactly does it take to do a physician blog and do it right? What's the time commitment for the blogger? For the host or editor? How often should they post? What are the pros, cons, pitfalls, and benefits of offering blogs on a practice or institutional web site? What sort of ground rules for the blogger should be established about what is and is not appropriate? What level of oversight or editing/review is required?  What are the legal risks or concerns? Should it be focused on physicians or patients, or both? And of course, there are many more considerations.

Some (not all) of these questions are addressed below in a very thought-provoking lecture by Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBe, FAAP -- the blogger for "Seattle Mama Doc" at http://seattlemamadoc.seattlechildrens.org/, a blog hosted by Seattle Children's Hospital. In the video, she shares her motivations for doing the blog, what sort of time commitment it requires, what kind of attention (positive and negative) it has garnered for her and her institution, and most importantly, she gives a real, down-to-earth introspective look at what a blog can accomplish in education, awareness, and knowledge building for her patients -- in some cases saving her time as a physician seeing patients. 

A couple of caveats: the lecture is about 50 minutes long -- but I think you'll find that it's worth the time spent. Also, you have to sit through an advertisement before the lecture starts. Everything comes at a price.

Here's a direct link to the video in case it's not streaming through: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10193223

The description of the video lecture: 

One Physician's Journey on Social Media.

Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBe, FAAP is a board certified pediatrician, blogger, freelance journalist, and mother. Dr. Swanson believes practicing physicians have an ethical duty to move science forward by telling their stories and sharing opinions online. She maintains a busy pediatric practice while exploring and using social media to expand her impact. She started Seattle Mama Doc, the first pediatrician-authored blog for a major children's hospital at Seattle Children's Hospital in November 2009. She now uses Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, her blog, and her voice to improve pediatric health care communication. She works to dispel myth and bring science back to the forefront by harnessing the power of social media. Recorded on 10/11/10

 So what do you think? Does this make you want to blog for your patients or peers?

About the Author

Stephen Welch

Senior Vice President, Communications
Executive Editor, CHEST

This blog, "It Ain't Rocket Surgery" is intended to help busy health-care professionals find useful online and mobile resources that will enhance their self-education and professional research efforts, or point out important topics of discussion related to online information and content. The blog's title is a Yogi Berra style mash-up of two common phrases, "it ain't brain surgery" and "it ain't rocket science". I hope it will be casual, fun, insightful, and -- most of all -- educational.

You can follow me on Twitter. 

I currently serve ACCP as the Senior Vice President of Communications, as well as the Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. During my 15 years here, ACCP has focused on growing and developing the editorial, technological, and business aspects of the College. We are constantly striving to make the journal and other ACCP educational content as accessible and useful to clinicians as possible.

When not at work, I like to spend time scuba diving with sharks, collecting original comic book artwork, exploring the digital world, and searching for good BBQ.

Your feedback about the blog is always appreciated. So are tips on good BBQ joints.