A recent report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, as reported on US News and World Report, found that more than half of medical blogs allowed the physicans themselves to be identified and even some patients could identify themselves from the blog entries.
Far be it from us to discourage blogging, but we certainly do encourage ethical blogging by doctors who protect patient privacy, disclose financial or other conflicts of interest, and adhere to ethical standards in regard to advertising and promoting medical products (all of which the JGIM article suggests some physician blogs failed to do).
So next time you are in your doctor’s office, you might want to casually ask: “Hey Doc, do you blog?”
Summer Johnson, PhD