I was asked recently to contribute to an article in our hospital’s medical staff news. The article is intended to take a brief look at the use of blogs in medical practice. Since I’m one of the younger staff members and also one of the more tech-friendly, I was pinpointed as someone to approach about this topic.

Now frankly, I can’t imagine practicing medicine without the internets. I rarely have to reach for a reference text anymore since I usually have a computer terminal readily accessible. I get regular emails updating me on the latest medical developments and studies. But as for blogs - well, I can’t say I get a heck of a lot of medical info from them. Sure, Medgadget is fun for the technophile in me, but I don’t get nearly as much relevant medical info there as I do from - say - Up to Date. And most medically-oriented blogs talk predominantly about patient anecdotes as opposed to the overarching studies that drive their care. But as I thought more and more about the usefulness of medical blogs, something occurred to me. I can read about meta-analyses and health care policy all day, but it’s still nice to hear about the actual practice of medicine from another human being in the trenches.  Medicine is still practiced between individual human beings with all their emotions, personality quirks, and biases, and these blogs help remind us of that.  So thanks to Orac, Shadowfax, and all those others out there who tell it like it is.  Keep up the good work.

Respectful Insolence

Movin’ Meat

Ten out of Ten

WhiteCoat Rants

Side note: Why is it that ER docs seem to blog more than any other specialty?