Grand Rounds #44: What do medbloggers do?
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Pirate modeSo, here I am hosting the premiere carnival for medbloggers and, well, I'm not a medblogger myself. I'm not qualified! When this flood of links came pouring in, I was at a loss about what to do with them all, until I realized that as an outsider, I could act as an objective observer and use this as an opportunity to figure out what the heck these people do with their time. All I had to assume was that the submissions were a representative sample of their efforts and interests (there couldn't possibly be anything wrong with that assumption, could there?), and voila, I could quantify what they do.
Here you go, the list of entries sent to me in the last week and a half, broken down into categories and quantified by the percentage of submissions.
| Training! Doctors seem to spend a fair amount of time wondering why they became a doctor, and how to train more doctors. | |
| 24.2% |
Red State Moron explains how he got where he is: Helplessness, fear, self blame, and isolation, 2; Or why I became a physician. Dr. Charles reminisces about his first cadaver in White Silken Ribbons. Now I understand that look the doctor gave me at my last physical! Aggravated DocSurg asks, Can You Teach a Surgeon to Fly an F-16? Actually, he doesn't plan to load doctors into fighter planes, but wonders if some air force training methods might not be applicable to medicine. HealthyConcerns has a new nephew with some minor problems: BlogNephew born. Yay! With jaundice. Bummer! And confusion... This sparks another post, all wondering how patients will get essential information. Worrisome line: "…shouldn't the rates for doctors start to go down, since the Internet has alleviated the need for them to actually explain as much?" I wonder if Google has encouraged more people to assume they know better than their M.D.s? Health business blog also takes the patient's view and wonders if More care is not necessarily better care. She's worried about how to assess doctors and treatments. |
| Thinking! This is good news—doctors seem to think about what they are doing. | |
| 24.2% |
Genetics and Public Health Blog considers the PRKCB1 Gene and Autism. I agree, simple genetic causes are way oversold for complex syndromes. Information is free critically reviews an over-interpreted paper in Dopamine and gambling? This is another case of leaping to simplistic causes for complex behaviors. Revere of Effect Measure explains the rules of Naming Influenza Viruses. dead armadillos gives Kudos to the WaPo for publishing two great articles that discuss health care policies and the abuses of Big Pharma. Bioethics Discussion Blog asks Should Physicians Pray with Their Patients?, a discussion in several parts. As an obnoxiously atheistic person myself, let me help him out: the answer is "NO." Wasn't that simple? |
| Working! This is the stuff we usually see doctors doing. | |
| 12.1% |
straight from the doc reviews Dick Cheney's physical: An analysis. Surprise! He has a heart! Dr Andy shows off a bizarre picture of Living with half a brain. Kids, don't do drugs. GruntDoc has an x-ray of a Heroin abscess that will turn your stomach. A medical madman puts his lackeys to work with 10 Random Things I asked My Interns To Do Today. I sometimes tell my students what to do, but I've never had the opportunity to tell them to go do a rectal exam. Sounds like fun! |
| Quackery! On my side of the fence, we have to deal with creationists. Medbloggers have to swat quacks. | |
| 12.1% |
The anti-vaccination gang must be fun to deal with—I'm sure there's nothing like a righteously misinformed parent to screw up a child's health care. Respectful Insolence says, If you think it's just about mercury when it comes to vaccines, you're wrong and also describes an anti-vaccination theory conspiracy gone to humorous extremes in This is too delicious: The Vaccine Aliens Special Needs and Children in Scotland takes a look at an organic dairy product's claims in Milk with your melatonin? A little math shows that it's impractical, although it would sell an awful lot of milk. Parallel Universes considers a newspaper claim that Dark Chocos Might Be Good For Your Blood Pressure. It's not chocolate, it's flavonoids! |
| Gadgets! I'd expected that this category would be more heavily represented—most of my students who have gone on to medical careers seem to love their toys. | |
| 9.1% |
Medical Connectivity Consulting gives us An Update on Smart IV Pumps and Safety. listening to instead of readingClinical Cases and Images Blog urges all Subscribe to Medical Podcasts on Odeo. Why read blogs when you can listen to them instead? Shrinkette wonders Where's my Flapdoodle? A flapdoodle is apparently one of those obscure and oddly named instruments; it sure sounds useful, though. |
| Paying for it! Health care is expensive. Somebody has to worry about how we're going to manage it all. | |
| 9.1% |
InsureBlog discusses Risky Business, Part 1..., and how to insure those who are at high risk. hospital impact: leadership has a suggestion for Hospital Marketing: time to step it up a notch? Hospitals need better PR! Health Care Blog baffled me with PBMs: Just to keep you up to date, with UPDATE. There are a pile of TLAs in there like PBM, CMS, and PDP that don't mean what I think they mean, unless this is an article on play-by-mail content management systems on old DEC computers. |
| Playing! Even doctors need to goof off…but they don't seem to do a lot of it. | |
| 9.1% |
The Cheerful Oncologist is on vacation! So he writes about Footsteps at his summer cabin. MedGadget writes about creating interactive art with genome and protein data in Ecce Homology: Drawing with DNA Dr Tony daydreams about the future, when he will be replaced by a tiny nanobot that says, "Hi, my name is Fred." Maybe he needs a vacation. |
There you have it, a breakdown of what medbloggers do. I'm a little surprised that almost half their time is spent in existential angst and contemplating the science of their work—that must be what the doctors are doing during all that time I'm sitting in the waiting room reading Highlights and Bible Stories for Children. And no one even mentioned needles or rubber gloves and lube…maybe my sample wasn't so representative after all.
Just in case you aren't yet burned out on medblogging (go read all those articles up above first!) I do occasionally post things the medically oriented might find interesting, for example, Worms and Death, or Development, medicine, and evolution of the neck and shoulder, or Sex in the MRI, although that last one is a rare example of discussing human concerns…worms, mice, squid, and cnidarians are more my speed.
Look for next week's Grand Rounds at Alois, MD.
Great job! I really liked how you broke it down.