The Bloggers in Healthcare
Most of today’s comments posted on the never ending list of healthcare related blogs seem to fall into two distinct categories, those that ponder and those that protest the issues of the day. Those that ponder tend to reiterate the healthcare news of the day incorporating an individual perspective that emanates from an industry leader, healthcare professional, or other personality that has dealings close to the issues we see. Much of the postings purport similar issues with varying perspectives. Some offer possible solutions while others pose questions that most of us have but no real plausible answers to the issues they describe. Some of my own postings on this site and others have posed questions regarding changing our current healthcare delivery method but without any substantive offer of resolve. Clearly the issues of healthcare today are not easily mitigated; otherwise we would not be in the mess we are in.
The other popular blog content relating to healthcare seems to be generated by healthcare professionals that work in the clinical environment. The prose here quite often has a bite to it, describing the woes of healthcare providers after a day of dealing with the infirmed or injured public. Some of the content relates to the actual business dealings of healthcare where providers are venting their frustrations about the free market system we have. Paperwork, claim forms, reimbursement rates, collections, overhead, and other business related issues are all fair game.
In some ways this volley of issues is comparable to a perpetual tennis match, where the ball is represented by healthcare and the two players are represented by the common blog contents. Back and forth, back and forth, after awhile it seems pointless to continue, but it keeps going.
Issue after issue is dissected ad nauseam. Commentary and analysis are provided free of charge for anyone who will lend a moment of time, and a click of the mouse. Each frustrating moment of the previous clinical day for many bloggers is laid out like a cathartic, a venting of pent up pressure from dealing with some of the more mind numbing issues that many providers deal with daily.
Periodically our postings are paid tribute to with brief comments from others. Other times our literary efforts go without notice it would seem except for the efforts of Google Analytics, StatCounter, and other webpage tool applications.
Healthcare bloggers are a subculture of healthcare, obsessed with the keyboard and undying desire to acquire an audience. We commend those few each year that have articulated well, provided keen insight, or have garnered popularity within the catacombs of the World Wide Web with “blogger awards”. The coveted blogger award, nothing more than a few lines of html code proudly displayed on the recipient’s home page for all to see. A validation of sorts indicating that their content ranks above others within the community. Clearly a true calling for a few, a hobby for others, a coping mechanism I suspect for many, healthcare blogging as well as other blogging is all the rage.
About the Author
Mike Pringle is the author of Healthcare Today where he offers commentary and insight regarding today’s healthcare issues. Additionally he provides regular commentary for Red Scrubs and editorial content for Future Healthcare. He has over 20 years of nursing experience working both domestically and internationally. Mike has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and a Masters Degree in Public Administration with a Healthcare emphasis. He specializes in both Emergency and Critical Care Nursing. He currently works at Falmouth Hospital as a Shift Manager for the emergency department.
RedScrubs’ Weekly Wrap-up, April 11, 2008 - RedScrubs responds:
Posted: April 11th, 2008 at 6:42 am →
[…] Scrubby Winner: The Bloggers in Healthcare. By Mike Pringle. […]
Dr. Incognito responds:
Posted: April 11th, 2008 at 12:00 pm →
Mike,
Congratulations on the Scrubby Award. You write a great many articles and are often in contention.
Enjoy our glorious limelight!
Dr. Incognito
Dan responds:
Posted: June 18th, 2008 at 10:16 pm →
The Prevention of Ignorance
Historically, information sources provided to American citizens were limited due to the few methods available to the public. And also this information was subject to being filtered and, in some cases, delayed. This occurred for a number of reasons, which included political ones. What I am referring to is pre-internet sources, such as media sources in the form of radio, newspaper, and television, for example.
Now, and with great elation (some may say), there is the internet.
Soon after the advent of the internet, web logs were created, that are termed presently and simply ‘blogs’. At that time, about a decade ago, the blogs were referred to as personal journals or diaries visible on line. As time passed, blogs became a media medium, and blog communities evolved on topics that often were not addressed in mainstream media. In addition, blogs provide immediate contributions by others instead of the cumbersomeness of opinion and editorial pieces historically and not always presented in such media forms as newspapers.
The authors of blogs vary as far as the backgrounds of the creators of these journals, as well as their true intent of what they choose to present to possible readers. Furthermore, they are not exonerated from the legalities of what is written, such as cases of libel or plagiarism, for example. While we can presume that blog creators have at least an interest in a particular subject, ideally they should also have an interest and ability to annotate the written word. As with other printed material, the quality varies, as editing, I believe, is rare as far as what is posted on blogs.
Yet presently, blogs have become quite a driving force for those with objectives often and apparently opposed by others, and are possibly and particularly a great threat to big business and politics- both of which have been known to often monitor often the progress and/or content of some blogs, which potentially provide instant and often accurate information for readers- which includes what is posted on blogs as well as what may be commented on these posts. Understandably, this weapon certainly has the potential to affect such groups unable to prevent or filter what could expose what has not been disclosed, and at times needs to be disclosed. Rarely do blogs involve trade secrets, for example, as far as I know
This also and fortunately includes information released from whistleblowers on certain blogs or directly to the creators of certain blogs- often and with good reason to remain invisible in doing so, as there have been such cases already through this blog medium- which is similar to YouTube, only blogs reflect what is written and not viewed.
Yet, blogs are not free of fallacies, as one disadvantage of blogs is the potential lack of reliability, blogs however do allow the posting of documents that typically are not created for view of others besides perhaps a select few. Furthermore, blog owners, as with journalists, strive to verify any premise stated on their blog. For example, blogger Dr. Peter Rost, a whistleblower himself, not long ago posted a newsletter on his blog site given to him by pharmaceutical maker AstraZeneca employees who called themselves the ‘AZ Group of Seven’ to bring to the attention to others the illegal activity of off-label promotion of one of their cancer drugs. Yet this is not what caught the attention of so many with all of the content of this newsletter posted in completion on Dr. Rost’s blog site, “Question Authority”. It was instead a comment that was annotated as being stated by former regional AZ manager Mike Zubalagga, who in this newsletter referred to doctors’ offices as ‘buckets of money’. Again, the statement was authentic and in writing in this newsletter. At the same time, the statement validated what others view of pharmaceutical companies in relation to their greed, perhaps
Mr. Zubalagga was fired the next day due to this comment. His manager resigned soon afterwards.
And there have been other whistleblower blog cases in addition to this one, so blogs have become a very powerful and threatening medium of information release that does not allow others to prevent such releases. This is true freedom of information, free of alteration or omission. One could say that blogs are reaching a form of some sort of communication utopia. Also, as with the case just stated about the newsletter, some are more careful what is written than others.
Yet again, the information on these blogs should not be taken as absolute truth without proof to verify claims that may be made. Of course, documents that are authentic are in fact proof, as illustrated with the above example. And this, in my opinion, is the blog’s greatest value, combined with the comments on blogs from the growing number of readers who are allowed to contribute to the subject matter so quickly, which fuels the objectives of the blogs, which clearly opens formerly closed loops.
Because we, the public, have a right to know what we are entitled to know and what we want to know. This is especially true if the information could potentially be adverse to our well-being. Personally, I have no interest in the financial future of a company, for example. More important to me is the importance of knowing if others may potentially harm others with deliberate intent.
“Information is the seed of an idea, and only grows when it’s watered.” — Heinz V. Berger
Dan Abshear
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