Blogging

This last week, our institution hosted the 2^nd annual Mobile Computing in Medical Education conference.  Our keynote speaker, Dr. Bryan Vartabedian from Baylor, spoke eloquently about the “public physician”, and what literacies the physician of the future may need in order to succeed.  Audience members asked about how emergency medicine providers such as Dr. Zubin Damania (AKA ZDoggMD) seem to be ahead of the curve on social media and blogging.  Bryan himself later blogged about it here. 

In addition, Dr. Aaron Carroll, one of my IUSM pediatric faculty colleagues, blogs often on a variety of health care topics in today’s society.  Here is one of his recent blogs. 

Reading these helped me reflect about my own blogging and how I could do better. So what is the “secret sauce of success” related to blogging in health care?  From the examples above, it seems so simple.

Tip #1: You have to have something to write about.

Tip #1.5: If you can include a reference or a link, it adds some credibility.

Tip #2: You have to keep it short and sweet.

So here’s my attempt to take my own advice.

From #1, today’s blog is about blogging. 

From #1.5, see this reference.

From #2, I need to end this blog very soon.

If you have something to say, say it; the fewer words, the better.  Thanks for reading.

Med2.0 (#Med2) -- An Annotated List of Blogs from Med2.0

It has been almost a week since Med2.0.  For those that don’t know, Med2.0 is a conference about using technology in medicine to further and improve patient care and education.  This was my first time attending this conference.  What a wonderful experience!  I had the opportunity to meet some of my physician colleagues whom I had previously not met in real life, but that I knew through Twitter.  In addition, there were others with expertise in other areas from whom I learned so much.

Since the meeting ended, many have written blogs about their experience.  Below is just a smattering of blogs written by a few attendees, reflecting on the awesome experience.

Specific Situations

Hallway Conversations. This blog from @kidney_boy describes the evolution of an educational resource tool, Dynamed, which occurred as a result of a hallway conversation.

Blogging: The “A-HA” Moment about Online Histories.  I wrote this blog halfway through the conference, after reflecting on a panel session on patient blogging and on the importance of asking patients about how they use the internet to search for health information.

Healthcare Needs Social Media.  This blog, by a well-known blogger and pediatrician, Dr. Claire McCarthy, describes the importance of relationships and communication in medicine and how social media aids in improving these.

Thoughts on QR Codes. This blog by @kidney_boy describes how placing QR codes into slide presentations worked well (and not so well) for participants.

Online communities This blog, by @colleen_young, describes how communities through the internet can support individual participants.  Colleen also won an award at the meeting for her work in this arena.  Congrats, Colleen!

At the end

SketchNotes: This blog, by @cassiemc , includes a wonderful pictorial sketch that is worth its weight in gold!

E-Patient  This summary, from Joe Graedon from @Peoplespharmacy summarizes take home points from Day#2 of the conference, highlighting the Society for Participatory Medicine.

General Reflections on the Conference

Student impressions: This blog by @HodaPharm , describes Hoda’s first-time experience at the conference, with reflections on many different presentations.

Gut Check:  This blog, by @RyanMadanickMD, a colleague of mine interested in the intersection of medical education and Twitter, summarizes how he learned from people with entirely different interests.

Summary of several individual sessions. This is a wonderful summary of many sessions attended by @kidney_boy, who blogged this piece for the AJKD at @eJKD .

I am sure that more will blog about their experiences, and hope that this summary provides helpful information for those there, as well as those who were not able to attend.  Please post any comments.  Thanks.

Alex Djuricich