Grand Rounds #53: a brief history of medical blogging

Dr. Jacob Reider, at Family Medicine Notes, is one of our first (and best) medical bloggers. In this week's Grand Rounds, he offers his perspective on the growth of medblogging.

"Before weblogs - it was uncommon for real healthcare providers to reveal their thoughts & feelings about the work that we do in a public forum. Our patients know us as either wonderful and kind .. or uncaring, thoughtless and hurried .. but little was revealed or understood by the 'general public' about who we are and what we're thinking.

Another obvious role of medical weblogs is to educate. We educate ourselves and our colleagues by constantly gleaning the vast information resources - and pointing to important or compelling bits of information. And of course we editorialize .. which is the true advantage here. We're transparent about our biases - so (as some have argued) we may even provide a better view of the 'news' as we're more honest about the lens through which we view things: new research findings, new medications/indications, etc.

He's assembled a terrific assortment of posts from the week's best medical blogging. Be sure to check it out!