Reading, Learning, and Blogging
2005; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 27; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1097/00132981-200501000-00010
ISSN1552-3624
Autores Tópico(s)Web and Library Services
ResumoFigureSince the inception of this column in April 2000, the description at the end has directed you to my web site, www.emedconcepts.com, which over the past year has morphed into one of a several connected blogs. Blog is shorthand for web log, and while for some a blog is nothing more than a diary publicly published and read by few, in the recent Presidential election, we heard about bloggers writing from all points of view. Newspapers, news magazines, and television news stories described the phenomenon and ascribed great influence to these blogs. Physicians have developed blogs recounting their daily lives in the profession, and as I write, a blogger has announced the “2004 Medical Weblog Awards” at www.echojournal.org/archives/000320.html. Why might it matter to you? Let me answer your question with a question. When you attend an educational meeting, do you spend every minute firmly in your chair absorbing the wisdom of the speaker, or do you take a break (or many breaks) and converse with colleagues in the hallway? In nearly 30 years, I've never attended an educational meeting that didn't have collegial conversations in the hallways when others were in the classrooms. Of course, emergency physicians cut class. Blogs let us cut class anytime. Like you I read the clinical science literature all the time. Annals of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine, the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, the Journal of Emergency Medicine, the Medical Letter, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, and others, especially emergency medicine-focused newsletters and journal summary publications such Emergency Medicine Abstracts. For years, I read articles and developed comments for The Yearbook of Emergency Medicine. Your selection certainly varies, and also has varied over time, but as a physician practice leader, you've learned to read about coding and emergency management and negotiating with hospital administrators and all of the many nonclinical issues that engage your time and energy. Add blogs to your reading list. Believe me, you want to do this, and here's why. Many bloggers use some version of “syndication” to “push” — transmit their newest entries to anyone who monitors their blog. It's not more spam in your email; it's a reader you can use for free on your PC or Mac desktop or through a web page. Leaders in Isolation As leaders of group practices, we're all in isolation to one degree or another. If you're a site leader at one of the hundreds of sites managed by a publicly traded emergency medicine staffing company, then you have a ready-made network. But even then, all you receive from that network is what your bosses want you to read. Alternative views won't make it into your inbox unless you look for them. If like me you're slogging it out by yourself, then blogs add another means of not only gaining the viewpoints of others, but engaging in a dialog on your own schedule. For years I've mentioned the emergency medicine mailing list, EMED-L (subscribe at www.ncemi.org/cgi-ncemi/edsubscriber.pl), but the blogger world is far more diverse. A good place to start is at Medical News Feeds at www.medlogs.com, where you can read the newest postings at many hundreds of medical blogs. There is no syndication feed from this site, merely short introductions to the longer pieces on the individual sites, many of which do offer syndication. If you're going to read blogs in syndication, you'll need to set up a way of doing so. An easy and free way of starting is through Bloglines at www.bloglines.com. This site provides you the tools to make it easy for you to select the blogs you want to read regularly. Think of it this way: Medlogs is the content, and Bloglines is the tool. I scan syndication “feeds” from more than 100 blogs. I don't get to it daily, and I use a lot of filtering and scanning to skip over irrelevant content. I've listed some of my favorite bloggers with a bias towards emergency physicians in the chart. Articles presenting physician bloggers have appeared over the past six months in Medical Economics (Aug. 20, 2004;81:33) and Modern Physician (Sept. 7, 2004 at www.kevinmd.com/modphysician.htm). Emergency physician bloggers comment on our practice and practice environment. Explore these blogs and learn from the conversations they foster. Add your comments and join the community. See you online and in the hallways. Blogs for Emergency Medicine ▪ The Lingual Nervewww.lingualnerve.com This is a collective blog of eight distinct voices from around the world. Emergency medicine topics appear regularly. The well known public health menace, “Some Dude” was recently discussed in illuminating detail. ▪ Symtymwww.symtym.com This blog is written by a practicing emergency physician who is presently attending an online law school. He is an experienced EMS physician with experience in the policy realm, and this blog is marked by intelligent, critical, and tongue-in-cheek commentary. ▪ Emergency Medicine Dochttp://emergmeddoc.com/blog The practical commentary here is punctuated by rants on the medical issues of the day, which allows me some ventilation without writing it myself. ▪ Grunt Docwww.gruntdoc.com This blogger bills himself as an emergency physician inTexas, and calls his postings “ramblings.” Often they are. Grunt Doc has a wonderful post about the human factor issues in naming medications, with a link to Black Triangle at www.blacktriangle.org. Though I might disagree with him on other issues, I'm getting new ideas for our present efforts at error-proofing our ED drug list. ▪ Medpundithttp://medpundit.blogspot.com ▪ db Medical Rantswww.medrants.com ▪ RangelMD.comwww.rangelmd.com These three sites are the best known and most widelyread commentary sites. They don't focus on emergency medicine, but their commentaries on policy issues often offer perspectives not covered on mainstream sites. ▪ Over My Med Bodywww.grahamazon.com ▪ Mr. Hassle's Long Underpantshttp://docshazam.blogspot.com Over My Med Body is a medical student's blog, one of many on the web. Mr. Hassle's is an enjoyable perspective of an emergency medicine resident. Source: Steven J. Davidson, MD, MBA, November 2004.
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