Doctors as Bloggers
One of the themes of A Hearty Life that doesn’t specifically have to do with heart disease is our relationship with our doctors. How can we patients empower ourselves to have the gumption to question doctors when we feel something isn’t right? How do we educate ourselves so that we understand our doctors and have the knowledge to discuss treatment options intelligently with them? How much trust do we have in our doctors and other healthcare providers when it comes to patient-doctor confidentiality?
When I was receiving prenatal care in Japan, I was shocked one day to receive a call from the friend who’d referred me to my OB/GYN. She told me that a nurse at the clinic had called her because she was concerned that I didn’t fully understand what they were trying to tell me. Granted, my Japanese isn’t completely fluent but I was capable of learning the medical terminology needed to achieve a healthy pregnancy and thought I’d done a good job expressing myself during check-ups. I don’t know if Japanese culture makes it ok for healthcare providers to call a non-relative without patient consent when there is no emergency involved and I was FURIOUS.
So when it comes to blogging, I can understand some patients are concerned that personal details will be revealed and discussed on the Internet without their knowledge. All doctors who blog take care not to reveal a patient’s name and other obvious identifying details. For people in the know, however, it sometimes doesn’t take much effort to figure out who, what, and where.
Margarita Bauza of the Detroit Free Press has a series of stories today about medical blogs and doctor-patient confidentiality. (I’m quoted as well.) It’s an excellent summary of the issues at hand and I hope both healthcare providers and patients think about how much they’re comfortable revealing to the public when it comes to personal medical conditions. In fact, I wonder if I should have kept that bit I shared with you above to myself….
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Tags: doctors, blogging, bloggers, healthcare, health care, medical blogs, diseases, illness, health, medicine
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POSTED IN: Hearty Blogging, Hearty Healthcare
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