In a spread from one of my recent visual journals, I wrote: "GOTTA FIND TIME FOR THE CREATIVE LIFE...No more excuses! Of course I'm busy, but I don't have to sign up for every unfilled shift and I don't have to spend all my downtime surfing the damn internet and shopping aimlessly. I can be working in this mixed-media journal or writing, which has always been in my heart to do."
KevinMD wrote his take on a number of issues last week, including the demise of several popular medblogs:
Blogging and practicing medicine often don't go hand in hand. Most of the media coverage borders on negative, focusing on patient privacy issues. Hospital administrations have shut down physician blogs. Furthermore, practicing medicine is exhausting, leaving blogging at the bottom of the priority list.
We are fortunate that new voices have emerged as these blogs have closed down. That's important. Physicians are often left out of the healthcare debate, despite the fact that we will play a pivotal role in any type of reform....
The blogging medium is an ideal way physicians can make our voices matter. It's in our best interest to keep the medical blogging phenomenon strong.
I don't think I could have put it better than Kevin. The more I read of medical blogs, the more I learn about the nuances of healthcare policy and administration. Blogs serve a vital role in disseminating physicians' perspectives to policymakers and journalists. They also provide a basis for physicians to share information among themselves. It is in our best interest to keep medical blogging going.
This post is a how-to of sorts for doctor-bloggers who are wondering how to keep their blogs going when they are already working 60-80 hours per week and trying to be good parents and friends as well. I'll present my own approach to posting on this blog, how I developed this approach, and why I think it will help doctor-bloggers to use some or all of this approach in their own blogs. Read on.
