Opportunity Knocks: As Doctors Join the Blog Party The E-Arena Heather Greene Program Director, Avenue-e Health Strategies, an S&H Company Anthony Manson Executive VP, Avenue-e Health Strategies, an S&H Company Celeste Kolanko Director of Education, Avenue-e Health Strategies, an S&H Company Imagine if you were able to gain access to the 100 physicians and ask them such questions as: “Would you please detail the ins and outs of your daily practice so that I can better tailor my medical education programs to thoroughly suit your needs?” Or perhaps you’d like to know which medical treatments for any given therapeutic category are causing the most puzzling problems for those physicians using them. These questions and many more may be answered thanks to a powerful new e-tool that physicians are starting to use in record numbers: the physician blog. A Weblog or blog is a type of Website that allows an author to post writings of all kinds and receive feedback from readers. While physician blogs are still in their infancy stage — most started appearing in the last year and a half or so — they are growing at an unprecedented rate, with some sites such as medpundit.blogspot.com and codeblueblog.blogs.com receiving as many as 400 visitors per day. Estimates indicate that there are several hundred physician blogs, and the numbers continue to grow. These blogs range from well-written, literary exposès on the daily lives of physicians to idiosyncratic rants from disgruntled docs needing to vent about the influence of HMOs on patient care. Rants and poetic outpourings aside, what is so fascinating about blogs as they pertain to medical education is that they allow those trying to design effective Web-based CME programs an intimate view into the minds of physicians across all specialties — family practitioners, psychiatrists, emergency-room specialists, oncologists, and even residents. This free and open cyberspace platform gives blogging doctors a sense of anonymity, allowing for honest discourse among peers that up until now has only really existed behind closed doors. Physicians Educating Physicians The growing online community of blogging physicians not only offers insight into the current issues and needs of various specialists and sub-specialists, but also provides interesting and current takes on the latest medical news. Some physicians even go as far as to say blogs might change the way medical research is presented and discussed amongst doctors. In essence, an article presented and discussed through a blog becomes a peer-reviewed article in real time. Blog One-Ways and Bi-Ways Physician blogs offer medical educators an opportunity to more effectively educate doctors in a unique format using their own language. One vehicle to explore is the idea of one-way blogs: an online diary written by a key opinion leader and posted on an unbranded site or medical association site for reading only. The blog would be overseen by a moderator and perhaps offered for credit once approved by the accrediting body. In contrast, two-way blogging offers an effective and interesting way to educate physicians. Perhaps a couple of key specialists could go head-to-head in an online heated debate on the latest clinical data coming out of an important meeting. Blogs and Blunders One of the pitfalls into which many medical education programs fall is not speaking to doctors in their own language in a way that is useful and compelling. Already, many physicians claim that CD-ROMs, once novel and new, are now somewhat cumbersome and require that extra step in accessing eCME that a simple Google search could locate in milliseconds. And with broadband now reaching into the far corners of medicine, more and more doctors will be looking for interesting tools at their fingertips. Clearly, part of what will make an online medical education program successful moving forward is using technology to its best advantage wherever possible. Developing an architecture that uses technology in a way that makes physicians comfortable, and that makes interacting and sharing knowledge enjoyable, is the key to medical education programming success. Avenue-e Health Strategies, New York, is an Sudler & Hennessey company that develops innovative e-marketing programs that accelerate the rate at which a pharmaceutical company builds its brands and creates long-lasting and profitable relationships with both patients and professionals. For more information, visit avee-health.com. August 2005 VIEW on Medical Education

Download PDF