Blog World New Media Expo 2009: Medical and Health Care Bloggers

Today I received the speaker list for the MedBlogger Conference associated with Blog World New Media Expo 2009 from Kim McCallister of Emergiblog, co-organizer of the event along with Dr. Val of Better Health.

Blog World New Media Expo 2009 will be held October 15-17 in Las Vegas. The MedBlogger Sessions will be held on October 15. A special thanks to Johnson & Johnson and MedPage Today who are sponsors of the MedBlogger Sessions. More information along with how to register for the conference will be available on the Blog World website in the coming weeks.

I was honored to be invited to be a part of the event and look forward to participating in a great discussion at the conference. Below are the panels and speakers confirmed for the MedBlogger Sessions.

Panel #1 The State of the Health Blogosphere: We've Come A Long Way, Baby
Moderator: Kim McAllister, Emergiblog
Panelist: Kevin Pho, Kevin MD
Panelist: Nick Genes, Blogborygmi
Panelist: Kerri Sparling, SixUntilMe

Panel #2 Staying On The Good Side of HIPAA: Safe and Ethical Blogging Practices
Moderator: Mike Sevilla, Doctor Anonymous
Panelist: Rob Lamberts, Musings of a Distractible Mind
Panelist: Debra Farber, IBM
Panelist: Bob Coffield, Health Care Law Blog

Panel #3 Blogging For Change: How To Influence Healthcare Through Blogging
Moderator: Val Jones, Better Health
Panelist: Gary Schwitzer, Schwitzer Health News Blog
Panelist: Terri Polick, Nurse Ratched's Place
Panelist: Gene Ostrovsky, Medgadget

Panel #4 The Value of Blogs To Hospitals, Industry, and News Organizations
Moderator: Gary Schwitzer, Health News Review
Panelist: Marc Monseau, Johnson & Johnson 's JNJBTW Blog
Panelist: Bob Stern, MedPage Today
Panelist: Paul Levy, Running A Hospital

Medical Blogger Dr. Wes Subpoenaed Over Blog Comment

The New York Personal Injury Law Blog relays a incident involving a subpoena issued to a medical blogger related to anonymous comments made on his blog.

The incident involved medical blogger, Westby Fisher, MD (Dr. Wes), who was subpoenaed for a discovery deposition to determine whether he knew the anonymous commenter who left a comment on a post.

Interesting reading for medical and health care bloggers.

UPDATE: Kevin MD provides follow up commentary and his position on comment moderation. Any health bloggers looking at the advantages/disadvantages of blog post comment moderation should take a look at Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act of 1996.

Basically, Section 230 gives protections to users and providers of computer services by not making them liable for information published by another information content provider. As a blogger you can be both a user and provider. Bloggers are "users" when they create content for blogs and "providers" when they allow others to comment on blog posts. The legal question on comment moderation involves whether your active participating in moderating the comments makes you the "publisher" of the comment rather than just the "provider" of the comment. To date I don't believe this question has been fully addressed or answered by the courts.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has some great resource materials (and cases) for bloggers to learn more about the Section 230 protections. Check out the EFF "Legal Guide for Bloggers."

Hospitals and Anonymous Blogging: An Update of the Paris Regional Medical Center Lawsuit

Just pick up the latest news from Greg Piche of the Holland & Hart Healthcare Law Blog about the pending libel lawsuit against an anonymous blogger filed by Paris Regional Medical Center, a subsidiary of Essent. For some background on the case check out Jeff Drummond's past post Hospital Sues Blogger.

The libel lawsuit filed last year by Paris Regional Medical Center seeks the unmasking of an anonymous blogger and nine other anonymous contributors or commentators on his/her blog.

The hospital sought the identity of the anonymous bloggers from Suddenlink who balked at disclosing the identity of the anonymous blogger until he/she was given notice and an opportunity to object. As a result the anonymous blogger appeared through an attorney and objected which were rejected by the trial court.

However, on appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana, In re: Does 1-10, No. 06-07-00123-CV (Dec 12, 2007) followed the standard set out in Doe. V. Cahill, 884 A 2d 451 (De. 2005), granted the writ of mandamus and ordered the trial court to vacate its order requiring Suddenlink to disclose the name and address of the anonymous blogger. Basically, the court sustained the anonymous bloggers First Amendment rights of free speech until such time as the hopsital can show in a hearing at the trial court level that it has actually been damaged by the content of the blog.

The court analyzed the situation as follows:

The cases that have decided this issue range from placing an extremely light burden (indeed, virtually no burden at all) on the plaintiff, to requiring the plaintiff to tender proof of its allegations that would survive a summary judgment, or even more stringent requirements. At least one case has essentially concluded that the mere allegation of libel is sufficient. Alvis Coatings, Inc. v. John Does One Through Ten, No. 3:04CV374-H, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30099 (W.D.N.C. Dec. 2, 2004). Other cases have articulated requirements that are so weak as to essentially require no more than allegations made in good faith (or not in bad faith), with some evidence to support the allegations. See Polito, 2004 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 340.

We cannot agree that either of these formulations is sufficient to survive any form of constitutional balancing. Thus, the question becomes the degree of actual proof that must be provided before the balance tips in favor of piercing the constitutional shield and disclosing the identity of the anonymous blogger.

We find ourselves more in alignment with the formulations set out in Cahill, 884 A.2d at 458-61. See extensive discussion about the application of this standard in Best W. Int'l, 2006 WL 2091695. The court in Cahill described the test as: "[B]efore a defamation plaintiff can obtain the identity of an anonymous defendant through the compulsory discovery process he must support his defamation claim with facts sufficient to defeat a summary judgment motion." Cahill, 884 A.2d at 460. This standard does not require a plaintiff to prove its case as a matter of undisputed fact, but instead to produce evidence sufficient to create issues that would preclude summary judgment.

West Virginia Educational Social Network

The State Journal reports that West Virginia University with the backing of a grant from Verizon will create a social network for middle and high school students focused around education (with emphasis on the energy sector) to get a head start on career decisions.

Partners in the project include WVU's College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, College of Human Resources and Education and The EdVenture Group.

A description of the project from the WVU press release:

Unlike Facebook.com and other social networking sites, the new site, once developed, will not be open to the general public. Rather, a network of representatives from participating companies and schools will serve as experts and mentors for students who join the site.

Along with Web-based interaction within groups, the site will host discussion groups, chats and blogs on relevant topics and an “Ask the Counselor” section where students can ask questions concerning academic or career issues. Other activities may include contests based on career knowledge, virtual career fairs and group visits to employer or educational facilities.

Interesting concept and I'm excited to learn more about the project. Based on my experience with social networking and the use of blogs in the legal industry I think the application of these technologies in education can be powerful. The added plus is that the platform will be familiar and attractive to the way that middle and high school students communicate. Anyone aware of similar projects like this happening around the country?

I will be interested to hear what Lee Kraus, the guru on education focused social networking, has to say about the pilot project. This reminds me of a concept that I previously discussed with Lee.

WVU press release has more details.

Newsweek Features Amy Tenderich of DiabetesMine

Great to see Newsweek run a story on Amy Tenderich and the success of her blog, DiabetesMine. Amy's efforts are a great example of how blogs can be used to creatively share valuable information with a patient community.

Here is a taste of the article and how Amy got started,

I've been writing my Web site for three years now, and some amazing things have happened. First, I learned all sorts of facts about my own health that doctors never told me. I learned that thousands of other people out there have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes later in life, like me—a condition called LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults). From other patients I also learned essential basics about related conditions, like gluten intolerance (celiac disease), and Raynaud's syndrome, a circulation disorder in the hands—both of which I suffer from, along with the diabetes.

Second, a whole community of "patient bloggers" has grown up around me—hundreds of other people sharing their health challenges on the Web. We exchange treatment and insurance tips, hold online chats, link to each other's sites, and even manage to meet in person sometimes.

Congrats Amy on a great article.

The Return of Flea . . .

An interview with Dr. Flea (Robert Lindeman, MD) from Eric Turkewitz at the New York Personal Injury Law Blog.

Thanks to Mr. Turkewitz for taking the time and effort to approach Dr. Lindeman and for Dr. Lindeman for agreeing to be interviewed. A great series of questions and answers. There is a lesson in this for all of us -- lawyers (plaintiff and defense), physician, hospital CEOs, etc.

Mr. Turkewitz followed up with Dr. Lindeman after seeing that he was interviewed for an article on Canadian doctor blogs, Check my blog and call me in the morning, by the National Review of Medicine. More on the behind the scenes interview for the article at the Canadian Medicine blog.

For more information check out my past post, "The Flea Flicker" and a follow up post highlighting an article I assisted Fard Johnmar, including some basic legal tips for physician bloggers.

Thanks to KevinMD courtesy of Althouse for the tip.

Business Blogging Features in Sunday Gazette-Mail

Last week's Sunday Gazette-Mail featured an article, Blogging for Dollars: talky web journals keep customers in the loop, providing insight into some local business bloggers. I want to thank the reporter, Sarah Winn, for contacting me and allowing me the opportunity to be interviewed for the article.

The article featured my Health Care Law Blog along with these other West Virginia based business blogs:

Just A Modern Guy by Chuck Hamsher of The Purple Moon Marketing Genius from Maple Creative Direct Online Marketing Jason Keeling and A Better West Virginia

It was nice to be featured along with these great blogs. The draw back of such an article is that you can't cover all the great West Virginia blogs that are available. For more check out the follow up comments by Skip Lineberg at Maple Creative and Paul at Direct Online Marketing.

As a result of Justin Seibert's comment to this post I thought I would share a link to a resource over at This is not my blog that includes a good comprehensive list of West Virginia blogs (over 200). He also cites the blog roll at Lincoln Walks at Midnight as also having a comprehensive list of West Virginia blogs.

Photo: Marketing and public-relations professionals Skip Lineberg of Maple Creative LLC and Jason Keeling of Keeling Strategic Communications LLC discuss blogging at the recent Create WV conference at Stonewall Resort. Each writes a blog and says his online journal has become a business tool.

Should Hospitals Blog?

Practical advice from Tony at Hospital Impact on the question of "should hospitals blog?" Good advice for anyone thinking about starting a health related or business blog.

I regularly follow both Nick Jacobs at Nick's Blog and Paul Levy at Running a Hospital cited in Tony's post. Both are examples of extremely successful blogging hospital CEOs who understand the Live Web medium. Take for example the fact that Paul commented on Tony's post four hours after it was published (see the post comments).

I agree with Tony's perspective and warning when he says:

It's a lot of work and there is no hard-core ROI, but for the right type of person, it pays off in other ways. Both of these CEOs can probably point to examples where their blog put out a PR fire before it could start. They've built trust and credibility through the blog. They've humanized the hospital through the blog. So when fires do come (and of course, they will), they're well positioned to engage authentically. We are entering an age where proactive transparency is rewarded and reactive transparency is lame.

One word of warning. Don't blog if your organization:
* Doesn't trust their employees.
* Doesn't want to hear bad news.
* Wants absolute control over their message and reputation (this isn't happening anymore anyways)
* (the kicker) Doesn't have someone who's really wired to do it.

2007 Healthcare Blogospere Survey

A few weeks ago my fellow blogging colleague, Fard Johnmar, announced the second edition of Taking The Pulse Of The Healthcare Blogosphere (2007 Survey). A survey co-produced by Johnmar's Envision Solutions and Trusted.MD Network.

The survey was first conducted last year (read the highlights). The survey will again look at the trends of health care bloggers so that we can all better understand why people blog about health and medical topics.

Today I finally got around to taking the survey and am passing along a recommendation to others health and medical bloggers to take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to add to the survey data. Deadline to take the survey is October 15.

Also check out Fard's interesting post from today covering the relaunch of Organized Wisdom at Healthcare Vox.

HHS Secretary Leavitt Joins The Blogosphere

A warm welcome to Secretary Mike Leavitt (blog bio) who last week launched his blog at Secretary Mike Leavitt's Blog. It is wonderful to see the United States top health care official join the blogospere and create a vehicle to share his personal observations and have an open conversation about health care and the challenges that that we all face.

I am impressed by his goal to keep the blog personal (not relying on staff or the PR department to write his posts) outlined in his About this Blog summary and introductory post. I'm hoping that he enjoys the experience and has the time to continue to blog past his initial trial phase. In my mind he gets the idea behind blogging -- a communication utility which is used to think and understand, share his observations, engage ideas and as he says, create a "dynamic online conversation." These characteristics are what makes blogging something more than just another way to create traditional media/PR web content. It's the reason why I enjoy the blogging process.

Question to readers: Is Secretary Leavitt the highest ranking U.S. official to date to have a blog which is personally written? Are there any other Federal Executive Department Secretary level bloggers?

Thanks to iHealthBeat for its article announcing Secretary Leavitt's blog.

MD Net Guide Article: Are Physician Blogs in a Legal and Ethical Twilight Zone?

Last month I had the opportunity to collaborate with Fard Johnmar of Envision Solutions on an article for MD Net Guide, "Social Media Notebook: Are Physician Blogs in a Legal and Ethical Twilight Zone?" The article looks at the recent incident involving Dr. Lindeman, who blogged under the pseudonym "Flea," and the risks associated with physician blogging.

I shared some legal tips that physician bloggers should consider when blogging, including:

• Anonymous blogging does not guarantee your privacy
• Consider informing your employer about your blog
• Follow your HIPAA training
• Post a legal disclaimer
• Be cautious about giving advice to patients

Check out the current issue of MD Net Guide to read the complete article. Also, the complete article, "Social Media Notebook: Are Physician Blogs in a Legal and Ethical Twilight Zone?" can be accessed via the web (registration required).

healthcare100.com: Global Ranking of Healthcare Blogs

Just noticed a new global ranking service for health care related blogs inspired by Todd Andlik's Power 150. It's called healhtcare100.com. My Health Care Law Blog comes in at 41 out of top 100.

The list includes many of the top health blogs and is well worth scanning if you are interested in what is happening in the world of health and medical blogs. Find out more about edrugsearch.com, the sponsor of the global ranking by checking out their "about us" page. Cary Byrd, founder of the company, gets points for his creation of the global ranking as a way to drive traffic and make others aware of edrugsearch.com. Good classic marketing to bloggers.

The Flea Flicker: Risks of (anonymous) Medical Blogging

Kevin M.D. has the full roundup from the blogosphere of the unmasking of Flea (cached version) at his malpractice trial. Today's Boston Globe reports more of the details. More details courtesy of New York Personal Injury Law Blog.

I periodically ran across Flea's posts over the last year and was surprised a few months ago when I started to notice his posts discussed his ongoing malpractice case, including discussions with his defense counsel. My initial reaction -- does his defense counsel know about his blogging. The answer was no. At the time, like Eric Turkewitz I concluded that there was a high risk (if uncovered by the plaintiffs attorney) that his blogging publicly would potentially waive attorney client privilege. Eric also provides some great links of previous posts about Flea.

This situation highlights the potential risk faced by medical bloggers and a reason why lawyers need to better understand the blogosphere and the impact of online social networking on themselves and their clients. The fall out from this case will be interesting to watch.

UPDATE (6/4/07): More today from Eric Turkewitz and how plaintiff's counsel uncovered that Flea was Dr. Lindeman in his post, "Deconstructing the Trial - Part 1." A comment to the post raises the most important lessons for physicians or other bloggers who find themselves facing litigation. The comment reads:

This is a great example of why it's important to tell your lawyer about things like this. If Flea's lawyers had gone through all the posts on his blog, they would undoubtedly have prepared him for this question. These kinds of prior statements are neither unusual nor damning - you just have to know how to handle them.

In fact I'll say it again - TELL YOUR LAWYER ABOUT THINGS - whether you are the plaintiff or defendant. Usually its embarrassing or uncomfortable things that clients don't want to tell you and these things can significantly impact the outcome of litigation. It's these hidden facts or facts that weren't explored far enough (or understood) by defense counsel that can come back and bite. I suspect that defense counsel has a new appreciation for blog content.

Deconstructing the Trial of Flea - Part 2 is now also available where Mr. Turkewitz provides some insight into whether or not the existence of Flea's blog was a factor in settlement of the case.

Tip to Kevin M.D. for highlighting today's post by Mr. Turkewitz.

HealthDot Interview: Health Care Blogging and Social Media

Earlier this month I attended and spoke on a panel addressing some of the legal implications for health care bloggers at the 2007 Health Care Blogging Summit.

During one of the breaks I had the opportunity with a couple of my health blogging colleagues, Enoch Choi, M.D. who blogs at MedHelp.org and medmusings and and Fard Johnmar of Envision Solutions blogging at Envision 2.0 and Healthcare Vox, to do an impromptu interview with Scribe Media who was capturing video content at the event.

We had some great discussion on the issues resulting from the growing use of blogging and social media by health care professionals and its potential impact on the health care industry.

Kaiser/Deal Battle Finally Hits West Virginia Press

I woke up this morning and pick up my Charleston Gazette off the front lawn to see the headline "E-mail jolts HMO giant" as the front page story. Yawn, not because I was up late but because this was old news to me. Guess it was probably "new news" to many West Virginia readers.

The front page story was a regurgitation of the WSJ article (read some interesting follow up comments from the WSJ Health Blog) that really didn't add anything new to the overall story. There was a companion article, Misleadership critic testified for gay hate crimes law as a teen, that did highlight Justen Deal's West Virginia roots.

I've followed this Deal/Kaiser ordeal over the last year since originally reading about the incident via a number of health care related blogs I follow. I've not gone in depth on the specifics on the incident and accusations regarding Kaiser's HealthConnect, thus don't have the ability to comment on whose side to take, but I do find interesting the aspect of the David vs. Goliath struggle that continues online in large part as a result of the blogospere and new media tools.

Like Dmitriy, the real story is not what happened last November that was reported as front page news today in Charleston, West Virginia. Instead the story is about the distribution and discussion surrounding Mr. Deal's original email via the blogosphere and social/industry media using blogs and web 2.0 driven tools. The ability of individuals to challenge ideas, groups, companies and industries with these new tools. The power you and I have in collaboration with others to change traditional notions of business, industry and government. Once you start to understand this story you gain a new appreciation for what might be unfolding before us all.

The other story this situation highlights in my mind is the question of how long traditional media will survive without changing. So often I find myself reading articles in the morning paper that I have already read the night, day, week or in this case year before. Like this morning - it made me question why I continue to subscribe to my local paper? I find it fascinating that even the writers and editors are moving beyond the traditional constraints of the news media industry structure.

The discussion of this and other topic will continue at next week's Health Care Blogging Summit where I will be participating as a part of a panel discussion on the impact of health care blogging with another Kaiser whistleblower.

Collaborating On Health 2.0

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak to a local group of business executives on the topic of The Value of Blogging in Business with Skip Lineberg and Matt Ballard. During Skip's Ten Reasons To Blog portion of the presentation he used a couple of slides highlighting the concept of "reaching the world . . . or reach across town -- do either . . . Do both!"

This week I have a wonderful example. Over the last few months I have had the opportunity to communicate with Bertalan Meskó a medical student at the University of Debrecen, Hungary who blogs at ScienceRoll (and his Hungarian blog, MedIQ). He has an interest in the concepts of health 2.0 and medicine 2.0 that I have spent a fair amount of time lately writing and thinking about on this blog. This week Bertalan posted about his upcoming Genetics and Web 2.0 Presentation.

Traditional notions of collaborating or doing business with someone down the street vs. across the globe have changed. This change impacts all industry -- from the practice of law to the practice of medicine to all industries. Just an example to think about what impact it might have on you as I sit here in Charleston, West Virginia and Bertalan sits in Debrecen, Hungary.

Bertalan also gives credit to Ves Dimov, M.D., an Assistant Professor at the Cleveland Clinic who "gets" the new health 2.0 technology and is harnessing the technology in practical ways via his blog, Clinical Cases and Images - Blog. His post and presentation on How to Use Web 2.0 In Medicine? is another good introduction to health/medicine 2.0 concepts.

UPDATE: This evening I saw this post by Tony Chen at Hospital Impact providing a Consumer's Guide to Healthcare 2.0 Websites. Great summary of Health 2.0 type companies and their popularity via alexa rankings.

The Candid CIO

Thanks to Will Weider, CIO at Affinity Health System in Wisconsin, who blogs at Candid CIO for linking to my summary of Health Care Blogging and Web 2.0.

For those of you interested in hospital health care IT issues I would suggest reading Will's blog (or better yet pick up Will's RSS feed).

Charleston Area Alliance: Blogging In Business

Yesterday I participated in a panel discussion on the value of blogging in business. The Charleston Area Alliance held the event as a part of its CEO Roundtable Luncheon series.

Also serving on the panel was Matt Ballard, CEO of the Charleston Area Alliance who blogs at the CAA Blog and Skip Lineberg, Chief Creative Officer of Maple Creative who blogs at Marketing Genius from Maple Creative.

The event was a success and hopefully we were able to share some new information about the value of blogging and how it can impact the relationship you have with your clients and potential clients. It was a diverse group who attended and there were some great questions from the crowd.

Skip Lineberg has a post-presentation post on the event (with photos).

We intentionally decided not to hand out the presentation but rather make it available via our blogs through SlideShare (for those of you attending -- another one of the new web 2.0 companies). Call it the Flickr or YouTube for Power Point. Until today I had not used SlideShare which I first learned about from another West Virginia blogger, Lee Kraus who authors Learning and Technology. Lee has some interesting comments about the business uses of SlideShare.

Here are the slides from our presentation, The Value of Blogging In Business:

Hospital CEO Blogger Blogs About Infection Rates

Hospital CEO blogger, Paul Levy, at Running a Hospital is stirring up the Boston health care community by publishing his hospital's infection rates on his blog and suggesting that other Boston area hospitals should do the same. Check out the Boston Globe article.

I mentioned Mr. Levy's blog posts on the infection rates in my recent post about transparency that can occur as a result of blogging and other technology tools as more of us participate in the live web.

As Dennis Kennedy likes to say -- the money quote from the Boston Globe article, "What's a blog?"

Tags: health2.0, web2.0, blogs, blogging

Plan To Attend: Healthcare Blogging Summit 2007

The details and program agenda are now up for the Healthcare Blogging Summit 2007 (Spring) to be held in Las Vegas on April 30, 2007 at the Venetian Hotel and Resort. The event will again be held in conjunction with Consumer Health World.

The event is billed as, ". . .the premier professional networking and education platform, devoted to examining the impact of blogs and social media on consumer health and healthcare industry." After having attended the first Healthcare Blogging Summit in DC in December 2006, I would agree.

I will be participating in a panel with a group that should make for some lively discussion and debate (see below). For a complete listing of the sessions and speakers check out the full agenda at TrustedMD.


Panel: Open Healthcare – Learning to Live in the Brave New World
Openness, Controversy and Crisis Management in Blogs and Social Media

• Dmitriy Kruglyak (Moderator): CEO, Trusted.MD Network
• Matthew Holt: Author & Consultant, The Health Care Blog
• Nicholas Jacobs, FACHE: CEO, Windber Medical Center & Research Institute
• Robert L. Coffield, JD: Member, Flaherty, Sensabaugh & Bonasso, PLLC
• Elisa Cooper: Whistleblower, formerly with Kaiser Permanente

UPDATE: Dmitriy Kruglyak was recently interviewed as a part of an article, Kaiser Sizing up blogs, 'social media' (subscription required), by the East Bay Business Times. The article appears to discuss the Justen Deal matter and the invitation extended to both Kaiser and Justen Deal to appear on a panel discussion at the Healthcare Blogging Summit.


Tags: HCB2007, Healthcare Blogging Summit, Las Vegas, Blogging, Health 2.0