Medical blogs are fairly abundant in the world of web logs. There are several similar blogs that look at modern issues in medicine, including technology, policy, and commentary on modern medical practices. Popular blogs include KevinMD, MedGadget, and Science Roll.
KevinMD is a blog that is curated by one doctor, Dr. Kevin Pho. Many of the posts are guest posts by other physicians, which allows the blog to cover a wide range of topics with a certain level of expertise and reliability. The topics range from medical student problems, to physician health, modern health care dilemmas, and medical issues. For this reason, KevinMD is a highly respected blog, frequently used as a reference for news outlets like New York Times and Washington Square Journal.
MedGadget is a news website in the format of a blog that is edited by a group of eighteen doctors and biomedical engineers. This blog is a medical technology niche version of what Engadget, Wired.com, and TheVerge are in wide-range technology. These editors interview people making new technologies, review many of these devices, and have the opportunity to report live from hackathons and other medical technology related events. It’s a great news outlet for people interested in learning about new technologies that have real potential in the medical field.
Lastly, Science Roll is a blog by Dr. Bertalan Mesko, a self proclaimed medical futurist. He is the author of the book The Future of Medicine, and is a physician who looks at how technology can be currently implemented into medical practice. Several examples are the implementation of GoogleGlass in medical education and the potential role social media can be used as a tool to increase communication between doctor and patient. His opinions and ideas are also mentioned on more renown outlets such as CNN.com, Nature Medicine, New York Times, etc.
One obvious advantage that these blogs have over mine is reliability and validity offered by the medical degrees that the editors hold. These are credible sources that are respected by many major news outlets. As a student I don’t have this benefit, which gives my blog a slight disadvantage. At the same time, my status as a student distinguishes the FutureMed Blog from these other blogs, offering a reader with less medical knowledge an opinion that they can relate to better. Additionally, I use the blog mentioned above as sources for the information I give on my blog. In that way, these “rival” blogs end up helping mine with their renown credibility.