As you know, the GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING 2007 is being published on 24 September. Featured among the 288 pages are a myriad of blog lists. Over the next two weeks I will be publishing these on the blog. Today we start with the Top Ten Medical Blogs. Thanks to Dr Michelle Tempest for compiling the list.1. NHS Blog Doctor
The pseudonymous Dr John Crippin exposes how the NHS is failing its patients and how the government is to blame
2. The Psychiatrist Blog
Dr Michelle Tempest, a Tory activist, talks about the politics of medicine
3) Dr Grumble
4) A Fortunate Man
5) Hospital Phoenix
Was very good at giving an anonymous but personal account during the MMC disaster
6) Dr Rant
This is written by a team of people - is not for the faint hearted and can contain strong language.
7) Fat Doctor
This is an American blogging physician
8) The Ferret Fancier
Done some really good undercover reporting
9) The Junior Doctor
Gives a personal account of life as a junior doctor
10) Of Short White Coats and Stethoscopes
Gives a personal account of life as a medical student.
Preorder your copy of the GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING 2007 HERE.
22 comments:
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I wonder what a psychiatrist would say about the ego of someone who puts themselves second on a list of the best blogs.
I wonder what a psychiatrist would say about the ego of someone who puts themselves second on a list of the best blogs.
Yes, I thought that too.
My second thought was, I've read Dr Michelle Tempest's blog and I think it's execrable. Quite apart from the fact that it hasn't been updated since 27th July, there seems to be lots and lots of utterly ghastly pop-psychology. Cuddle power, anyone?
If that's the sort of thing she uses in her clinical practice, then we can all feel sorry for her patients on the crisis team where she works. At least until she gets parachuted in as an MP into some safe Tory seat. Then we can all start feeling sorry for her constituents instead.
If anyone wants to read a genuinely interesting blog by a psychiatrist, then the Shrink's blog at http://lakecocytus.blogspot.com/ is far more thoughtful, insightful and human. Unlike Dr Tempest's blog, you actually get to find out something about what psychiatrists do for a living.
It's a shame that Mousethinks is not in the medical top 10 as this nurse in A&E is a good writer.
It's a shame that Mousethinks is not in the medical top 10 as this nurse in A&E is a good writer.
Or indeed, that there aren't ANY non-doctors/medical students in Dr Tempest's list. No Random Acts of Reality? No Nee Naw? No Mental Nurse? (Okay, I have my own conflict of interest on that one, since I write for Mental Nurse.)
Is this meant to be an exhaustive list of political blogs in the UK, or merely the best ones? Either way, I would humbly submit my own blog for consideration HERE.
Indeed. Listing yourself second? I've never been given a better reason to not bother reading something at all. What do you make of that, doctor?
And a whole list of doctor blogs - yawn. People who write on toilet walls have more valid opinions - but that's just my opinion (and I do like a bit of toilet humour).
I stopped reading NHSBlogdoc because Dr Crippen became so utterly vile about anyone, medical or lay, who had the temerity to disagree with him.
Zarathustra, thanks for the positive comments!
I agree that A fortunate man should be hight up there, and Cal's Of Short White Coats and Stethoscopes too. I read Hospital Phoenix regularly and Fat Doctor and Dr Grumble. Having posted on all their blogs, I guess they've all generated thoughts and opinions I'd wished to share. Interesting, keeping me reading and generating opinion . . . all laudable stuff.
I do like Dr Crippen and Dr Rant but their material is not representative of most of my colleagues. The views often are sound, and mirror those on the closed forums at Doctors Net, but are conveyed in an often more polarised and medical fashion than others would. Makes for good reads if taken in context, though :-) Too, they are both resoundingly popular and influential.
I do read Random Acts of Reality and Mental Nurse and Advanced Practitioner UK (which hasn't been updated for a while) which aren't medical (in the meaning of doctory) blogs but are about medical care.
Other personal firm favourites like Tea at Ten are, I concede, read by few folk. SHP has been posting on Trick-Cycling for Beginners for ages with wide recognition (and was even quoted in the Observer a couple weekends ago) so overall is a more popular and active blog than Michelle's.
Ho hum!
It is curious that no PAMs or psychologists or social work or nursing blogs feature in a top 10 of the whole medical blogsphere.
I guess the purpose of any list is largely just this . . . to generate discussion 'bout the list. In that way, it served it's purpose and all is good :-)
Hmm. Thanks, Shrink. I certainly don't consider that I should have been on the list, by any means, but I must say I feel pretty irked by Michelle Tempest for the reasons expressed by others!
Poor old Michelle Tempest! Why has everyone got it in for her? I know she writes an upbeat blog and favours the Tory party, but neither are hanging offences (yet). All the blogs she lists are in my blogroll, all are well established medical blogs and all are frequently worth reading. Whether they are the best ten medical blogs is open to debate.
Such lists are invariably subjective. One man's meat is another man's poison. This list is Michelle's choice and advertised as such.
The list doesn't contain blogs by nurses, dentists, chiropodists, chiropractors, radiographers, ambulance drivers, physiotherapists, counsellors, speech therapists, hospital telephone operators, porters, cooks or cleaners. For many politically-incorrect people and most dictionaries, “medical” means “doctor”. Professions allied to medicine are professions allied to medicine. With a bit of luck all this will change come the revolution, when upbeat Tory psychiatrists can also be safely shot.
Blogs come and go, some go from strength to strength and some fizzle out. Their quality can vary from time to time. They offer a wide range of style and emphasis to appeal to different readers. It is therefore impossible to establish an objective listing in order of merit.
In this case I think that “top ten list” really means “if you are interested in reading some medical blogs, here are some well established ones of reasonable quality to get you started.” The list is a good mixture of primary and secondary care blogs, by both senior and junior doctors plus one medical student. It is heavily biased towards British blogs, with only one American medical blog listed, which is appropriate for its intended audience.
I think it's a perfectly good list when judged on these criteria.
Declaration of competing interest - my blog appears on the list.
This is a shitty list. There are way more better medical blogs out there! Do your damn research!
I have just read "Zarathustra's" extraordinary rant both on this blog and on his/her own blog entitled "Mental Nurse". It is a cause for extreme concern that a supposed health professional is full of such bile, bitterness and negative comment about a doctor and fellow health professional who works for the NHS and writes an excellent and very positive blog. It would be very interesting to know whether this breaches any professional rules of the Nursing and Midwifery Council such as bringing their profession into disrepute. It would also be interesting to know if this is why he/she choose to post anonymously rather than have the courage to put their name to it in the same way as Dr Tempest. Go on Zarathustra, reveal your identity. It'd be an interesting read for your employers and patients, I'm sure.
thanks for your post!
Good information, I’m looking forward to it.
Thanks for the list of medical blogs. Never, ever will everyone agree with a top-ten list of anything. But hey, with all the blogs included in these comments, we can now formulate a top-20 list of our own medical blogs. One more to add - Running A Hospital.
Hi
I think guidance is a so important in a blog and I think it is a right step.
Best medical blog in the country is by a former "TV Doctor," a guy named Michael Breen in Chicago.
He says docs have become cogs in someone else's machine because they've become commodities.
He runs a big marketing company and talks about how we have to get entrepeneurial and use marketing just like any other business.
Lots of good tips, too.
Anyway, the link is www.drmichaelbreen.com
John
Nice blog medical facility has improved a very much to the society
Not only do I agree with most of the comments left before me, but I also feel greatly attentive to what everyone here is expressing in their comments. Some of you I can say that I truly am able to relate to you, and some just make me wonder if I can ever relate to the way lots of you feel! In some ways it could be happy but if the feeling isn't really in the happiness stage of things then all I can say is I hope the becoming aware part of things does eventually work out for all of us in the end of things.. But alongside this topic, I love it! And it really is great to see a lot of us participating and really putting effort into collaborating one of the best blogs we've yet come to see!
A nice list, I echo the sentiments about #2 though...
I am also a blogger. Unlike those in that list I am a clinical UK medical student. If you are at all interested please give me a visit at
http://internal-optimist.blogspot.com/
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