The Blog Rounds: Blogging our way through medicine and beyond.
Monday, March 03, 2008
, Bone MD at Monday, March 03, 2008
"Why not" ?
Was the first thing that came to mind when a fellow blogger suggested the idea of a medical blog carnival, Pinoy style akin to the Ground Rounds and SurgExperience abroad. I've been stalking these blog carnivals for so long (joined some) and read their posts. Frankly, on what they're good at, our healthcare scenario just doesn't fit. I'm often left pondering how these issues affect my life as an MD here in my land? That's why I thought starting our own blog carnival would seem easier than getting lost in their discussions.
But why duplicate those already existing?
Duplication?No. Except for a few superb Pinoy MD bloggers already in those carnival (Doc Emer of Parallel Universe or Tess Termulo of Prudence MD) reading most of the posts in those carnivals made me feel my medical world is ten years behind. Indeed, I had a hard time relating to their banter simply because our health care arena is different from theirs!
Is there a need for such medical blog carnival, here?
Yes. Our unique experiences and the healthcare environment seem to be different in some way from that experienced by our foreign counterparts. Take the case of our Doctors to the Barrios MDs (Abyan ka Batch 23 DTTB) and Merry Cherry) who blog about their experiences in the boondocks or of those newly trained physicians (Doc Claire's In the Middle of Nowhere) and Bone MD, (To cut for living) trying to find their cut in the business of medicine. Some Pinoy MDs left (actually, just slashed a big portion of their time spent on medical practice) their comfortable practice and offered to render a different form of service to their country, like Martin Bautista (On My Way Home) and Dorothy (Doralicious). There are nameless MDs who are in another country in search for better practice conditions and those that have chosen to shift into some business for living here in the Philippines. Others simply talk about everything beautiful and non medical (there's a lot, as their blogs have taught me) in this world, like Megamom's Pinay Megamom, Em Dy's Pulse and At Random Ness. For the majority, simply surviving in this harsh business of medical practice is already enough topic to whine about by blogging!
And there are a lot more topics , more issues to tackle or just simple "other things non medical" to blog about.
There already forums for issues affecting the Filipino medical world. Why add one more?Pinoy MD has done a great job of uniting Filipino MD's in the net. Some of these MDs got blogs too. Doktorko has a repertoire of blogger and great posts for us to read. But one different thing about a blog carnival is that the posts are hosted to your blog site and you need not change your posting style or topic to you wish to talk. The "host' blogger will just "introduce " your post for the week, and put a link to that post in your site. And topics is updated every week.
Will it add (or diminish) anything to our healthcare environment? Will it add "something" to my blog, popularity perhaps?
To which my answer will be, "will you loose something if you join"? There is so much to gain. Knowledge is power. Blogging and reading someone else post(s) and blogs made me a little knowledgeable about so many things med school hasn't taught me-including life. If the blog carnival will be a venue for "voicing out issues" affecting our health care, why not? It it affects our medical practice, the more we should get involved.
I bet majority of the medical bloggers out there don't care about popularity and fame as bloggers. Some do. And it is alright to do so. Site traffic maybe increased, perhaps with the curious readers if we make a buzz. I blog as a form of exercising my finger flexors and lumbricals. If blogging increases the convolutions of my cerebrum and deepens my pocket (oh really now! I wish) then it would be a bonus.Next: Blog carnival title and guidelines, who have joined and what to do if you want to join!
(Author's note: Due credit and acknowledgment is give to the owners of the pictures used here and published at Deviant art, my favorite art repository)
Bone MD is a board certified orthopedic surgeon practicing in Southern Mindanao, Philippines. He writes mostly about his medical encounters, public health views and just about everything his scalpel would allow him to. If you like this post please consider subscribing to Orthopedic Logbook RSS feed. You can also subscribe to Orthopedic Logbook by e-mail and receive my posts directly in your inbox.Still not happy with what you read? Couldn't understand something in the article? Search in here:
Hi Brod!
Good idea.
Although my blog has strayed from Medicine as of late, I might still find some time to blog about my 10 years in training.
There's plenty to blog, not just medical. We can read and learn from your experience brod. I'll post the carnival guidelines next.Thanks for dropping by.
great idea doc! been thinking of putting something like this together- never got around to doing it hehe i'm more than glad to be one of the carnival's hosts/ringmasters/blog collators/clerks-on-duty/consultants-in-charge/blogicipal health officers =] will await further details about this endeavor =] mabuhay po kayo =]
Thanks Ian, now that we have the all around doc like you, I'm pretty sure we will get this carnival going!
The guidelines will be up soon (maybe in the next few minutes) and I will be needing carnival hosts, posts of bloggers joining, topic and ideas for each issues. Tag along all MD or para MD blogger you wish included!
Thanks Bone MD! Will stay tuned..,
Well said Doc. Galing. I'm convince already pero mejo narattle ang utak ko sa dami ng info and things to link, tag, whatever! Hahaha :)
@ Megamorph! Thanks! I'll count you in na!
@Merry Chery! You've got good posts and you write from the heart. Thats all you need for now. Lets learn the nitty gritty of tagging and linking as we go along TBR. Just write your intro post and your article for the first ed in your blog. I'll help you with the HTMLing and linking next time
Finally, the intro post is up already.
Finally, my intro post is up already.
Hello! You have my support. I have hosted the Grand Rounds initiated by the US doctors (Dr Nick Genes of Blogborygmi.com is the real initiator) four times already, and initially, konti din lang kami. Ang mga old-timers sina MedPundit (the first!), GruntDoc, Dr. Charles, Shrinkette, and si Dr.Nick. Today, there's even Kim's Change of Shift Nursing GR, Pediatric and Surgical GRs. Madami na.
I would have wanted to start one like this here, pero my schedule always interferes. Also, parang konti pa ang available na bloggers locally. Ngayon, nandito na kayo, mas masaya na.
Sabi nga, "build it and they will come..."
Good luck on this project!
Thanks Doc Emer!Did you just say you'll be joining TBR?!!!Wow! I am as excited as anyone who will be reading your entry for this blog rounds.
You joining TBR will definitely add fire to the interesting blog rounds going on!
BoneMD,
can i please move the deadline for submission of entries to april 15 instead of april 14? ma-apeke man ko sa schedule. and also, so that we can fully savor and enjoy the entries to TBR 4 muna, di ba?
thanks.