Shuffling Links! (Friday Links)

Doctor D wishes you all came to his nifty site for his brilliant answers to your questions, but let's face it, it's Friday and you're here for the links. That's okay. D forgives you! Since this site is where a lot of you come to connect to the medical blogsphere Doctor D is going to be sure the linkage is up to snuff...

So if you will direct your attention to the right of the blog just below the "followers" section you will see the new, improved link lists:

• First of all, Doctor D realized that putting doctor-blogs at the top is probably likely to exacerbate these bloggers god-complexes. Henceforth, the links shall shuffle! Currently Patient Blogs have risen to the top. Nurses and medical students are also above the docs! The shifting lists should always bring something new to the top.

The lists themselves are also evolving:

• Patient Bloggers: I took out a few links that honestly I'm not reading anymore. Six Until Me is a popular diabetes blog, but if you aren't a diabetic it doesn't really have much to say. Ditto with Reality of Anxiety. It's a good blog for what it is, but right now I'm more interested in blogs that explore the experience of being a patient than blogs about a particular disease. You don't need to know anything about bladder diversion to enjoy Neo-Conduit's blog or the diagnosis of unusual illnesses to enjoy Queen of Optimism. Their writings are essentially human not medical stories. I also added a very interesting blog: Coming Out Of The Trees, about a patient overcoming a history of severe abuse—heavy but fascinating.

• Nurse Bloggers: Well with Nurse K's blog gone again I had to cut the link, but she's still there on twitter. So for D's top Nurse Blogger the award goes to MAHA! She is a new nurse fresh out of nursing school who is an very funny articulate blogger. Heck, she deserves the top slot just for this post. Unfortunately Lonely Midwife appears to have gone into unannounced hiatus, so her link is gone, but if she comes back D will return her to her rightful place.

• Medical Student Bloggers: Ella is still D's favorite med student blogger, but a new contender is Indifferential Diagnosis. It seems to be the work of a group of medical students just teetering on the edge of sanity. God bless, those poor suckers sludging through the misery of med school! Doctor D can reasure them it gets better, but while they are somewhat delusional you can enjoy their brilliant posts like this one.

• Doctor Bloggers: D is thinning out this category right now. Doctor Rob is wonderful despite his strange fascination with lamas, but with his blog on a semi-hiatus his link is being retired for the time being. Buckeye Surgeon is a great storyteller, but recently his blog has gotten a bit overly political for D's tastes. The Happy Hospitalist's link is also gone. Doctor D was just tired of reading so very much about so very little, and without Nurse K around to antagonized Happy what is the point? This opens up space for you to discover some of the other great doc bloggers over there.

• Resident Bloggers: This category is getting lonely! Agraphia appears to have shut down his blog which is too bad, but understandable. Residency is a trial by fire. Only Doctor Ottematic is left. Anybody know any good resident bloggers D can link to?

• And as an extra bonus Doctor D is adding an Other Fun Stuff section. What's in there? You guessed it: other fun medically-related stuff! Enjoy.

Thanks for coming to this week's Friday Links! I promise fewer links next week.

What do you think? Did D miss a great blog that should be in the lists or delete a blog that should have stayed? Tell him all about it in the comments!