Neo Links Needed! (Friday Links)

Alas, one of the great patient medblogs is no more!

Neo-Conduit's Blog is gone.

Doctor D has really loved getting to know patients through the blogging medium.

D has spent a lot of time with patients in exam rooms and hospitals over the years, but he has often wondered, "What do they really think about doctors and medical care after they go home?" Doctor D always meets you in that very weird place they call the "doctor-patient encounter" where both people's behavior, perception, and personality are distorted by the odd roles we are assigned to play.

For healthcare providers, patient blogs offer a fascinating peak into the private thoughts of patients. Anonymous blogs allow people with medical issues to express their minds with a candidness they are rarely able to display face to face with their doctor or nurse. In blogs we see the humanity of patients through their stories, their triumphs, their frustrations, their fears, their angers, their rants.

Any healthcare provider that really wants to "help people" should read patient blogs on a regular basis.

Neo-Conduit was that sort of blog. Neo had suffered severe surgical complications resulting in chronic pain and multiple infections to her urinary system. Her blog told the story of her injuries, her frustration with doctors, her observations of other patients, and her personal feelings about life with illness. Reading Neo-Conduit was always entertaining and mind-opening.

Her blog has been gone for several weeks now. No hiatus or anything—just gone! Leaving nothing but the dreaded, "blog not found" message. Doctor D tried to contact her, but got no response.

We hope that Neo is doing well and that much joy awaits her in her new blog-less endeavors. You can go to her twitter page (which is dormant but still there) to wish her luck.

Now AskAnMD requires a new patient blog for the Link List and needs your help!

Doctor D is about to take a Lent sabbatical and wants to leave you guys with some really excellent blogs to read. He is looking for a blog that is less technical (only info about diseases and treatments) and more of a personal experience in illness and healthcare. Take a look at the excellent blogs to the right for guidance.

Doctor D's favorite new patient blog shall take it's rightful place in the Link List space that once belonged to Neo-Conduit.

*This isn't a Big D Award contest, but all the blogs in the Link List will automatically qualify for the patient-blogger Big D Awards coming up in April or May!

So let Doctor D know your favorite patient blog!

And thanks to all you medical patients out there who have educated Doctor D!

The Year In Review (Friday Links)

Doctor D will take this first day of 2010 to reflect on this last year...

In May of 2009 a young physician decided to name his alter ego "Doctor D" and become a medblogger.

He hadn't even read medbloggers before, but he really wanted to frankly discuss health and medicine so he opened a blog and put up some random post asking people to send in questions to some anonymous MD who was willing to spill the beans.

Doctor D just ignored the blog for 3 months, expecting a readerless blog to magically generate interesting questions his email box.

In August Doctor D finally decided he really wanted to do this, so he started posting answers to random questions that popped into his head.

Thankfully, a blogger named Magda stumbled across Ask An MD and asked the first question: about finding a new doctor. D was so thrilled he answered it in a 4-part series.

Since then the questions have been rolling in!

Along the way Doctor D has met some really amazing people on the web. The first person to show D the medblogging ropes was WarmSocks. She blogs about her experience as a patient and she explained to Doctor D how to make a blog like this helpful to people navagating the healthcare system. Later D met other cool patient-bloggers like Neo-Conduit, Queen, Wren, Helen, who really are must-reads for medical folk who want to understand the suffering and strength of a lot of the patients we care for every day.

Doctor D also wants to thank the inspiring patients he has met over email. Many readers don't have blogs, but have shared their experiences with him. D wishes the whole world could hear your stories.

Nurse K was the first and still the awesomest medical-worker blogger to welcome Doctor D to the net! Even though her ER blog is now on hiatus K has always been D's webcrush and he still reads her twitter religiously. Ask An MD has also been visited by such great medical bloggers as Nurse Maha, Nurse Lee, Doctor Rob, Ell the med student, and the hilarious Dr. Grumpy.

So Doctor D has met some very cool people, answered a lot of questions, and had a lot of fun. Ask An MD is getting hundreds of visitors each day and it's really only a few months old. Keep those questions coming!

Thank you all for a great 2009!

So what do you think? What have you liked and disliked about the blog this year? What direction do you think Doctor D should take the blog in 2010? What sorts of questions do you think Doctor D should be selecting from the mail bag in 2010?

Patient Eduction (Friday Links)

Doctor D's recent Friday Links have focused on healthcare providers. It is good for patients to hear what doctors and nurses are saying. Conversely it is useful for those of us in medicine to listen to the voices of patients. So today I bring you two patient blogs that Doctor D never misses.

These are patients who write only about one illness: their own.

• ∞ itis: WarmSocks blogs about living with Rheumatoid Arthritis. She was the first blogger who found AskAnMD and sent encouraging emails and a link from her site. I was hesitant to feature her on Friday Links because most readers don't have RA and therefore might not be interested, but the more I read of WarmSocks' practical advice, insight, and humor the more I realize that she is useful for just about anyone who is interested in medical care.

• Neo-Conduit: Even some medical people (like Doctor D) don't know much about a Urinary Diversion, but this blogger's courage after years of difficulty in the medical system is to be admired. She has some understandable frustration with medical folks, but her perspective is worth listening to. Her observations about patient suffering and frustrations are a insightful and never angry. She is on Doctor D's "must read" list every day.

For some other great patient blogs check out the "patient bloggers" section on the sidebar. And if you follow Doctor D's Friday Links for the physician perspectives you should definitely go over to Dr. Rob's site and read Top Ten Ways To Annoy Your Doctor.

Doctor D will be back soon to answer your questions and with a special post with Nurse K! Stay Tuned!