The number of health care provider blogs steadily is increasing but some are concerned that the online postings might provide inaccurate information or violate patients' privacy, USA Today reports.
Some physician blogs are intended for public use, while others -- especially the anonymous ones featuring stories about patients, hospitals, insurers and malpractice lawyers -- are meant for other providers.
The increasing trend of physician blogs raises questions about patient privacy, according to USA Today.
"The details are always, always obscured," Nicholas Genes -- a New York City emergency department physician who organizes a weekly offering of medical blogs, called Grand Rounds -- said. Patient genders, ages, locations and the time of incidents commonly are changed, according to medical bloggers.
Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said he avoids discussing patient stories on his blog, called Doctor Len's Cancer Blog, and worries that it "will be a problem eventually" with some breach of patient privacy.
In addition, if most of the medical information is fictionalized, some wonder if the blogs can be trusted as sources of medical advice. Many blogs carry disclaimers that they should not be considered as medical advice, USA Today reports.
Genes added that there might be better sources for patients to obtain medical information, but "patients can certainly benefit from knowing more about doctors' mindsets" (Painter, USA Today, 5/14).