* blogs are authored by qualified and licensed physicians.
* authors currently practice medicine (should be identifiable via the blog)
* blog positioned for patients demonstrating subject-matter expertise for the purpose of credibility, education and business development

As of June 17, 2010 we are aware of the following blogs, and other social media outlets:

If you’re a PHYSICIAN and/or PHYSICIAN GROUP (anywhere in the world!) with an active blog that meets the above criteria, please email us at social@physicianjobszone.com about adding it. Otherwise, we add them as we find them, and delete if they become inactive for over a year.

Specialty Areas

Emergency Medicine

GruntDoc: “I’m Allen, also known as GruntDoc. I chose GruntDoc as, when I was getting my first email address I was a doctor for the USMC infantry who are somewhat affectionately known as grunts. Although I’m no longer on active duty it still fits, because now I’m an Emergency Medicine doc who just works shifts. I’m a grunt in the Doctor world.”

Family Practice

Internal Medicine

KevinMD.com: by Kevin Pho, MD

Neonatal

Neonatal Doc:

Pediatrics

Doctor David by David Loeb, M.D., Ph.D.

Surgeon

SurgeonsBlog.com: Sid Schwab, a mostly retired general surgeon.

The Physicians see 30-40 patients per day and admit to a state of the art Medical Center.  A 1-year income guarantee is offered with full benefits and relocation package.  Partnership is offered after the 1st year.

If you want to live in one of the most beautiful locations in North Carolina, then you will want to check this out. Antiquing, shopping, snow skiing, hiking, rafting, fishing, boating and great dining abounds! Plus, enjoy easy highway driving to places like Winston-Salem, Asheville and Charlotte.

Unfortunately, this opportunity does not qualify for a Visa-Waiver sponsorship.

The mission of Best Hospitals from the start has been to help guide patients who need an especially high level of care because of difficult surgery, a challenging condition, or added risk because of other health problems or age. “When the stakes are high, you want the best care you can get for yourself or someone close to you,” said Health Rankings Editor Avery Comarow. “These hospitals are accustomed to seeing the sickest patients day in and day out.”

This latest ranking showcases 152 different medical centers ranked in one or more of 16 specialties:

• cancer;
• diabetes and endocrinology;
• ear, nose, and throat;
• gastroenterology;
• geriatrics;
• gynecology;
• heart and heart surgery;
• kidney disorders;
• neurology and neurosurgery;
• ophthalmology;
• orthopedics;
• psychiatry;
• pulmonology;
• rehabilitation;
• rheumatology,
• and urology.

Full data is available online at the US News website for 1,740 more hospitals that met the eligibility requirements but did not score high enough to be ranked.

Here’s a video by the Editors of US News discussing various aspects of their ranking [ click here and scroll down if video does not load properly ]:

Rita Rubin [ twitter.com/ritarubin ]  – in a piece for USAToday – provides a nice article titled “Some doctors join Facebook, Twitter; others wary.“  In the article, she highlights a number of issues and pointers that doctors need to be aware of when contemplating using Twitter and other social media outlets in their practice.

She uses Jeff Livingston, an Irving, Texas, OB-GYN physician as an example of one doctor who is using social media in the right way.  Dr. Livingston appears to be the push behind MacArthur OB-GYN’s use of social media, and has embraced social media in a comprehensive way, utilizing three of the big platforms out there: (1) Blogs, (2) Facebook, and (3) Twitter.

MacArthur OB/Gyn in Irving, Texas

The article notes that “But few doctors have embraced social media as enthusiastically as he has. Concerns about time and patient privacy have deterred many,” and in fact notes an observation by Westby Fisher, an Evanston, Ill., cardiac electrophysiologist, who wrote last month on his blog, that many doctors don’t avoid social media because they don’t know how to use technology, but rather: “… they avoid the Internet because they enjoy the benefits of anonymity, privacy, efficiency and legal protection that come with dropping off the grid.”

The privacy issue was also echoed by Dr. Livingston: “”What I’m watching for is that no private personal health information gets relayed via social media,” says Livingston, who keeps close tabs on the page with his iPhone and iPad.”

One way he remains sensitive to that fact is that he may take a common question that he hears, and takes it as an opportunity to turn it into a general Question & Answer on the practice group’s Facebook Page.

Recently, Livingston wondered whether one new patient’s posted question — could her fetus acquire an infection if she swam in a public pool? — was too personal.

But then he remembered that many women ask that same question every summer, so he decided that posting an answer — “It is perfectly OK” — on Facebook would serve all his pregnant patients, not just the one who posted the query.”

Acknowledging that problem, the American Medical Association‘s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs last month passed a resolution to “study the issue of physicians’ use of social networking, as exemplified on sites such as Facebook and Twitter” and report to the AMA’s House of Delegates at its meeting in November.

Kevin Pho, MD, over at KevinMD.com, provides some useful advise and observations on how physicians should best use twitter.  Among the pointers:

• Patient privacy is paramount. Do not discuss individual cases or provide patient advice via Twitter.
• Use Twitter to point your patients to trustworthy online health information sources.
• Use Twitter as a tool to promote your practice’s brand. More and more patients are using Twitter; those who do are likely to feel positive about their physicians using it as well. More than just a fad, Pho says that Twitter is here to stay and offers tremendous potential.
• Remind your patients using Twitter: Be careful whom you follow. Anyone can sign up for Twitter claiming to be a physician.

Dr. Pho rightly points out that the 1st item on the list – privacy – should always be the highest priority when contemplating a “Tweet.”

Pauline Chen MD had a great article in the NYTimes where she summed up her own use of social media benefits as:

“Social media has kept me connected with colleagues and a few former patients, allowed me to stay up-to-date with certain health care and medical education issues, and helped me to keep abreast of Web-based resources that might be useful to those I care for. It has also taught me a tremendous amount about the experiences of patients and caregivers, information I’m not sure I would have had access to had I not been engaged online.”

Other articles of interest:

Medicine in the Age of Twitter

When Your Doctor Is on Twitter

Physician 2.0: A Steady Stream of Innovation

It’s 7 a.m. at Henry Ford Hospital, and surgeons are preparing to remove a cancerous tumor from a man’s kidney.

It’s potentially a risky surgery, but everything’s ready: The doctors and nurses are in the operating room, the surgical instruments are sterilized and ready to go, and the chief resident is furiously Twittering on his laptop.

That’s right — last week, for the second known time, surgeons Twittered a surgery by using social-networking site Twitter to give short real-time updates about the procedure … Read the full story.

We have opened up a new search for pediatricians to become employees of A Premier Medical Center.

Call would be 1:5. $185,000+ with OUTSTANDING BENEFITS.

Great reputation for taking great care of our physicians.

We enjoy a service area of 100,000+ and we are building a state-of-the art new hospital that will be among the most modern in the country. How many of your other hospital clients have been named a Top US Hospital three out of the last four years?

No smog, managed care, snow or traffic. We offer a great quality of life, excellent schools and we are within 90 miles of the coast.