Josh Padnick wonders:

The thing is, patients would absolutely LOVE this. I kmow I’d certainly love it. It’d be awesome to go to my doctor’s website, read his latest blog entry on say, eating healthy, or the importance of low sodium, and then to see him/her a few weeks later and be able to discuss what he had written about. How cool would that be?

It would also serve an important role in helping me choose a doctor. I think the same goes for referring physicians. Suppose you’re a PCP and you go online to read Dr. X’s cardiology blog where he talks about a common misconception PCPs often have when requesting cardiology consults. Wouldn’t it be helpful for the PCP to read that? Wouldn’t it make him that much more likely to refer to that doctor?

Well, I’m trying to do my part. Time is the major reason. Physicians are pressed for time as it is, and blogging certainly won’t rank high on the to-do list. Blogging requires a commitment – it really won’t be effective if a doctor is “forced” to blog.

A final reason is that physicians are traditionally one of the last to adopt technology. Blogging and other web 2.0 applications are only used by a minority of doctors.