Change of Name, Anonymity
From the suggestions of Walter (thank you), I think changing the name to “Code of Ethics” is a good idea. Val said that she would get someone to replace the llama (I will miss him so), so I am waiting for that.
I would like to state clearly that a big part of the motivation of this code is to protect medical bloggers who wish to remain anonymous. I do not want the whole medical blogging community to post with their identities open. There is a part of the life of someone that becomes closed to the public when they lose anonymity. You can’t talk about colleagues or patient encounters as openly when you are posting under your real name. By blogging anonymously, you are actually protecting those around you.
I actually think I am less vulnerable to attack if I am open with who I am (which is what I prefer). The anonymous medical blogger, if they are more open with their personal thoughts about things that would be otherwise incriminating, is at greatest risk. Yet they are also the ones who can most abuse that anonymity by stepping beyond what is reasonable and fair. So I want to state plainly that in no way does this code focus on bloggers like me. If anything, I am focusing more on the blogger who is anonymous but needs to state plainly that they are who they represent themselves as and that they will follow the rules.
Please take this issue to your own blogs (as some of you have done) and get others’ opinions on this whole code of ethics. I am so far only getting nods from a small segment of the medical community and want to reach much further if possible.
We each seem to get a different traffic base. To get more input, why don’t we each paste this code on our own blogs instead of just linking?? I have many readers who perfer to read than click and many of us are syndicated via different blog services and will reach more bloggers that way. I’ll plan to do that next week – I know many folks are away for the holiday weekend.
Your statements about anonymous bloggers is right on the mark. My blog doesn’t deal much with colleagues or patients but for those blogs that do tackle those issue, it can get very tricky. I’ve discussed some of the legal issues with my own intellecutal property lawyer since last week’s events unfolded and he loves the idea of this code and additionally suggested we all post some sort of legal disclaimer on our home page similar to what Dr. A has on his blog’s home page and what is common on many health web pages including my own. As a health journalist, these issues are top on my mind daily. Here’s the link to what my IP lawyer drafted for my web site:
Pediatrics Now Legal Notices
(here’s the url without the code incase I goofed: http://www.pediatricsnow.com/legal_notices.html…still learning html!)
What happened last week to bring this to the fore?
oops…just realized it was an old post..nm/