IMG 2986What a crazy morning! I went with Stephen’s class to the local church on a school field trip. As far as I could tell, the other children behaved beautifully while Stephen was acting up. I’m not sure if I should be volunteering much in his class anymore since it appears he has issues with me being there. The teachers don’t seem to think it’s a big deal, though, and always encourage me to be involved.

I want to be active in his class, but not if it causes a disruption. The worst thing is, I’m not sure he got anything out of the experience. I was giving him a quiz about the type of windows, benches, and statues in the church and he was being completely ornery pretending like he didn’t know what in the world I was talking about. Will have to give him a strict talking to before the next time.

Thank goodness I get some respect in other corners of the world. Margarita Bauza, Work Life Reporter of the Detroit Free Press, included me today in a story about medical blogs and patient-doctor confidentiality. I’m quite pleased with the juicy quotes attributed to me and think the whole series is worth a read for anyone interested in medical and healthcare blogging.

For posterity, my quotes:

Some blogs give advice on how to comply with HIPAA. The site www.geneticsandhealth.com has an honor roll, led by Dr. Hsien Hsien Lei, listing blogs that do well at abiding by privacy laws and disclosing biases.

“I just felt sites were not up front about their affiliations,” Lei said.

“The line is very fuzzy,” Lei added, when it comes to maintaining patient privacy. “Every single doctor who blogs kind of defines it for themselves.”

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Doctors are people, too

That fuzziness doesn’t cancel out the good that has come out of medical blogs, said Lei, the genetics blogger.

Blogs disseminate research and opinions quickly and can give patients access to doctors, many times on even ground.

“Patients forget that doctors are people,” Lei said. “There’s a tendency to think that they’re either God or people who just want to shove pills down your throat. When you’re reading their blogs, you see that they’re real people.

“Also, on these blogs, comments are open,” she added. “If you have a concern, you can easily leave a comment. It’s a wonderful way for patients to have access to doctors.”