Grand Rounds

Grand Rounds 3.08 is now up and running at The Rumors Were True. Thanks Topher for hosting this week. Here's my contribution:

With all of the forward-looking, its important to remember why we’re doing any of this. This week, Doctor Anonymous writes a great story about counseling a difficult patient to undergo a stress test that may have saved his life.

Next week's host is Doctor Anonymous - ME! Yay! What the heck have I gotten myself into? We'll see. The deadline for submissions will be early - because I'm on call this weekend and will need more time to put things together.

The deadline will be Sunday, November 19th, 2006 at 11:59PM eastern time. E-mail submissions to doctoranonymousblog [at] gmail [dot] com. Please place "Grand Rounds" in the subject line. Also, please follow this format. It will definitely help me stay organized.

Blogger Name: Doctor Anonymous
Blog Name: Doctor Anonymous
Blog URL: http://doctoranonymous.blogspot.com/
Post Name: Are you an idiot?
Post URL: http://doctoranonymous.blogspot.com/2006/06/are-you-idiot.html
Description: [insert one line description of post here]

I went into the "way back machine" to see how Nick originially described what he was looking for in a GR post. You can read the full post here. But, I thought these words are still true today - even after two years since GR number one. I have always found it helpful to look back before looking forward.

Remember, the target audience here is NOT other medical bloggers, or people in the health care industry. It's the educated but nonmedical readers coming from general-interest blogs. So write for that audience, if only for this one post (even if your blog is about echocardiography). The idea is to introduce the wider world to the growing medical blogosphere -- the doctors, nurses, students, administrators, EMTs, techs, and patients who blog.

Two questions that are frequently asked:

1. Is Grand Rounds just limited to bloggers in the health care field? No -- I'll look at any medical-related post. There are some patient-perspective blogs in particular that I hope submit links. But like I said, the point of Grand Rounds is to promote the nascent medical blogosphere, and submissions from health-related blogs will take priority.

2. I'm a doctor / nurse / researcher / student / EMT / health care economist / patient who writes mostly about gardening / dating / reality television. Will you link to my post? Maybe. I'll certainly look at it, if it's medically related. And very few blogs are 100% medicine. But like I said, submissions from mostly health-focused blogs will take priority.

It's the host's discretion as to what gets included. This week, that's me. In addition to linking to your posts, I'll be providing the groan-inducing puns, and snarky comments, that readers have come to expect and dread. It's nothing personal.

So, I'm putting everyone on notice! 100 percent of submissions will NOT get in. I agree with those who say that there are just too many links, and that possibly drives people away. The number that will get in this week will depend on the quality of the submissions.

This may be my last time hosting Grand Rounds, and I may get a lot of flack (and all my future submissions may be rejected). But, hey, I'm the editor and I'm deciding what's in and what's out this week. Being included in Grand Rounds is not an entitlement; it's not a right; it's a privilege.

Whether you agree or disagree with me, my vision next week is to put the best medical STORIES (ie - first hand anedcotes) out there for people to read (I wouldn't call it a theme). When I talk to people about medical television shows, sure they talk about the technical jargon and the science. But, what really draws people to good medical shows are the stories that they tell. And, I agree that's something that first drew me to Grand Rounds, and has fallen off a bit in the last few months.

So, put your best medical STORY together and send it to me. Don't make me come after you! Early submissions are greatly, greatly, greatly appreciated (did I say they would be greatly appreciated?). Also, please feel free to hype up GR on your own blog. From what I've been reading, Grand Rounds may have lost a little luster in recent months. Maybe it's time to bring people back to Grand Rounds, and this is the week to do it!