Our Second post in the b5media 12 Days of Christmas series is by Hsien-Hsien Lei. I’ll let her introduce herself and tell us about the topic of – a topic that might well be worth thinking through for all types of bloggers but which is particularly relevant for some in a field like Hsien-Hsien Lei.
Hi. I’m Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei and I write the Genetics and Public Health Blog. Unlike most of the other blog tips you‚ll be reading about in this series, mine will be geared towards science and health bloggers who, I think, have greater responsibilities to their readership. We’re not just blogging about the next generation of iPods or the latest celebrity to make a fool of himself. We’re blogging about life and death.
So maybe I’m being a little over-dramatic. But it’s true that science and health bloggers need to fully disclose any information that may mislead readers. For instance, I am a doctor, but I’m not that kind of doctor; I hold a PhD, not an MD. That makes a huge difference in how I understand and interpret the latest science and health news.
From the start of the Genetics and Public Health Blog, I made it clear that I wasn’t beholden to any advertisers or sponsors. While ads may appear on my blog, they do not influence my writing in any way. Everything I write is my own opinion. No one tells me what to write.
I encourage all science and health bloggers to write a post answering the following 10 questions posed by The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health:
1. Who runs this site?
2. Who pays for the site?
3. What is the purpose of the site?
4. Where does the information come from?
5. What is the basis of the information?
6. How is the information selected?
7. How current is the information?
8. How does the site choose links to other sites?
9. What information about you does the site collect, and why?
10. How does the site manage interactions with visitors?
My answers are posted at the Genetics and Public Health Blog. If you choose to answer these questions too, leave me a comment!
Good questions to be up front about for any blog — whether health related or something else.
Being up front about those issues reduces the likelihood of claims of conflict of interest. It’s honest from both a business and intellectual standpoint.
[…] Welcome, ProBlogger readers! You may be wondering why I keep referring to the Genetics and PUBLIC Health Blog. That was the first incarnation of this blog under About Weblogs. I’m still the same person and the content is still the same, but our name has been streamlined. Hope you’ll find this “meme” helpful and informative. […]
It link to http://www.geneticsandhealth.coms/
Ack! How awful. Thanks for pointing that out, hyipfarm. And I’m guessing Darren’s already away for the weekend. :(
Correct link is http://www.geneticsandhealth.com..
Great post Hsien…it was so important to me that people realize that I’m just a caregiver, and not a doctor, that I put it right in my blog’s masthead.
The web is full of dubious health information, and unfortunately, some of that dubious info comes from some fairly successful health-related blogs. Personally I prefer to be a part of the solution instead of the problem.
I’ve also seen some bloggers that seem to think that having a prominent disclaimer makes it OK for them to be sloppy at what they report. IMO that just gives a bad name to blogging.
The question of how to approach comments is a really great one. Some health blogs deal with this by just ignoring comments, which I personally find offensive. I mean, if you’re not going to respond to comments then why have them turned on in the first place?
Of course, the opposite side is that you don’t want to open yourself up to a lawsuit by someone who takes what you say as a suggestion for treatment. I personally try to respond to all comments on my blogs, but I will admit that periodically someone asks me a question that seems a bit too risky to answer…even if I do have an opinion about it.
In fact, that just happened today, and I’m still weighing how to answer the question…
Cary, Don’t even get me started with rampant misinformation….
I should probably do some research on the legal liabilities of providing information on the Web. But, writers of health-related magazines/books should have the same liability as bloggers, right? I haven’t encountered any situation in which medical advice is required, but if a comment/question makes you feel uncomfortable, I would just refer people to their physician. If you do offer your opinion, labeling it as such with the caveat that there is disagreement among medical professionals should take care of it.
As for blog etiquette, I personally never re-visit blogs where the writer doesn’t acknowledge my comments. Maybe I’m just petty that way. ;)
Flygirl: I would definitely look favorably upon any website/blog that fully disclosed their affiliations/biases.
I think there are two sides to this question, both posing dilemmas.
The first is that medical science isn’t always right. If you need sudden direct intervention, OK. But on chronic conditions the prescriptions are often too strong and temporary, treating symptoms not causes.
Older, alternative treatments often work better, but are not subject to anything like the same regulation, so you’re usually taking a chance.
Some sort of reconcilation between the two would be good, but not, I hope, by placing both in the hands of government agencies.
Is there an answer to this?
John: Very difficult to say but what I think we all need to do is take charge of our health. We need to live a life of prevention, not treatment.
And it’s imperative that we educate ourselves as much as we can so that we don’t blindly follow any one medical professional.
Oh, dear, I forgot to close my tag. Darren’s going to shoot me for clutterin up his comments.
Just trying to close the bold tag.
[…] Over at ProBlogger, I contributed an article to the 12 Days of Christmas series of blog tips – Ethics for Science and Health Bloggers. And in response, an apparent spammer left this comment: Thats a great post and i must say the woman in specs looks cute. […]
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NIH/NCCAM questionnaire on medblogger’s commercial ties
Ethics for Science and Health Bloggers: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei who writes the Genetics and Public Health Blog encourages “all science and health bloggers to write a post answering the following 10 questions posed by The National C…
[ … HealthVoices is the first and so far the only blog network, dedicated solely to health & wellness issues. We are currently recruiting medical bloggers to write feature columns that will ultimately cover every major area of healthcare thought and practice …]
Open Motives in the MedBlogosphere
Dmitriy at healthvoices advised me that Dr Hsien-Hsien Lei recently wrote about the ethics of medical bloggers in which she proposed we should (among other things?) answer these ten questions from The National Center for Complementary and Alternative M…
I wrote this post on the blogger as a public figure back in July. Food for thought.
Great post – I am really going to get right onto including the answers to the questions on my blog. I run a healthy food reviews website, and to talk about misinformation and everyone thinking their way is the ‘one and only right’ way – I think the ‘net nutritionists’ have cornered this market.
[…] With health blogs being something of a Wild West phenomenon in the blogosphere (still relatively few of them out there!), this set of ethical guidelines will help assure that new bloggers in this field understand the implications of writing about health. […]
Thanks, Niels and tanya. It certainly does matter how we behave online. For instance, I wouldn’t want tanya to think I was cornering the market on false genetic information. ;)
Actually HONcode Foundation already provides the certification for websites, based on disclosures essentially the same as the ones raised in the article. So why not to make sure that health blogs have HONcode seal of approval?
Here is an example. Our website Medgadget.com is in compliance with HONCode Foundation:
http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html?HONConduct254536
Thanks for the tip, Dr. O. I will check out the HONCode Foundation ASAP.
HONcode could be a start. But given how many specific differences exist between blogs and “first-generation websites” it would not hurt to develop a clearer set of guidelines.
[…] Day 1 – Writing Gooder Day 2 – Ethics for Science and Health Bloggers Day 3 – It’s all about the Lifestyle Day 4 – Fund Your Love of Blogging Day 5 – Get a Little Bit Personal […]
[…] Thanks to Darren Rowse at ProBlogger, the full disclosure “meme” that I tried to introduce early in the life of Genetics and Health is finally gaining in popularily. Not only is it a fun way to know more about the motivations of medical and health bloggers, it should also help us gain confidence in them and the blogs they write. […]
Is The Biotech Weblog Trustworthy?
I should have done this right in the beginning, but, well, better late than never. Over at ProBlogger, Dr. Hsien Lei of the Genetics and Health Blog encourages health and medical bloggers to answer this set of questions posed…
[…] In line with my previous post, I became aware of a call for ethical standards for bloggers of healthcare information. Now, I’m not sure I consider myself a “blogger” although I’ve been using blogging software to support this website for the past two years. […]
Blogging and disclosure
I think a lot about this blog and about blogging in general. And I read a lot of blogs — knitting blogs, therapist blogs, feminist blogs, blogs about blogging. While reading Shrinkette I ran across this by Dr. Lei –…
[…] The “10 Questions” is a good start for building credibility and trust in medical blogs, but they are not enough […]
[…] Today’s post in the b5media 12 Days of Christmas series is another post by Hsien-Hsien Lei. She previously posted about ethics for science and health bloggers but this time she’s showing her diversity of blogging interests by writing about Product Placement on Consumer Blogs. […]
Answering the 10 conflict of interest questions
Hsien-Hsien Lei posts a list of 10 questions posed by The National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the U.S National Institutes of Health. My answers follow each of the 10 questions and relate specifically to this blog.
1. Wh…
thanks for posting the 10 questions. I answered them on a Dec 18 post for Rebel Doctor Web Log http://rebeldoctor.blogspot.com/
Good point made by this post.
I run a health related blog myself and have added an automatic generated disclosure policy, clearly stating the things you mentioned in your list. All health & science bloggers should do so…
*frowns*
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really prompted me to do so! really nice post.
Nice blog.I run a health related blog myself and have added an automatic generated disclosure policy.Thanks…