When I retired in 2006, I wanted to do something that would keep me occupied, but also in the professional game. I came up with the idea of writing a blog. Nine years on, I’ve posted 2,484 notes on Lab Soft News, and I have around 600 daily readers. My audience finds my blog via search engines and my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Pathology informatics is my area of greatest professional competence, hence the name of the blog. But to really succeed at blogging you need to feel passionately about what you’re writing, and over the years I’ve drifted into other areas of pathology, healthcare delivery, medical affairs and ethics.
Keeping it edgy
During my 33 years in academic pathology, if I wanted to publish my ideas, the work needed to be vetted by layers of journal referees, editors, my chairman, and so forth. So it was energizing and liberating to have no layers between me and my audience. I write a blog note, click a button, and it’s published. Blogs offer a way of incubating new ideas and testing them in a somewhat less serious way than an academic article; I can get an idea and publish it easily in a day rather than months in a refereed journal. I see myself as an information filter for lab professionals and educated consumers; I create blogs that give my audience food for thought. Some of my notes may be controversial, but a popular blog has to be slightly edgy – you need to write passionately and add controversy, otherwise it won’t get picked up.I don’t worry about occasional typographical errors creeping into my blog notes, because I think that can add authenticity to my blog. That’s why corporate blogs never succeed – they’re too formal; they have to go through too many layers of approval and they end up being rigid and uninteresting. With a blog, you shouldn’t need to ask permission – you just do it, which allows creativity.
The big wins
I don’t receive many comments on my blog. But when I attend pathology conferences or I’m in professional social settings, it’s the first thing people want to talk to me about. I get invited to give three or four lectures each year, and every one of them is about a topic I explored on my blog. In 2006, I posted a note giving ten reasons why radiology and pathology should merge. In subsequent notes, I referred to this idea as “integrated diagnostics.” I eventually realized that merging the two specialties was naïve, but that from a quality perspective, there was great benefit in correlating diagnostic results. Launching this idea led to a recent invitation to address the International Society for Strategic Studies in Radiology. The president of the society introduced me as “the person who invented integrated diagnostics.” I’ve never done any formal publications about it – this was purely a result of my blog!Hazards of controversy
I like to add an element of controversy to my blogs, but that’s not to say there aren’t repercussions. A notable example is in my critical blogs about electronic health records (EHRs). One company in particular writes its contracts with hospitals in such a way that criticism of the product is suppressed. This is a major problem, because software problems can jeopardize patients’ lives. We need more transparency about these issues. I probably would not have posted those blogs if I were still an active faculty member, but my retirement has given me the latitude to address controversial topics.My advice
As a retiree, blogging is ideal for me. I do recognize that it’s often not suited to pathologists, because they are constrained by time. They also need to have the ability to write in a journalistic manner, churning out some 2,000 words a week under a self-imposed deadline. If a pathologist wants to get involved in social media without being controversial, I think posting on Twitter about professional topics might be a good alternative option. I see social media as a very powerful vehicle for facilitating daily communication on a global basis. For pathologists interested in trying out blogging, I’d suggest using a blog hosting website, but not widely publicizing your blog at first. Then you can see if you enjoy it. It is hard to create an audience without controversy, so I’d recommend at least some.Take my blog as an example: I’ve accumulated a daily following from around the world. I have gained this following relatively quickly and inexpensively, and I am often invited to give lectures at reputable conferences to thousands of people on the basis of the ideas I raise in my blog. This is powerful stuff! To succeed in this game, you have to have a passion for it and believe that you’re accomplishing something worthwhile. That’s why I’ve kept at it, and it’s now a very important part of my life.
Bruce Friedman is Emeritus Professor of Pathology at University of Michigan Medical School, and president of the non-profit Pathology Education Consortium. His blog Lab Soft News blog operates under this non-profit company. labsoftnews.typepad.com
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