Requiescat in pace

Two more of my favorite medical blogs have disappeared, Dr. Flea and Fat Doctor. I wish their erstwhile authors well in their future endeavors.

Fat Doctor explains in what is left of her blog that she deleted all of her entries to the beginning because she was identified by one of her colleagues. She has been blogging anonymously, and apparently felt that, once identified, she could no longer continue.

Dr. Flea offers no explanation. Unfortunately, Flea also blogged anonymously, so it is impossible to speculate on the sudden death of his blog.

I have always felt blogging is something of a fad. Either bloggers will be institutionalized -- that is, absorbed -- by large online publishers, or they will fade away. Writing takes sustained commitment and it is hard to hold down a full time job and continue to write well on a daily basis. Anonymous  bloggers have an additional problem. It is impossible to keep an identity secret forever, especially in the health care profession, where, if you are writing about your work, you are bound sooner or later to leak identifying information.

Some bloggers come back, and I hope this is the case with these two. If not, we can still thank them for what they gave us while they could. 

Comments

[Dr. Host]

Regarding Dr. Flea, see
http://www.overlawyered.com/2007/05/liveblogging_a_malpractice_tri.html
and
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/05/31/blogger_unmasked_court_case_upended/