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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Even More Palliative Care Blogs

Here are a few more blogs (four, five , six, seven!)that I have found recently that may be of interest to our growing community. Go visit them, read a little. Leave a comment if you have a few seconds, since it is kind of like a tip to the blogger. A little appreciation can go a long way to inspiring bloggers to keep writing. At this rate we might have enough Palliative Medicine blogs to start a monthly grand rounds? Anyone else up for that?

1
The Center for Practical Bioethics has a weekly blog similar to Maurice Bernstein's blog that covers a wide range of topics, but often circles back around to end-of-life issues, like this recent one on the definition of brain death in reference to the recent pediatric case in Washington D.C.

2
Frequent commenter here at Pallimed, Dr. Alex DeLuca has a policy/law blog titled War on Doctors/Pain Crisis focused on the struggle for good pain management and the support of doctors facing prosecution because of aggressive symptom control. It is also the official blog of the Pain Relief Network (PRN get it?). The prosecution regarding opioid prescriptions for hospice & palliative care doctors has thankfully not been in the spotlight, but isn't this something that our field may want to pay more attention to? Changes in law and policy and court decisions with opioids at the center can greatly impact our field, so best to keep an ear to the ground.

3
GrowthHouse started with several blogs but unfortunately many fell by the wayside as blogs are wont to do. But with the blog Goodbyes, we have some great contributions from Debra Bradley Ruder, a writer/journalist who worked with medical students at Harvard Med School following dying patients. From this work she has shared many stories on her blog about saying goodbye. Her style is narrative, with occasional mentions of articles regarding communication at the end-of-life.

Here is a sample of articles from Goodbyes:
A Cabbie and a Doc
Fulfilling a Baseball Dream

4
Two Women Blogging is written from the perspective of... well I guess the title says it all. The pseudonymous Jay is a primary care doctor who just took her palliative care boards and does some hospice medical directing and occasionally writes about her experiences there.

Washington State Politics: Choices at the End of Life~by Jay
Healing~by Jay

5
Angela Morrow, RN writes for About Palliative Care (on the About.com website). Her blog is aimed more to the general public and so it serves as a good educational resource about our field. She also occasionally gets the scoop on me about palliative medicine news issues. The blog is also a gateway to a forum for people with questions about death, dying, hospice, palliative care, funerals, etc. The forum seems pretty well updated and is aimed at the general public.

6
The Checkout Line is a website centered around an advice column style blog written by journalist/editor Judy Bachrach. The questions readers ask her are quite detailed and the I find much of the advice she gives to be practical, thoughtful and similar to what many people might here from a hospice or palliative care professional. The contributions by some of the commenters is also helpful. She deserves at least some recognition for a clever title for her blog!

7
The Journey Learned is a physician blog written by Dr. M. He has only been writing since September 2008 and his focus is on teaching palliative medicine and what he learns from his interactions from his patients. He posts about once a week right now and writes in a much more narrative approach compared to here at Pallimed. I hope he continues writing about his experiences on the blog. Blogs are easy to start but it is sometimes tough to keep up the work!

Here are some of Dr. M's hospice related posts:
A Sailor's Salute
Two Students

Frequently Updated Hospice & Palliative Medicine Blogs (in order of age of blog)
**just added**
Please go visit these blogs, show them some love, leave a comment in honor of National Hospice & Palliative Care Month.
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