Now that I look back, the current format of Trusted.MD as a multi-blogger network was launched back in January 2006. It started under a different name and domain (healthvoices.com) and had a slightly different design.

But for better or worse, the overall approach has not changed much and I was not even giving this too much thought. Until last week when Dr. Gary Levin, the first physician to join Trusted.MD posted a touching piece, saying some flattering things about yours truly. I quote "Dmitriy's unrecognized contribution was seminal and awesome in regard to medical blogging".

That is high praise and I think I ought to take a moment to comment

Two weeks ago I wrote about how the blurring of personal and professional boundaries is causing controversy around medical blogging. I commented on the survey of "medical blog professionalism" and calls for regulation.

Now, these calls for punitive regulation of bloggers are intensifying. In a recent issue of American Medical News, the study author argues that "professional groups should adopt policies explicitly addressing blogging ethics". Apparently the issue is up for grabs, as no such policies are being developed yet.

This misguided idea should not see the light of day. Why?

Blogs continue their inexhorable march towards mainstream. The latest milestone is a ruling by SEC, blessing their use for official corporate disclosure. This brings to an end the monopoly of press releases and newswires.

This decision has been awaited for almost two years. Back in 2006, Jon Schwartz, the CEO of Sun Microsystem and the first major CEO blogger, asked Christopher Cox, the SEC Chairman to modernize Reg FD disclosure rules. I mentioned this in my post on the role of blogging in public health.

How is this SEC ruling significant?

I was planning to write a post on the differences in "personal vs. professional" uses of blogs and social media for a while, but wanted to wait for some good material to analyze before hitting the "Publish" button.

The recent study in Journal of General Internal Medicine, called Content of Weblogs Written by Health Professionals (full-text PDF hosted by Pharmalot), looks at habits of an "average" medical blogger and tries very hard to paint them in a negative light, questioning their "professionalism".

This sets the stage for drawing personal vs. professional contrast:

Nick Jacobs is well known in health blogging community as the first ever hospital CEO to start an "official" blog about his professional experiences at Windber Medical Center & Research Institute.

Today I was happy to hear from Nick again about his latest project, which is converting his excellent insights into a series of books. The first book, "Taking the Hell out of Healthcare" is set to be available in a few weeks. This is a book for "everyone" about patient empowerment, patient-centered care, and how your hospital stay SHOULD BE.

I will let the testimonials about the book speak for themselves:

I should have posted this earlier, but please mark your calendars for tomorrow. Kaiser Family Foundation is holding a webcast titled "The Health Blogosphere: What It Means for Policy Debates and Journalism".

The LIVE webcast will begin at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 and may be well worth tuning into. Why? The cream of the crop in DC health policy blog and media circles will be there, including HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, who happens to be the first Cabinet official to start a blog.

What is notable about the event?

Last week on HealthcareVox I saw an interesting post with a provocative title: "Keller Fay Group: Pharma Should Stop Salivating Over Social Media". This seemed controversial, so I decided to investigate.

The main thesis of the report by Keller Fay Group, is that offline word-of-mouth should be more important for pharma marketing than online. That is not surprising talk from the firm specializing in offline word-of-mouth. But does the research suggest that online WOM should be dismissed?

In one word "NO". Offline is important, but online has room to grow

This Sunday, while perusing tech industry news on Silicon Alley Insider I saw an interesting post about "The Unlikely Career Path Of MacRumors' Arnold Kim", who so happens to be a physician.

This is quite amazing, since for most blogging physicians, online publishing is mostly a hobby. Sometimes it supports professional endeavors, but rarely in a direct way. An outlet of opinions, a venue to influence healthcare dialog, even opportunity to promote themselves. But full-time?

Dr. Kim's story shows how a personal blog can turn into a career

Internet privacy is under attack. Last week, the ongoing lawsuit of Viacom against YouTube / Google led to an extremely disturbing development - a court order to turn your video viewing records over to Viacom.

New York Times has details here: "Google Told to Turn Over User Data of YouTube". The key fact is that Viacom will be given access to the records on EVERYvideo watched since YouTube founding in 2005, supposedly to investigate copyright violation patterns. If you ever watched a YouTube video, that means your user IDs, IP addresses and videos will be handed over.

Why does this story matter, in particular for online health records?

Everyone who has followed this site knows that I have always been a staunch supporter of free speech. The culmination of the efforts to promote openness in healthcare was compilation of HealthTrain Manifesto almost 2 years ago.

A lot happened since then. We had many chances to see how such principles play out in the real world, what works and what does not. Unfortunately, sometimes free speech can go too far. The need for common-sense limitations was probably best put by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes known for saying "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins".

What were the specific events that prompted some re-thinking?