Oh, what a crazy week! Five full days of attending conferences, first AlwaysOn Stanford Summit and then BlogHer.

For our readers from the healthcare world, who have not heard of BlogHer, let me direct you to a profile in Boston.com ("Women tap the power of the blog") and highlight the key points:

But a fraction of the so-called ``A-list" blogs are authored by women. This inequity is not lost on San Francisco Bay area entrepreneurs and writers Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort, and Jory Des Jardins, the trio that started BlogHer.org, a sort of yellow pages for women bloggers. BlogHer's mission is to create opportunities for women bloggers so they can pursue exposure, education, community, and economic empowerment.

In other words, BlogHer links women to other women and women to the world.

On word of mouth alone they have registered more than 2,500 women bloggers. In addition to this directory, volunteer and paid BlogHer editors write a guide for women bloggers, linking and contributing to discussions on a range of topics that BlogHer women start on their individual blogs. But the most unusual benefit of BlogHer may be the least wired part of it.

The second annual BlogHer conference, with corporate sponsors like General Motors and Johnson & Johnson, will be held July 28-29 in San Jose, Calif. Attendance is expected to double from last year's session, which was supported by Yahoo and Google and attracted more than 300 women from around the country. Last year's theme was ``Where are the women bloggers?" The theme for BlogHer '06 is ``How is your blog changing your world?"

What I find so remarkable about BlogHer is how seamlessly they brought together a vibrant online community with the real world interaction through a conference. These online and offline connections seem to reinforce one another as people can better relate online to someone they met in person and face-to-face meetings lead to expansion of the circle of friends online.

RESULT? Lots of buzz, energy and connecting. Oh, and did I mention that they managed to create an economic basis to make this nirvana self-sustaining? Look at their list of sponsors and read Just Shelley's take ("One Successful Web 2.0 Company").

Need I elaborate why BlogHer is such a great inspiration?

They are becoming the real go-to place for women blogging. Bringing people together. Showing the way. Empowering individuals. Now, where is such place for health & medical bloggers?

That is what The Medical Blog Network is trying to create. Compared to BlogHer we are still in diapers. Do not forget, BlogHer'06 is their second conference. But consider the pieces TMBN already has:

• Community Site: TMBN has been operating as open community since January this year. Anyone can join and start a blog.
• Blog Directory Service: Launched this May and nearing first 100 listings. Bloggers can use listings to submit to carnivals.
• Conference: The innaugural Healthcare Blogging Summit 2006 will take place in Washington DC on December 11.

I'll stop short here of talking about "futures" but I want to thank the wonderful women of BlogHer for showing the way! I am especially grateful to Elisa Camahort for agreeing to join a panel at our Healthcare Blogging Summit, helping get the word out and offering a perspective on how medblogging is joining the greater blog mainstream.

Finally, I should mention that some of BlogHer community leaders are also active on TMBN. Toby Bloomberg who participated in BlogHer business blog panel contributes to our Medical Marketing column, as well as will moderate the panel on Blogging Strategies & Tactics at our Healthcare Summit. Having emailed and phoned with Toby over last few months I was glad to finally meet her in person. But according to her she caught up with even more people!

Hope to see you in December in DC where you can meet Elisa, Toby and many other medblogging stars!

To learn more about BlogHer, check out interviews in Contra Costa Times with Elisa Camahort, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone.

Finally, even A-listers are learning from BlogHer experience. Robert Scoble is offering a long list of insights.