I’ve been blogging now for over three years, which, in internet time, is quite a while. During that time, I’ve begun to take the writing itself more and more seriously. I’ve begun to recognize the implications of the medium itself, especially in conversations with mainstream journalists. We bloggers are, for better or worse, part of “the media”.  So I’ve had to learn something about journalism ethics as well.  

This has changed the way I write. When I look back at some of my earliest posts, I cringe. In many ways that’s a good thing; as it turns out, I have the ability to learn and improve. My commenters and my colleagues help keep me honest, and without them, I’d write just as poorly as I did five years ago. I’ve also expanded the type of writing I do. In addition to my always well-reasoned rantings and my discussions of science-based medicine, I’ve done some more investigative pieces, interviewing sources, and consulting other journalists about ethics and approaches.  

Given that much of my writing is very critical of unethical medical practices, I don’t have a lot of wiggle room in my own public behavior.  This isn’t to say that to be ethical is to be perfect; far from it.  But behaving ethically is hard work that involves hard decisions, and frequent mistakes. 

ScienceBlogs has not made such a mistake. With the mishandling of the launch of a commercial ad-blog, Seed Media Group showed incompetence and mismanagement.  They also showed that they do not consider themselves (or we bloggers) to be “media” or journalists.  Whether we like it or not, we are the media, and while we may enjoy a great deal more freedom in style and content than most mainstream media, we cannot claim immunity from their ethics.

It is for these reasons (and others, most of which have been eloquently and completely laid out by Bora Zivkovic) that I’m leaving ScienceBlogs, something I do with great regret.  I have gained immeasurably from my association with Sb and with the people here.  It has given me incredible opportunities.  But despite the advantages in exposure, the fit just isn’t good anymore.  

This is a personal decision, not one that can be generalized to include anyone writing here.  The bloggers here are some of my favorite science writers, and always will be, whether they remain at Sb or go elsewhere.  I have nothing but respect and admiration for them.

As the science blogosphere has evolved, and as my own writing has, I feel that the risk of leaving is not what it might have been once.  I will continue to write White Coat Underground at my old wordpress site for now, and will announce further plans there.   And I will continue my occasional pieces at Forbes.com and Science-Based Medicine.

I’ve noticed—really noticed—the crows and blue jays this year. Several years ago, when I was a young attending physician, the hospital seemed filled with a new ailment. The victims were often elderly, had high fevers, paralysis, confusion; they often died, or were left permanently disabled. There were younger people too, but they usually had a bad headache and a fever which resolved without incident. That’s when the crows and jays died.

They died in huge numbers. On a hike with my parents, I found a dead crow lying in the middle of the path, an experience that would be repeated over and over. The bird had succumbed to West Nile Virus, as had a number of my patients.

I haven’t seen a serious case of West Nile in years. I’ve seen suspected mild cases, but I wasn’t about to do a spinal tap to find out for sure. And this year, the crows and jays are everywhere. West Nile is probably a regular part of our hot, humid summers, although we don’t see the same number of severe cases that we saw in that first year. Still, when the sun sets, and the temperature becomes bearable outside, I am much more aware of each mosquito buzzing around my ankles.

In small children, with their little airways, pertussis often leads to hospitalization, and not infrequently kills. It kills children who should never have been put at risk, either because their parents refused to vaccinate them, or people around them did and gave them the disease.

Children and adults who should be vaccinated but are not represent a public health failure, and in the case of parents who deny their kids the vaccine, an ethical failure as well.

As a reminder, this is what pertussis looks like in little kids.

• SciCurious: special shout out to Sci who is one of the best pseudonymous science writers out there, and if she were under her real name would probably be one of the best non-pseudonymous science writers
• David Dobbs
• Brian Switek: Brian is one of the new “greats”, and is far too talented for his age.
• Eric M Johnson
• Highly Allochthonous
• Alex WIld

How cool is that?

The vid starts in the middle, but it’s still worth watching Rostropovich make the cello weep.

There is a small but vocal movement of people who refuse to believe that skin cancer caused by sunlight is a significant health risk.  These people tend to also believe that the risk is being purposely hyped by others, and that our current approach to skin cancer prevention is causing an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. Leaving aside the seemingly insane denialism regarding sunlight and cancer, there are two broad problems with this article.  The first is pretty bad.

With the summer months upon us I wanted to find out firsthand what exactly the mantra is that dermatologists are telling patients. So I went undercover to several San Francisco dermatologists in order to see if there is legitimate concern about the sun-scare media hype. Are these doctors being sensible or going overboard when it comes to advice on sunscreen use and skin cancer prevention? Is the sky falling with dangerous UV rays or are we being induced into a media panic?
 

He goes on to give links to recorded conversations, and prints out partial transcripts.  He does not specify whether or not he received permission to record these conversations, as required by California law.  Whether or not the law requires it, the writer should have disclosed to his readers whether or not he had received permission.  This information is important in interpreting the conversations he reports to us.  

The next problem is broader, and deals with physicians’ willingness to lie on behalf of patients.  The author’s presumably-clandestine recordings of his deceptive visits to dermatologists (catching my breath—this is striking and requires a digression.  The act of deceiving these doctors is not only unethical, but can influence the outcome of the visit.  Doctors make the assumption that most patients are interacting with them out of good faith, and are not intentionally deceiving them.)

In the first conversation the author has with a doctor, the interviewer makes it clear that he wants a mole removed, and the doctor essentially leads him to say “the right thing” so that insurance will cover the procedure.  One thing the author seems to miss is that the dermatologist is going to be paid whether or not insurance covers the procedure.  If the insurance company says “no”, the patient will be billed.  The doctor is lying for the patient, not for herself.  

Data have shown that physicians are willing to lie on behalf of patients. There are a number of reasons that this poses ethical problems.  It could be argued that the doctor is lying to help get the patient something that they need, and that lying is a peccadillo compared to the benefit.  This can backfire in a number of ways, not least of which is that both the doctor and the patient can probably be prosecuted for fraud, something that is unlikely to be of benefit to either one.  

But there is a fine line between a lie and a truth, one that anyone familiar with the intimacies of the exam room will often experience.  As a doctor, your overall impression may be that the patient is at high risk for coronary artery disease, but perhaps the patient doesn’t quite meet the insurance company’s criteria.  You can then lay out the cost of the test and the risks and benefits for the patient, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some doctors took the short cut of asking, “are you sure you’ve never had any chest pain or difficulty breathing?”  

He begins his second dermatology visit by telling the doctor that he has a family history of melanoma, and finds fault in the doctor’s description of the statistics of the disease.  The problem of properly rendering statistics is a common one, and he links to an excellent piece by Ivan Oransky explaining the difference between relative risk and absolute risk.  Unfortunately, he uses this to spin a tale of some sort of dermatology conspiracy to inflate cancer numbers.  Skin cancers (including melanomas and non-melanoma skin cancers) are very, very common, and though many are not fatal, their diagnosis and treatment can be expensive and disfiguring.

His visit continues and the doctor tells him that insurance won’t cover his mole removal because it’s not necessary, and refuses to lie in the medical record. The doc then gives some sound medical advice about how to prevent skin cancers.

I then ask what measures I should take to prevent skin cancer. I’m told to apply sunscreen 24/7, wear a hat and sunglasses, as well as avoid the sun as much as possible. (The only thing she doesn’t mention is to live underground with the mole people.)

“Mole people”?  He asked the doc how to prevent skin cancer, the doc gave the correct answer.  It’s up to the patient to decide if the application of sunscreen is too onerous for the potential benefit.

It’s July again, and that means I have a crop of new interns.  I love new interns, because every topic is fresh, every moment a teaching moment.  I’m sobered by the statistic that predicts that only about 4% of American medical grads will chose primary care, but even when I work with  the subspecialty transitional interns, I get to give them a dose of medical education.  It’s interesting to watch this final class before the new ACGME rules take effect next July.  This weekend, they were busy, and they looked tired post-call.  That classic post-call look may turn out to be a thing of the past.