Disclaimers and such

Last updated 09 October 2008

When writing on medical topics, a few issues are important to address directly, conveniently laid out by the Health on the Net Foundation.

Medical authority and complementarity, or, "I'm not your doctor"

We don't give advice here. Our posts represent our own opinions, thoughts, etc. and no one else's. Neither our hospitals, partners, universities, nor anyone else has approved of anything we write. The information in our posts is intended for discussion purposes only and not as recommendations on how to diagnose or treat illnesses. Our writings do not claim to represent anyone's opinions but the author.

One our authors is a board-certified internist, one a medical student, and one an attorney. Any personal medical issues the reader may have should be referred to the reader's physician. If the reader freely chooses to use some random anonymous blog to make medical decisions, well, that would be just foolish. See your own doctor, damn it, he's got boat payments to make.

Intended Audience

This blog has a variety of posts written a varying levels of complexity. We have readers in high school, octogenarians, and many in between. Readers have indicated many levels of education from high school to doctorates. All are welcome. Some people will find some posts too simplistic, others too complex. Such is life.

Confidentiality and Privacy

Confidentiality is more important than any other principle in medical writing. I always change significant data about clinical cases, which can include gender, place, temporal relationships, and other potentially identifying data. Cases are often amalgams of different patients' stories.

Please remember that any information you submit through comments or email are inherently un-secure. If you wouldn't shout it from the rooftops, don't send it to me or post it in a comment. That being said, I will never intentionally divulge personal information or contact information of our visitors.

Type whatever you will, but your email or comment may become the subject of a new post, and that isn't always a good thing for the commenter.

Additionally, Seed Media Group has its own privacy policy here.

Advertising, funding, and compensation

Seed Media Group, LLC owns ScienceBlogs.com and pays its writers a modest stipend. They do not exert any editorial control. They do, however, control the advertising seen on top of the page and right hand column. I do not choose ads, nor do I advocate for or benefit directly from them. The center and left columns belong to the authors, the top and right to our Seed masters.

Contact info

All of the authors have a short bio on the left sidebar with contact information. If you really can't help yourself, drop us a line.