Medical blogs as a source of training and information: the example of the blog "Pediatría basada en pruebas"

Blogs have become a potential source of information and training in medicine in general and in pediatrics in particular, especially in the present health care environment in the social web. The authors’ personal experience relating to the blog Pediatría basada en pruebas has made possible to analyze the readers’ interests, as well as the communication movements around the Spanish pediatric blogosphere.

The 1311 public entries from May 2008 to September 2012 are analyzed, with a detailed study of the 105 posts with more than 1000 visits.

The subjects that interest the most to the readers of Pediatría basada en pruebas blog gather around six groups: 1) infectious diseases (flu, meningitis, septicemia, measles, chickenpox, vaccinations, etc.); 2) peri-neonatology (pregnancy and newborn subjects, some of them issued in two established sections named Propositus and Neo-Dividencias; 3) social subjects (smoking, injuries, immigration, bulling, etc.); 4) guidelines and reports of scientific societies; 5) established sections in the blog (five of them consolidated: Propositus, Neo-Dividencias, Training and Information in Pediatrics, Pediatric blogosphere summary and Cinema and Pediatrics; 6) controversies (subjects of special social and/or healthcare debate, that are the more commented ones and include subjects such as abortion, newborn circumcision, anti-vaccination groups, medical malpractice, etc.).

Taking into account that blogs are already considered by the Spanish Pediatrics Association itself as a source of information, our compromise with the blog is to build this information in the best possible way. And the initial best possible way is to know our readers’ dynamics, and therefore staying rigorous and ethical, we can (and should) consider valid this way of transmitting training and information to our colleagues, patients and families, and to society in general.