Blog at your own risk: Keeping online opinions anonymous can be tricky

Some physician-bloggers have found what you write can be used against you. But that doesn't mean you have to stop -- or never start.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. July 2, 2007.

One physician-blogger referred to May 16, the day two popular medical blogs pulled the plug, as "Black Wednesday." One belonged to a physician blogging intimate details about his ongoing liability case. The other to an anonymous physician whose identity was discovered by a co-worker.

Since "Black Wednesday," some bloggers have been keeping a tally of physician blogs that are quietly shutting down as the issue of privacy has taken center stage. One blogger counted six gone.

"This whole day I've had this negativity going through me -- feeling sad, feeling scared (who will be next, me?), feeling defeated," wrote "Doctor Anonymous."

What Doctor Anonymous and other physician-bloggers are learning is that their Internet writings are not particularly anonymous and these online postings could put them at risk of violating patient privacy, angering colleagues or facing a malpractice lawsuit.

"Don't think about the person reading from thousands of miles away. If people in your community could read your blog and put the pieces together and guess, ... you should be concerned with a lawsuit," said Kate Borten, president of The Marblehead Group, a Massachusetts-based health care privacy and security consulting group.

But that doesn't mean doctors have to keep their virtual mouths shut. Bloggers and experts say there are benefits to physician blogs, and there are ways for physicians to raise their voices online without putting themselves at risk.

There are various opinions as to how much to divulge about the day-to-day operations of your practice, or how HIPAA affects blogging. But the recent shutdowns made clear that blogging in real time about your malpractice trial is not the best idea, and that if you are an employed doctor, you should first check with your employer, or see if there is policy regarding blogging.