Tag: blog housekeeping

Community

Credibility of Medical Blogs (including The Daily Headache)

Kerrie Smyres

Can you trust medical blogs? Clinical Cases and Images describes an initiative among medical bloggers to establish the credibility of their blogs. Using a variation of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine‘s 10 questions to ask when evaluating online medical sources.

Although I’ve never thought of myself as a medical blogger, I suppose I am. So here’s my disclosure.

1. Who runs this site?
Me, a patient

2. Who pays for the site?
Me, with a little help from Google ads and Amazon sales

3. What is the purpose of the site?
To create a supportive community of people with headache; and to help people with headache know that they aren’t alone, be informed on current headache- and pain-related news, and be more involved in their own medical care

4. Where does the information come from?
News sources like the New York Times, Medical News Today and Reuters; other medical blogs; research and articles from headache organizations, like ACHE and the National Headache Foundation

5. What is the basis of the information?
I’m a long-time migraine and CDH patient with a background in writing, teaching and social science, which helps me evaluate, understand and share information

6. How is the information selected?
What’s in the news, on blogs or a hot topic on a forum; headache books and articles; my own experiences

7. How current is the information?
I try to post every weekday, usually in relation to topics that are typically no more than a week old. When I find old articles that are interesting, I check for updated information on the topic.

8. How does the site choose links to other sites?
I share the source of inspiration or information, typically other blogs and only link to sites that I’ve evaluated as credible. The only time I link to sites that I don’t know much about, it is to link to a news story that’s no longer available in a wider arena, like Google or Yahoo news or Reuters.

9. What information about [visitors] does the site collect, and why?
I collect site statistics through Site Meter and StatCounter. My primary goal is to see how many people visit the site and what sites refer visitors to me. I also look at what search terms people use to find the site and what other sites their search pulled up — I use this information to make sure I’m covering topics that are relevant to readers.

Through the statistic sites, I’m able to access IP addresses of readers and locations of visitors. I sometimes look at IP addresses to see if major companies visit the site (like drug companies) and where visitors come from so I can be sure the information is geographically relevant.

But, honestly, I rarely look beyond the visitor numbers, referral sites and search terms.

10. How does the site manage interactions with visitors?
I respond to e-mail in as timely of a manner as I can manage. I respond to comments unless they don’t need a reply. Sometimes I reply via e-mail, sometimes directly in the comments. I delete comments that are obviously irrelevant spam.

Community

The Dark Side & Blog Housekeeping

Kerrie Smyres

Please don’t hate me; I’ve crossed over to the dark side. Perhaps I’m being dramatic, but I’ve suppressed my design sensibilities and added ads to the blog. I hope they’ll help cover the costs of keeping The Daily Headache running. I have little input on which ones wind up on the site, so please don’t assume that I endorse the advertised products.

On housekeeping…

I’ve moved sidebar items around. I’ll try extra-super hard to not switch things around on you again, but don’t hold your breath.

I spent most of yesterday fixing broken links in old posts. You shouldn’t notice a difference, but I’ve had to change the links for every Reuters article I’ve referred to. The stories are identical to the original ones, but they are on sites that I don’t know much about. I can vouch for the accuracy of these particular stories, but not of the websites they’re on.

Most of the URLs that you’ve put in the comments weren’t working because the sentence punctuation got mixed up in the URL. It’s a problem with Typepad, but the easy way around it is to put a space between any punctuation that’s by a URL. For example, www.thedailyheadache.com . instead of www.thedailyheadache.com. (Obviously it works fine here, but not in the comments.)

In August I posted on novels that have helped me escape and promised more would be forthcoming. I also said that the list would remain in the sidebar. I lied. I still read voraciously, but can’t keep up with the reviews and the list. Besides, it was another bit of clutter in the sidebar, so the list is gone.

Update: Thanks to Daniel’s suggestion, I’ve changed the first paragraph a bit to avoid invoking Google’s ire.

News & Research

Working the System: NY Times Links

Kerrie Smyres

My husband reminded me of the NY Times link generator, where bloggers can get links to Times articles that viewers can read without registration. The links are also archive-proof, meaning that you won’t have to pay to read the articles one they’re archived. Most, but not all, articles are accessible this way. I’ll let you know if one still requires registration.

I’ve updated the link for Awash in Information, Patients Face a Lonely, Uncertain Road in yesterday’s post on patients’ decision-making. The second article, Patients Turn to Advocates, Support Groups and E-Mail, Too, still calls for a sign-in.

Community

Not Really a Post

Kerrie Smyres

The problem with having a blog about headaches is that having a headache makes it difficult to think and find words. I’ve started writing five posts in the last few days and have abandoned them all. I know what I want to say, but have no idea how to say it. If I figure out how to say it, I don’t understand what I meant when I read it again.

Instead of rambling or confusing you, I’ll just say hi and that I’d write if I could. I hope to have my mind back soon.