M.D. Leaves Profession to Blog
Last week one of the most emailed stories on the New York Times website was about a medical doctor who traded in his profession for a more lucrative one: blogging. No, Arnold Kim M.D. does not blog about kidney diagnosis, his specialty, but rather, rumors about future Apple products. His blog, MacRumors.com is listed as the second most valuable blog ($85 million) on the internet right behind Gawker Media and ahead of The Huffington Post, according to 24/7 Wall St., a financial news blog.
But what if Arnold Kim M.D. did decide to blog about medical tablets rather than speculation of an Apple tablet? What rules and ethics would govern Kim’s blogging? Should he offer medical advice on his blog? Is it ethical to describe the conditions of actual patients? Would it be better that he blog anonymously or that he use his real name? Should he be forthright about the problems facing his profession and the hospital where he works?
The rest of this post is now available on Idea Lab.
