The Kaiser Family Foundation Health Blogosphere Event: Close But No Cigar
A few weeks ago, the Kaiser Family Foundation hosted a forum where a panel of bloggers and experts discussed the “growing influence of blogs on health news and policy debates.” I took the time to listen to the event’s podcast on my way home from work one day and found it to be interesting and somewhat informative. However, in many respects I was disappointed by the session. I list the primary reasons for my disappointment below.
1. Lack Of Data: I think attendees of the event would have been well-served by an overview of the current state of the health blogosphere. Specifically, data points from Pew on the number of Americans writing health blogs and case studies focusing on instances where they have influenced mainstream media coverage (there are many) would have been very helpful. Several members of the audience had questions along these lines, which (unfortunately) went unanswered.
2. Lack Of Diversity: The panel was staffed by members of the media, high-level political aides and representatives of think tanks. I was happy to see John McDonough on the panel, as he was interviewed for a report my firm developed back in 2006 on the health blogosphere. However, there are many other individuals that have had a significant influence on the development of the health policy blogosphere. One of them is Joe Paduda who launched the Health Wonk Review. It would have been nice to see people like this included on the panel.
3. Lack of Strategy: I found Secretary Michael Leavitt’s talk on why he decided to start a blog fascinating. However, I kept wondering when he was going to focus more on the strategic thinking behind HHS’s various forays into the blogosphere. For example, he started blogging during the HHS’s pandemic flu initiative. What was the impact on that effort on communications with the Department’s stakeholders? How did the feedback provided on the HHS blog influence policy? In addition, the Secretary is using his blog to bypass traditional media sources in order to ensure the Department’s perspective reaches its key stakeholders. How effective has that effort been? Has his blog influenced reporting on HHS in the blogosphere and mainstream media?
These are just a few of the questions I was left with after the Kaiser event. I’m sure that Kaiser will continue to focus on health blogging in the future. While this session was a decent introduction, I’m hoping that in future years they dig a lot deeper.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
You make some interesting points. My humble little blog is sometimes included in the Health Wonk Review. And it certainly would not be on the radar screens of HHS or others.
However, I do know for a fact that the research I have done regarding some health policy/pharma issues has been used in higher level proceedings or MSM. Why is it that reporters or researchers would make ample use of material I put together without ever contacting me? (However, I do often explain where I got my information and how I analyzed it and came to a fully-formed theory or conclusion. So it’s easy to follow and reconstruct.)
For instance, a Senate JEC hearing was held a few weeks ago regarding massive price increases for old drugs used in rare diseases. I attended the hearing due to an interest in one company who was discussed. Afterwards I went up to one of the PRIME researchers who testified and introduced myself. She knew immediately who I was and told me that my thorough research had been VERY helpful and that she wouldn’t have taken the time I did to dig through SEC filings and such. I was aware that somebody from the U. of Minn. had been on my blog many times for long periods of time, as well as several visits from Senate offices.
I blogged about it in addition to summarizing the months of research I had already conducted. (I’m just an interested health/patient blogger who likes to dig into things. Nobody is paying me to do what I do.)
Shortly afterwards I had repeated visits from someone at USA Today. Sure enough, much of the analysis and logic behind my work appeared in a short article in USA Today. Again nobody contacted me, but I’m sure that my thoughts led to a different focus of that piece.
So why is it that in the health blogosphere, main stream media, and government offices, there is not much credit being given (or rather consulting with the person behind the work) when some little ol’ blogger as myself actually takes the extra time to think things through.
Other than the kind “hat tip” or mention of what someone else was discussing (with a link to the occurrence) within bloggers, there is not much respect given to folks who do not work for a THINK TANK or a HEALTH CONSULTING FIRM or a OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT OFFICE.
Why is that?