Quality and the Blogosphere: Worthwhile Journal, Editor, and Editorial

In her "Editor's Notebook" for the first 2008 number of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare, editor Susan Carr writes convincingly about the impact of blogs on health policy discussions. Title: "The Blogosphere." Example cited: the recent flap over the shuttering of a seemingly quite successful QI program in Michigan by the federal Office for Human Research Protections.

Carr cites HCRenewal friend Robert Wachter (and erstwhile guest columnist right here in this blog when he's not writing his own), who responded convincingly to the OHRP debacle after Atul Gawande blew the whistle in the New York Times. (Wachter: "Did I violate federal regulations today? I hope so.")

She concludes that the Internet is transformative in creating transparency in these matters. Or at least the possibility of letting in some cleansing sunshine. We hope she's right, and we plan to explore such influences more formally in the next couple of years.

You'll hear about it right here in HCRenewal.

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