"Hello world" seems to be the standard opener for blogs everywhere. In this age of internet communication, social networking, social media and connection, it seems to that we are finding ourselves more and more disconnected. No longer are we calling, writing (with a pen and paper, that is) letters, looking after one another's well being. We are mostly just checking in on facebook, scanning the linked-in data we've gotten and looking to make sure that we have some sort of confirmation that people are watching.
We're a world looking for an audience, whether we deserve one or not.
As much as I would like to believe otherwise, I am no different. However, instead of posting what I had for lunch, how much I like or dislike my co-workers, or how I feel today, I thought I would try out this particular blog to be something of an information hub. I would like to share with people information they might want to get from their local physician.
I am not hoping to replace in any way your own doctor or even to prevent you from seeing a medical professional if you should need it. I am more hoping to help pare down some of the information and misinformation out there about health and medicine in regards to a handful of topics. By no means am I any sort of authority on any one area of medicine. I am but a family physician now working primarily in the field of pain management. I am hardly the most famous or even the smartest doctor you will encounter. But I know what I know, and, more importantly, I know what I do not know. What I do not know, I generally know how to find out. That is the wonder and the joy of medicine: it is an ever evolving field. The dynamics of medical science demand us to be constantly learning. What was once only true for physicians has also become true for patients. Now patients have more information more readily available at their fingertips than ever before. For some, this is exciting, for some it is a challenge. For all of us, it opens up new doors and gives a new look to the doctor's bag of old. Not only must we educate our patients about medicine, but also about learning to critically evaluate medical information. Hopefully, this blog can give some assistance in just such a task.
Who knows if my focus and my free time will allow me to stay up to date on this sort of undertaking. I still am a full time physician, a full time mom and a part time video game nerd. I like to do all of those things. However, I do think that there are questions out there people are trying to answer about their health, about their doctor, about their own bodies, and maybe this can be a site with useful information for those people.
Likely, I will pick an interesting and hopefully timely topic and be able to address it in some brief but informative way for the average internet reader.
