It’s been a noteworthy year at The Doctor’s Tablet. We’re now at the 200 mark for published entries, visitor traffic has grown by 90 percent in the past year and we’ve welcomed dozens of new subscribers. A hearty thank-you to our blog authors for sharing their thoughts about medicine, healthcare and research—and to our loyal followers and new readers.
As the blog approaches its second anniversary next month, we’re taking a look back at three of the most notable posts from 2013. These drew lots of attention on the blog itself—and on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. In one case, the content spurred others to blog about the post and its subject matter.
Our blog takes on a number of topics. The three most common are medical education, health and research. Here are three posts we think you’ll really like. Feel free to share and comment.
Medical Education
Our most talked-about post this year was Is Physician Shadowing a Shady Practice? Dr. Elizabeth Kitsis discussed the common practice of having college and high-school students follow doctors into the examination room to learn what it’s like to be a physician. She questioned how beneficial the practice was for students and, as a bioethicist, she pondered whether it’s fair to patients. The response was swift. It came from doctors, patients and premed students through comments on the blog and on our social platforms. Two of the student commenters even referenced the controversy on their own blogs. We captured the response highlights in a follow-up blog post about the shadowing debate.
Health
Many of us closely examine our diets at the start of the year and vow to eat healthier. In 2013, one nutrition story that created considerable buzz is a study that showed the Mediterranean diet could possibly reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart-related deaths by about 30 percent, while being delicious to boot. Nutritionist Keith Ayoob took a look at the study and deftly sifted the facts from fiction in his post Swim, But Don’t Drown, in the Mediterranean Diet.
Research
What inspires a doctor to research a thorny medical issue? Dr. Chavi Eve Karkowsky, an OB-GYN and one of our blog’s featured contributors, gave us a fascinating account of what prompted her to study what she observed to be a high prevalence of iron deficiency in pregnant women living in the Bronx. Her post Going the Distance for Healthy Pregnancy in the Bronx demonstrates a passionate physician’s quest to find the connections among nutrition, location and health.
We’re looking forward to sharing great new posts with you in the coming year. And, as always, we’re interested in hearing what you have to say about The Doctor’s Tablet.
All the best for a healthy and productive 2014.
