Sunday, October 12, 2008

Dr. Val's Found a Home

Few medical bloggers have gained greater access or more popular acceptance among the mainstream media than Dr. Valerie Jones. Under the pseudonym 'Dr. Val' and as a member of the National Press Club Dr. Jones gained access to Washington insiders to provide insight into the politics and policies of US Health Care.

Medical Blogging can be a difficult and dangerous business. Most are either amateurs or earn just enough money from ad revenue to pay hosting fees. In general, medical bloggers write to provoke, analyze and share information without a stable of lawyers common to print media. To have someone of Val's stature and talents within the ranks is inspiring.

So it raised more than a few eyebrows last month when Dr. Val's old site was dismantled and Val left ignominiously, albeit temporarily, homeless.

Fortunately, the world of blogging is nothing if not fluid and Dr. Val has found a new home at GetBetterHealth.com. Jump over to take a look. The current set of posted interviews include Mike Huckebee, Grant Hill and Bob Schieffer.

Val writes as a professional author for the site and will have to endure the perils and pitfalls having investors entails. Add to that the natural peaks and valleys that befall the Internet elite and the risk seems even more magnified. Just as Bill Gates dragged computer programmers into the world of pay-for-performance during the 1980's one has to wonder if Val is leading the charge of the next generation of Health Columnists.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your kind words, Ian. The real question is: will Canadians take over US health journalism? (KevinMD and I are leading the charge, eh?)

I will do my best to live up to your expectations. :)