Analysis of pharmacy-centric blogs

I found a good research article on the analysis of pharmacy blogs. It is the first peer-reviewed research literature pertaining to pharmacy blogs. This article explores the types of pharmacy blogs, themes, and impressions of the pharmacy profession from bloggers.  The article provides a brief background of the potential uses of blogs in the health professions. Several potential uses include: communicating evidence-based health information to the public, seeking clinical opinions from other professionals, increasing one’s exposure in the field, promoting the practice of health care, serving as an early warning system for issues within a profession, and giving health care professionals a collaborative forum in which to present and discuss issues related to their field or a specific community of practice. Of the 136 blogs that met the study criteria, the seven categories of pharmacy blogs that emerged were news, personal views, student information, career oriented, drug related, big pharma, and technician information. What I found interesting from the result was that 63% of the blogs in the personal views category were judged as promoting a negative impression of pharmacists and/or the profession.  Majority of the blogs were news related and personal views. In addition, the top 3 themes were issues with patients, personal life, and working conditions/issues in consecutive order. In conclusion, this study has showed that most of the pharmacy-centric blogs contained useful information for those interested in the pharmacy profession. However, there were a significant number of pharmacy blogs that contained derogatory posts regarding patients, other health care professionals, and/or the author's occupation as a pharmacist. According to Cain and Dillon, one of the positive aspects of pharmacy-centric blogs is that “the blogs serve to humanize the pharmacist, revealing emotions and feelings that might not otherwise be seen by patients and/or other health professionals.”  The blog posts can increase awareness of problems pharmacists face.If you would like to read more from this article, I provided the source below.

Reference:

Cain, J.  and Dillon, G. Analysis of pharmacy-centric blogs: Types, discourse themes, and issues. J Am Pharm Assoc. 2010;50:714–719.