The original entry from August 2008 has been updated on January 11, 2009. The following information is from 2 Power Power slide presentations (“Medical Blog Basics” and “Creating a Blog with WordPress: The How-To’s”) that were created for a December 17, 2008 presentation to a physician and his medical office staff. The first is 11 slides and the second is 12 slides. I am able to cover this information, start them off with their new blog, and demonstrate some of the basics using another blog I set up for that purpose in about 1 hour.
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Medical Blog Basics &
Medical Uses of RSS Feed Readers
December 17, 2008
Presented by Judy Kammerer, MA, MLIS, AHIP
Medical Librarian, UCSF Fresno & CRMC
* Email: jkammerer@fresno.ucsf.edu *
What is a Blog?
• Simple website that allows you to enter information without coding
• Data is instantly published to your website
• Individual entries are called “posts”
• Posts are dated with newest at top
• Easy to add frequent content
• Good forum for sharing information
• Allows others to add comments
Popular Free Blog Platforms
• WordPress: http://wordpress.com/
• Blogger: https://www.blogger.com/start
What Blogs Allow You To Do
• Share personal information, opinions, creative works, commentary, professional expertise
• Entries posted chronologically and can be organized into topical folders (categories)
• Separate pages can be added with content, but individual posts only appear on home page
• Include pictures, audio & video links, links to web pages & Power Points
• Allow comments or make private
What Blogs Will Not Do
• Pages cannot be formatted into tables
– appearance is set by template chosen
• Excel spreadsheets cannot be posted
Why Use a Blog?
• Patient education
• Discussion with colleagues (local / global)
• Create interest groups
• Promote your practice / programs
• Develop an interest & organize online info
• Community service / post screening tools
Cautions
• HIPAA considerations
– Avoid using any of the 18 health information identifiers when reporting interesting cases
• Include a disclaimer on home page
– Avoid impression of giving medical advice
• Copyright considerations
– Links okay
– Table of contents okay
– Avoid PDF article attachments
Definition of RSS Feed Readers
• Blog entries are published using RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
• RSS content can be read using software called “RSS reader,” ”feed reader,” or ”aggregator”
• The reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds (blogs) regularly for new content & downloads it for easy accessibility
Free RSS Reader Platforms
• GoogleReader: www.google.com/reader/
• Bloglines: www.bloglines.com
• FeedReader: http://www.feedreader.com/
• NewsGator: http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NewsGatorOnline/Default.aspx
Reasons to Use RSS Readers
• You have several favorite blogs that you don’t want to check daily
– prefer new postings delivered to you
• Set up a PubMed search and have new articles matching that criteria delivered to you regularly
• Have new postings from your association’s blogs delivered to you
• Have the Tables of Contents of favorite journals sent to you when new issues are published
Examples
• Popular physician’s blog: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/
• List of medical blogs with search function: http://medlogs.com
• “ Entering the World of Medical Blogs”: http://medgadget.com/archives/Medical%20Blogs%20ACOG.pdf
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Creating a Blog with WordPress: The How-To’s
December 17, 2008
Presented by Judy Kammerer, MA, MLIS, AHIP
Medical Librarian, UCSF Fresno & CRMC
* Email: jkammerer@fresno.ucsf.edu *
Create a new blog for free
• Open Explorer browser and go to www.wordpress.com
• Click “Sign Up Now”
• Create a username (this will be part of your new blog’s URL) & password (write these down), type email address, check agree, next
• Write down your blog domain
• Change blog title if you want (or you can change this later), privacy box(?), sign up
• Check email to activate new account
• Go back into www.wordpress.com and enter username & password
• You will see a new header that has 3 sections: My Account, My Dashboard, & New Post
Name your blog, set the time stamp, allow/disallow comments
• Click on My Dashboard
• Click Settings/General (on left) to create tagline & set time (PT is -8 hours), click Save Changes
• Under Settings/Discussion, uncheck “Allow people to post comments” if you do not want any dialog (keep it checked if you want to be part of Web 2.0’s social interactivity ~ WordPress has a very good spam blocker called Akismet)
Pick a template
• Click Appearance/Themes and scroll down to view templates
• Pick one (some offer “custom headers” like Contempt, Freshy, etc.; if you’ll be using multiple pages, it’s nice to have one that lists “Home” in a page bar along the top) and click on the name to view, then Activate (top right), and View Site (next to title)
• If you have a picture stored on your computer and you chose a template offering a custom image header, you can go to My Dashboard, Appearance, Custom Image Header, under Upload New Header Image, browse, choose your picture, upload, move cropped area box, click crop.
Write a post
• Click on New Post
– Each post needs a title
– Write text (under Post)
– Include a tag – draws attention to subject in WordPress
– Create a category (name folder) – organizes similar posts (like a file cabinet)
• Click “add” and make sure correct category is checked for this post
– Click Publish and then View Site
Edit a post and import a video
• Click on Edit by the post you just created. (You can also get there via My Dashboard, Posts/Edit, click on the post title)
• Change title. Open another browser & go to www.youtube.com and find something interesting, copy the URL. Go back to your post and click 2nd icon by “Upload/Insert.” Click “From URL” & paste in URL. Click “insert into post” then “Update Post.” (If this was a new post you would click “Publish.”) View Site.
Create a post with a picture
• Click “new post” then open another browser & go to Google Images at http://images.google.com to find a picture (make sure it doesn’t say it’s under copyright protection)
• Copy the picture to the desktop.
• Go back into the new post screen, click on 1st icon by “Upload/Insert.” Next to “choose files to upload,” click Select Files to find the link from your desktop. Give it a title, Upload, make selections (try thumbnail), then “insert into post,” then “publish.” View Site.
Create a post with a link
• Click “new post” then open another browser, go find a website and copy its URL
• Go back to your post, write a title and in the text field write a short annotation to comment on the website, paste the URL in the same field, add a tag and category, publish. View Site.
• Move the mouse over the link to see a small popup of that webpage (“Snap Shots” feature)
Create a Blogroll
(list of favorite links)
• Under My Dashboard, click Links. “Add new” to add your favorite websites & blogs.
• Examples of popular physician blogs: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/ & http://doctorrw.blogspot.com/
• Medical blog search: http://medlogs.com
Create a Web Page
• Under My Dashboard, click Pages/Add New
– In addition to blog entries in reverse chronological order, you can create static web pages that link to your front page.
– The About page has already been set up; you just need to edit it.
– Create a 2nd page for a topic you’d like to develop. Give it a title and write the text, then “publish.”
– Then each time you want to add content, go to Pages/Edit, click Edit under page title, make changes, click “Update Page.”
Change your Template &
Customize your Widgets
• Go to My Dashboard, Appearance/ Themes, click on the name of a different template, Activate. View Site.
• Check out Widgets (tools that appear in columns next to your postings) under Appearance for further customization. (Good ones to start with include: Archives, Categories, Pages, Links/blogroll, & Meta.) Meta includes “log in/out” which is convenient.
More things to include in your blog
• Create audio podcasts for free and post to your blog ~ http://www.podcast411.com/free
• Create a slide show for free and post to your blog from http://www.slide.com/ (you need to sign up and then Make A Slide Show)
• Post Power Points by saving on http://www.slideshare.net, copy the new URL to your Power Point, then paste into a new post
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OLD INFORMATION:
The following entry has been replaced with the information above. It is only being kept as an archive for comparison purposes.
The following is a handout I created for a recent workshop I gave on the whys (in a Power Point, see 8/13/08 blog entry) and hows (see handout below) of creating a blog with WordPress:
Creating a Blog with WordPress
Workshop for UCSF-Fresno Staff/Residents/Faculty
August 12, 2008 ~ Presented by Judy Kammerer, Librarian
Create a new blog for free
- Open Explorer browser and go to www.wordpress.com
- Click “Sign Up Now”
- Create a username (this will be part of your new blog’s URL) & password (write these down), type email address, check agree, next
- Write down your blog domain
- Change blog title if you want (or you can change this later), privacy box(?), sign up
- Check email to activate new account
- Go back into www.wordpress.com and enter username & password
- You will see a new header that has 3 sections: My Account, My Dashboard, & New Post
Name your blog, set the time stamp, allow/disallow comments
- Click on My Dashboard
- Click Settings (at right) to create tagline & set time (PT is -7 hours), click Save Changes
- Still under Settings, click Discussion to uncheck “Allow people to post comments” if you do not want any dialog/interactivity
Pick a template
- Click Design (in first line of navigation bar within My Dashboard … second line of navigation bar consists of subcategories of the selected tab in the first line)
- Pick one (some offer custom image headers, like Connections, Freshy, etc.; and if you’ll be using multiple pages, it’s nice to have one that lists “Home” at the top) and click on the name to view, then Activate (top right), and View Site (next to title)
- If you have a picture stored on your computer and you chose a template offering a custom image header, you can go to My Dashboard, Design, Custom Image Header, scroll down to Upload New Header Image, browse, choose your picture, upload, move cropped area box, click crop.
Write a post
- Click on New Post
- Each post needs a title
- Write text (under Post)
- Include a tag – draws attention to subject in WordPress
- Create a category (name folder) – organizes similar posts (like a file cabinet)
- Click “add” and make sure correct category is checked for this post
- Click Publish and then View Site
Edit a post and import a video
- Click on Edit by the test post you just created. (You can also get there via My Dashboard, Manage, Posts, click on the post title.)
- Change title. Open another browser & go to www.youtube.com and find something interesting, copy the URL. Go back to your post and click 2nd icon by “Add Media.” Go to the URL field & paste in URL. Click “insert into post” then “save.” (If this was a new post you would click “publish.”) View Site.
Create a post with a picture
- Click “new post” then open another browser & go to Google Images at http://images.google.com or to www.amazon.com to find a picture (make sure it doesn’t say it’s under copyright protection).
- Copy the picture to the desktop.
- Go back into the new post screen, click on 1st icon by “Add Media.” Use “choose files to upload” to find the link from your desktop. Give it a title, Upload, make selections (try thumbnail), then “insert into post,” then “publish.” View Site.
Create a post with a link
- Click “new post” then open another browser, go find a website and copy its URL
- Write a short annotation to comment on the website, paste the URL, add a tag and category, publish. View Site.
- Move the mouse over the link to see a small popup of that webpage (“Snap Shots)
Create a Blogroll (list of favorite links)
- Click on Manage, then Links. “Add new” to add your favorite websites & blogs.
Create a Web Page
- Click on Write and choose Page
- In addition to blog entries in reverse chronological order, you can create static web pages that link to your front page.
- The About page has already been set up; you just need to edit it.
- Create a 2nd page for a topic you’d like to develop. Give it a title and write the text under “page,” then “publish.”
- Then each time you want to add content, go to Manage, then Pages, and click on title of page, edit, save.
Change your Template
- Go to Dashboard, Design, click on the name of a different template, Activate. View Site.
Customize your Widgets
- Check out Widgets (tools that appear in columns next to your postings) under Design for further customization. (Good ones to start with include: Archives, Categories, Pages, Links/blogroll, & Meta.) Meta includes “log in/out” which is convenient.
More things you can include in your blog
- Create audio podcasts for free and post to your blog ~ http://www.podcast411.com/free
- Create a slide show for free and post to your blog from http://www.slide.com/ (you need to sign up and then Make A Slide Show
- Post Power Points by saving them on http://www.slideshare.net, copy the new URL to your Power Point, then paste into a new post
Examples of popular physician blogs (see their “Links”/”Blogs of Note” side bars for more):
