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Berci is a 22-year-old medical student at the University of Debrecen, Hungary and a medical blogger as well. He’s in his fifth year and would like to pledge his life to personalized genetics. This means he plans to become a researcher specialized in personal genomics. Berci’s blog got special mention in Medgagdet’s Weblog Awards in 2007. His Hungarian and English medical blogs have had more than 500,000 visitors combined.

TM: You are a medical student and a blogger. Can you tell us a little bit about what you blog about and why you blog?

BERCI: I write about two major topics on my medical blog, Scienceroll.com. The first one is personalized genetics, an emerging field of medicine where you can learn more about your own genetic destiny; the second one is the relationship between web 2.0 and medicine. I try to help physicians and medical students in how to use the features of the so-called medicine 2.0 world. I also write about genetic testing, popular medicine and medical web geekery. I maintain two blog carnivals; Gene Genie is dedicated to our genes and gene-related diseases; while Medicine 2.0 is the blog carnival of web 2.0 and medicine.

I blog because I’d like to share interesting and useful medical sites with medical professionals from around the world. In addition, I can work with physicians and scientists I would never be able to make contact with. So I think blogging gives me a lot of opportunities.

Because of my blog and my Wikipedia work, me and my blog have been mentioned in Nature Medicine, British Medical Journal – Career Focus, Cell, Medical Journal of Australia and Medscape online journal. I feel lucky to be involved in such great projects and to get to know to many incredible people from around the world through the web.

TM: Your blog focuses on something called “Web 2.0″. Can you talk about what “Web 2.0″ is and how it relates to medicine? What do you think Web 2.0 trends mean for the future of medicine?

BERCI: Web 2.0 is a term for the new generation of web services, tools and sites. It doesn’t differ physically from the web itself but provides new opportunities for medical education and communication. I posted an Open letter to the physicians of the world, in which I described I’m pretty sure web 2.0 will play an important role in the future of medicine. These web tools, expert-based community sites, medical blogs and wikis can ease the work of physicians, scientists, medical students or medical librarians. We, medical bloggers, believe the new generation of web services will change the way medicine is practiced and healthcare is delivered.

In the field of medicine, the most important thing is to get the right information in time. With the tools, services and sites of web 2.0, it’s getting easier and even more comfortable. Those physicians who want to be up-to-date in their fields should be open to the improvements and new opportunities of the world wide web. And the majority of these medical web 2.0 based sites and services were created for physicians and by physicians.

As Web 2.0 is based on communities and collaboration, I always urge my readers to join one of the best medical communities at Tiromed.com.

TM: You are an open supporter of a website called “Second Life”. Can you talk about what Second Life is and how it intersects with medicine?

BERCI: Second Life is a virtual world. If you register at secondlife.com and download the program, you can join, and construct your second life. So far, Second Life has been centered around entertainment and casinos, but nowadays, it has an educational golden age. I’m involved in several medical projects in this virtual world of which here are some examples.

The most important project is the Ann Myers Medical Center which aims to assiststudents to become more proficient ininitial exam; history and physicals; and the analysis of MRIs, CTs and X-rays. I had a chance to take part in the first medical simulations. We got a patient history, then we had to discuss the possible diagnoses and tests with other medical students. After analyzing some images taken of the patient’s peripheral blood sample and an electron micrograph, we had to describe what kind of disease we’ve been thinking of and why. It’s been extremely useful for me to learn with and from medical students and physicians from around the world.

Some more examples include the Heart Murmur Sim where you can listen to cardiac murmurs; or you can visit far the best genetic educational place in Second Life where you’ll find plenty of genetic quizzes, animations or you can even wear your favourite chromosome. The Virtual Neurological Education Centre isan online virtual environment for training and demonstrating a virtual experience of a neurological disorders.

Last but not least, I would like to mention the Scifoo lives on session which I’m a co-organizer of. I had a chance to present my slideshow about Web 2.0 and medicine in front of a great audience including physicians and scientists. The founders of some unique medical sites also accepted my invitation such as Biowizard.com and Tiromed.com. Both gave an interesting slideshow about their own services.

TM: What are your professional plans as a physician and how do you see blogging and Web 2.0 playing a role in your future professional life?

BERCI: I’d like to specialize in personalized genetics, I’d like to make it possible for anyone to know more about their own risks for some kind of diseases and what they can do to try to prevent those. I’m a strong supporter of the Personal Genome Project and I would like to be a volunteer for them.

I’m pretty sure I will go on blogging even after graduating from medical school and I know this knowledge of web 2.0 tools will ease my job as a researcher or physician. Because of this special interest, it’s easy for me even now to be up-to-date in my field of interest. That’s why I’ve already presented my slideshow at several clinics and departments in Debrecen. Genetics is typically a field where you have to read dozens of articles each day, that is you should be open to new developments. A modern geneticist must be proficient in web 2.0: genetic searches, databases, scientific community sites (like biowizard.com, tiromed.com), RSS and Podcast. In a dynamically changing field like genetics, web 2.0 has a key part in the work.

And of course, I’ve found hundreds of sites and tools that I can use in my medical studies. Those save time for me (I can screen hundreds of medical articles, blogposts a day in just minutes), and make it possible to share my knowledge and to work with experts from around the world.

Michelle vs. the Med Student is a blog kept by Michelle, an osteopathic medical student somewhere in the Midwest. She’s representing all the type B medical students out here…wherever you may be!

TM: Why do you blog? Why would you encourage another to keep a blog?

MICHELLE: I blog to keep my right brain from atrophying. I swear to you, with all these facts being jammed into my noggin, I was losing a lot of average vocabulary. I was sounding like English wasn’;t my first language, or at least like Homer Simpson on a bad day: “Now let’s go back to that building thingy… where our beds and TV… is.” Plus, we spend so much time on the science side of things, we tend to forget that medicine is also an art. By letting my creative side out to play every day or so, I’d like to believe its keeping my mind flexible.

TM: The name of your blog is “Michelle vs. the Med Student.” What is the significance of this name?

MICHELLE: Honestly, I’ve battled with my desire to go into medicine most of my life. The problem is that I don’t know how to be that person. I didn’t grow up with this. My dad did HVAC, my mom worked at the VA. I was brought up to believe doctors were extraordinary people, basically bred for the job, which left me out. But it was my love, so I dedicated my life to becoming what I thought I should be. After four years of college and the rigors of admissions, I thought I had fooled them all, what a mistake they’d made! After believing this for most of first year, convinced that every test would lead to my inevitable dismissal, I had a personal crisis which nearly led me to a nervous breakdown. While recovering from that, I had to re-evaluate my life. I searched everywhere to find answers: Patch Adams, Dalai Lama, Dr. Phil, Madea! It was then I figured out life is not worth living if not lived OUT LOUD. Enough of this insecure, polite little bookworm twaddle (yes, it’s a word and it’s not dirty). I thought, hey, I’ve made it this far. This can’t all be an accident. It’s what I’m meant to do. I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me! Since then, I’ve tried to take Patch Adams’s cue that there is no one way to be a physician. I try to express through my blog that though it can be a struggle at times, I don’t have to change, I can be both. I can be the statuesque beauty with the heart of a 5 year old (some liberty taken) and then when I’m with a patient, put on my physician hat (well…coat actually).

TM: What type of person makes a compelling med blogger? What do you look for in a blog and what do you want your readership to appreciate in your blog?

MICHELLE: Let me get in them guts! I look for blogs that are real, medically-related or otherwise. They aren’t just putting up whatever they think other people want to see and they don’t censor their ideas. If you can do that with a bit of humor, I’m sold. Especially if you are a med blogger. We tend to take ourselves a bit too seriously. As you might have gathered, Patch Adams is a hero of mine, and he always says how there are thousands of studies telling us the benefits of laughing, playing, and generally being silly, but there is no evidence of any health benefit to being serious. Life is depressing enough most days, why spread it around?

TM: On your blog there are a lot of YouTube clips of medical TV shows (i.e.House, Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy). Can you talk about the parallels or polarites between Medicine on T.V. and Medicine in real life? You are a fan of these shows; do you think they are more or less accurate?

MICHELLE: The differences between reality and tv? Good lord, where to begin?! Let me say first that I don’t watch most of these shows for the reality. I generally have to turn the logical part of my brain off before viewing, b/c otherwise every 2 minutes, my internal dialogue goes: “Never would happen…that’s not how it’s done…doesn’t she have something she should be doing?…he would be punched or at least sued for that…no way he would be a surgeon…why are you intubating a conscious patient and why aren’t they gagging?!…No way! Major HIPAA violation!” And so on…

I watch the shows b/c I guess I like how they glamorize what we do. When I watch Grey’s, for a moment I get to pretend that it’s possible to be gorgeous after a 48 hour shift and still have the energy to get it on with the dreamy, albeit unprofessional attending. I’m sorry but at 4:30am rounds, I am not pretty and I am certainly not in the mood. With Scrubs, I can imagine that after all the years of disease, death, and defecation that would make the average hospital personnel a bit bitter, I can still be my goofy self and have a grand old time hanging around with my equally quirky best friends all day, and even throw in the occasional musical number (Sing it with me! “Everything comes down to poo…”) Now with House, that’s a whole different story. The excited little med student in me comes alive w/ differential diagnoses and I get to use my vast knowledge (yes…I said vast…shut up, I am smart) of micro and infectious I may never really get to use. True, he’s a racist jerk who would get punched out at least three times per episode, and I can’t imagine most of his patients surviving long enough to be diagnosed or being able to afford his services even if they did…BUT…House has the “med street cred,” as it were.

TM: A lot of med bloggers are anonymous, your blog is less so. Do you ever worry about your blog compromising your “professionalism”? If someone claimed that having a med blog jeopardizes your academic and professional standing, how would you respond?

MICHELLE: When I first started, I did ponder for quite awhile, where do I draw the line? For inspiration, I read Michelle Au’s “Scutmonkey” blog (Remember her from The Twelve Kinds of Medical Students?) She is not anonymous at all and I find that really inspiring. That way, I get to see the whole person, not just the med student or the mommy or whoever. I differ a little in that I don’t bring my family and friends into the fray. They didn’t start a blog, why have their business aired out? Otherwise, anything that goes on in my life is up for grabs. As for whether that’s professional, I don’t know, probably not, but I like to think that people who visit my site have a sense of humor about these things. I also try to have some integrity. Whether it be on my blog, in the classroom, or at home, I’m not rude or disparaging. On the rare occasion I ever am, its nothing I wouldn’t or haven’t said to their face.

“The Anonymous Medical Student” is a blog kept by an anonymous medical student somewhere in the world. In terms of blog-life, it is still a baby in age, but is growing fast in the community of blog readers; it received just about 2000 hits in its first month of life! It’s a great blog that offers a potpourri of information, from the personal thoughts of the writer, to interesting website links, to weird and current medical news available from a plethora of different news sites!

TM: What is blogging and why do you blog? What is the future of blogging, in particular, in the medical community?

ANONYMOUS: A blog is essentially an ongoing narrative or monologue. It’s a forum for personal expression, free-writing, art exhibiting, or really whatever the “blog-owner” decides should exist on it. I decided my blog would include my internal monologue, med school videos, random medical news stories, and sometimes my own writings of poetry and the otherwise.

I blog because I like to share what is going on inside of my head. I blog anonymously because it makes things more fun for the readers, for they don’t know where I am, what school I go to, whether I am male or female, what color my hair is, or whether I am right handed or left handed. By being anonymous, it allows the reader to interpret and guess.

TM: Why do you prefer to remain anonymous as a blogger? What precautions do you take, if any, off the web? Do you worry about identity “exposure’? Why?

ANONYMOUS: To be honest, I don’t take enough precautions. I tell some of the same stories I tell on my blog to people at school, but, luckily, only two friends who have sworn to secrecy are the only people at my school who read my blog. Other students at my school don’t read my blog yet because I don’t want them too. You see, I have developed a strategy and formula for how I want to introduce my blog to the people. The formula is a cross between guerilla marketing and P=MD.

TM: Who is your ideal reader, and what are you looking for from them?

ANONYMOUS: My ideal reader is alive. That’s it. He/She/It doesn’t necessarily need to be associated with the medical profession because my blog is very easy to relate to and very easy to read. I like to say that my blog is “for the people”.

TM: What specialty or career paths are you pursuing in medicine? Why have you chosen them? Does blogging have any impact in your decision? Do you think you will continue blogging throughout your professional life?

ANONYMOUS: I can’t really say what career paths I am looking into for two reasons. 1) If I told you, it wouldn’t make me as anonymous as I am and 2) I don’t have the slightest clue. What I can tell you is that I am taking a hiatus from medical school at some point because I have many interests that I want to pursue outside of medicine. I am and will always be a student of life.

In regards to blogging, I would like to blog forever ever ever. I may not be able to always be anonymous though. Depending on where this blog takes me, I may need to divulge my identity if I ever want to reach celebrity status, you know?

TM: How do you find the time to keep a blog? Are you disciplined about it? If readership were to increase would there be pressure to write more?

ANONYMOUS: Like everything in life, you can do what you make time to do. Do all medical students study all day, every day? No. Everyone has their own hobbies and interests whilst they are in medical school. Blogging happens to be one of mine. I take aside 1 hour per day to read the news, write my blog, and get psyched.

TM: What is your number one favorite blog and why?

ANONYMOUS: I’m not gonna lie, I am my own #1 fan. Is that wrong or right? I read once that you need to be able to love yourself before you can love someone else. I live by that, which is why theanonymousmedicalstudent.blogspot.com is my favorite blog!

TM: Would you like to say anything else about your blog?

ANONYMOUS: If you haven’t read it yet, please read it at least once. If you have read it, keep reading. If you have comments, good, bad, or terrible, please make them, for it will help me cater to the people……my people.