Yale Medicine: "Straddling medicine and journalism, a former resident keeps an eye on the science press"

As a Yale medical school alumnus (post doctoral fellowship in Medical Informatics 1992-4, faculty in Medical Informatics 1994-6), I receive their literary magazine "Yale Medicine."

In the current issue I just received is a story about another Yale medical school graduate who through writing, both professionally and via blogs, is a gadfly against bad medicine - and bad media about bad medicine - like myself and the other bloggers at Healthcare Renewal, at http://yalemedicine.yale.edu/autumn2014/people/alumni/204173.

His name is Ivan Oransky, MD.

... After his internship, Oransky chose journalism over the practice of medicine. “It wasn’t the easiest for my parents to get used to, but once they saw that I was really happy and accomplishing things and adding value to the world, they got it,” he recalled. He was hired as founding editor in chief of Praxis Post, a webzine that was dubbed “Vanity Fair for doctors.” Following that, he was deputy editor of The Scientist and managing editor of Scientific American.

In 2010 Oransky started two blogs to keep tabs on the science communication ecosystem: Retraction Watch, which analyzes research corrections and retractions and which he runs with Anesthesiology News editor Adam Marcus; and Embargo Watch, a site that monitors premature news breaks and the effects embargoes have on news coverage. After four years as executive editor of Reuters Health, Oransky joined MedPage Today in July 2013.

The Yale Medicine piece is worth a read at the link above.

-- SS