Beacon Broadside

Danielle Ofri: Doctor-Writers: What Are the Ethics?

Danielle Ofri is a writer and practicing internist at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital. She is the editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review. Her newest book is Medicine in Translation: Journeys with my Patients (View the YouTube book trailer.) You can follow Danielle on Twitter and Facebook, or visit her homepage.

There is a veritable epidemic of doctor-writers out there. What is going on?

Are doctors suddenly in the kiss-and-tell mode? What about confidentiality? Professionalism? HIPAA?

As one of the aforementioned doctor-writers, I look upon this trend with both awe and trepidation.  I suspect that that this flourishing literary phenomenon relates to the public’s fascination and fear about all things medical. It also relates to the falling away of previous, pedestal-like images of doctors and doctoring. Lastly, it may have occurred to the medical profession-- and this has taken a few centuries, it seems-- that doctors have profound emotional reactions to the work we do, and that exploring these reactions may offer benefit to both patient and doctor.

Whatever the reason, this literary genre appears to be here to stay, and it is worth considering the ethical implications. Legally, there doesn't appear to be much beyond protecting identity and avoiding libel.

Frederick S. Lane: The Nudists Were Right

Today's post is from Frederick S. Lane, an author, attorney, expert witness, and lecturer who has appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the BBC, and MSNBC. His fifth book is American Privacy: The Four-Hundred-Year History of Our Most Contested Right. For additional information, visit www.FrederickLane.com

On Christmas Day, Yemeni student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallib nearly blew up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit using three ounces of the explosive PETN sewn into his underwear. Only a faulty detonator prevented more than 300 people from perishing. As is so often the case in instances like this, the only real casualty of the abortive terrorist attack will be personal privacy.

Just a few days after the attack, the Dutch government announced that all passengers emplaning for the United States will be required to go through a "full body scanner." The more technical term is a "backscatter X-ray," a device that uses high energy X-rays to scan under an individual's clothing and reveal whether they are concealing any weapons or contraband. If Abdulmutallib had been required to go through such a device, security experts say, it is likely that technicians would have detected the presence of the PETN in his underclothes.

Since the 9/11 tragedy, the Transportation Security Administration has been pushing for the installation of full body scanners around the nation, but the roll-out has been slow. Currently, just 19 airports are using a total of 40 machines, although TSA has another 150 ready for installation in the coming year. The agency is also planning to buy an additional 300 machines, each of which costs between $130,000 and $170,000.

The devices have sparked opposition from a variety of quarters, chiefly due to the fact that the backscatter x-ray technology is capable of producing highly detailed images of the body of each person who steps into the machine. The images are so accurate that the American Civil Liberties Union describes the experience as a "virtual strip search." A European child rights advocate believes that the images are so revealing, in fact, that scans of teens and pre-adolescents could qualify as child pornography.

S. Craig Watkins: Twitterball: Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Ochocinco and the Future of Sports

Today's post is from S. Craig Watkins, author of The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future. Watkins writes about youth, media, technology, and society. He is an Associate Professor of Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. This post originally appeared at the Young and the Digital blog.

 Recently I was watching ESPN's Sportcenter Live when producers of the show interrupted the program with a breaking news report. Minutes earlier, Tiger Woods, the world's most famous athlete, used his website to post a public apology to his wife and kids and combat the rumors that were rapidly spreading about his private life. With the stroke of a keyboard Tiger used his website to, at least momentarily, reframe the press coverage about his recent troubles.

ESPN was not the only news outlet that immediately reported on the statement. Several other major news media organizations ran front page stories on their websites, too. What really caught my eye was the fact that each of the stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times used one source for their initial reporting-- Tiger Woods.

After observing how Team Tiger was able to spin the news reporting I began to think about how social media is transforming the culture of sports. A few weeks ago I had an interesting conversation with Eddie Matz, senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. Eddie was writing a piece on professional athletes' use of social media platforms like Twitter.

Shortly before my chat with Eddie former Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson found himself in serious trouble and, eventually (albeit briefly), out of a job after he used a gay slur in a Twitter post. The firestorm that confronted Johnson was yet another reminder of how the sportsworld, like virtually every other institution in America, has been forced to grapple with the spread of social media. As a generation of athletes accustomed to social media and the "always on" norms of digital media culture enter pro sports the executives of billion dollars sports franchises have been forced to upgrade their knowledge about social media. In many NFL training camps this summer several teams instituted a no-social media policy out of fear that team secrets, strategy, and practices could be openly shared. In September the NFL established a formal policy regarding the use social media by players.

Eddie asked me what I thought about the use of social media by pro athletes. We talked about several things but here are six ways in which social media is changing the business and culture of professional sports.