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Blogging can be a "very brawny engine for public policy setting," HHS Secretary and blogger Mike Leavitt aforementioned on Tuesday, CQ HealthBeat reports. Speaking at a forum sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Leavitt said that blogging has the powerfulness to promote the debate on health care policy by allowing more interaction between members of the public and policymakers.
Leavitt aforementioned that people have been able to provide him with helpful information on his possess blog -- launched in August 2007 on the HHS Web site -- by commenting on his posts. He added that he writes about a range of topics, from his daily experiences and thoughts to the decision making process on various health care policies and issues such as Medicare, SCHIP and implication safety. "There have been times when someone has made an argument to me that I base compelling that I am sure began to mould and shape my cerebration," he said, adding that blogging "enhances the capacity of public policy figures to communicate well." Leavitt also discussed the "wild success" of a recent HHS web log that focussed on promoting a crest on pandemic flu.
HHS is using new media outlets, such as planned partnership in the fall with YouTube, to broaden its reach to a larger and jr. group of people, Leavitt said (Parnass, CQ HealthBeat, 7/30).
The event also featured a panel discussion, moderated by Vicky Rideout, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation and conductor of its Program for the Study of Media and Health, featuring: Jacob Goldstein of the Wall Street Journal; Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute; Ezra Klein of American Prospect magazine; John McDonough from the office of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and at one time of Health Care for All in Massachusetts; and Tom Rosenstiel of the Center for Excellence in Journalism.
A webcast of the case is uncommitted online at kaisernetwork.org.
Reprinted with kind permission from hTTP://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email legal transfer at hypertext transfer protocol://www.kaisernetwork.
