well, the votes are in.

Unfortunately, we fell 8 votes shy of what would have been an astounding upset of the Bioethics Weblog - by far, this was the closest race of them all. Even though our readership is probably 10x smaller than theirs, we put on a race to remember. They mounted a surprise and smart vote drive in the 11th hour, almost doubling their vote count in the last 24 hours.

Thanks to all who voted for Hospital Impact - I really do appreciate it. And to the bloggers at the Bioethics Blog - congrats and great blog.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

The new year is upon us and with it, voting for the 2005 Best of the Medical Blogosphere competition at Medgadget has begun.

If you like what you see here at hospital impact, and if you like rooting for the underdog, vote for hospital impact in two categories:
- Best Health Policies Blog
- Best New Medical Blog (created in 2005)

(click on both links to vote in both categories)

UPDATE: You can also view real-time results for:
- Best New Medical Blog
- Best Health Policies Blog

All the underdogs there ever were are counting on you!

Like I posted previously, given the niche of hospital leadership topics that this blog is deliberately focused on, the odds are against us. Nonetheless, it's an honor to be nominated and regardless of who wins, it's a win for us all: the medical blogosphere continues to grow in quality and quantity.

However, this begs a question. At the risk of sounding disloyal to my fellow medical bloggers, is the non-medical healthcare blogosphere big enough to sustain its own annual awards and "grand rounds"-like carnival? Or should we continue to piggy-back off of the medical blogosphere?

I love the way the current grand rounds is going - it's a great mix of medical stories, scientific developments, IT issues, and industry commentary. While the readers are predominantly clinical folks, there are a spattering of others. But I'll be honest - as a non-medical person, there's only so many pictures of punctured lungs, there's only so many stories of patient/physician relationships that I can read before I realize I might be a little out of place. Don't get me wrong - I have mucho respect for my medical colleagues - what they do is nothing short of amazing. But is it time to segment the medical blogosphere into medical and non-medical topics in order to gain more in-depth focus? Or is the richness really in the wide range of topics reaching a wide range of audiences?