Is there an obligation to continue the conversation?

I was introduced recently via Alltop to Lillie Shockney’s Breast Cancer Chronicles. Shockney is a nurse and administrative director of Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Center. She also is a breast cancer survivor. Her blog is published on Yahoo! Health.

Supporting a blog is not only a good way for Johns Hopkins to promote health care, but it can also serve as an avenue to further establish the institution as an industry leader. Shockney’s blog discloses upfront her relationship with the breast center as well as her own experiences with the disease — establishing her not only as an expert in the field but also one that brings to the table an element of empathy.

She combines those attributes nicely in a May 19 entry titled, “Taking Tamoxifen to Prevent Breast Cancer Really Pays Off!”  Shockney presents straightforward information — the good, bad and ugly — about tamoxifen, a drug prescribed for the prevention of breast cancer to women who are at a high risk for the disease.

Her blog resonates nicely for the Johns Hopkins brand. It provides reputable information in an easy to understand format and gives a sense that Shockney truly relates to the battle with breast cancer on a personal level and as a health care provider. In a way, the blog provides a human touch to the concept of being treated in a hospital, which can sometimes feel cold and clinical.

Here is a woman who knows her stuff and can truly relate to what she writes about.

But given the comments Shockney leaves readers with regarding the “nasty side effects of tamoxifen,” I think she has an obligation to continue the conversation. The news coming out of the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology provides the opportunity.  Discussed were aromatase inhibitors, which like tamoxifen, can prevent breast cancer, according to reports from ABC news.

Could these be a viable option for the "next steps" Shockney writes about at the end of the blog post? Surely patients at the Avon Breast Center will ask her about them. Why not continue the conversation here as well?