Blogs maintained by nurses and physicians can be used to share interesting information about the world of healthcare. They can help stressed out providers let off steam and share a laugh. But do they reveal too much information?

A recent study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine looked at 271 Web diaries maintained by nurses or physicians and found that 42% of them contained accounts of private interactions with patients. Three of the blogs even showed recognizable photographic images.

The study, conducted by Tara Lagu, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar, also found that 65% of the blogs were written anonymously. The rest included identifying names. You can view an abstract of the study online.

Sources: kaisernetwork.org and the Los Angeles Times