"Detoxify or Die": Qualitative Assessments of Ontario Nutritionists' and Dietitians' Blog Posts Related to Detoxification Diets.

While the title Registered Dietitian (RD) is regulated under provincial legislation in Ontario and other Canadian provinces, the title "nutritionist" is not regulated in Ontario, which poses potential risks to consumers who place misguided trust in those proclaiming to be nutrition experts. This is concerning as nutrition is a complex health care discipline and RDs, the recognized providers of credible nutrition information, must be registered with an accredited regulatory college that requires them to have undergone rigorous training, practicum placements, entrance examinations, and continuous professional development. The purpose of this study was to determine if Ontario-based unregulated nutritionists and RDs are providing safe, evidence-based, information regarding detoxification diets. Content from 10 blog posts were qualitatively analyzed using deductive content analysis with predetermined categorization matrices. The results revealed that Ontario nutritionists promoted detox diets and provided unproven, misleading, and potentially harmful information, whereas Ontario RDs did not promote detox diets and provided evidence-based, harm-reducing information. Additionally, conflicts of interest arose only in nutritionists' blog posts. RDs provided credible references for their information while nutritionists did not. Protecting the term "nutritionist" for use exclusively by RDs under provincial legislation would be a positive step towards ensuring Ontarians are receiving the highest quality evidence-based nutrition information.

Political science. Reverse-engineering censorship in China: randomized experimentation and participant observation.

Existing research on the extensive Chinese censorship organization uses observational methods with well-known limitations. We conducted the first large-scale experimental study of censorship by creating accounts on numerous social media sites, randomly submitting different texts, and observing from a worldwide network of computers which texts were censored and which were not. We also supplemented interviews with confidential sources by creating our own social media site, contracting with Chinese firms to install the same censoring technologies as existing sites, and--with their software, documentation, and even customer support--reverse-engineering how it all works. Our results offer rigorous support for the recent hypothesis that criticisms of the state, its leaders, and their policies are published, whereas posts about real-world events with collective action potential are censored.

Manage your online reputation--or someone else will.

In the Internet age, managing one's online "reputation" is a challenging but important task for board-certified plastic surgeons. In this article, the authors discuss the options for ensuring that your Internet presence accurately reflects the quality of your practice.

People will talk.

The rise of the social media phenomenon and its impact on dentistry are discussed in the paper. The relationship between dentists and patients is growing wider and more indirect. Social media can be roughly characterized in five categories: social, reference, review, coupon, and information networks. Opportunities and threats posed by social media are explored.

Patient privacy and social media.

Healthcare providers using social media must remain mindful of professional boundaries and patients' privacy rights. Facebook and other online postings must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), applicable facility policy, state law, and AANA's Code of Ethics.