David Williams at the Health Business Blog is this week’s host of Health Wonk Review. His style is brief and clear…I’m envious…

Further proof that health wonks with too much time on their hands can create havoc comes in Fard Johnmar’s recent post about fellow wonks Matt Holt, Trapper Michael, Kate Steadman, Nick Genes et al.
Accolades and cheers for Fard, who gets the “most creative” award, and to Kate for passing it on to those of us too lazy to find it on our own.
If you don’t get it, time to put aside that work and dive deeply into the wonk world…

Health Wonk Review’s second edition is up at Matthew Holt’s The Health Care Blog. In two weeks the thing has grown substantially; Kate Steadman will be the next host so here’s hoping she has even more from which to choose.

Julie Ferguson and Chris Miller are working on getting the “official” HWR website (check this on Friday 3/10/06) up and running. Plans are to have it done by the end of next week so the second edition can be posted there after Matthew Holt gets it up and running on Wednesday (no pressure Matt).
In the interest of speed and fiscal prudence it will, well, look fast and inexpensive.
Chris Miller’s firm, Artefact Design, will do the actual design stuff and hosting, and Julie will be responsible for making sure the content and structure work.
Helen Knight of KingKnight Communications is handling the “old media” exposure stuff. All are great to work with, incredibly focused on doing things right, and fun (I love to plug good people).

Several folks have expressed an interest in submitting posts to and being kept abreast of our latest venture, Health Wonk Review. Some have asked for copies of the “rules”, a word that makes me break out in hives. So, here are the guidelines we’re working with today.
1. HWR is going to be published every other week. This may change to weekly based on interest.
2. The host will rotate with each publication.
3. The host determines which submissions are included in their edition of HWR.
4. Submissions will include the poster’s name or nom de chroniquer (the nickname under which they post), the url of the blog, the url of the submitted post, and a synopsis of the post.
5. Submissions are due by 9 am EST every other Wednesday – that means March 8, March 22, etc.
6. The host will include the name and email of the next host in their edition of HWR.
7. A separate website for HWR is in development and will be out sometime next week. Details to follow.
8. The host for next week is Matthew Holt – ‘matthew@matthewholt.net’; March 22 host is Kate Steadman – ksteadman@gmail.com; April 5 is David Williams [dwilliams@mppllc.com].
9. We are going to see how this goes and take it from there. As of yesterday, there were 577 hits on “health wonk review” on google – so we are getting a bit of traction.
Finally, thanks to all for their contributions, support, and cross posting.
Joe

This is the premiere edition of Health Wonk Review, a biweekly (or so) compendium of the best of the health policy blogs. We’ve asked over two dozen health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology and managed care bloggers to send in their best, provided to you in Cliff Notes style. We’ll do this every couple of weeks or more often if the host wants to.
Why? Bunches of reasons.
First, the last two months have seen a renewed interest in the health care policy arena, triggered by Pres. Bush’s State of the Union address, the financial difficulties of GM et al, the emergence of consumer-directed health plans, and the Part D mess.
Second, there are so many excellent policy blogs in the ether that it is impossible for anyone to keep abreast of them all.
Third, Nick Genes’ Grand Rounds has done such an excellent job covering the medical blogger community it inspired us to try to do the same on the policy side (plus Nick has already done most of the heavy lifting figuring out this type of thing so we didn’t have to do too much work).
And as you’ll read, we’re off to a pretty good start.
UPDATE – for a couple of late entries, click below…

Continue reading UPDATE – Health Wonk Review