- Precisely meaningful; forceful and brief.
- Consisting of or resembling pith (essential or central part or significance)
As many of you know, the reigning czar of Health care IT Mr. HIStalk will soon celebrate his 1,000,000 visitor to his blog site. I was first made aware of his site when I was preparing to be interviewed by him in August of 2005. It was actually one of the first times I had ever paid attention to the blogging phenomenon and was surprised by the positive reaction and intense response to our interview there. It was clear that it was quite an influential place among the health care IT intelligentsia.
Now, coming up on my own first year anniversary of blogging, I have a better appreciation of the time and energy required to keep up with a blog. Successful bloggers have to write frequently, have to write compellingly, and have to continue to balance the rapacious demands of producing great content with the demands of a growing readership. HISTalk typifies the successful blogger by providing high quality and a regular quantity of material of sufficient interest to generate thousands of loyal readers (his BrevIT newsletter had nearly 1,000 subscribers the first week of publication). Not only does he have significant readership, but it is the “quality” of the readership that is equally impressive. It is a well known fact that HISTalk is regularly read by industry CEO’s, pundits, and mavens who are influenced by the headlines and swayed by the analysis. Furthermore, HISTalk has done some really great interviews with industry thought leaders, healthcare innovators, and interesting entrepreneurs. I am sure these relationships, along with his industry presence, have enabled him to gather increasingly accurate, fresh, and near real-time information. In fact, I would suggest, it is the accuracy of analysis (the “high grade” of the gossip?) that keeps the users coming back for more.
I also appreciate how Tim has gone about developing a business model and introducing new innovations like industry polling, “non-greasy” advertising, a web-2.0 look and feel, introducing the graceful sidekick Inga, the annual HISsie awards, and the latest effort with the BrevIT newsletter. So, while Tim might consider himself a battle worn veteran, us young guys still consider him a living legend and THE source of the freshest industry news.
As one of the three people on the planet who have actually see Mr. HISTalk in person (the above cartoon is a near exact portrait!), I want to be the first to congratulate him on the achievement of HISTAlk. Keep the pith coming, Mr. HISTalk.
Scott Shreeve, MD 
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