I just joined my first-ever social network, http://prostatecancerinfolink.ning.com/.   This is part of a general informational website about prostate cancer started by Dr. Arnon Krongrad, a well-known prostate surgeon.  Dr. Krongrad contributed an article for this blog on “Minimally Invasive Surgery” and I (and others) were very satisfied with the quality of it.  He is going to be contributing a sequel on how to find a good surgeon, and I know it will be good because Dr. Krongrad puts a lot of effort into his work.  (In the meantime, on the main page under “Tools” you can read about finding a good doctor.)

What I like about this new network is that for me it puts a face on a lot of PC advocates and friends I have known but have not met.  There are the greats like Terry Herbert (yananow.net) and Ralph Valle (pcainaz.org), who sustain the PC community and work tirelessly for it.  That group includes the head of Malecare and sponsor of this blog, Darryl Mittendorf.

Dr. Krongrad wrote me to suggest that I join his network because it would fulfill one of my (and his) stated goals of trying to improve doctor-patient relationships.  In this network, Dr. Krongrad has brought together distinguished doctors as well as patients.  I just glanced at the site a moment ago and saw that Dr. Radwan Shabsigh had joined, and I know Dr. Shabsigh to be a famous expert on sexual medicine.  Also Dr. Michael Glode, an oncologist who writes a popular blog about PC.

The key to this network is diversity, and here is Dr. Krongrad’s statement about that:

“We have patients, wives, doctors, writers, bloggers, nurses, activists, an epidemiologist, a Florida Deputy Surgeon General for Minority Health. Soon we will have psychiatrists and ministers (yes, there is a spiritual component) . . .”

Aside from the social network there is also an “Ask a Question” feature where you can direct a query to Dr. Krongrad himself, the wife of a long-time PC patient and a veteran patient who has been around for a long time and knows everything.

So come join me in this special PC community and be sure to put me on your friends’ list.  And you can also sneak a pic of spouse and me at a baseball game a couple of years ago.