Mary Morgan and Adding “Oomph” to Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care Online
October 13, 2008
I had the pleasure to talk today to Mary Morgan, who is the widow of Dr. Benjamin Spock. She founded the Dr. Spock Company, which built drspock.com after his death. She told me that during “the dot com rage” she was approached by many people to do a Pediatric site which would emphasis child development and include a new section on OB/GYN. Ms. Morgan’s primary impetus was to provide a tool to help parents raise their children in conjunction with the newly revised Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care. The site offers an order of magnitude more information than the book, with different ways of delivery, including experts on child development, a feature that is not common on Pediatric sites.
Ms. Morgan is interested in building a new and updated Pediatric site in conjunction with these medical experts. Her goal is to have a site that is easier to revise and update and has the “oomph it needs”. She will be guest lecturing to my Online Health Communities class and, as one of their class projects, they will work on the design of the new site.
If you use the book or the site, what online features could help you be a better or more knowledgeable parent?
Entry Filed under: Web 2.0, health, online health communities. Tags: celebrities, doctors, expertise, health, medicine, online consumer health.
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Lisa Neal Gualtieri is Adjunct Clinical Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and Editor-in-Chief of eLearn Magazine. Contact Lisa: 
1.
Nico Macdonald | October 14, 2008 at 11:23 am
Given the amount of (good) information available online, and the number of email newsletters one can received, one needs to find ways to get people’s attention without overwhelming them. One solution is to allow people to receive a short email ‘tease’ perhaps once a week that offers a pointer to some interesting advice and may then draw one further into the the site. This model is used by, for instance, Visual Thesaurus which has a Word of the Day email service (see today’s word).
2.
quinn phillips | February 26, 2009 at 2:32 am
dear doctor Spock
im doing a project on 4 questions and we need to know what you would say to them please could you tell me…
1.what would you do if your three-year-old were throwing a temper tantrums two or three times a day? what if your child had a temper tantrum in a store?
2. how would you prepare your four-year-old for the arrival of a new baby? what if, despite your preparations, your four-year-old beacame jealous?what would you do?
3.your six-year-old is angry and swears at you. You are shocked. what do you do?
4.your happy, outgoing five-month-old child suddenly starts crying and clinging to you whenever anyone gets near him. why is he reacting this way? what should you do?
3.
Bumbo Baby | December 9, 2009 at 10:55 am
I have visited http://drspock.com, and I think the site is very useful. I admire Mary Morgan who continues her husband work by establishing Dr. Spock Company, so many people that can be helpful and get some useful information about toddler, feeding, infant, etc.