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May 25, 2006
Grand Rounds Vol 2, No 38 Here on June 13th
Grand Rounds here on June 13th! Send your submissions to haversian [dot]canal {at}gmail /dot/com.
Grand Rounds, and its audience, continues to grow, and there have been several conversations about the conflict between linking to all who submit the products of their labor and providing readers with a relatively clean, concise introduction to the medical blogosphere. Some Rounds have pushed 100 submissions and the average is over 50. Maybe we should link to everybody. Maybe we should link to five. I don't know. As most hosts link to everyone, I am going to take the road less travelled, and I hope you will join me.
I will link to thirty articles from thirty authors. My goal is not to select the most popular bloggers or those I think are the best. I want the thirty best articles written. I don't care when they were written, how many times they've been edited, or what your credentials are. I like Henci Goer's opinion on this:
You may be wondering about my credentials to write this book since I am not a doctor—either M.D. or Ph.D. I respond with a story. Penny Simkin, well known educator, writer, speaker, and editor, was called on the carpet by an anesthesiologist, irate that she had written a handout listing the potential trade-offs of epidural anesthesia when she was not a doctor (although he did not dispute her accuracy). "What are your credentials?" he demanded. "I can read," was her reply. So can I. For that matter, you can too.
I will place emphasis, and you can see it the categories below, on references. Those articles not included will either be posted in an 'extended post' in the order they are received or I'll pass them on to the next host. Here are the categories and what I'm looking for in each:
Case Studies - pictures and studies highly desired. Presentation, evaluation (history and physical, labs, differential diagnosis, etc), treatment, follow-up. These most often come from docs and nurses (Clinical Cases and Pulmonary Roundtable come to mind), but anybody can write one. They may be from your own experience, or that of a relative or friend. Do, however, make sure you protect the privacy of others. Some statement of consent or anonymization should be made "Some names have been changed..."
Articles in Brief - Summary of one original article from a journal cataloged by PubMed. Only that article must be cited, but supporting background and evidence is encouraged. Author should take a position on the article's quality and suggest how their position could be applied by patients, providers, or both. Statements presented as fact should be supported with a citation or link unless it is common knowledge. Article should be from the past six months. Extra consideration to write-ups that include abundant links to Wikipedia.
Interviews - Gotta favorite doc? Nurse? Physical therapist? Are you a medical student and your attending 'wrote the book'? Do you have a patient who learned the trumpet from Louis Armstrong? Was a coworker an Olympic competitor? Ask them for an hour, ask some questions, and write up what you learn. In our age of burning helicopter props and storyboard civilizations, this may be the only way we will find out about the great people who walk amongst us. You're notes and recording of your interviews constitute primary historical sources.
Ethics - Must address a topic of bioethics or general ethics in health care, take a position, and address how at least two cases have been resolved in the past. Cases may be personal, drawn from the legal literature, or anything in between.
Encounters - Patients, nurses, physicians, therapists, techs, administrators, business people, researchers, their encounters with each other, their selves, and the world. No need for references here. Quality of writing, from punctuation to poignancy, will play heavily.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine - Brief reviews of over-the-counter supplements, devices, off-label uses currently making the rounds, diets, etc, somewhat like Medline Plus or The Medical Letter. Author must take a position, not necessarily the consensus position, and address and rebut one or more alternate viewpoints. Must link to current FDA findings (example), specialty guidelines, primary sources via PubMed, or some equivalent authorities. Again, abundant links to Wikipedia are encouraged.
Announcements - DVT Awareness month? Donations sought? Position to fill? The anesthesiologists are going on strike? If it's happening on or after June 13th, let me know. I'm not going to count these as part of the thirty.
Other topics I'll consider but may pass on to the next host:
Book Reviews - Must address the nature of the work — collected essays, position piece, memoir, biography, fiction, et cetera. Should introduce a few to several vignettes or issues raised in the work, then evaluate the quality of writing and consider alternate viewpoints for each.
Business and Politics - Any issue, from a personal experience with billing, novel IT solutions, to national or international concerns are welcome. At least two pertinent cases should be described, including how they were resolved. Cases may range from the personal to major historical outcomes, but should describe them, including resolution.
Original works of poetry, music, spoken word, film, video, photography, litho, electron micrograph, painting, or other visual art. Seriously, I would love to lead the issue with some original art.
Anything I haven't thought of...
Admin
submissions are due by 6 PM EST Monday night 6/12.
Grand Rounds will posted on Tuesday 6/13 at 7 AM.
Send the link to your post and tell me, if I don't put your post in the main event, would you rather have it forwarded to the next week's host or have me put it in an 'extended' entry on a first-come, first-serve basis?
No word limit: War and Peace, haiku, or anything in between.
Posts should be written for a general audience. I firmly believe the average newspaper reader can grasp lipid solubility in the duodenal unstirred water layer, but I will be checking for Latin, Greek, and passive voice.
If my method creates a certain degree of tension, well, perhaps that's not so bad.
Posted by Niels Olson at May 25, 2006 10:46 PM
Comments
Niels,
The wonderful thing about Grand Rounds is that each host has their own style!
I, for one, feel challenged! (Translation: holy cow, I gotta get a good topic goin' here!)
Posted by: Kim at June 1, 2006 4:46 PM
Just finding you via this weeks Grand Rounds and at site it is hosted at this week where your blog is syndicated.
I look forward to submitting, but even more reading what you narrow the choices to...and I agree with Kim, it's a pleasure to read and each host's style makes it even more fun.)
Hannah
Posted by: Hannah at June 6, 2006 10:09 AM
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