My Interviewees as Professional Writers

To further acquaint myself with my interviewees, whom I will be interviewing this week, I went ahead and found their CV and publication pages to see what they've been recently authoring. Here is what I found:

• Dr. David G. Armstrong publishes extensively. In the past twenty years, he has had over 425 peer-reviewed publications. Most of these are full-length manuscripts; however, many are also abstracts. In addition, he frequently is a keynote speaker at major conferences on diabetes and the diabetic foot. He occasionally participates in poster presentations as well, although this occurred more frequently earlier in his career. Nicole Achenbach, PT, DPT does not formally publish frequently. She had a literature review on the physiology and treatment of cellulite which she authored during her time at the University of New Mexico. She writes formally on a daily basis in the form of clinician's notes, but she does not actively participate in medical research since she is a care provider.

• Nicole has only published the single literature review. Thus, I cannot provide an additional research manuscript that she has authored. The lit review shown above is written as a professional manuscript. It summarizes the current research literature to determine the causes of cellulite as best understood today. In this sense, it operates almost as a QRG, but for professional PT peers. 

• Dr. Armstrong has many examples of his publications available readily online. Two particular examples include his systematic review on Preventing Foot Ulcers in Patients with Diabetes, and his clinical trial on Off-loading the Diabetic Foot Wound: A Randomized Controlled Trial. The first is a systematic review intended to aggregate the current research and prevent summary results indicating the best clinical methods for reducing ulceration risk. In contrast, the randomized controlled trial focuses on one clinical trial, led by Dr. Armstrong, that tries to quantify the effect of proper offloading on wound sizes. The systematic review ranks the trials and tries to determine how reliable the data is. In contrast, the randomized trial does not self-assess itself as much, and includes a more optimistic tone in terms of the ability for off-loading to improve wound care.

• Let's quickly describe the context for each work. Nicole's literature review was written in 2012 while she was a doctoral student at the University of New Mexico. The review targets professionals in Physical Therapy field who seek to better understand the physiology and causes of cellulite buildup. It is not intended for a lay audience. It appears to be written as a Master's thesis, and was likely a required document for completing her higher education degree. Dr. Armstrong's first paper was actually written by a resident whom he likely mentors. In that systematic review, written in 2011, Dr. Armstrong served as the corresponding author. In contrast, the other clinical trial was authored by Dr. Armstrong as the primary author and was written in 2001--far earlier in Dr. Armstrong's career. At this early point, he was still an up-and-comer and likely did not have the sway to publish a literature review, which often requires a request by the journal that ultimately publishes it. 

• So, what is the message of each piece? Nicole's literature review concludes that cellulite buildup can often be misunderstood to arise inevitably during significant weight loss. However, there are proven techniques in PT that can minimize cellulite buildup and that this build is often unnecessary. Dr. Armstrong's systematic review's message is that many publications have to be somewhat discredited if they are not performed using gold-standard experimental procedures. In addition, the conclusion is that foot ulcer prevention requires proper off-loading and plantar pressure redistribution.

• Finally, what is the purpose of each piece? Nicole's lit review is targeting PT professionals, and it is hoping to convey to them their role in preventing unnecessary cellulite buildup. It is also serving as a quick reference guide for physical therapy students who may need to brush up on the physiology of how cellulite develops. Dr. Armstrong's literature review hopes to assist clinicians in treating patients who have diabetes and peripheral neuropathy. Ultimately, such lit reviews can aggregate the knowledge of many studies without forcing clinicians to read each individually.