Report on My Interviews

So, I finally completed my interview with Nicole Achenbach this morning, which means I have now finished recording the podcast with both Nicole and Dr. David Armstrong. Before I start working on the podcast itself, I wanted to quickly outline some important genres I discovered, and the expectations I have for the podcast moving forward:

• First, there are a wide variety of formal and informal genres within the medical literature. Dr. Armstrong uses all sorts of genres, including social media platforms like his diabetic foot blog, as well as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. However, most of his efforts go into more formal work such as peer-reviewed journal manuscripts and oral presentations at internal meetings and international conferences. Nicole, who focuses more on direct patient care and less on medical research, often writes clinical notes directed at both physicians and any future reader of the patient's medical history. She often writes to inform and with the specific intent to maintain a paper trail that can be followed in the future. Ultimately the three most common genres appear to be:

• Clinician's notes: these are often formal in the sense that they are part of a patient history, but often use shorthand and abbreviations. Dissemination of these notes is limited, and the audience is narrow--typically other doctors or medical professionals.

• Journal Manuscripts: these are manuscripts that are submitted for peer-review and usually have a delay of 6-12 months between submission and publication time. These can range from literature reviews that aggregate other people's work to novel clinical trials. Each trial must choose a single journal to be published in, so all manuscripts are unique.

• Oral Presentations: these are given at conferences or at internal meetings. The audience varies widely from colleagues around the world during international meetings to peers at the hospital when the meeting is internal. 

• With this in mind, there are some unique challenges to each genre. The clinician's note is often completed during clinical appointments. This means the clincian is multi-tasking by attempting to run through a differential diagnosis while simultaneously keeping track of everything that was done. This often requires shorthand notation that can be readily understood by other professionals, and there is always the possibility that such notes will be used in courtroom settings. A journal manuscript is often carefully reviewed for accuracy in the statistical analysis. It also requires one to match their article to the rules and regulations of the particular journal they submit to. Since multiple submissions may be necessary, and each journal has its own criteria, this type of article may have to be rewritten multiple times. An oral presentation comes with all the typical issues associated with public presentations: you must present to a wide audience in a live session. 

• Beyond the challenges, these genres can be largely rewarding. There are the personal rewards to publishing: each journal manuscript or oral presentation is a potential CV and career builder for a medical researcher. In addition, presenting at a conference can get your research out to a general public that is interested in cutting edge research and may be interested in collaboration. Finally, a clinician's note is very important to keep track of the procedures and care that has been provided to a patient so that all medical professionals whom are working together with a patient are aware of what is being done.

• Some of these genres are often found in mass media as well. An oral presentation has a specific connotation in medical research, but it has the same procedure as any other meeting or presentation. In that sense, we all do oral presentations frequently. A journal manuscript is far less likely to be found in mass media, but many other professional fields use similar peer-reviewed processes with detailed results and conclusions found in a study that can be replicated.