usbAnother Lesson Learned

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I’ve learned many great lessons in life – usually from my mistakes. In fact, I always say I’ve learned more from my mistakes than from anything I ever got right.

This has frequently been the case when it comes to all-things-technology!

My most recent Grrr Moment came from a fried memory stick incident. For about a year, I’d been carrying around a memory stick containing all kinds of wonderful information – typically stuff I would need quick access to at different locations – whether I was working at home, in the office, or working casually at Starbucks. I had a variety of things on it – collections of ideas, interesting articles to read, copies of my old tax returns, writing ideas, partly-written articles for my blog…..things like that.

There was nothing sensitive that caused me any horrific consequences (like unfinished work, or projects that hadn’t been forwarded to clients – I save all current projects on my computer hard drive which is backed up on an external hard drive, as well as in The Cloud). But the memory stick was just my general Go-To Guy, containing a whole bunch of stuff that I was intending to transfer to my hard drive “at some point”.

Then it fried. I distinctly remember sitting at home using my laptop one morning. My memory stick was plugged in, and before my very eyes, the light on the memory stick suddenly went out, and it was no longer being recognized by the laptop.

I tried all kinds of home remedies to revive it, to no avail. Even my IT guru couldn’t resuscitate it. So I had to just accept its loss. Even though there was nothing critical on it, it contained stuff that was helpful to me, so I felt really mad with myself for not transferring everything. Especially as I’d literally spent the year telling myself repeatedly that I’d transfer it to my computer at some point!

Now I have a new Go-To memory stick, and I just transfer everything from it to my computer whenever I update it!

So, if you’re like me, and carrying a handy little memory stick around, learn from my mistake. In the words of the great sportswear company, Just Do It – don’t wait too long!

Registration is open for AMWA’s 71st Annual Conference in Jacksonville, FL, October 20th-22nd this year.

If you’re not already a member of AMWA, I’d highly recommend joining.

Cover One Of The Open Sessions

Additionally, you can make the most of your AMWA Annual Conference attendance – AMWA are looking for writers willing to cover one of the 37 open sessions for the AMWA Journal.

Dr. Kristina Wasson-Blader advises AMWA members: “Writing a summary for the Journal will give you a published piece and also bring the conference to those who can’t attend the conference or a particular session. If you are interested in writing for the Journal, send an email to the AMWA Journal Editor at amwajournaleditor@editorialrx.com.”

Time for Step 7 of the “Beginner’s Medical Writing” series – a step-by-step guide to getting yourself started in freelance medical writing – an extremely basic guide for making the first move into medical writing.

If you’re just arriving, feel free to check out the earlier steps:

The next best step, if you haven’t already jumped the gun and done so, is to join AMWA – the American Medical Writers Association.

 

The current annual membership fee is $165 ($60 if you’re a student). If you’re hesitant to spend this much money without really knowing what it’s about or what it might be able to do for you, I’d advise checking to see if there’s a local chapter anywhere near you. Local chapters hold meetings throughout the year, and you can still attend these without being a member – you just end up paying about $5 extra on the local meeting fee than members pay.

This way, you can attend a meeting and get to network with some friendly medical writers local to your area – this will certainly help you get a feel for the organization and how you can benefit from it.

So check out their website and at least consider attending a local meeting – I guarantee you’ll feel inspired afterwards!

“Taste Buds” is my way of sharing recipes (that are at least vaguely healthy) with those of you who are:

  • Busy
  • Food lovers
  • Always looking for some new, easy, & (somewhat) nutritious recipe
Here are this week’s 3 options:

Time for Step 5 of the “Beginner’s Medical Writing” series – a step-by-step guide to getting yourself started in freelance medical writing – an extremely basic guide for making the first move into medical writing.

If you’re just arriving, feel free to check out the earlier steps:

 

Back in Step 3 I mentioned the benefits of considering some aspect of social networking when you start up in medical writing – I think this is really useful whether you are considering freelance work, or if you are a full time employee somewhere.

I thought I’d give Twitter a plug today. I never thought I’d use Twitter – socially I’ve used Facebook for a couple of years, and whenever I’d hear people talk about Twitter, I just didn’t “get” it – I couldn’t wrap my head around how it operated, or what use it could possibly be.

 

 

A few friends who use it for business had told me I should definitely give it a go. I resisted the idea for a few months, but then decided to try it out – what harm could it do? If all else failed, surely I could abandon it, and at least know I’d tried?

So I joined a couple of months ago, and I love it!

 

How Does It Work?

Twitter is basically a service for sending and receiving status updates – so if you’ve used Facebook, you’ll be used to writing and reading these short communications. Twitter’s short communications, however, are capped at 140 characters (letters, periods, dashes, etc).

So it makes for a great way to get a short message out to people: “Free coffee at the cafeteria, 2-4pm”, or maybe a link to a cool photo. And for business purposes, people often use it to share links to web pages – whether something useful that they came across and want to share, or a link to their personal site to share an article, announcement, or product.

Due to the 140 character cap, you have to not only get creative in how you make your announcement sometimes, but you also need to shorten your weblink, otherwise this will quickly eat into your 140 characters. There are numerous applications that you can use to shorten your links (you can do a Google search to find one that you prefer), but I use bitly – it’s very simple to use:

  • Copy and paste your desired weblink into the search box
  • Hit the “shorten” button to the right of the box
  • A shortened link will magically appear
  • Copy & paste this into the Twitter text box
  • Add a short accompanying message before tweeting

 

Why Join?

I was skeptical, I just didn’t see how useful it would be – I thought it sounded quite bizarre, all these “status updates”! What use could that possibly be!? But I have been very pleasantly surprised. It’s been a wonderful way for me to meet up online with other medical and freelance writers, other medical professionals, blogs, and organizations that I feel are useful to follow.

So I’d urge you to give it a go – and like I decided for myself previously – if you don’t like it, you can abandon mission. Join up today – come up with a short Twitter handle (that’s basically your username – it’ll have a “@” preceding it) – mine is @ParryMedWriting – don’t worry too much about choosing the perfect Twitter handle, you can always change it later if you feel like.

 

Some Useful Guides To Using Twitter

Rather than go on ad nauseum on how to use Twitter (and I’m still getting the hang of it myself!), here are some links to very useful articles that describe it much more concisely than I could!

 

The Beginner’s Guide To Twitter

The Writer’s Guide To Twitter

How To Use Hashtags

6 Tools To Grow Your Twitter Network

How To Get Noticed On Twitter

 

Hope to see you over at Twitter!

 

 

 

Time for Step 4 of the “Beginner’s Medical Writing” series – a step-by-step guide to getting yourself started in freelance medical writing – an extremely basic guide for making the first move into medical writing.

If you’re just arriving, feel free to check out the earlier steps:

 

Hopefully by now, you’ve set up a blog, and maybe even started out with some business-related social networking. On that note, I’ve been asked to discuss what purpose a blog can serve for a medical writer, so here goes!

WHY USE A BLOG?

To Advertise Your Business:

If we’re not out there, nobody will find us. Work is a little bit like dating (any kind of work, whether you want to be an employee or self-employed) – if you don’t put yourself out there, it’s difficult to be found.

Whether we like it or not, the world’s gone digital. The days of locating businesses purely through those huge, hard copies of your telephone book or Yellow Pages are history – the first port of call for most people looking for any kind of business service is now an online search. I don’t consider myself a very digital person, but I know this is the case for me. The instant gratification of finding what you want after hitting a few keys on your keyboard, is tough to beat – I can’t remember the last time I ever picked up a Yellow Pages, let alone owned one. So if we don’t take advantage of this venue, we are missing out on an important way to self-advertise.

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To Showcase Your Potential:

Your blog can provide a perfect way for you to show off your work. This can be especially useful for non-scientists who want to break into medical writing, but have no prior work clips to share with potential clients. I don’t know about you, but although I love the ability to shop online, I tend not to order things that are “sight unseen”. Your blog helps your work to be seen.

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It Makes You Real:

A blog can also allow readers and potential clients to get a sense of who you are. The digital arena has a real-time advantage over a listing in a telephone book – it allows you to engage with people as often as you choose to do so. Updating your blog regularly provides something that a telephone book listing cannot deliver – the ability to connect with others. Everything you share on your blog allows readers to get a glimpse of your personality and passion. These regular connections help to make you real – potential clients will see that you have a zest for writing, and also get a feel for your writing tone – these things definitely help when it comes to deciding who to choose for help with a writing project.

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To Use As Your Portfolio:

You can also put your blog to good use as a showcase for your resume or portfolio. The ability to add different pages to your blog enables you to use it to almost any advantage. Some people add a resume page, or a portfolio page where readers can link up to clips of the writer’s work that may have been published online. Or you can even upload pdf versions of manuscripts for viewing.

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To Keep You In The Loop:

A blog is such a great way to keep you from feeling as if you’re all alone in the writing world, and this is probably especially true if you are working 100% freelance. In an office environment, you have instant connection with workmates if you need to bounce ideas off someone, or get a second opinion on something. When running a solo business, you don’t have this luxury. Your blog, however, can serve as a medium for this. It provides you with an almost instant way to receive ideas, comments, feedback, opinions etc. And from all across the world too! The cyber-connectivity can keep you grounded in your business venture, allowing you to network with others who can help you out, even if just by way of moral support.

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To Help Others:

Never underestimate what you might have to offer someone. Whether it’s an encouraging word, a snippet of information, or just simple enjoyment, I guarantee that your blog will provide something for someone at some point. Someone will leave you some positive feedback, or send you an email to thank you for something, or ask more questions. And you can guarantee that your blog will be useful for many who don’t let you know – think of all the material that you read online each day – do you leave comments each time you find something fun, interesting, useful etc? I know I don’t – but it’s certainly not for the lack of interest – we all read a lot, but simply don’t have the time to comment on everything we enjoy. So don’t forget, someone loves you! A little altruism never hurt anyone.

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Having a blog isn’t going to make you successful overnight, and it won’t bring clients flocking within a month if you’re new to the business and still trying to get your foot in the door. It does, however, get you out there, and lets clients see that you are real and also serious about what you do. I feel that it keeps you accountable too – a huge help for someone starting out, especially a non-scientist without publications to use as a springboard – your blog can help you to “keep on keeping on”. Given that it’s easier to give up than keep fighting the fight, if you commit to writing a little something regularly – even once a week – you can maintain business motivation while trying to catch some initial projects, and also build up your online portfolio in the meantime.

So if you are new to your medical writing business, think of your blog as the first step in self-marketing. Maintaining it can be time-consuming, but nevertheless, very beneficial. Writing begets writing.

What’s your favorite use for your blog?

 

 

 

A third of us are infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that can be transmitted to us by animals. Cats represent a major source of this organism, and are therefore a common route of infection for us since they continually shed the parasite. Consequently we can become infected with Toxoplasma gondii if we come into contact with anything that is contaminated with the organism as a result of a cat’s shedding. Some ways include:

  • Contaminated soil  (when gardening in an area where cats have defecated)
  • Cleaning the cat litter box
  • Contaminated water
  • Undercooked meat (lamb, pork, and venison especially – these animals are infected by cats in the same way as we are)
  • Cooking utensils coming into contact with undercooked, infected meats

Although many people are infected with this parasite, most are unaffected by it, and show no clinical symptoms since the immune system effectively prevents it from causing disease; however, clinical toxoplasmosis can be a real problem for people with weakened immune systems, such as:

  • HIV infected patients
  • Chemotherapy patients
  • Organ-transplant recipients

Additionally, it poses a particular risk for unborn babies. A  woman who comes into contact with the organism for the first time during her pregnancy may transmit it to the fetus in utero, resulting in birth defects or even infant fatalities. Transmission of the parasite to an unborn baby, however, is less likely if the woman has previously come into contact with the organism at least six months or more, prior to becoming pregnant.

Links With Brain Cancer?

Interestingly, a recent study reports a correlation between rates of infection of Toxoplasma gondii, and the incidence of brain cancer. Global data on brain cancer in people from 37 countries was collected and compared with the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in those regions. The research group reported that brain cancer rates increased in countries where the parasite was more prevalent.

This ecological study, however, merely points to a correlation between the two events – it does not imply that the parasite actually causes brain cancer in people. And certainly the opposite could be true – it’s not impossible that brain cancer could be the driving factor behind Toxoplasma gondii infection.

So as it stands, this report does not prove cause and association, but is predominantly hypothesis-generating, and does provoke scientific curiosity. In the words of one of the authors:“These were the best data available and we felt they were sufficient to take the first step. Working with actual brain cancer patients is an obvious next step, but it would be an expensive proposition.  It is a lot easier to justify the second, expensive step when you have some evidence for the hypothesis. We are hoping that our results motivate others in the field to do further studies.”

Thomas, Lafferty, Brodeur, Elguero, Gauthier-Clerc & Misse. 2011. Incidence of adult brain cancers is higher in countries where the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is common. Biology Letters

 

Last week was busy again, with writing and editing. At 9:30pm on Friday I finally finished a long edit on an article for an ESL client  – it was a good feeling to return it and relax with a glass of wine!

Now I’m just starting my Sunday with some coffee before I head out to the gym. It looks like we’ll be having another beautiful day here, so hopefully I’ll get outside later to enjoy the sunshine.

Hope you get to have an enjoyable Sunday too.

 

Courtesy of Tagxedo

Time for Step 3 of the “Beginner’s Medical Writing” series – a step-by-step guide to getting yourself started in freelance medical writing – an extremely basic guide for making the first move into medical writing.  

If you’re just arriving, feel free to check out the earlier steps:

So, where are we up to now? Hopefully by now you have a blog or some kind of website “out there”. And I haven’t forgotten that I left you with some assignments to get you started with writing for your blog.

If you haven’t yet posted them to your blog, then go ahead and do so – this is the start of your showcase, so the sooner they are up and running, the better. As for the next step – it’s time to link up with some other folk in your field.  Gathering a new social circle can be a wonderful way to help propel your new business.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

Does the very thought of being involved in social media leave you kicking & screaming? If so, you have a big decision to make. On the one hand, if you are social media-phobic, then it might be a waste of your time setting up accounts for your business – there’s no point pretending you’re going to give it a go, if you already know you’ll never use any of them. On the other hand, however, this is 2011 & like it or not, social media is now part of our online business DNA.

So before you dig in your heels & declare your business a failure when it’s just getting started, I’d urge you to give it just a little thought. These days, many small businesses are successfully using Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn (amongst others) to promote their services. So it is absolutely in your best interests to at least consider using one of them. Decide which of the social media sites might appeal to you most – take your pick based either on which will be a better choice for your type of freelance business, or which of the networks you are most likely to actually feel content about using.

 

Some benefits of social networking to help persuade you in the right direction:

  • Improves marketing of your services
  • Allows business networking with others in your niche
  • Increases visibility of your business
  • Drives traffic to your website/blog
  • Builds credibility for your services
  • Provides a simple method of enabling feedback on your services
  • A great way to gain moral support

 

Just One?

If you are looking to maybe just take on one of the social networks, I’d advise using LinkedIn – this will at least expose your business to the world (including potential employers) and is probably the one that requires the least maintenance once you’ve set it up appropriately. So this might be the choice for you if you absolutely know that the Facebook, Twitter, or other universes are simply not where you want to place your energy.

I use 2 networks for my business, so feel free to link up with me at any of them:

 

There are also direct links to my LinkedIn and Twitter profiles at the top right of the screen.

Whilst the situation will be different for different individuals, I have to say that I tried a business Facebook site, and this has been the least useful for my business purposes – although LinkedIn & Twitter have proven to be great ways to network and for me to be found.

So go ahead & explore some of the social networking options for yourself, & see which you might be interested in trying out. Your assignment today is to set up at least one social networking profile and link it up with your business site online.

Which of the social networks have you used, and which has been most useful for your business?

The hip is one of the most common fracture sites in people, with hip fractures most frequently occurring in elderly patients, representing an extremely serious outcome of osteoporosis.

In younger patients, hip fractures typically occur as a result of high impact injuries, such as those associated with a traffic accident. Patients with osteoporosis, however, have weakened bones, and can often develop hip fractures from even relatively minor trauma.

Fractures in this region represent the most common type that requires patient hospitalization, since treatment typically requires surgical correction. Approximately 10% of these fracture patients die during hospitalization, however, and it is not exactly clear what risk factors contribute to this excess mortality.

 

 

Risk factors for in-hospital post-hip fracture mortality

A recent Australian study evaluated hip fracture patients admitted to a teaching hospital from 1997-2007. They aimed to not only examine risk factors for mortality in these patients, but also to develop a prognostic model to predict in-hospital mortality.

The group evaluated outcomes among 1094 women and 410 men who were admitted to the hospital with a hip fracture.

The median duration of hospitalization was 9 days, and the primary outcome of the study was that in-hospital mortality occurred regardless of length of hospital stay. During hospitalization, the risk of mortality was higher in men (9%) than in women (4%). Increased risk of in-hospital mortality was associated with advancing age in men, as well as the presence of co-morbid conditions on admission.  In particular, the risk of mortality was increased in patients with a pre-existing congestive heart failure and liver disease – factors that together accounted for 69% of the risk for in-hospital mortality.

 

Overall, the results of this study of hip fracture patients determined that increased age, male gender, and pre-existing conditions such as congestive heart failure and liver disease were the main risk factors for mortality during hospitalization. They were, however, unable to develop a prognostic model to predict the outcome of hospitalization following a hip fracture.

 

Frost SA et al: Risk factors for in-hospital post-hip fracture mortality. (2011) Bone, Jun 13 [Epub ahead of print]