VERNON TOLO, MD

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  WHY WRITE?  TO REMEMBER  FORGOTTEN IF NOT WRITTEN  DO YOU REMEMBER PODIUM PRESENTATIONS?  TO BETTER UNDERSTAND  CRITICAL THINKING NEEDED TO PUT INTO WORDS  TO GAIN PERSPECTIVE  APPRECIATION OF LITERATURE REVIEW  WHERE DOES YOUR WORK FIT INTO LITERATURE ON THIS?

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  WHY WRITE?  TO INCREASE SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE  YOU’VE DONE THE RESEARCH…LET OTHERS KNOW  PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY  PUBLICATION PUTS DATE ON RESEARCH REPORT  DOCUMENTS IDEA OR CONCEPT GENERATION

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  WHY WRITE?  REPUTATION GAIN AND ACADEMIC PROMOTION  PEER REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS KEY  PODIUM PRESENTATIONS MINOR ROLE IN PROMOTION  PUBLICATION CITATION BUILDS REPUTATION  UNETHICAL NOT TO REPORT RESEARCH DATA  PATIENTS HAVE CONSENTED TO PARTICIPATE  WASTE OF TIME AND FUNDING $$ IF NOT REPORTED

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  WRITING FOR PUBLICATION  READ INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS  VARIES BETWEEN JOURNALS  WRITE FOR A SPECIFIC JOURNAL AUDIENCE  WHAT JOURNAL FOR SUBMISSION?  WHO READS THAT JOURNAL?  LEVEL OF EVIDENCE MAY PLAY A ROLE

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  WRITING FOR PUBLICATION  EXTENSIVE LITERATURE REVIEW MANDATORY  BEFORE STARTING TO WRITE  ALLOWS PERSPECTIVE TO DEVELOP  WHERE DOES YOUR RESEARCH FIT?  CONFIRMATION OF FINDINGS OF OTHER REPORTS  COMPLETELY NEW IDEA  META-ANALYSIS OR SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW  REVIEW ARTICLE

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  MEDICAL WRITING NOT LITERARY WRITING  WRITE FOR THE READER, NOT FOR YOU  MEDICAL WRITING IS TECHNICAL WRITING  CONCRETE STATEMENTS NEEDED  NO PLACE FOR SELF-EXPRESSION  BACK UP ALL STATEMENTS  YOUR RESEARCH RESULTS  CITATIONS OF PRIOR RESEARCH REPORTS

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  METHODS AND STATISTICS ADVICE BEFORE YOU START YOUR RESEARCH

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  GOOD GRASP OF WRITING RULES  SYNTAX  GRAMMAR  SENTENCE STRUCTURE  ACTIVE VOICE PREFERRED OVER PASSIVE  “The patients were shown to have had few complications”  “The patients had few complications.”****  USE OF “WE” PREFERRED TO “I”

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  KNOW YOUR SUBJECT VERY WELL  KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE  READER AND EDITORIAL ASPECTS  FULL STRUCTURE OF ARTICLE BEFORE STARTING

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  A SINGLE PAPER SHOULD ADDRESS ONE THEME  BEST IF ONE HYPOTHESIS TESTED  BE SIMPLE AND CONCISE  READERS VALUE SUCCINCTNESS (as do editors)  3500 WORD LIMIT NOW FOR JBJS, SOME ALLOW LESS  IF SOMETHING IS UNCLEAR, STATE THAT  “JUST THE FACTS”  FROM YOUR RESEARCH  FROM CITED REFERENCES

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  FRONT-LOAD IMPORTANT INFORMATION  AT BEGINNING OF SENTENCE PREFERRED  AVOID LONG QUALIFYING STATEMENTS FIRST  EACH PARAGRAPH ABOUT SINGLE CONCEPT  EASIER FOR READER TO PICK OUT DATA

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  MAINTAIN FLOW OF INFORMATION  NOT TOO MANY PARENTHESES  KEEP LOGICAL PROGRESSION  AVOID COLLOQUIAL WORDS  THINK OF ‘REPUDIATE’ or ‘SIMPLEXITY’  USE OF ACRONYMS  USUALLY NOT IN TITLE, OK IN TEXT AFTER DEFINITION  SOME EXCEPTIONS LIKE ‘ACL’

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  READ AND CITE PRIMARY SOURCE  LIMIT CITATIONS FROM REVIEW ARTICLE  CONFIRM CITATION ACCURACY  CITATION AND QUOTATION ERRORS COMMON  4 ORTHOPAEDIC PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS EVALUATED  200 ARTICLES  CITATION ERROR = 26%  MOST MINOR  QUOTATION ERROR = 38%  Davids, et al., JBJS-A, 2010

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  PRESENT DATA CLEARLY  USE TABLES TO CONDENSE DATA FOR READER  USEFUL TO HIGHLIGHT SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS  TOO MANY TABLES CAN BE CONFUSING  PREFER TO WRITE ON COMPUTER OR BY HAND  DICTATION STYLE OFTEN MORE INFORMAL

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  HAVE ONE OR MORE REVIEW FIRST DRAFT  WANT THEM TO BE CRITICAL AND HONEST  THINK OF THEM AS THE FIRST JOURNAL REVIEWERS  WILL STRENGTHEN YOUR SUBMISSION  ILLUSTRATIONS NEED TO BE PERTINENT  SHOULD BE ESSENTIAL TO CONVINCE THE READER  MANY JOURNALS NOW PLACING SOME ONLINE ONLY

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL USE INCREASED  VIDEO CLIPS  APPENDIX USE  MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION OF METHODS  SURGICAL TECHNIQUE  STATISTICAL  ADD e-TABLES AND FIGURES  IN GREAT BRITAIN, ALL DATA NEEDS TO BE AVAILABLE  TO READER AND TO REVIEWERS  SOME JOURNALS ACCEPT NO SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL  EVEN SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL NEEDS COPY-EDITING

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  ALWAYS CITE WORK OF OTHERS  AVOID ‘SALAMI-SLICING’  PRACTICE OF MAKING 2+ PAPERS FROM 1 DATASET  CONSIDERED DUPLICATE SUBMISSION AT TIMES  MAY RESULT IN JOURNAL NOT REVIEWING EITHER

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  PLAGIARISM DICTIONARY DEFINITION  to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own  to use (another's production) without crediting the source  to commit literary theft  to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  SOFTWARE PROGRAMS TO DETECT PLAGIARISM  USED BY MANY JOURNALS, INCLUDING JBJS  HOW MUCH OF A MATCH = PLAGIARISM?  SELF-PLAGIARISM MAY BE OK IF CITE SOURCE  MAINLY FOR MATERIALS AND METHODS  RESULTS SECTION NEEDS TO BE UNIQUE

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  CROSS-CHECK USED BY JBJS  WHAT TO DO WITH INFORMATION?  NOW DUELING PROGRAMS FROM SAME COMPANY  GOOD OR NOT?

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  TECHNIQUES AND TIPS  DON’T JUST PRESENT AT MEETING, WRITE IT UP  USUALLY ADDED 10% TO 20% WORK, MUCH BENEFIT  BE PERSISTENT  IF REJECTED, USE REVIEWER COMMENTS TO IMPROVE  SUBMIT TO ANOTHER JOURNAL  GET METHODS/STATISTICS ADVICE BEFORE START  STUDY DESIGN, POWER, SIGNIFICANT CLINICAL DIFF.

MEDICAL WRITING PRINCIPLES  METHODS AND STATISTICS ADVICE BEFORE YOU START YOUR RESEARCH