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Writing, Speaking, and Communication Skills for Health Professionals

Yale University Press

Preface

For the past ten years I have had the good fortune to work with theauthors of this book. Together we have taught more than three thousandcourses on Writing and Speaking for Excellence to more thantwenty-five thousand physicians, pharmacists, and other health careproviders at every major medical center and university in NorthAmerica.

Each contributor is a star in his or her own right. All are talentedwriters, editors, and educators with unique talents and styles. Yet Ithink each would agree that our success as a group has not been theresult of any one person's individual talent, but rather of our ability towork together as a team with one common passion: the love of teachingand learning.

In 1990, when I was a medical writer at Bayer Corporation, PharmaceuticalDivision, I began to teach writing and speaking skills tophysician residents in academic medical centers. I quickly learnedthat while most of the participants were exceptionally bright, welleducated, well trained, and highly motivated, few had had any formaltraining in writing or speaking. Yet many were being asked to writecase reports, oral and poster presentations, grant applications, ororiginal research. The assumption had always been, "They're bright;they'll figure it out." Indeed, most of them would figure it out-aftermuch trial and error. My goal was to give the residents a few hints tohelp them improve their writing and avoid some of the pitfalls.

That first year, I bought a Travelpro suitcase and was on my way. Itaught ten seminars that year. By the second year, the request forseminars had quadrupled. I soon found I was on the road almostevery week, racking up frequent-flyer miles and greeting pilots bytheir first names. I recognized that I was going to need some help. DrDavid Albala, a urologic surgeon practicing at Loyola Medical Centeroutside Chicago, suggested that I call Catherine Coffin, a manuscripteditor with whom he had worked at Dartmouth-Hitchcock MedicalCenter in New Hampshire. I met Cathy the next week and knew rightaway that she had a wealth of information about medical writing andpublishing that would be valuable not only to the physicians but alsoto me. In addition, she had a quick wit and an adventurous spirit-two qualities necessary for any true road warrior.

Soon, both Cathy and I were on the road every week. Then, in 1992, Imet the author Abraham Verghese MD, who was leading a short sessionfor physician writers at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. I toldhim I was looking for an enthusiastic person who could teach writingand speaking skills to physicians. The next day, Abraham introducedme to Paul Casella, who was teaching poetry, creative writing, andcomposition at Kirkwood College. Paul was a graduate of Dartmouthand the Iowa Writer's Workshop but had had experience producingmedical videos, slides, and grant applications. At our first meeting,Paul told me he was really a poet but that he had learned early on that ifhe wanted to be a poet, he needed a day job. Soon Paul joined Cathyand me in his new day job and became our expert one-on-one speakingcoach. Over the years, Paul has trained hundreds of physicians,pharmacists, and other health care providers-not only in this countrybut throughout Europe-to be more effective speakers and leaders.

In the next couple of years, the demand for the seminars continuedto grow and the face of health care began to change. More and morephysicians and pharmacists were asking for courses on businesswriting, on marketing their practices, on leading effective meetings,and on team building. In 1997 we found Stephanie Barnard, whoowns a health care public relations firm. Her southern charm andabundance of information on "the business of health care" madeStephanie an instant hit with her audiences. With her expertise, wewere able to add Communicating for Excellence seminars to ourWriting and Speaking for Excellence courses. As part of that series,Stephanie developed courses including Business Writing, Writing aBusiness Plan, Patient and Physician Communication, Ethical Marketing,and Leading Effective Meetings.

As our team of four traveled around the country, we found onerequest coming up repeatedly: Could we teach others to teach? Wewere learning that while many physicians, pharmacists, nurses, physicianassistants, health care executives, and managers were beingasked to teach or train others, most of them had had no trainingin curriculum development, adult learning, or teaching. Where, Ithought, will I find someone who not only can teach but also teachothers to teach?

As it turned out, I didn't have to look far. Kirk Hughes and I met atAtticus Bookstore in New Haven, Connecticut. A mutual friend ofours taught at Yale and suggested that Kirk might be interested injoining us. Kirk had taught English, science writing, and speech andwas intrigued by our group and its work. Since Kirk's doctoral researchhad included study of "the rhetoric of science" and "theoriesof teaching," we talked about incorporating some of his ideas into anew course. Within the month, Kirk had bought a laptop and a rollingsuitcase and was on the road with the rest of us. His enthusiasm,energy, and wealth of information put him in high demand.

In fact, by 1998 the time between the request for a seminar and thedate we could meet the request had grown to about five months.While I was meeting dozens of people who had the information andexperience necessary to teach a seminar and who wanted to join thegroup, none seemed to have the flexibility, charisma, and panachethat Cathy, Paul, Stephanie, and Kirk have-a style that has become atrademark of the group.

In the summer of that year, I was in Seattle waiting to give aseminar to some fellows at the University of Washington when I firstsaw Janet Rasey teach a course on grant writing. Immediately, I saw apotential addition to our group. Janet knew all the ins and outs ofgrant writing, but equally, if not more importantly, she communicatedthe information to her audiences in a way that both motivatedand entertained. Later that day, I met with Janet to see if she would beinterested in working with us. Since Janet had a full-time researchposition, she was available only on a limited basis. She soon becameour "weekend grant-writing expert," traveling not only throughoutthe United States but also in Canada.

Renie Robillard soon joined us as another part-time trainer. Shehad been a medical editor with the New England Journal of Medicineand had worked as a medical writer for a surgical instrument companyin Arizona. When Renie became a member of our group, shewas teaching English at a community college in Sacramento. Withher twenty years of experience in the field of medical writing andpublishing, Renie has been instrumental in developing two advancedcourses: Writing for Publication and Researching the MedicalLiterature. These courses have been in great demand at many medicalcenters and universities.

Our group became complete following a one-day writing andspeaking seminar I was giving at Emory University for the Georgiachapter of the American College of Physicians. As is often the case,someone in the audience asked me to recommend books on writing,speaking, and teaching that might be...