Building a body of knowledge...

Had a very interesting trip to the doctor this morning for a three-month follow-up on some work I had done on my knees.  My ego is enormously flattered because it seems my surgeon is thinking of writing a paper about MY knees - that's right!  I could be a medical curiosity!

I won't bore you with the details (well not here, but I'll drone on about them at the drop of a hat so avoid raising the subject in conversation) but what interested me was the expectation that a surgeon will publish papers on interesting or novel cases.  My surgeon probably won't mind me saying that he's not a young turk on the way up.  He's already made his name (and judging by the big Audi he drives - his fortune) but his professional ethos is that he should continue to publish (OK maybe discovering my knees isn't that important).

I guess there are few people in our profession who see it as their duty to contribute to the literature.  People like Shel Holtz, Angela Sinikas, Roger D'Aprix, Lee Smith and Mark Darby come to mind.

And wouldn't it be good if everyone got into the habit of producing a case study or some findings from practice now and again.  Perhaps the occasional paper for a conference?

Would it be a good item to stick in your development plan for the next twelve months?

And to make it even better wouldn't it be good if someone, somewhere, organised a conference where the speakers were expected to report their work and findings supported by data or some form of analysis?  Maybe we don't need  Richard Dawkins levels of proof, but surely it would do us a lot of good if people got into the habit....

Liam

Comments

[Marc Wright]

And why not contribute those thoughts to a chapter in the new Gower Handbook of Internal Communication? That will give your ideas and arguments a longer shelf life and help the students of the future.

http://internalcommshandbook.pbwiki.com/Preface