Multimodal Analysis: An Integrative Approach for Scientific Visualizing on the Web    

The Multimodal approach offers technical communicators and science writers an analytical tool to synthesize the meaning made in the connections across communicative modes. This multimodal synthesis can help technical communicators better exploit the meaning-making potential of multimodal combinations and understand the needs of future generations shaped by their increasingly developed multimodal literacy.

Maier, Carmen Daniela, Constance Kampf and Peter Kastberg. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Technical Illustration>Biomedical

Narrative Medicine: A Model for Empathy, Reflection, Profession, and Trust  

The effective practice of medicine requires narrative competence, that is, the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others. Medicine practiced with narrative competence, called narrative medicine, is proposed as a model for humane and effective medical practice. Adopting methods such as close reading of literature and reflective writing allows narrative medicine to examine and illuminate 4 of medicine's central narrative situations: physician and patient, physician and self, physician and colleagues, and physicians and society. With narrative competence, physicians can reach and join their patients in illness, recognize their own personal journeys through medicine, acknowledge kinship with and duties toward other health care professionals, and inaugurate consequential discourse with the public about health care. By bridging the divides that separate physicians from patients, themselves, colleagues, and society, narrative medicine offers fresh opportunities for respectful, empathic, and nourishing medical care.

Charon, Rita. JAMA (2001). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

The New World of Product Labeling: Alternative Architectures and Approaches  

A discussion of the shift to structured content in pharmaceutical product labeling, which builds upon SPL and PIM regulations and the fundamental concepts of enterprise content management.

Glemser Technologies (2005). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Biomedical

The Non-Fiction Novel as Psychiatric Casebook: Truman Capote's In Cold Blood    

As proposed in the classic work by Hervey Cleckley, M.D.--The Mask of Sanity--a psychopath typically meets sixteen diagnostic criteria. Every one of them applies to Richard Hickock as he is revealed by Truman Capote's <em>In Cold Blood</em>, a nonfiction novel about the murder of Kansas farmer Herbert W. Clutter and his family forty years ago. It transcends the boundaries of traditional journalism by closely examining the entire constellation of antisocial personality traits that Hickock exhibits. Drawn in large part from jailhouse interviews, Capote's portrait of Hickock breathes life into the psychiatric literature, thus rendering intelligible the mental evaluation provided by the physician who examined the accused in preparation for his upcoming trial. In so doing, Capote s best-selling masterpiece serves as a case study of a psychopath, one that conforms to established medical authority while maintaining its popular appeal.

Koski, Cherly A. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1999). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Nontraditional Communication about Health Risks: Hired Farm Laborers  

This paper presents a variety of nontraditional risk communication techniques developed by faculty at the University of Washington Department of Environmental Health and its partner agencies. The common thread of their projects is to communicate with migrant agricultural workers about pesticide hazards through techniques such as home parties, educational outreach, a health adviser network, Hispanic theater, fluorescent imaging, and icon-based health histories. Initial results indicate behavior may change as a result of these forms of risk communication. Similar techniques could be adapted to other populations that are difficult to reach with traditional risk communication methods.

Hall, Katherine J. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Risk Communication>Biomedical

Online Reference: The Ultimate in User-Friendly Documentation  

This teaching hospital in Texas has successfully implemented an online reference system that allows access to nearly 14,000 employees in more than 20 cities. A cross-functional project team was formed to address the needfor immediate access to current policies and procedures across the entire enterprise. This team researched, developed, and implemented an effective and successful system that was also easy to learn and use.

Richardson, Verna. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Documentation>Biomedical>Online

Patients, Medicines, and Information  

Van der Waarde summarizes the reasons why medicinal information provided to patients is often confusing and describes a method for evaluating its effectiveness.

van der Waarde, Karel. Intercom (2004). Articles>TC>Biomedical>Scientific Communication

Personal Identifiability in the Icelandic Health Sector Database  

Personal identifiability is a fundamental question in the ongoing debate about the Icelandic Bill and Act on the Health Sector Database (HSD). If the data are personally identifiable, Iceland's international legal commitments indicate that a priori consent must be obtained from patients for the use of their personal medical information. The HSD Act presumes that one-way coding of personal identifiers renders the data non-personally identifiable and that therefore a priori consent is not required. The history of the debate on the HSD shows that the concept of personal identifiability was initially based on a notion of 'considerable amount of time and manpower' as a criterion for defining personal identifiability. This definition comes from Recommendation R(97)5 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Medical Data. As a result of the Icelandic Data Protection Commission's opinion on the HSD, that concept was rejected and the resulting Bill and HSD Act adopted a definition from the European Data Protection Directive (95/46). The rejected concept, however, reentered with the idea that one-way coding of personal identifiers means there is no key that can be used to trace the identity of a person in the database. The question of what constitutes a key in this context is of fundamental importance. The database will collect and link data from different sources on individuals over time and therefore the method of coding must remain stable. It is possible therefore to construct a look-up table, which constitutes a key. Keys can also be built from comparisons of patterns of family trees as well as by putting generally available information into context The information in the Health Sector Database is personal information. Therefore reason and justice require that a priori consent be obtained from patients for the transfer of their health data to the database as Iceland's international legal obligations stipulate. Anything less is unreasonable and unjust.

Arnason, Einar. JILT (2002). Articles>Information Design>Biomedical

Politics, Sound Science and the Precautionary Principle

William Lowrence’s Of Acceptable Risk (1976) began the forthright treatment of the subjective elements of risk assessment. Maintaining that 'risk' was scientifically objective, his discussion of 'safety'—as socially acceptable risk—acknowledged the political nature of the overall evaluation. But even a rigid determination of a clear risk—say of injury from skydiving—cannot tell us why only some people will agree to jump from an airplane.

Bereano, Philip L. Harvard University. Articles>Risk Communication>Biomedical

Preparing Your Organization for Pandemic Flu

In the past few weeks, articles appeared on the inside pages of The New York Times and other news sources, with reports from Indonesia of human-to-human infection by avian flu, such as Elisabeth Rosenthal's article "Human-to-Human Infection by Bird Flu Virus Is Confirmed." Another article by Donald McNeil in the Times reported that mortality rates for avian flu are higher in young people, which was also the case in the devastating Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

Matalucci, Paul. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Management>Risk Communication>Biomedical

Rational Management: Medical Authority and Ideological Conflict in Ruth Lawrence's Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession      

This article presents a close reading of one chapter of the only guidebook written for physicians about the clinical management of breastfeeding. The medical discussion of the psychological aspects of breastfeeding articulates conflicting ideological views of women and their place in society, demonstrating how medicine reflects and contributes to a cultural context that is ambivalent about women's changing roles and the transformation of their practices as mothers. At stake is medicine's role in regulating maternal behavior.

Hausman, Bernice L. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

A Review of Research on Written Patient Information  

Rising consumerism in the health care industry promotes the value of quality written patient information in educating patients to make informed decisions about their health. This review of research located 65 studies published in health care journals. The types of written patient information tested in those 65 studies included those with clinical and organizational content, treatment and prevention content, and generalized and personalized content in a range of clinical areas. The measures used to judge the quality of written information included: cognitive, behavioral, and affective measures. We encourage technical communication researchers to use our synthesis of these studies to develop grant proposals for studies that will demonstrate the applicability of our research and methods—especially usability techniques—to the development of written patient information.

Campbell, Kim Sydow and Linda L. Mothersbaugh. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Education>Biomedical

The Rhetoric Of Promoting Health    

This article uses Chaim Perelman's theories of argumentation to examine a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research (2000). The IOM's text explores social and behavioral research to devise multipronged intervention strategies; it focuses on social, economic, behavioral, and political health as a means of assuring population health--and thereby expands the conventional boundaries of public health. Since Chaim Perelman's rhetoric is seldom applied in the field of health communication, employing his ideas to consider the role of style, arrangement, and argument in such a cutting-edge document can illuminate public health writing, as well as shed new light on Perelmanian rhetoric.

Hamilton, Margaret. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2002). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Rhetoric

Risk Communication in the Context of Consumer Perceptions of Risks

One goal of risk communication on food safety issues (among many) is communication between risk assessors and risk managers and the average citizen. This dimension includes both communication with the citizenry as a whole, through the mass media and other widely disseminated information, and communication with consumer organizations that participate in the risk analysis/risk management process.

Groth, Edward III. Consumers Union (1992). Articles>Risk Communication>Biomedical

Seeing Cells: Teaching the Visual/Verbal Rhetoric of Biology    

This pilot study obtained baseline information on verbal and visual rhetorics to teach microscopy techniques to college biology majors. We presented cell images to students in cell biology and biology writing classes and then asked them to identify textual, verbal, and visual cues that support microscopy learning. Survey responses suggest that these students recognized some of the rhetorical strategies used and conflated others, revealing intriguing questions for further research in undergraduate microscopy education.

Dinolfo, John, Barbara Heifferon and Lesly A. Temesvari. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Visual Rhetoric

Shaping Local HIV/AIDS Services Policy through Activist Research: The Problem of Client Involvement      

This article argues that professional writing researchers can help shape public policy by understanding policy making as a function of institutionalized rhetorical processes and by using an activist research stance to help generate the knowledge necessary to intervene. My goal is to argue for what activist technical writing research might look like, lay out an understanding of institutions that is helpful for influencing public policy, and illustrate the promises and the problems of both positions by using the case of a study focused on local HIV/AIDS policy making. According to this way of thinking, professional writing researchers can impact policy by helping change the processes by which policy gets made.

Grabill, Jeffrey T. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Rhetoric>Biomedical

Single Sourcing: Benefits to the Life Sciences  

Life sciences companies are experiencing many pressures including electronic initiatives like eSubmissions and the eCTD, regulatory controls like 21 CFR Part 11, and decreasing times to market. Life Sciences companies are looking for ways to improve the way they create and manage content. Developing reusable content (single sourcing) is one solution. This session looks at the benefits single sourcing can bring to the life sciences industry.

Rockley, Ann and Steve Manning. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Biomedical

The Sociobiology of Information Architecture

Long before anyone was looking for 'godfathers' of information architecture, our fellow species were wrestling with some of the same problems we face today. The real godfathers of information architecture, as it turns out, emerged a very long time ago with the earliest origins of life on this planet.

Wright, Alex. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design>Biomedical

Taking a Cue from the Health Professions: Applying the Logical Framework to Strategic Planning    

Strategic planning is asking business-defining questions, finding answers that reflect the company's priorities, and then turning answers into activities. A tool for planning commonly used in public health intervention programs is a matrix called the logical framework; it has been modified here for use in strategic planning. The logical framework is a practical means of defining and appraising the relationships between activities and results.

Thivierge, Bethany. Technical Communication Online (1997). Articles>Management>Project Management>Biomedical

Teaching Students to Design Information About Difficult Subjects: Public Information About Pediatric AIDS  

Advanced technical communication students analyzed information about pediatric AIDS that was designed for dtrerent segments of the public. They then produced individual projects for local segments of the university and surrounding community. Through this assignment, students learned the importance of community standards in designing accurate and locally 'acceptable' communication about a difficult subject.

Porter, Lynnette R. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Teaching Technical Writing to University Students Using the Medical Report  

Technical and medical writing share many similar properties. Using a medical report assignment, in which students research and write about a physical or mental disease, is an effective tool that introduces the principles of technical writing. The assignment for lower division students is to write in the IMRAD format, while upper division students compose a report integrating multiple sources cited in CBE documentation style. In each case, adhering to fact-based, clear, audience-appropriate language in a technical format provides the student with valuable practice writing in this important genre.

Mizrahi, Janet. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Technical Communication and Clinical Health Care: Improving Rural Emergency Trauma Care Through Synchronous Videoconferencing    

While debates continue over the effectiveness of innovative communication technologies to bring information and services to populations that have been underserved by such new technologies, a federally-funded program at the University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care (FAHC), Burlington, Vermont, has enabled trauma specialists to link with rural emergency room health care providers through a synchronous videoconferencing (telemedicine) network. Analysis of patient histories and surveys completed by the participating physicians after each use of the computer conferencing system as well as interviews and observations indicate that the FAHC consulting trauma specialists and the remotely located physicians felt the linkups do not interfere with standard ER procedures, that communication was at least adequate for all consultations, and that the consults improved the quality of care, for over half of the cases. Furthermore, interviews with rural ER physicians indicated that they saw the program operating as the first stage of FAHC's management of a patient to be transferred to that facility.

Doheny-Farina, Stephen, Peter W. Callas, Michael A. Ricci, Michael P. Caputo, Judith L. Amour and Fred B. Rogers. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Scientific Communication>Videoconferencing>Biomedical