writing up an interesting case

[Teee]

Hi. If you come across an interesting case on one of your rotations, how do you ask if you can write a case report? do u ask the resident, the attending, the student preceptor? (without stepping on toes...)

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[xanthines]

This was just my experience in an outpatient setting and I only had an attending, no resident. Your mileage may vary...

I just asked the attending, since it's likely they are the person that acts as the corresponding author or PI (if you were in a lab). The resident may not even have enough time/energy to write up an interesting case. I'd offer to put the resident's name on the paper in exchange for help (no matter how miniscule), in order to avoid stepping on toes.

Again, just my 2 cents.

-X

Hi. If you come across an interesting case on one of your rotations, how do you ask if you can write a case report? do u ask the resident, the attending, the student preceptor? (without stepping on toes...)

 

[Twitch]

Interesting to who? If you're going to publish a case that hasn't been ever seen before in the literature and you have hard facts and a good reasoning behind it then you should consider which journals will publish your case report. If it truly is a first of a kind, never reported before, now that is just hawt stuff!

Then there is the pecking order for authors. Make sure to straight out say I want to write this up. The rest depends on your attending/resident. If the resident is in the process of applying for fellowship or the attending needs that one more pub to go from assoc prof on up, they'll have different thoughts than letting the med student soak in glory. But seriously, just ask.

If it's not the one of a kind, but a somewhat interesting presentation, some of the mid to lower tier journals may pick it up. In general case reports aren't as convincing as the higher order pubs thus you'll have a harder time with the upper tier journals just by virtue of that.