Newsletter: April 2014

Book Club Update

By Mary Knatterud

As announced last year, we are trying out a NEW TIME, a NEW DAY OF THE WEEK, and a NEW PLACE for this year’s April meeting: 10:30 a.m., Saturday, April 26, 2014, at the Caribou on Cedar Avenue & Minnehaha Parkway in south Minneapolis (a little north of Lake Nokomis).  If it’s nice enough out, we can meet outside around a picnic table just north of the building.  The book is The End of Illness by David B. Agus.

By 3 p.m. the preceding Friday, please leave a brief voicemail at 651-645-3858 to let me know if you will be joining us. As always, even if you haven’t started or finished this book, feel free to come and chime in anyway. Our very friendly group of attendees varies from time to time; new and/or lapsed AMWA Book Club fans are always welcome.

N.B.: Also at the upcoming April meeting, we will select the books — and the meeting places and exact times — for 2015 (late January, late April, and late September). So please bring your ideas! (Below is a complete list of the books we’ve zeroed in on so far, since the first meeting of our Book Club back in Jan. 2007!)  Many thanks.

AMWA (North Central Chapter) Book Club Selections 

Mary E. Knatterud, Book Club Coordinator

2014

• Monday, January 27, 2014, 11 a.m., The Egg & I (2550 University Ave., just west of Hwy. 280 near the Minneapolis-St. Paul border): The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

• Saturday, April 26, 2014, 10:30 a.m., Caribou on Cedar Ave. & Minnehaha Pky., south Minneapolis (maybe it’ll be nice enough to meet outdoors on the patio!): The End of Illness by David B. Agus

•  Monday, September 29, 2014, 6:30 p.m., Caribou just west of Har Mar (2111 Snelling Ave. N., Roseville): Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss

Past Selections

2013

• Monday, January 28, 2013: The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

• Monday, April 29, 2013: Hippocrates’ Shadow: Secrets from the House of Medicine by David H. Newman

• Monday, September 30, 2013, 6:30 p.m., Caribou just west of Har Mar (2111 Snelling Ave. N., Roseville): Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What Is Right for You by Jerome Groopman (see January 28, 2008) and Pamela Hartzband

 2012

• Monday, January 30, 2012: W;t, the Pulitzer-winning play by Margaret Edson

• Monday, April 30, 2012: Mount Misery by Samuel Shem (pseudonym of psychiatrist Stephen Bergman) (see April 26, 2010)

• Monday, September 24, 2012: My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story by Abraham Verghese

 2011

• Monday, January 31, 2011: Listening to Prozac: The Landmark Book about Antidepressants and the Remaking of the Self by Peter D. Kramer (original subtitle in 1993: A Psychiatrist Explores Antidepressant Drugs and the Remaking of the Self)

• Monday, April 25, 2011: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

• Monday, September 26, 2011: Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA by Maryn McKenna (see April 28, 2008) — with the author herself there!

 2010

• Monday, January 25, 2010: Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God, and Diversity on Steroids by Julie Salamon

• Monday, April 26, 2010: The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital by Samuel Shem (pseudonym of psychiatrist Stephen Bergman)

• Monday, September 27, 2010: Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality by Pauline W. Chen

 2009

• Monday, January 26, 2009: The Scalpel and the Soul by Allan Hamilton

• Monday, April 27, 2009: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

• Monday, September 28, 2009: The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million — and Bucked the Medical Establishment — in a Quest to Save His Children by Geeta Anand

 2008

• Monday, January 28, 2008: How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman

• Monday, April 28, 2008: Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna — with the author herself there!

• Monday, September 29, 2008: Beyond Knowing: Mysteries and Messages of Death and Life from a Forensic Pathologist by Janis Amatuzio

 2007

• Monday, January 8, 2007: Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande

• Monday, April 23, 2007: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

• Monday, September 24, 2007: Intuition by Allegra Goodman

Medical editor Kelly Haagenson, PhD, recently joined AMWA’s North Central Chapter. Until December 2013, Kelly worked as an editor and then as Editorial Board Coordinator for The Larvol Group, a company in San Francisco that provides competitive intelligence tracking for the pharmaceutical industry.

Kelly knew she wanted to pursue a career as a medical editor but hadn’t considered working in competitive intelligence prior to learning about Larvol. Competitive intelligence firms such as Larvol gather publicly available information on competitors’ products and present it to their clients, who then have a better idea of the advancements in the market spaces they occupy or would like to move into.  The types of information used include data releases, changes in clinical trial protocols or completion dates, earnings reports, product launches, regulatory approvals and pre-clinical studies.

Kelly’s work for Larvol was all done remotely, which gave her maximum flexibility to set her own hours. “I appreciated being able to work on my terms rather than having to conform to the schedule of my experiments,” says Kelly, who found it a welcome change of pace from the hustle and bustle of the lab.

Kelly developed her interest in medical communications during her graduate school years. After earning a BA in Biology from Concordia College, she went on to obtain a PhD in Cancer Biology from the Wayne State University School of Medicine. While pursuing her degree at Wayne State, she had the opportunity to edit all the lab’s grant proposals and manuscripts. It was this experience, she says, that “helped me realize my passion for medical communications and solidified my decision to leave the lab behind after finishing my degree.”

Kelly learned of AMWA through Ann Marie Weber-Main, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota, whom she connected with after doing research on the University’s website. Kelly contacted Anne Marie to ask for suggestions about how to pursue a career in medical communications. “Anne Marie was incredibly gracious with her time and recommended AMWA as a valuable resource,” Kelly recalls.

Kelly states that AMWA has opened her eyes to the many different career paths possible in the medical communications field and has proved to be an invaluable resource as she has transitioned away from the lab.

Of her chosen path, Kelly says, “I have had many wonderful people help me along the way, but I am especially indebted to my dissertation mentor for helping me realize my love for editing and to my program director for allowing me to work part time at Larvol during my last year at Wayne State.

As she worked toward her degree, Kelly experienced firsthand how crafting a clear and compelling narrative from her data was essential to connecting her work with the rest of the scientific community “The desire to help other scientists do this well is what drives my career choices,” she says. “I’m looking forward to seeing what the next chapter holds.”

Kelly lives in Plymouth and in her spare time enjoys watching Twins baseball, playing the French horn and spending time at her family’s cabin on Lake Koronis. She recently returned to Minnesota and is looking forward to connecting with other AMWA members in the area. In addition, she would welcome any suggestions or referrals from fellow members as she pursues her medical communications career. Meanwhile, we are happy to welcome her to the chapter—as well as to the chapter’s publication committee, which she joined in March 2014.

Note from the Publications Committee 

To all North Central chapter members: Have you recently read an article you think would interest other members? Even better, have you recently written an article you’d like to share? The Publications Committee is always looking for newsletter content.  This is an opportunity for networking and, especially for freelancers, a way to get your name known. 

Bulletin Board 

We are introducing a new section to the North Central Chapter newsletter. Titled Bulletin Board, this section will publish information from both local and national AMWA members as “Announcements from North Central Members” and “Announcements from Around AMWA.”

For our local chapter, we welcome information about your professional accomplishments, upcoming events/programs, and suggested articles of interest (with links). Please limit your submissions to approximately 75 words.

Please feel free to send your recommendations for other content you’d like to see in the newsletter to Deborah Sugerman at suge…@mayo.edu.

• AMWA member Debra Gordon is giving a 6-week webinar beginning in May called The Business of Freelancing: Getting to Six Figures. She’s offering a $50 discount for all AMWA members. Just type in the code AMWA on the payment page. The webinar will be available live and on demand and will draw on Debra’s more than 14 years of freelancing.

• Frestedt, Inc. Open House: North Central Chapter AMWA member Joy Frestedt’s firm, Fredstedt, Inc., will hold an open house on Thursday, April 24, 1:00 pm -6:00 pm, to celebrate their new location:  9445 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN, 55426. (952) 426-1747.  Frestedt, Inc. offers consulting on clinical, regulatory and quality projects. To RSVP Click here or email inf…@frestedt.com.