Welcome to the November/December 2021 chapter newsletter.

November is the penultimate month of the year. While everyone knows that “penultimate” means “second to last,” did you know that “antepenultimate” means “third to last”? So, I guess, “penantepenultimate” means “fourth to last,” right? Bust that one out during your next Zoom happy hour, why don’t you?

In these (pen)ultimate months, wet matted leaves blanket a dreary and drowsy landscape. ‘Neath a roof of freezing rain and iron skies, the world tucks into bed. Quote Prospero: “We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”

Let us know what you think, and remember, you can also read it on the chapter website. You can find previous newsletters on the website as well.

In this issue:

CHAPTER NEWS

• Vote now for Co-Secretary Candidate: Laura Chapin, PhD.

• Chapter President-Elect and Programming Chair currently open! Please submit nominations now.

• Register for the AMWA 2021 Medical Writing & Communication Conference

• Join our AMWA North Central LinkedIn Community

FEATURES

• Book Club Selections for 2022 and a Little Beyond by Paul W. Mamula, PhD

• Read A Good Book?—Michael Lewis’s The Premonition by Paul W. Mamula, PhD

• Highlights of AMWA 2021 Medical Writing & Communication Conference by Kendra Hyland, PhD and LeAnne Stee, Mayo Clinic

CHAPTER NEWS

Seeking Candidates for President-Elect and Programming Chair

The AMWA North Central chapter is looking for a new Programming Chair. Please consider volunteering!

AMWA North Central is a volunteer-based organization. If members don’t take an active role, the chapter will cease to function, and members will lose access to programming, news, and networking opportunities. Consider taking your turn to lead (or join) a committee or serve as a chapter officer.

Please submit your interest or nominations for any of the positions to bod (at) list.amwanorthcentral (dot) org

• President-Elect: The president-elect position is critical to our status as a chapter!  Without a volunteer to fill this vital position, we will not be able to continue as a chapter. Please volunteer! The new president-elect role will serve a one-year term beginning in February 2021 and ideally will transition into the role of president in 2022. As president-elect, you will attend the monthly AMWA NC chapter board meetings, take minutes, and chair the meeting if the president is unable to attend. Other duties may be assigned by the president or board on an ad hoc basis.

• Programming Committee Chair: The Program Committee Chair is responsible for organizing in-person and virtual AMWA events throughout the year, including identifying topics of interest and recruiting speakers. This is an important role in the chapter and is valuable for both member engagement and education.

In addition to keeping our group viable, volunteering with AMWA is a great way to network with your fellow members. It’s also a good way to fortify your C.V. with an extra line showing how you give back to your profession! If you can volunteer a few hours a month, contact bod (at) list.amwanorthcentral (dot) org.

FEATURES

Book Club Selections for 2022 and a Little Beyond

Paul W. Mamula, PhD

The upcoming Book Club selections include 3 books for 2022 and an additional 1 for 2023. As 2021 draws to a close, AMWA members may want to add some of our selections to their winter reading lists. Our new Book Club selections are as follows:

• January 24, 2022: The End of October by Lawrence Wright

The book is a thrilling novel about a zoonotic respiratory pandemic that begins in Indonesia and spreads worldwide when a quarantine fails during the Hajj in Mecca. The End of October was published just as the COVID-19 pandemic began and lockdowns were soon to begin. Publication just as an actual pandemic began was an eerie coincidence.

• April 25, 2022: The Great Influenza by John M. Barry

Barry’s book is a meticulous documentation and analysis of the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1920. The book traces the pandemic from its outset through its spread while also analyzing steps people and governments took in response—surprising that these measures still have lessons for our current pandemic. The book has been reissued several times as a paperback with an afterword (most recently 2018).

• September 26, 2022: The Premonition by Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis presents a succinct critique of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention function during the Covid-19 pandemic as seen by those who tried to alert the agency. Interviews with public health officials who recognized the pandemic trace the CDC’s lethargic response. Few at the CDC granted interviews but the silence, politicization, and inaction documented by others highlight the growing agency dysfunction and provide a warning for responses to future crises.

• January 30, 2023: How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information by Alberto Cairo.  This book may help writers understand how to present data and watch for ways graphic presentations can misrepresent information. How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter About Visual Information – YouTube

Our Book Club meetings will continue next year as virtual events, although we hope to be able to hold in-person meetings once circumstances permit. Also, please send us the title of any interesting book (medical, technical, or nonfiction)—We still have 2 books to select for 2023.

Paul W. Mamula, PhD

Biomedical Writer and Editor

Ph: 651-772-6820

Email: paulpat@pclink.com

Read A Good Book?—The Premonition by Michael Lewis

Paul W. Mamula, PhD

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected us for the past 20 months, and Michael Lewis’s The Premonition presents a fascinating look at how the pandemic evolved as viewed through the eyes of physicians and public health officials who first confronted the virus as well as their interactions with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the pandemic progressed. The book is nontechnical, short, and fast-paced.  It follows his previous book, The Fifth Risk, which culminates in the Trump administration and asked: what happens when the people who manage risks have no interest in them? The Premonition, written when the death toll from the pandemic was around 500,000, has the feel of a biomedical thriller rather than a cold investigative account, perhaps because the pandemic and its management have left many questions unanswered.

Lewis’s account blames the CDC (and the Trump administration) for the slow response, suggesting that the agency operates more like a university department than a quick-responding government agency and that it has also been affected by politicized government officials in many other agencies. The picture is not a pretty one, but Lewis artfully traces the growing crisis with interviews of those on the front lines. Problems were like those encountered by Dr Mary Ferris, University of California, Santa Barbara, Medical Director who clashed with the CDC during an earlier outbreak of meningitis B. Ferris argued about mitigation measures that ultimately proved successful, yet that the CDC would not endorse at the time. The CDC stated that they had no data to justify her actions. In short, they were afraid of making a mistake. Lewis notes that the responses during the COVID pandemic were similar. Unfortunately, no CDC officials granted interviews for Lewis’s book, a shortcoming, since their participation might have helped clarify their actions during the Covid pandemic.

The book is critical of Trump administration policy that exacerbated the indifferent response, and it illustrates the central problem Lewis noted in The Fifth Risk, written during the first years of the Trump administration: Politicization represents a threat to effectively addressing all crises. The Premonition provides many shocking interviews that contrast the difference in effectiveness between political appointees and dedicated civil servants, such as Dr Anthony Fauci. Although the CDC has problems, others have recently offered suggestions on how to fix them.1

One of the heroes is Charity Dean, MD, the public health officer who suspected a brewing health crisis in California and bristled at the plodding responses to her data and warnings. The Premonition also illuminates the workings of an informal group of government officials (dubbed “the wolverines”) who worked on solutions despite lukewarm agency support. The book has some surprises, too. One that popped out was the inability or unwillingness to rely on any of the lessons from the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920.2 Another sad event was how little acknowledgment or gratitude was given to those who sounded the early warning and provided programs to trace the course of the pandemic. In sum, the book provides an eye-opening assessment of an evolving pandemic in real-time by the people who were on the front lines.

Please note that we will be discussing The Premonition at our September 26, 2022, book club meeting, so readers may wish to put it on their winter reading list and join us for a lively discussion.

References:

1. Interlandi J. Can the CDC Be Fixed? NY Times Magazine. June 20, 2021 [Accessed Oct 27, 2021]. From the Times Magazine: Can the C.D.C. be fixed? – The New York Times

2. Barry JM. The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. New York: Penguin Books. 2004

Highlights of AMWA 2021 Medical Writing & Communication Conference

The AMWA 2021 Medical Writing & Communication Conference was held virtually from October 27 to 29, 2021. Here are impressions from two chapter members:

Kendra Hyland, PhD

General impressions:

This was my first virtual conference, and unfortunately I didn’t take enough time off work to attend the conference as it was occuring.  The virtual format makes it easier to review the content later; however, it takes more effort to connect/ network with others. There were some excellent topics for roundtable discussions; however these filled up quickly and were not recorded. It seemed like the majority of presentations were played from pre-recorded sessions rather than “live” presentations by the speakers.

Plenary Session:

The Harold Swanberg Distinguished Service Award Recipient was give posthumously to Lori Alexander, who served in several roles at the national level, including journal editor, President of the AMWA board of directors and recently as AMWA director of education. She lost her battle with cancer in June; thus, colleagues and friends presented their memories of Lori and the contributions she made to the medical writing profession and AMWA. The John P. McGovern Award Address was given by Stacy Christiansen, MA, the managing editor of JAMA and chair of the committee for the AMA Manual of Style, and titled “Style of Substance”.  She described her role as a medical editor to promote accuracy, clarity, and consistency (ACC) and the value of editing and stylebooks.

Remote but Not Alone: Navigating Difficult Personalities When You Work from Home

The speaker provided strategies for working with difficult behaviors from team members when completing medical writing projects. She defined “difficult” behaviors/ personalities as those that did not meet her expectations. Further, she categorized the behavior into four difficult personality groups, and provided strategies for each group.  While this was an interesting take on the topic, the presented strategies could be proactively applied as project management best practices when working with a team.

The Quick and the Dirty: Best Practices for Writing and Editing Under Tight Timelines

This session provided soft skills, tools, and communication strategies for medical writers working on manuscripts or other regulatory documents under short timelines from the speakers’ experiences.  The suggestions varied based on the role of writer or editor and included considerations when writing/editing for new or existing clients. Tools for writers were checklists (CONSORT guidelines and extensions for manuscripts), a “cheat sheet” to summarize the essentials from a style guide, plain language guidelines/ glossary, and a printout of the grant request for proposals (for grant writers). Tools for editors were an artful and clear query to educate writers why changes were made with links if available; glossaries from stakeholders, and  templates provided to writers for the specific type of writing (manuscripts, blogs, etc.).  Software tools included time management software (online calendar, time tracking SW, allow/block lists on email), EndNote, Adobe Acrobat Pro, optimized common software such as Word, and detailed project note taking.

Time to Clock In: Applying Manufacturing Best Practices to Consistently and Efficiently Produce High-Quality Documents

The speakers described manufacturing philosophy both in the automotive and pharmaceutical industries, and how to apply these approaches to medical writing. The presented case studies illustrated the issues that arise during each part of the writing, review, and quality control process, along with suggested mitigations. The goal of applying manufacturing philosophy to medical writing is to learn from errors and improve the process by implementing improvements.

LeAnn Stee, Mayo Clinic

General Impressions

This conference was the first one I have attended virtually. Like Kendra, I tried to work during each day of the conference and, as a result, I did not attend as many sessions as I would have during an in-person conference. Networking and contributing to discussions are harder at a virtual conference. I was delighted, though, to receive a private message during one of the plenary sessions from an acquaintance who was also attending and saw my name listed as an attendee. A few of the sessions I attended are described below.

Plenary Session

The tributes to Lori Alexander, receipient of the Harold Swanberg Distinguished Service Award, were touching and accurately described the Lori Alexander that I knew. Stacy Christiansen was the worthy recipient of the John P. McGovern Award. In her address, she discussed the value of editing and cited numerous studies that support the importance of editing. She cited the following reasons to support the use of a style manual: it brings efficiency to the process, it solves problems, it provides authority, and it provides guidance on substantive issues (such as data display, language use) and major issues (such as identifiable patients and other ethical issues).

Professionalism in the Workplace

The speaker explained that it takes more than skill to be of value in the workplace. Her premise was that how you present yourself matters, whether you are in person, sending an email, or making a telephone call. She maintained that you are more confident and at your best when you look and act like the image you want to project.

Update AMA Manual of Style

Both of the speakers were contributors to the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition. They reviewed some of the changes that have been made since the initial printing. The most recent updates were made in August 2021. Recent changes include terms that no longer need expansion at first mention, terms that are used in reference to race and ethnicity, descriptions of people, and nonbinary identification. Users of the manual should check the online version for changes regularly and subscribe to the AMA Style Insider, the official blog of the AMA Manual of Style.

AMWA 2021 Conference recorded content is available on the conference platform until December 31, 2021 to those who registered and/ or attended the conference.