CMAJ 's first fellowship editor melds humanities and medicine
CMAJ 1998;159:436
© 1998 Canadian Medical Association
Dr. Caralee Caplan is that exceptional hybrid: a scientist with a passion for the humanities. It's an ideal combination of talents for her new position as CMAJ's first editorial fellow (see page 502). "I'm always looking for ways to bring together medicine and writing, to keep writing in my life," says Caplan, who will spend the next year as a member of the journal's editorial team.
She is a Montreal native who earned an English degree from Harvard University — her thesis, appropriately enough, was on surgeon and poet John Keats — before graduating from medical school at McGill in May. She has written for Harvard's student newspaper and a series of travel books. In 1994 she became an editor at the McGill Journal of Medicine, where she learned to evaluate scientific articles. She eventually launched "Crossroads," a section of essays devoted to the interface between medicine and the humanities.
In her final year at McGill she did an elective in internal medicine with Dr. Ken Flegel, an associate editor at CMAJ, and met Editor-in-Chief John Hoey. After some rapid negotiations, Caplan accepted the inaugural fellowship.
During the 1-year term, which began in July, the 26-year-old Caplan will edit scientific articles, communicate with authors and conduct research on medical editing or research. She's also signing up for courses in epidemiology and biostatistics — areas of expertise she thinks are essential for a medical editor. After her fellowship, she will complete her residency; she hopes to pursue a career in internal medicine. Writing will be part of it all, she says.
Only a few weeks into her new job, she says she's already learned a lot. "It's become increasingly important for physicians to be able to look at the medical literature critically, not just take it at face value. After a year, I'll be able to pick up any medical article and figure out if it's valid and if it's applicable to my practice. "These skills will always help me." — Barbara Sibbald
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