MEDICAL FICTION RESOURCE LIST FOR WRITERS

HOW TO WRITE MEDICAL FICTION CORRECTLY!

 

The long overdue list of links to good resources:

One book I always recommend when I teach “Novel Malpractice”  is Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. One of my day jobs for over three decades has been case-managing transplants, and she even fooled me with the twist! It’s not only an outstanding story told by a masterful author, she didn’t use a cliche leukemia and got all her medical details right.

 

Stick to well-known authoritative websites and organizations — although depending on political bias (COVID and the vaccines being a prime example) the information may be slanted. For example, WebMD is more “newsy” oriented than Medscape.

 

MEDICAL RESOURCES LIST FOR AUTHORS:

  1. AI can be used of course, but AI was tested recently on medical advice and was WRONG 85% of the time!
  2. Stick with well-known academic medical centers such as Mayo, Cleveland Clinic, Sloan-Kettering, Johns Hopkins, or Yale, etc.
  3. WebMD (mostly accurate, but looks for the headline)
  4. Medscape – with Medscape, don’t hesitate to create a free media account.
  5. National Library of Medicine https://www.nlm.nih.gov/
  6. National Cancer Institute, PDQ© Physician’s Data Query: These Cancer Treatment Summaries are succinct guides to the types of cancer, the stages, and what therapies are used. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/pdq/information-summaries/adult-treatment (don’t be put off by the popup warnings, you can read the healthcare professional sections too)
  7. NCCN – National Cancer Care Network – nccn.org has many resources open to patients, however the actual treatment guidelines can only be accessed by physicians. (And here you do have to be one)
  8. Don’t forget medical school libraries, especially for historical medical information. Many have dedicated rooms to this, and you can find doctor’s diaries, notes, records, etc. from a hundred years ago.
  9. PDR – Physicians’ Desk Reference (gold standard for drug prescribing) or a drug manufacturer. Libraries used to have these in print (reference section) but the books have become so large now, they may have switched to online access.
  10. State libraries, specialized genealogical libraries (D.A.R. and S.A.R., the Fiske Library), and any other private libraries with extensive collections. Your local library can help point you in the right direction.
  11. Large university libraries.The National Archives has entire online sections devoted to historical medicine, plus they also have a photo collection.
  12. Medical and pharmacy museums.
  13. NORD (National Organization of Rare Disorders) database at https://rarediseases.org/
  14. Check out academic scientific and medical publishers. They list ALL their inventory of textbooks and publications going back years. Often you can pick up one on used book sites for very cheap. Some things like anatomy don’t change!

The 800-Pound Gorilla of Medical Information for Writers:

PUBMED—The National Library of Medicine Search Engine that gives you access to nearly all of the peer-reviewed published medical literature from even the 1600s.

It can be quirky to use regarding keywords, etc. but is built to handle natural language requests. The things most helpful to writers will be clinical summaries.

Medline Plus  https://medlineplus.gov/

One great term to search for is called “STAT Pearls” and these are usually one-to-two-page summaries on a topic. You can access these (along with other books) from the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430685/

Authoritative groups like these below.

 

One key is if they have “academy,” “board,” “society,” or “association” in their name. Most but not all will offer patient resources and public media releases. Almost any major field of medicine has a physician’s group or board – also a great resource.

 

American Cancer Association http://www.cancer.org

American College of Dermatology www.aad.org

 American Academy of Surgery www.acos.org

American Association of Transplant Surgeons www.ast.org

American Society of  Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (Stem cell/bone marrow transplants and CAR-T therapy). https://www.astct.org/

American Academy of Ophthalmology https://www.aao.org/

American Academy of Pediatrics  https://www.aap.org/

American Academy of Family Practice www.aafp.org

American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology www.acog.org

American College of Physicians (subspecialities of internal medicine) www.acponline.org/about-acp/about-internal-medicine/subspecialties

FYI: This list is to get you started and is not exhaustive by any means.

Happy hunting!

 

 

 

 

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