Look Who's Talking
In this monthly feature, we ask members of the physician and research communities to answer a question we pose.
What book would you recommend to those just beginning their careers in clinical care and research, and why?
Nora Osman, MD
Brigham Circle Medical Associates
“My Own Country: A Doctor's Story” by Abraham Verghese
Dr. Verghese’s memoir of first years out of fellowship practicing in rural Tennessee at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. It illustrates how meaningful the relationship between doctor and patient can be to both, how our careers can be shaped by accidents of history, and most importantly, how dangerous it can be to our lives at home if we let ourselves become consumed by work.
“Tinkers” by Paul Harding
A novel about an old man’s final days, his interactions with his family around him and his memories of his father and grandfather as he slips in and out of consciousness. It’s beautifully written and very powerful.
Christian Arbelaez, MD, MPH
Emergency Medicine
"The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done" by Peter Drucker
I would recommend this book to those just beginning their professional careers. I believe that the two most important lessons that I learned are time management and executive decision-making. Learning both of these skills allows you to be more efficient and effective and strike a healthy work-life balance.
Julianne Glowacki, PhD
Orthopedic Surgery
"Culture of Animal Cells: A Manual of Basic Technique" by R. Ian Freshney
I assign several chapters of this book to every trainee as soon as they join the lab. These provide an introduction to the fundamentals of the art and science of cell culture. They explain the reasons for procedures and the inner workings of the equipment. After doing their basic cell culture exercises, the trainees are expected to re-read those chapters in light of their hands-on experience and to read several of the advanced chapters. I observe that this book then becomes a source for new bench researchers to review and trouble-shoot as they become more proficient in designing experiments that use cell culture.
"Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers" by Mimi Zeiger
I recommend several chapters of this book when I assign new trainees to write an abstract summarizing the first months of their research. I have searched through books to help trainees write abstracts, manuscripts, and theses, and this book is my favorite. The author explains the best ways to get started and clarifies points new writers find difficult, for example, the differences between the Introduction and Discussion sections of a manuscript. The author points out differences to bear in mind for hypothesis-testing and descriptive papers. The book also includes sections on grammar, on making word choices, and on sentence and paragraph structure, specific for clarity in scientific writing.
Thomas Sequist, MD, MPH
Clinical Director, Brigham and Women’s Outreach Program for Indian Health Service
"Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
I would say that this book is helpful. While its content should not be mistaken for science, it helped me to think about two concepts. One concept I use in thinking about my career and work in mentoring others. This is the idea that we all arrive at our current role or position as a result of so many factors— some in our control and some not. We should try to identify the ones in our control and try our best to understand them. The second idea that was helpful to me applies more largely to my research and management roles—and that is to really think about things from a different perspective as often as possible—to step outside how we have been considering a problem, try some new angles, and maybe we'll get some additional insights.