Chance and Opportunity: A Personal Story

This article summarizes my personal life story, from early education in India to research, teaching, and other activities in Boston and San Francisco. I have tried to illustrate how unplanned events shape one's path, and why the willingness to go with the flow is among one's most valuable attributes.

Constructing contentious and noncontentious facts: How gynecology textbooks create certainty around pharma-contraceptive safety

Using critical discourse analysis, we examine how seven popular gynecology textbooks use sociolinguistic devices to describe the health effects of pharma-contraception (intrauterine and hormonal methods). Though previous studies have noted that textbooks generally use neutral language, we find that gynecology textbooks differentially deployed linguistic devices, framing pharma-contraceptive benefits as certain and risks as doubtful. These discursive strategies transform pharma-contraceptive safety into fact. We expand on Latour and Woolgar's concept of noncontentious facts by showing how some facts that are taken for granted by the medical community still require discursive fortification to counter potential negative accusations from outside the profession. We call these contentious facts. Our findings suggest that a pro-pharma orientation exists in gynecology textbooks, which may influence physicians' understanding of pharmaceutical safety. As such, these texts may affect medical practice by normalizing pharma-contraceptives without full considerations of their risks.

Analogies and metaphors in clinical medicine

Medicine is traditionally known as an 'art', and not an exact 'science'. Medical images of clinical signs and pathology were communicated through 'metaphors' in the 19th and early 20th centuries to make recognition easier in anticipation of the clinical counterpart when encountered in medical practice. They have served as teaching aids, enhancing memory retention for medical students, nurses and doctors and have withstood the test of time. Standard medical textbooks contain metaphors that have become entrenched in teaching, learning and examining in medical schools and hospitals worldwide. The continued use of metaphors has given rise to an ongoing debate, particularly in Africa, due to the usage of inappropriate or unfamiliar metaphors which are not locally or culturally relevant. Despite this, medical analogies will no doubt continue to be useful for medical education, clinical practice and 'aide memoirs' for examinations, and bring light humour, for a long time to come.

Frequency and content analysis of chronic fatigue syndrome in medical text books

Text books are a cornerstone in the training of medical staff and students, and they are an important source of references and reviews for these professionals. The objective of this study was to determine both the quantity and quality of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) information included in medical texts. After reviewing 119 medical text books from various medical specialties, we found that 48 (40.3%) of the medical text books included information on CFS. However, among the 129 527 total pages within these medical text books, the CFS content was presented on only 116.3 (0.090%) pages. Other illnesses that are less prevalent, such as multiple sclerosis and Lyme disease, were more frequently represented in medical text books. These findings suggest that the topic ofCFS is underreported in published medical text books.