Medical Case Reports: A Model for Practitioner-Created Literature David S. Reed Northeast Conference on Public Administration (NECoPA) November 6, 2015
What is a medical case report? • A short article in a medical journal. • Reporting the circumstances, symptoms, treatment and results of one patient’s case. • Written by the doctor(s) who treated that case.
Case Reports vs. Case Studies Case Reports
Written by practitioner who participated in case.
Case Studies Written by researcher not involved in case.
Primary Purpose: Diffusion of experience among practitioners
Primary Purpose: Teaching
Secondary Purpose: Research, Teaching
Secondary Purpose: Research
Why are Case Reports valuable? Case Reports
Generalizable Studies (RCTs, etc.)
Presents real-world complexity.
Abstracts to only the variables for which data was gathered.
Presents an unusual case.
Enough similar cases to sample.
Unexpected situation practitioner encountered.
Known situation that study is designed to measure or test.
Allows practitioner to reflect on experience and share it.
Practitioners lack time, resources and research skills.
People learn from and remember stories.
Findings have little impact on practice.
I’m developing ways for public administrators to share case report. • Existing journals? New on-line journal? • Confidentiality of participants in the case. • Organization's restrictions on revealing information about its internal operations. • Assuring quality of case reports. (Peer review? Other?)
David Reed Center for Public Administrators
[email protected] These slides are at www.PubAdmin.org
