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Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics will publish an issue devoted to personal stories about the

experiences of physicians living with conflicts of interest. We are interested in hearing

about positive and negative experiences associated with a variety of financial relationships.

The stories should give readers a sense of what it is like to be a physician in the midst of complex relationships to industry, physician practices, and third‐party payers— relationships that go beyond ordinary reimbursement for care or research expenses.

Alternately, stories may focus on conflicting roles that you have played as a physician. We want your true, personal stories in a form that is interesting and easy to read.

In writing your story, you might want to think about:

‐ Have special financial relationships improved the quality of care for your patients or the quality of your medical research?

What kinds of relationships and how?

‐ Have special financial relationships ever compromised your care of patients?

Have you experienced them as a threat to your integrity as a physician? What kinds of relationships and how?

‐ If conflicts of interest have caused problems in your practice of medicine, how did you resolve them?

‐ Have you worked in environments in which conflicts of interest were prevalent and affected your practice of medicine or your relationships with colleagues?

‐ How might you relate your personal story to the attention conflicts of interest in medicine are receiving in the media, Congress, and professional associations?

We plan to publish 8 to 15 brief stories (5 – 7 double‐spaced pages or 1500 – 2000 words) on this topic. Some stories may be published as online‐only supplemental material. We will also publish one or two commentary articles that discuss the stories that are published in the journal.

If you are not a writer, just tell your story in your own words and our editorial staff will help you.

If you are interested in submitting a story, we ask you first to submit a 300‐word

proposal—a short description of the story you want to tell.

Inquiries or proposals should be sent to the editorial office via email: narrativebioethics@gmail.com.

We will give preference to story proposals received by October 15, 2010 (this date could be extended for promising stories!). 

For more information about the journal Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics and our guidelines for authors, visit our webpage with the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Despite the Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics author guidelines, including "Ethics: Privacy Protection, Authorship, and Human Subjects Protections" advice, it seems to me that making conflicts of interest public and yet anonymous  will be very difficult to  attain.  Once the author is published as "anonymous" and the characters and events disguised the "true, personal story" to the reader then becomes simply a scenario concocted to develop an issue.  There is nothing wrong in a literary or philosophical sense to have a scenario written to begin an ethical discussion.   It doesn't have to be "true and personal" if "true and personal" might lead to potential harm. 

On the other hand, "A Piece of My Mind" seemingly true and personal has been published weekly in the Journal of the American Medical Association for years usually identifying the writer with no disclosed known consequences.

Perhaps this comment by me is much about nothing.  Nevertheless, the ethical issue of writing about yourself and your experiences particularly in a clinical setting, I think is important to consider.  ..Maurice.

Thank you for your interest in our project and for taking the time to respond. I am only the managing editor (I feel sure that James DuBois and Ana Iltis, our editors, could both defend and explain our policies and mission better) but  I would like to address some of your concerns. 

We are not planning to publish most stories anonymously but rather de-identified. This is not only for the safety of the writer and participants but because we are an academic journal and must follow well accepted academic standards. We have done a great deal of research and worked hard to come up with a policy that will best serve everyone.

Our intent is not just to come up with scenarios concocted to develop issues but rather to give voice to concerns and ideas from groups that may not be well represented in the current discussions. 

Susan

Susan and Maurice,

Does the participation of non-physicians in current discussions add or detract from understanding issues in medical ethics?  Could you clarify which groups are not well represented, and how a free discussion forum can "bring them in"?

Thank you.

Again, I must reiterate that I am not a bioethicist, I am only a managing editor.

I can tell you from our work on the first three issues (coming out in 2011) that those who have had experiences as patients in psychiatric hospitals and nursing assistants both were excited to get to share their lives. We have a long list of ideas for future journal issues that all bring in under represented voices. 

Please see our current JHUP website for more details on our first three issues. http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/narrative_inquiry_in_bioethics/symposia.html

The non-physician experts are very important to the discussion. Of course, I am biased because my husband is a non-physician working in bioethics.