*grumble*

[bloodyrosemccoy]

That does it. If I can find no good writers’ references for medicine online, I guess I’m just going to have to go to med school.

Oh, damn.

So far, I’d say boldfaced look this up later in the middle of my writing will have to suffice if I want to keep going.

Comments

[cougarfang.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest Springerlink, ACS, Wiley, or hell just Google Scholar... and then I reread it. "Writers' references." Ah.

Not sure what that entails, exactly, but I guess I can help you search stuff if you need?

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I may take you up on that, but damn, these links are handy.

My trouble is that my narrator's a doctor, so I have to SOUND like a doctor who knows what the hell he's talking about. I can do it from a layperson's point of view, but a narrator who knows what he's looking at and what he's supposed to do to fix it is harder.

Plus, finding new and interesting ways for patients to fall down dead (or mostly dead) isn't easy.

I think I've got something worked out this time, though. Thanks for the help!

[cougarfang.livejournal.com]

(Also ScienceDirect and actually I think what I should've linked first was Pubmed... yay, paper-writing resources can be used for things other than writing papers! XD;;)

Out of curiosity, are you hung up on jargon or the general doctorly voice?
(If you know anything about fixing cars, I imagine it's a lot like a mechanic. Which reminds me about the joke about the heart surgeon and the car mechanic...)

Edit:
Also this and this.

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

You're welcome to pick my brain whenever you like (and my ER-nurse former roommate's, through me.)

[erkunden.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how often you're running into blocks, but you might want to trawl through the tagged archives of the little_details community -- lots of nifty medical (and other!) information for writers trying to pin down details for realism.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/medical_geeks/profile

The community is almost dead, but when a question gets posted, there is usually a pretty quick answer.

And I second the PubMed recommend!

[tomatocaco.livejournal.com]

http://politedissent.com/house_pd.html
Not sure if this will help much. It's a site reviewing the medical aspects of House episodes, where certains tests or processes are omitted, any problems with the diagnosis, something they did that they REALLY should not have. It might help you narrow your research or spark a plot bunny.

Have you considered doing some job shadowing or volunteering for a day in a hospital? Observing how people work and interact first-hand might help you as much as internet research. Not sure how much of an option that is, just tossing it out there. C:

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like this site! I'll wind up collating ideas for what sorts of diagnostic tests you're supposed to run and in what order and all that.

I tend to follow my dad around when I can, but that's harder to do with emergencies. I also have him asking around for a general practitioner who'd be willing to let me shadow, but none of the doctors he knows would be sci-fi geeks. Which is still doable, but I will get a lot more WTF looks that way.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Indeed, they're a handy comm, but sometimes even they cannot help me.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Thanks! There will be questions on here later, perhaps!