HDCN's "ASK THE PROFESSOR!"


Ground rules.
Types of questions desired. The purpose of "ASK THE PROFESSOR" is to provide a forum to discuss interesting patients or problems that may serve to illustrate an educational or practical point, unveil previously underemphasized facets of a nephrologic disease, or expose the limitations of our knowledge in a given area. Routine questions, e.g., those which can be answered by referring to a standard internal medicine or nephrology text, or to widely known articles, should generally not be submitted, although exceptions may be made if the question is judged to be of wide interest.

Who may pose questions. At the present time, only questions from licensed medical professionals (physicians, nurses, or dieticians) will be considered.

Education, not consultation. The purpose of "ASK THE PROFESSOR!" is education, not consultation. No physician, no matter how wise, can always suggest correct therapeutic or diagnostic strategies for a patient that the expert has not had a chance to examine nor interact with personally. Such armchair medicine may actually do more harm than good. This important point needs to be realized by those posing questions. Therefore, questions concerning management of a specific case will not be accepted, or else the question will be rephrased by the editors as a hypothetical, with detailed patient clinical and laboratory data removed.

Only questions with limited patient details will be considered. If you are posing such a question concerning a problem that your patient Mrs. Jones has, even as a hypothetical, you need to realize that Mrs. Jones' daughter or son may be surfing the net. HDCN, while intended to be a physician site, can be accessed by non-professionals, and Mrs. Jones' kinfold might conceivably find your question with your name on it about someone who they may well believe is their loving mother. For this reason, please be prudent. The questionner's (your) name will be posted along with the question, unless the questionner desires that his or her name not be used and indicates this on a paper form that also needs to be submitted to HDCN (see below). The questionner's e-mail address may or may not be listed, depending on instructions on the questionner form (see below).

How to "ASK THE PROFESSOR". Eventually we will be putting up an electronic form for this purpose on HDCN. For the present, please address questions to prof 'at' hdcn.com. The question will be screened, edited if necessary, and then the questionner will be contacted by e-mail re the appropriateness of his/her question for this forum. If the question is accepted, then the questionner will be asked to submit a signed copy of the questionner form, (which should be downloaded and printed out locally). This form deals with potential legal issues and transfer of copyright. The form should be faxed to 708-887-1446. Once these documents have been received, the question will be forwarded to one or more editorial board members or other specialists for review and reply.

Storing questions and replies. The question threads and replies will remain on HDCN indefinitely, and if other medical professionals wish to add their comments, subsequently, they are welcome to do so at any time, according to the ground rules listed above.