Skip to main content

Using Stories to Disseminate Research: The Attributes of Representative Stories

Journal of General Internal Medicine volume 22, pages 1603–1607 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

When researchers communicate their findings to patients, clinicians, policy-makers, or media, they may find it helpful to supplement quantitative data with stories about individuals who represent themes in their research. Whether such stories are gathered during the research itself or identified from other sources, researchers must develop strategies for assessing their representativeness. This paper proposes 5 attributes of representative stories: (1) expression of important themes in the research, (2) explicit location in the “distribution” of stories that exemplify the theme, (3) verifiability, (4) acknowledgment of uncertainty, and (5) compelling narration. This paper summarizes research on substance abuse among physicians, and uses these 5 attributes to assess the representativeness of a published case report and a fictional short story about addicted physicians. While neither story is fully representative of the research, the process of evaluating these stories illustrates an approach to identifying representative stories for use in disseminating research.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price includes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Figure 1

References

  1. Edwards A, Elwyn G, Mulley A. Explaining risks: turning numerical data into meaningful pictures. BMJ 2002;324:827–30.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Folz CE, Clancy C, Bilheimer L, Gagnon D. Health policy roundtable: producing and adapting research syntheses for use by health-system managers and public policymakers. Health Serv Res 2006;41:905–17.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Bordiga E, Nisbett RE. The differential impact of abstract vs. concrete information on decisions. J Appl Soc Psychol 1977;7:258–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Tversky A, Kahneman D. Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases. Science 1974;185:1124–31.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ubel PA, Jepson C, Baron J. The inclusion of patient testimonials in decision aids: effects on treatment choices. Med Decis Mak 2001;21:60–8.

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Deyo RA, Cherkin DC, Weinstein J, Howe J, Ciol M, Mulley AG. Involving patients in clinical decisions: impact of an interactive video program on the use of back surgery. Med Care 2000;38:959–69.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Fagerlin A, Wang C, Ubel PA. Reducing the influence of anecdotal reasoning on people’s health care decisions: is a picture worth a thousand statistics? Med Decis Mak 2005;25:398–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Fielding JE, Marks JS, Myers BW, Nolan PA, Rawson RD, Toomey KE. How do we translate science into public health policy and law? J Law Med Ethics 2002;30(3 Suppl):22–32.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Steiner JF. The use of stories in clinical research and health policy. JAMA 2005;294:2901–04.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Database of Individual Patient Experiences (DIPEx). http://www.dipex.org. Accessed December 28, 2006.

  11. Hughes PH, Brandenburg N, Baldwin DC, et al. Prevalence of substance use among US physicians. JAMA 1992;267:2333–39.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Talbott GD, Gallegos KV, Wilson PO, Porter TL. The Medical Association of Georgia’s Impaired Physicians Program. JAMA 1987;257:2927–30.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Mansky PA. Physician health programs and the potentially impaired physician with a substance use disorder. Psychiatr Serv 1996;47:465–67.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Wijesinghe CP, Dunne F. Substance use and other psychiatric disorders in impaired practitioners. Psychiatr Q 2001;72:181–9.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Angres DH, McGovern MP, Shaw MF, Rawal P. Psychiatric comorbidity and physicians with substance use disorders: a comparison between the 1980s and 1990s. J Addict Dis 2003;22:79–87.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Domino KB, Hornbein TF, Polissar NL, et al. Risk factors for relapse in health care professionals with substance use disorders. JAMA 2005;293:1453–60.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Boisaubin EV, Levine RE. Identifying and assisting the impaired physician. Am J Med Sci 2001;322:31–6.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Farber NJ, Gilibert SG, Aboff BM, Collier VU, Weiner J, Boyer EG. Physicians’ willingness to report impaired colleagues. Soc Sci Med 2005;61:1772–75.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Snyder L, Leffler C. Ethics Manual: fifth edition. Ann Intern Med 2005;142:560–82.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Delbanco TL, Daley J, Walzer J, Winker MA. Clinical crossroads: an invitation. JAMA 1995;274:76–7.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Knight JR. A 35-year-old physician with opioid dependence. JAMA 2004;292:1351–57.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Williams, WC. Old Doc Rivers. In Williams WC. The farmers’ daughters: the collected stories of William Carlos Williams. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation; 1961:77–105.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Wellbery C. Do literature and the arts make us better doctors? Fam Med 2000;32:376–8.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Newman TB. The power of stories over statistics. BMJ 2003;327:1424–27.

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Bruner J. Making stories: law, literature, life. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Nisbett RE, Bordiga E. Attribution and the psychology of prediction. J Pers Soc Psychol 1975;32:932–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Hamill R, Wilson TD, Nisbett RE. Insensitivity to sample bias: generalizing from atypical cases. J Pers Soc Psychol 1980;39:578–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Families USA. The art of story banking. http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/Julyimpress2a7d9.pdf Accessed December 28, 2006.

  29. Charon R. Narrative medicine: honoring the stories of illness. New York: Oxford University Press; 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Hinyard LJ, Kreuter MW. Using narrative communication as a tool for health behavior change: a conceptual, theoretical, and empirical overview. Health Educ Behav 2007. DOI 10.1177/1090198106291963.

  31. McDonough JE. Using and misusing anecdote in policy making. Health Aff 2001;20:207–12.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Giacomini MK, Cook DJ. Users’ guides to the medical literature: XXIII. Qualitative research in health care A. Are the results of the study valid? JAMA 2000;284:357–62.

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

Elizabeth A. Bayliss, MD, MSPH; Thomas D. Denberg, MD, PhD; and Simon J. Hambidge, MD, PhD, provided many helpful suggestions on a prior draft of this paper. No financial support was provided for this work.

Conflicts of Interest

None disclosed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Colorado Health Outcomes Program and the Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Aurora, CO, 80010, USA

    John F. Steiner MD, MPH

Authors
  1. John F. Steiner MD, MPH
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John F. Steiner MD, MPH.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Steiner, J.F. Using Stories to Disseminate Research: The Attributes of Representative Stories. J GEN INTERN MED 22, 1603–1607 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-007-0335-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-007-0335-9

KEY WORDS

  • research translation
  • substance abuse
  • evidence-based medicine
  • narrative medicine
  • health policy