Many rare and interesting cases now undergo multiple radiological and pathological investigations in addition to involvement of multiple specialties in mangement/diagnosis. Are there any ethical guidelines suggesting who gets the upper hand if individuals from more than one team want to write it up...
The patient (and the patient's case study) belong to both specialties. Both specialist groups can write separate papers emphasizing their viewpoints. This is particularly useful if the journals are very specialist or if the specialists cannot agree on some matter.
However, before writing a joint paper, rather get agreement on whether the radiological or the pathological results are more important to future patient care and put that author first.
thanks Ian,
Is it possible to write more than one case reports for a single patient.. I understand that the perspective of specialties may differ but just wanted to make sure that if a patient's case has already been reported, is it 'ok' to write it up again from a different perspective..
for example, an interesting case with a large rare tumor involving a rare site.. some imaging modality will be used, like CT or MRI scans.. and if this lesion is excised, it will be sent off to pathology.. after removal, this will be discussed in a multidisciplinary tumor board.. now all specialties will be interested from their perspective and may report it in their respective specialty journals but is it really ok to write 3-4 papers on a single case..
regards, raza
@Raza: only if the case study is different and significant to each of the specialist teams, a situation highly unlikely in practice. Prior agreement on author order is the key to working well together, and helps the teams to learn from each other.
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