Interviewing for medical writing
An interview gathers an expert’s views or a person’s experience through prepared questions, attentive listening and an accurate record. Its purpose determines whom to approach, what to ask and how the conversation is used.
Purpose and preparation
Quotations and individual opinions can enliven a feature, and many publications expect quotations; sometimes a whole article centres on one interview. Access to a key interview contact can improve an idea’s chance of acceptance by an editor. The interview’s aim should be decided before selecting the person and preparing questions, so the person fits the intended theme.
The interviewer should research the topic and the person’s interests, views and expertise beforehand. An expert interview seeks opinions of interest to readers, rather than information the writer should already have found.
Potential experts can be found through these sources.
- Professional and academic journals.
- Trade magazines.
- Health news online.
- Medical conference websites.
A contact book can retain likely names; conferences provide opportunities to meet experts and hear new research or angles. Topic mailing lists and newsgroups can supply developments and interview offers, organisations’ press officers can suggest contacts, and a commissioning editor may suggest someone whose viewpoint is wanted.
When approaching an expert, mentioning a commission from a well-known publication may help secure the interview. The person may be contacted through an assistant; availability should never be assumed, and the request should explain what is wanted and how long the interview is likely to take. A suitable appointment can then be arranged if the person cannot speak immediately. Face-to-face interviewing is recommended when one interview is central to an article; email or letter follow-up can clarify complex issues after a telephone conversation.
Question types
Logical, orderly questions can reveal matters the interviewer did not know needed exploring. A window-cleaning question illustrates why specificity matters: a window cleanable from inside by someone with a 28-inch arm was not necessarily cleanable by the questioner, whose arm measured 24 inches. Thinking of questioning as discovery skills can help someone reluctant to ask.
Eight question types serve different purposes.
- Permission questions show respect and positive intent and build trust: “May I get some more information about …?”
- Open-ended questions stimulate thought and conversation: “What are the risks?” or “How does this trial differ from the XYZ trial?”
- Closed questions request yes, no or verifiable data, such as a format, applicable style guide or word limit; another question may be needed to continue the conversation.
- Probing questions explore a direction further: “Why is that?”, “What if …?” or “Tell me more about …”.
- Encouraging statements such as “I see” keep the speaker going without overt interruption; silence can also encourage.
- Restatement or paraphrase questions show listening and check understanding or inconsistent information: “Let me play this back to you …”.
- Catch-all questions invite additional information or another viewpoint: “What else is important for me to know?”
- Checking questions clarify conflicting information, especially when answers diverge from expectations: “Help me understand your intention …”.
Question-construction recommendations are to:
- Make questions specific and be ready to rephrase unclear ones.
- Avoid vague questions: ask what someone most enjoys and dislikes about being a doctor rather than merely whether they enjoy it.
- Ask open-ended questions that invite discussion rather than yes or no.
- Avoid leading questions that embed the desired answer, because they may produce noncommittal replies.
Developing questioning skills
A questioner can improve by recording questions not asked and their cost, reviewing that list, and asking after a failure which question was missing. Listening to a two-year-old’s questions, practising question formation during ordinary activities and noticing effective questions from others provide further practice. “What can you tell me about this spot?” illustrates an open question that invites the person into discovery.
Sequence and rapport
A questioning strategy can begin openly, move to specifics and return to open questions when specific answers conflict with earlier information. Questions should follow the order that helps the conversation flow, which may differ from the order of the written account. A contentious question can follow a friendly one or vice versa; an impatient interviewee may require reducing the list to its most important questions. Probing and encouragement can be used throughout, while catch-all questions may be most helpful near the end.
Before questioning, the interviewer should establish that they care about the person’s concerns, are honest, want to understand their truth, have no axe to grind and meet commitments. A diplomatic statement of purpose or a few social questions can help, while politics, religion and sports are best avoided.
Recommendations for a nonthreatening exchange are to:
- Aim for dialogue rather than interrogation.
- Separate two questions combined into one, so a single answer does not obscure which was answered.
- Be mindful of cultural differences in responses to questioning; avoiding eye contact and focusing on the person’s lips may be appropriate.
- Count silently to ten when an answer is not immediate, then consider paraphrasing or asking another question.
Listening and direction
An interviewer should express empathy, avoid judging or arguing, and notice and check assumptions about what is true. Reflective listening means responding with a statement capturing what the person has just said and, where possible, the intensity of their feelings. This invites elaboration and can draw out insight, honest disclosure and emotion.
Prepared questions should remain flexible when an unexpected direction becomes more interesting. The interviewer should also keep control and bring experienced interviewees back to the questions when they substitute their own preferred message. Unguarded responses can be particularly useful to the story and deserve attention.
Listening can be shown through body language, leaning towards the speaker and focusing on them when not writing; notes should also be taken.
Patient interviews
For patient stories, one recommended process begins with completed consent forms and an explanation of how the story will be used. Preparing strong questions beforehand is central to obtaining a compelling story.
- Develop three or four open-ended questions that do not elicit yes or no.
- Ask not only what happened but how the patient felt and how life changed.
- Listen carefully and follow the conversation, particularly an unexpected direction.
The process ends with the patient reviewing and approving the written story before publication.
Recording and accuracy
The recording method should be chosen in advance. A notebook is usually suitable for a short interview; a recorder can help with a longer or potentially contentious conversation and reassure an editor that the original remains available. A recording can take considerable time to review and transcribe. Permission should be obtained to record a question-and-answer session; transcription can be done by ear or with transcription software.
A direct quotation must use the words actually spoken, while a paraphrase must convey the interviewee’s intended meaning accurately. Opinions differ about showing an expert the written account: many appreciate it and some request it to check for misquotation.
An interviewer with a hearing impairment used an assisted telephone arrangement: his wife arranged the interviews, listened on an extension and mouthed the answers for him to lipread while he spoke on a telephone attached to a recorder. This enabled a normal conversation with the interviewee.