Proust questionnaire: David R. Richardson, MD

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 52, No. 6, July August 2010, Proust for Physicians
By: David R. Richardson, MD

Dr Richardson joined the BCMJ Editorial Board in 2006 and became editor of the Journal in 2008. He has been a general practitioner in Langley since 1992 and is on active staff at Langley Hospital.

The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. Here is a version of the questionnaire modified for physicians. Dr David Richardson, BCMJ editor, was good enough to agree to be our first subject.
We will continue to ask individual physicians to complete the questionnaire, but we also encourage you to complete it.

 

What profession might you have pursued, if not medicine?
Accountant, lawyer, or stripper.

Which talent would you most like to have?
Sing or play an instrument. Super strength and being able to fly would also be really cool.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My children.

What is your greatest regret?
Not enjoying my children more while they grew up.

Who are your heroes?
Ghandi, Steve Nash (except for his hair), and Brad Pitt because he is my age and looked great in Troy.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Balance and contentment, but a mouthful of steak and great red wine comes close.

What is your greatest fear?
A life not lived to its fullest.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Impatience.

What is your favorite activity?
Riding my bike.

On what occasion do you lie?
When I fill out questionnaires and to avoid confrontation.

What is your most marked characteristic?
Humor and being anal about time.

Who are your favorite writers?
Martin Cruz Smith and Wally Lamb.

How would you like to die?
V fib after running the Boston Mar­athon at around age 95.

What is your motto?
Never pass up a good meal.

Tell us a bit about yourself. Please complete and submit a Proust Questionnaire—your colleagues will appreciate it.

Online
Click here to complete our online survey.

Print
Print a .pdf copy, complete it, and either fax (604 638-2917) or mail it (BCMJ 115-1665 West Broadway, Vancouver BC V6J 5A4).

E-mail
journal@bcma.bc.ca. E-mail us and we’ll send you a blank MS Word document to complete and return. 

Mail
604 638-2858. Call us and we’ll mail you a copy to complete and return by mail
BCMJ 
115-1665 West Broad­way
Vancouver BC V6J 5A4

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Dr Richardson joined the BCMJ Editorial Board in 2006 and became editor of the Journal in 2008. He has been a general practitioner in Langley since 1992 and is on active staff at Langley Hospital.

David R. Richardson, MD. Proust questionnaire: David R. Richardson, MD. BCMJ, Vol. 52, No. 6, July, August, 2010, Page(s) - Proust for Physicians.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

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