THE RICHARD SPEAR, MD,
MEMORIAL ESSAY CONTEST: 2015
GUIDELINES
You must be a GLMS physician
member (practicing or retired),
GLMS in-training member or
University of Louisville medical
student to enter.
THEMED ESSAY
CONTEST:
All entries must be original,
unpublished writing intended
solely for publishing in Louisville
Medicine. Essays must be pertinent to the theme
“Medicine and the Unexpected”
for the practicing/life physician
category or
“Using Technology in Medicine
Without Becoming a Medical
Robot”
for the physician-in-training/
medical student category.
LENGTH:
800 to 2,000 words.
FORMAT:
Do not put your name on your
essay! Judges are blinded to authors. Instead, include a separate
cover letter with name, entry
category, essay title and contact
information.
DEADLINE:
Monday, March 3, 2014.
SUBMISSION:
Send via email as an attachment
to Aaron Burch at aaron.burch@
glms.org. Email submissions
are highly preferred, but if not
possible, send entry by fax to
502-581-9022 or by mail to 101
W. Chestnut St., Louisville, KY
40202.
6
LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
R
ichard Spear, MD, was a great physician and a much loved
community leader here in Louisville, where he practiced
downtown for 35 years. Born in 1919, the Ohio native served
in the Army of Occupation in Japan before coming to Kentucky. Here
he chaired the departments of Surgery at both the Old Baptist Hospital
and St. Anthony’s. He also served as U of L faculty and operated in
every downtown hospital. Throughout his professional career, Dr.
Spear maintained an avid love of reading and urged his colleagues
to contribute to the medical writing community.
The Greater Louisville Medical Society accepted a generous donation from Dr. Spear upon his death in 2007. His only request was that
the funding go towards the promotion of good writing about medicine
and health in all its forms. It was through this bequest that GLMS
began the Richard Spear, MD, Memorial Essay Contest, which now enters its eighth year.
After a remarkable number of participants last year, including both physicians and
physicians-in-training, we can’t wait to read this year’s entries.
Essays are due MONDAY, MARCH 2, allowing those interested to sit down by the fire
on a cold winter day and write about something dear to the heart. This also gives our
group of judges - who are blinded to the authors – enough time to judge before leaping
into the Madness of both spring and basketball.
We have separate essay topics again this year. Both are centered on the evolution of
our profession. For physicians-in-training and medical students, we want to focus on
the opportunities and challenges of being a physician in the present and not-so-distant
future. Your category, for a prize of $750, is “Using Technology in Medicine Without
Becoming a Medical Robot.”
For practicing and retired physicians, we want to focus on how the most adept of us
can adapt to unforeseen changes. Therefore we have set your theme as “Medicine and
the Unexpected, ” for a cool $1,500.
Each entry must be between 800-2,000 words. Our volunteer judges will select winners
carefully based on excellence in expression, creativity, readability, clarity and the power of
your message. Follow your instincts. These entries are not scientific peer reviews and do
not have to be research based. The deadline remember is March 2, 2015, and all entries
should be sent as an attachment to GLMS Communications Specialist Aaron Burch at
[email protected].
Winners will be announced at the annual President’s Celebration in June and then
published in our July 2015 edition of Louisville Medicine. We try to run essays all year
since so many are so good.
Finally, if an essay doesn’t suit you, we would still love to hear from you on all manner
of subjects throughout the year. Louisville Medicine welcomes articles of all shapes and
sizes including reviews of books or restaurants, opinion pieces, projects and hobby pieces,
travelogues and much more. If you are interested in having your work published in an
upcoming edition, please contact Editor Mary Barry, MD, at [email protected]. Dr.
Barry will read, edit and correspond with you about your writing before it is with your
permission submitted to the full editorial board.
You’ve got a lot to say – let’s hear it.