Medical Content Creation: What Quote?

Another potential source for medical content is a quote. It can actually be a common saying, phrase, or an actual quote from someone famous or otherwise. A quote or saying can be either from the medical field or outside the medical field. The whole idea is to use the quote or saying as a jump-off point for a discussion about something medical.

As a physician or medical professional, look into how the quote or saying can be applied to something in the medical field. That something could be:

• Patient, family, coworker, or other personnel interactions
• Work-life balance
• Application to learning or teaching
• Reflection on how to treat or manage a particular illness or condition
• The system of medical care
• The politics of medicine
• Philosophy on medicine or medical ethics
• Medical team dynamics
• Quality and improvement in medical care or other aspects of medicine
• A particular illness or disease entity
• A thought process in diagnosing a disease or illness
• Thinking about population-based health or public health

This non-comprehensive list of ideas can help connect a quote or saying with something relevant to the medical field. But, the main concept is to find something that you find interesting in medicine and see how a particular quote or saying helps you build or emphasize the importance of what you find interesting in medicine. Why does the quote or saying resonate with you? How does it frame the significance of the topic that you are discussing? These are some additional questions that you can ask yourself to make a strong connection between your topic and the quote or saying that you are using.

Some examples may include:

• “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

With this quote by Benjamin Franklin, you can talk about how it would apply to training in your medical residency and discuss what you feel are the most crucial parts about medical education.

• “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier. – Mother Teresa

This quote from Mother Teresa can be applied to a customer service aspect of your medical practice. You can discuss how you establish patient retention and how you approach patients who are less satisfied with the medical care than you would like them to be.

• “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

Discussing work-life balance comes to mind with this quote by Abraham Lincoln. You can use this to spark a dialogue about how you choose to live life and what one could do to improve one’s quality of life in the medical profession.

A quote or saying can be a powerful tool to drive medical content creation. I enjoy using quotes in my medical content and recently used one to reflect on learning in medicine and life. There are an endless number of quotes or sayings that are relevant to almost any circumstance, condition, or situation. One could generate medical content solely based on quotes or sayings. Nevertheless, it is just a single instrument in your content toolbox to generate medical content. “Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor” as William Cowper said. So, use quotes and sayings along with other content tools because as Mark Twain said, “Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.”

What is your favorite quote or saying?