On this interview, NewsMedical discuss to Karger Publishers’ Sharon Redston in regards to the Quick Details collection.
Quick Details marks its 30th anniversary this 12 months. Are you able to share with us the preliminary imaginative and prescient behind the collection and the way it first got here into existence?
Quick Details was Sarah Redston’s brainchild. Having labored in medical publishing and Med Comms for a number of years, she noticed a spot available in the market for, as she appreciated to name it, ‘refreshingly readable’ materials that met the wants of busy healthcare professionals whose time was at a premium.
She arrange Well being Press Ltd, an impartial medical publishing firm, in a spare room in her home. From there, she set about constructing the Quick Details collection, with every title designed to carry clinicians on top of things rapidly on a selected situation, therapeutic space or subject in drugs.
For every e book, she commissioned two Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) from completely different international locations, normally on completely different sides of the Atlantic, to offer the content material a global perspective, with any variations in follow or pointers between geographic areas being mentioned throughout the textual content.
In 1994, she printed the primary Quick Details handbook for clinicians on prostate most cancers. We printed the eleventh version of that title this 12 months.
Picture Credit score: S. Karger Publishers
What distinctive wants in healthcare publishing did Quick Details initially got down to deal with, and the way has that imaginative and prescient advanced through the years?
The Quick Details titles have been (and nonetheless are) aimed toward a broad vary of healthcare professionals and aimed to handle the biggest academic gaps in healthcare. The aim was to supply all members of the multidisciplinary healthcare workforce with a concise however complete primer on a selected situation or subject in drugs.
The readership contains main care suppliers, junior hospital docs, specialist nurses, and specialist trainees. Some titles have been widespread with medical college students, and we’ve additionally heard, anecdotally, that the books are widespread with consultants studying exterior their area of experience. A number of Quick Details titles have additionally been used for inside coaching inside pharma firms to carry their medical affairs workforce on top of things in a specific illness space.
Every Quick Details title is impartial, extremely readable, and visually interesting, offering element and depth on a subject. Every chapter ends with an inventory of key factors that reiterate the principal take-away messages, and the information are totally referenced.
Though the collection has undergone a number of design modifications through the years, the format of the books has remained the identical—as a result of it really works. The collection was properly thought out and obtained at the beginning, profitable a number of BMA Guide Awards and commendations. So, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t repair it.’
Because the collection has grown, how have Quick Details eBooks tailored to fulfill the altering calls for of healthcare professionals and sufferers alike?
Healthcare professionals are nonetheless ridiculously busy, with many calls for on their time, and we all know that everybody has alternative ways of assimilating info, be it by studying, listening or watching. So, lately, we’ve been discovering alternative ways of offering ‘Quick Details’, for instance, within the type of interactive eLearning applications, podcasts, movies, animations, and plain language summaries, so that there’s a format to go well with everybody.
Importantly, we’ve additionally expanded the Quick Details providing to sufferers with a collection of workbooks that assist to facilitate the dialog between sufferers and their healthcare workforce, alongside abstract info sheets for newly recognized sufferers. Sufferers and affected person advocacy teams (PAGs) are concerned in content material creation from the beginning of each affected person useful resource in order that the affected person’s voice is actually heard. These sources have been just lately awarded the PIF tick, reflecting our function as a Trusted Data Creator, producing well being info of actual worth that’s evidence-based, up-to-date, and straightforward to make use of and perceive.
Are you able to stroll us by the method of making a Quick Details title? What steps are taken to make sure the content material is each accessible and authoritative? How do you verify the standard (and compliance) of the content material?
After we determine academic gaps or unmet wants in a selected space, we start by growing a content material define that aligns with the target market’s wants whereas contemplating the specified studying aims and outcomes. Subsequent, we fee 2-3 (or typically extra) KOLs, focus on the targets and framework with them, and permit time for them to arrange an preliminary draft. For affected person sources, we collaborate with sufferers, affected person advocacy teams (PAGs), and scientific reviewers to make sure the content material is correct, related, and patient-centered.
Skilled editors with in depth business experience, together with myself, refine the manuscript to make sure it aligns with compliance necessities and finest practices. This collaborative course of continues till each Karger and the writer workforce or college are happy that the content material hits the mark. As soon as the manuscript is typeset, the primary proof is shared with all related stakeholders, together with authors, peer reviewers (HCPs and/or sufferers), and pharmaceutical firms. All suggestions is fastidiously collated, however the impartial writer workforce or college retains the ultimate authority over the content material.
Picture Credit score: S. Karger Publishers
In what methods has expertise influenced the distribution and accessibility of Quick Details through the years? How has this impacted your readership?
As talked about earlier, Quick Details has advanced past printed books into a variety of codecs, together with eBooks and eLearning, most of that are freely accessible on-line. This digital growth permits us to achieve a much wider viewers worldwide. The rising variety of translations throughout the Quick Details collection displays this world attain and accessibility.
With every little thing on-line, we will additionally take a look at the metrics (downloads, course participant numbers, variety of viewers, and direct suggestions) to search out out what works and what doesn’t in order that we will regularly adapt our merchandise to fulfill the wants of busy HCPs and sufferers on the lookout for authoritative, trusted info.
One of many standout options of Quick Details is the concise, clear means info is introduced. How do you obtain this stability between depth and accessibility, particularly on complicated medical matters?
Firstly, our authors typically write with their junior colleagues in thoughts, guaranteeing they supply the precise degree of element and probably the most related info. I’d additionally like to offer an enormous shoutout to the editors—that is skilled enhancing at its best.
Regardless of the rising use of AI in publishing, I firmly consider the function of the Developmental Editor is irreplaceable. An skilled editor who can remodel a wordy, typically disorganized doc into concise, logically ordered, and interesting content material is actually invaluable. Developmental enhancing goes past copyediting; it typically includes substantial writing and rewriting. We dedicate vital time to this stage of the method, guaranteeing our merchandise are of the best high quality. This contains incorporating all elements of the preliminary content material define and collaborating intently with our authors to strike the proper stability of knowledge.
Taking a look at at this time’s healthcare panorama, what new developments or challenges are influencing the path of Quick Details publications?
Our impartial content material is funded by pharmaceutical firms, both immediately or by academic grants. This implies we fastidiously take into account the wants of business funders alongside these of HCPs and sufferers. We ask key questions: Who do they need to attain? How do they need to interact with their viewers? With so some ways to ship info at this time, our focus is on discovering the precise method for all stakeholders.
We’ve seen vital progress in our titles on uncommon illnesses, which has been extremely rewarding. Offering high-quality info for HCPs and sufferers in areas the place sources are sometimes restricted or of poor high quality is a crucial a part of what we do. More and more, sufferers are concerned from the outset of our initiatives, guaranteeing their questions and views are totally built-in into the ultimate product. This patient-centered method is essential. As communicators, we’ve the instruments to foster higher dialogue between sufferers and HCPs, in the end resulting in improved outcomes. To boost this, we’re at present growing shared decision-making aids as a part of our increasing providing.
Our authors and college members are extra time-constrained than ever, so we do as a lot as we will to help them and make working with us a satisfying expertise.
In at this time’s healthcare panorama, saturated with each good and unhealthy info, it’s extra necessary than ever for us to supply high-quality, high-value sources that meet the wants of HCPs, sufferers, and business companions alike.
Reflecting on the previous 30 years, what do you suppose has been probably the most vital milestone or accomplishment for the Quick Details collection? And what are your hopes for the way forward for these publications?
I believe the most important accomplishment of Quick Details has been its exceptional sturdiness. From the primary version 30 years in the past, the collection has grown into a group of over 130 titles, together with a spread of affected person sources and artistic codecs. It began with a powerful set of rules and a small, agile workforce that prioritized the standard of knowledge above all else.
My hopes for the long run are a twelfth version of Quick Details: Prostate Most cancers and a trusted and revered portfolio of healthcare info merchandise that constantly meet the wants of our readers. In brief, I hope that we maintain doing what we’re doing.
In regards to the Speaker
Sharon began her profession in publishing in journals, first as Editorial Assistant on the British Dental Journal earlier than turning into Information Editor and Deputy Editor of the weekly Veterinary File. After taking a break to journey around the globe (a late hole 12 months), Sharon returned to publishing as UK Editorial Supervisor at Rogers Medical Communications company. She later freelanced as a medical editor earlier than becoming a member of Well being Press in 2004 to work as Senior Healthcare Publications Editor on the Quick Details collection of medical handbooks. Karger Publishers acquired the Quick Details collection in 2018. When she isn’t enhancing or writing, Sharon might be discovered within the backyard or on a tennis courtroom.
About S. Karger AG
Connecting individuals and science since 1890, Karger supplies scientists, healthcare professionals, sufferers, and the broader public with dependable and tailor-made info in Well being Sciences.
Constructing upon a publishing portfolio of greater than 100 respected scholarly journals and the award-winning Quick Details medical data collection, Karger excels in medical training and omnichannel HCP engagement in a number of codecs, together with 3D animations, podcasts, AR/VR environments, and extra. Tutorial establishments and each medical affairs and pharma advertising groups within the company house entrust Karger with their most demanding communication challenges. Unbiased and family-led within the fourth era by Chairwoman Gabriella Karger, Switzerland-based Karger is current in 15 international locations with a workforce of 200 devoted professionals worldwide.
