I have changed the way I read. I take a semi-sharpened No. 2 pencil to underline choice words and phrases and scrawl comments in margins. Before this year, I would never.
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Now I scrawl. Wantonly. … More Gap Year, Week 47
Don’t know exactly what’s going to happen? Good. A little scared? Good. Does the possibility of failure exceed single digits? Even better. … More Gap Year – Week 44
More genetic testing. We celebrate it. When it becomes compulsory, either by governmental mandate or by the irrepressible enthusiasms of fiscal heavy hitters in the health care system, genetic testing becomes eugenic medicine. … More Gap year, week 41 +
Now we wait. … More Gap Year, Week 26
Memorial Day is in the rearview mirror, and the summer of my Gap Year is officially here. This is shaping up to be the most important phase of the journey as I begin to seriously work on applications to low-residency MFA programs in creative writing. My heart and mind, though, remain anchored in clinical genetics. … More Gap Year, Week XXI
My gap-year transit continues across space and time, looping from the nebulae of clinical medicine to the dense gravities of a writing world and back again, rife with principles of uncertainty. Yesterday I learned that some of our work on holoprosencephaly will soon be published in Genetics in Medicine. Huzzah! I’m not sure what can … More Gap Year, week twelve
Welcome or welcome back to my travels between respectability and susceptibility. Less than three months ago I was an employed clinical geneticist. Now I’m the retiree ordering a cappuccino in the forenoon. This month my plans have been to focus on nonfiction, including medicine, but I have not been especially efficient. We took a week … More Gap Year -> Week Eleven
A pivotal moment in early 2000s redirected my career when tasked with creating a newborn screening policy for the US Army. A tragic case of a child’s death due to a missed screening prompted this action. The patchwork of screening standards in different locations highlighted the need for a comprehensive policy to safeguard children’s health. … More Gap Year: Week 10
Ontology and cheeseburgers! Last week we skied Crested Butte (Colorado) and Taos (New Mexico) on bluesky mornings and afternoons, almost spring temperatures, to the point that a few snowboarders at the top of Siver Queen Express opted to honor their bravado and pectorales majores by not wearing shirts. No, I doubt they bothered with sunscreen. … More Gap Year: Week 5
I’m taking a gap year. Yes, I think I’ve earned it. Perhaps it’s more like a sabbatical. No, let’s call it a gap year. Such 12-month vacations didn’t become popular or common until I was well past high school graduation in 1973. Back in the early 70s, if you decided to knock around after 12th … More Gap year : week one
Scott D. McLean, MD 