^^quote by my youngest nephew, then four years old (he’s now ten, still knows everything, and wants to be a lawyer, FSM help us all).<\/p>\n
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n
I spent Friday in an all-day symposium at my institute, on the subject of tumour biomarkers and personalised medicine. It was a really interesting event – encompassing discussions of health economics and ethics as well as scientific presentations by physicians, pathologists, and omicists – and a very welcome change of pace after finally clearing all my deadlines. As usual the details are unbloggable…<\/p>\n
…but luckily the ubiquitous feedback questionnaire provided some good fodder.<\/p>\n
The tick-box options across the top of the form were as follows:<\/p>\n
Not at all \/ Slightly \/ Moderately \/ Mostly \/ Completely<\/strong><\/p>\n and the list of questions started innocuously enough, with a question about whether the symposium had been relevant to my professional interests.<\/p>\n Next question: “The symposium identified the gaps between biomarker need and discovery”.<\/em><\/p>\n Um… some of the presenters did cover the gaps issue very thoroughly, but I didn’t really feel like I could tick the “Completely” box. What if there are unknown unknowns?!<\/p>\n After a few more standard feedback form questions, there was another one that didn’t seem compatible with the “Completely” option:<\/p>\n “The symposium increased my knowledge”.<\/em><\/p>\n I did learn a lot from the symposium… but unlike my nephew, I don’t think that it increased my knowledge so comprehensively that I now know all the known knowns (and known unknowns) about every known thing.<\/p>\n Not even about biomarkers.<\/p>\n Right, I now have to attempt to find some incriminating photos of my nephew with which to blackmail him if he ever reads this post and decides to sue me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ^^quote by my youngest nephew, then four years old (he’s now ten, still knows everything, and wants to be a lawyer, FSM help us all). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I spent Friday in an all-day symposium at my institute, on the subject of … Continue reading