My First Paper - Benedict Michael
Posted on: 24 March 2022 by Dr Benedict Michael in March 2022 posts
As part of our new initiative across the Faculty, we will be showcasing research and their researchers across the board engaging with the future generations of researchers. Our first researcher from IVES is Dr Benedict Michael, telling us all about his first research paper.
Your name and your area of research
Dr Benedict Michael, Reader in Neuroscience, and my research area is Neurological infection.
What was the title of your first paper and who was it submitted to?
The Epidemiology and Management of Adult Suspected Central Nervous System Infections - a retrospective cohort study in the NHS Northwest Region and it was published in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine.
How would you explain what this paper was about to your grandparents?
Meningitis is an infection of the sack around the brain and encephalitis is an infection inside the brain itself. We wondered whether doctors were as good at investigating encephalitis as they were for meningitis. We studied the management of patients at 10 hospitals in the Northwest of England, by undertaking the same study in each hospital with colleagues. We found that patients with encephalitis waited around 4 hours longer than those with meningitis to get the spinal tap, which is needed to make a diagnosis. We also found that the time to start treatment (antibiotics and antivirals) was 3 hours for patients with meningitis, but those with encephalitis had to wait 7 hours before the life-saving treatment was started.
What was the most significant thing for you about that paper?
These findings led us to us leading on the development of national guidelines on the diagnosis and management of encephalitis with major UK bodies, including the Association of British Neurologists.
What advice would you give to others about submitting their first paper?
Read journal articles regularly to get a better feel for scientific writing style and critical thinking, and collaborate, collaborate, and collaborate!
Keywords: Dr Benedict Michael, encephalitis, meningitis, My First Paper.