Genetics Interview #18: Dr. Jane Chin of Chinspirations

Today’s genetics interview features Dr. Jane Chin who was trained in biochemistry and founded the Medical Science Liaison Institute. She’s also the owner and writer of the Chinspirations Niche Network.

1. I first met you via the Medical Science Liaison Institute (MSLI). Since then, you’ve expanded your already strong online presence with a blog network, Chinspirations.com. How did you make the foray into the online world and would you recommend all scientists to participate as actively in the online community? Where should they begin?

I made my first personal home page in 1996 on Geocities, so I’ve been in the online world for at least 10 years. I started a personal blog at the end of 1999. Chinspirations.com is a place where I can write about different things I’m curious about or interested in – it’s my own “personal blog” network – if there’s such a thing. There’s a personal motivation behind each site in Chinspirations, and most predate the formation of this personal blog network; I just turned preexisting websites into a blog format.

Many scientists are already participating in an online community, and I’ve seen many scientists share their research and perspectives in blogs or forums. If a scientist wants to participate in an online community, she can register for an (usually free) account, lurk for a while until she gets comfortable, then participate in a discussion she finds meaningful. If a scientist wants to start a blog, he can set one up literally within minutes – there are many free personally blogging platforms out there to choose from, like blogger.com or wordpress.com.

2. The amount of written material you generate is astonishing. Have you always been a prolific writer? What inspired you? What tips would you have for other science and health writers?

I suppose you can call me a prolific writer, although I need to qualify this: when I’m interested in or inspired with a topic, the words flow through me very easily. Otherwise I’m inefficient and writing becomes a painful chore… my doctoral thesis comes to mind in this category.

Courage inspires me. Humor inspires me. Mistakes inspire me. I say mistakes because I’ve made many, and each mistake reminds me of how much I still need to learn. As much as I enjoy successes, mistakes and failures have been effective teachers.

I’d ask science and health writers to be more personal in their writings. I find most science and health writings very antiseptic. I’m sometimes more interested in why a person cares to write about a topic than the topic itself.

3. In one of your posts at PhD Career Clinic, you say you wished grad school had taught you to ask “Where and how do I live my inspiration?” instead of “What should I do for the rest of my life?” I’m not convinced grad school has the responsibility of teaching in a holistic fashion. I think it’s part of a person’s upbringing, general attitude, perhaps their undergrad experience, and dare I mention genetics? that determine their approach to life. What do you think?

Most grad schools will agree that they are not responsible for teaching their students in a holistic fashion, but the competitive ones will shift their thinking. If we look at how healthcare and medicine is progressing, we’ll find that many healthcare practitioners are embracing (some albeit grudgingly) an integrative approach to healthcare, because healing is not a one dimensional process. Similarly, graduate education can no longer be a one dimensional process where a student comes in, spend 4-10 years in lab, then leave with dreams of a job offer on the tenure track.

When I started graduate school, I was 21 years old; when I graduated with a doctorate, I was 28. Like most graduate students, I entered school during a time when I began asking what I wanted to make of my life and what values may be important to me. Getting a doctorate can be so consuming that the process can distract us from asking questions that would guide our career direction. This is where a mentor or advisor would come in. However, interactions with our graduate mentors and advisors may also be one dimensional, and only along a predetermined research path.

So what happens when external and internal forces begin to challenge this path? We get what we see today: the NIH funding situation (external) is creating career concern amongst scientists, while more scientists are realizing that they are not interested in staying in the lab because a lab environment does not suit their personality (internal) or maybe genetic disposition. By then, almost 10 years of our lives may have passed without us deeply exploring questions that would shape our careers and lives.

4. You’ve been very open about your personal experience with depression and I’m starting to learn that it may be more common amongst graduate students than I ever knew. Have you observed this amongst the grad students and postgraduate degree holders? Do you think grad students are more prone to depression because they are high achievers? Or do you think grad schools foster an environment of high stress that may push people over the edge into depression?

Probably both. Researchers are busy looking at the genetics of depression, and I believe a combination of genetics, biochemistry, and environmental factors contribute to the manifestation of depression in an individual. For example, I could date my depression decades back to childhood and adolescence, and I have a family history of depression. When I became a graduate student, I was isolated, barely eating, stressed about experiments not working, uncertain about my future, and had horrible sleeping patterns – no wonder my depression was in full bloom (this was when I created my personal mental health website). Then I got a job. I was earning enough to eat properly, feeling more financially secure, and sleeping better. So I was shocked when I had a depression relapse in 2001, from work-related stress. I thought I was “done with depression”! I now realize that I may not be able to control my genetics, but I can control my biochemistry and environment through my behaviors. I’m very watchful of how my biochemistry and environment affect each other.

Since we’re talking about depression, I must admit that I am this open about my depression (i.e. on a public website) to force myself out of a shame I had felt about depression. We may have increased awareness about depression, but social stigma about mental illness still exists. This creates a cycle of shame in a person who is suffering from depression, and may prevent him or her from seeking help. Shame gets its power from suffering in silence. I had chronicled my experience with depression in “Misdiagnosis and Back: My Journey Through Depression” and it’s still available on my website. It’s quite painful for me to read what I had experienced, even now, but I know others with depression can identify with the darkest thoughts I had when my depression was worst. If my story encourages someone to pick up the phone and make an appointment to get help, then there is value to the darkness.

5. Patient empowerment is a theme that runs through all of your science and health writing. How can patients discern good from bad information especially when the Internet is so overwhelming?

Your description about the Internet being so overwhelming is perfect. Patients have a tough time discering good from bad information, and this will only get tougher with the explosion of “medical” blogs. What’s troubling is that patients may not even question if the information is valid.

Sometimes you can’t just look at the source and generalize that “drug company-generated information must all be biased” and “citizen-generated information must all be unbiased.” This may be easier said than done because health is an emotional matter. Where we have high emotional investment, we have strong biases. For disclosure purposes, I’ve worked in the pharma industry, I provide consulting services to pharma companies, I fall into a “citizen blogger” category, and I’ve been through the healthcare system as a chronically ill patient. I’ve experienced healthcare from different angles, so I can find good and bad things to say from each angle.

A patient wants to be careful of the times when he wants to believe in something so much that he ends up looking only for information to support his belief. This is a very human behavior, and can be dangerous. This has happened to me as well, when I was first misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder. I clung into that misdiagnosis and I looked for all the supporting information about “my condition.” I wouldn’t believe a second opinion from another psychiatrist who later suggested that I had major depression. As a result, I went through three medications that didn’t work for my depression, and experienced a potentially fatal side effect (myelosuppression) on one of those drugs. And here I was – a scientist in training – I was supposed to be analytical about this, but my high emotional investment in my health condition temporarily blinded my judgment.

A patient may start discerning a piece of information by looking at who’s writing it (credibility of the author), why the person’s writing about it (motivations and intentions), what the person gets from writing about it (potential conflicts of interest), and how the person is writing about it (integrity or fair balance of the information).

Thank you, Jane! Your relentless drive for excellence in all that you do is inpirational and has helped improve the quality of healthcare for everyone.