..now officially writing for Agora, the “L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science” community

Dear all,

I’m just sharing this very exciting news: I have been asked to be an official writer for Agora, the “L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science” community!

This website, or rather this international community, describes itself as “the platform dedicated to exchange and sharing among members of the ‘For Women in Science’ community. Agora is a meeting place for its members – award laureates, fellowship winners, academics, students and researchers – where they can talk about current advances in scientific research, the place and the role of women in science, their education, national and international careers, and the global development of the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science program.”

Few months ago I had the honor to be interviewed by Agora/ The L’Oreal Foundation about women in science. And just few days ago, my article, “Facing the challenge of climate change in health issues” is published in Agora.

And as I mentioned before, more than having the chance to submit an article, I had the honor of being asked to be the official contributor for the website. I’m quite convinced that I’m the only Indonesian writing for the site. And it’s indeed a great honor to be asked to join Agora although I’m not a L’Oréal-UNESCO Award Laureate, that is the women awarded fellowships (research grant) by the program.

Below is a preview of the website homepage,

And this is the published article, as appeared on the website,

Filed under: Uncategorized, Agora L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science, writing

My article, “Facing the challenge of climate change in health issues” has been published in Agora, L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science website

My article, “Facing the challenge of climate change in health issues” has been published in Agora, L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science website.

Below is a short excerpt of the article,

“During my training as a medical student with overnight shifts in the wards of a government hospital, new patients admitted with severe leptospirosis or dengue fever means that there may be another long night without sleep. Infectious diseases wards are often overcrowded and a new patient can be admitted only when a patient is discharged. As medical students with clinical responsibilities at the hospital, we rarely have the chance to think beyond the hospital walls: about why the diseases these patients come in with had happened in the first place.

Climate change as a major cause of infectious diseases in Indonesia

In Indonesia, infectious diseases are still the main health problem. Diarrhoeal diseases, dengue haemorrhagic fever, typhoid fever, malaria, tuberculosis and respiratory infections are the most common infectious diseases (World Health Organization, 2010). Most of these are vector-borne and water-borne diseases which have been known to be influenced by climate change. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has concluded that “climate change is projected to increase threat to human health, particularly in lower income populations, predominantly within tropical/subtropical countries.” Climate change has affected the incidence and pattern of infectious diseases through environmental change, increased flooding, drought, changes in weather patterns and increasing incidence of natural disasters (IPCC, 2001)…” Read the rest of the article in Agora, L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science website

Filed under: Uncategorized, Agora L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science, health policy, infectious disease, publication, women, writing

“The Thinker: Science of Equality”, a column in The Jakarta Globe newspaper by Rahajeng N. Tunjungputri

Dear friends,

Today my writing about women in science is published in Jakarta Globe, a Jakarta-based English newspaper. I spent quite some time doing the research and editing for this piece. So indeed, I’m very pleased that the piece is finally published on paper.

The first time I read Jakarta Globe on holiday in Bali, I just thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I can have my writings in this newspaper…”.

It turned out to be cool indeed.

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/columns/the-thinker-science-of-equality/394239

Best regards,

Rahajeng

Filed under: miscelaneous, health policy, publication, women, writing

Beyond Borders with “doc2doc”

^

I enjoy writing, especially when I can interact with readers through my writings. While my writings here are only the ones more or less academically related, I know that my contemplative/narrative writing style is better appreciated at doc2doc.bmj.com.

I had problems before with some objections against my post in my old blog, thus the idea to build this blog, dokterblog.wordpress.com was born out of my desire to focus on academic medicine. But I miss writing critical and contemplative pieces, and “doc2doc” has been the perfect media for me. It’s a privilege to be able to blog there, I must say. And doc2doc has offered me the opportunity to interact with doctors from around the world.

It’s been amazing to get responses, ask questions, explore different answers and build friendship and networks because of my writing. And what astonishes me the most is to see that now my blog is being read by so many people in UK, Europe, US, Africa, and all across the world! My writings have gone beyond borders.

“A traffic report showing some of my doc2doc blog readers and their countries (for my latest post, “Empathy, or tea and sympathy?”)”

So, thank you doc2doc.bmj.com for enabling me to get more response, interaction and most of all, international readers.

For my fellow Indonesian medical bloggers, keep writing, be critical, and be true to yourself.

- Rahajeng, a.k.a. “AjengMD”

*Special thanks for David Isaacson, http://twitter.com/David_I, your an amazing community manager!

Thanks also to Prof. Cuello @CharlieNeck, Colleen Young @sharingstrength, and Zahid Raja @torydoc.

You can find doc2doc on http://twitter.com/doc2doc, and the website at http://doc2doc.bmj.com

Filed under: miscelaneous, doc2doc.bmj.com, doctoring, medical students and residents, miscelaneous, writing

Latest post on doc2doc.bmj.com

If smoking is bad, why do people still smoke? What does it take to successfully overcome the tobacco epidemic in Indonesia? Indonesia has been in the spotlight for not signing The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), but is it really just a matter of not having a political commitment and a failure of implementing health policy on tobacco?

Read more about “The Cure of Tobacco Epidemic” on my latest writing at http://doc2doc.bmj.com (or click here)

Filed under: miscelaneous, doc2doc.bmj.com, Faculty of Medicine Diponegoro University, health policy, miscelaneous, public health, writing

I’m now blogging on doc2doc.bmj.com

I have been writing since 2005, so 5 years until now. I started with a variety of topics, and now I mostly blog about medicine. And I think by now I know that my writing can reach more audience, more than just my local peers or medical students. It’s a good time to “go international“.

And I was recently accepted and published as a blogger on a British Medical Journal (BMJ) group website, doc2doc, http://doc2doc.bmj.com/blogslist.html (as AjengMD).

For my first post, click here http://bit.ly/bgU1YL

Doc2doc is an international online community for doctors worldwide. And from the website, “doc2doc is a free of charge service offered by the BMJ Group. The BMJ Group is a trusted global medical publisher that provides a wide range of products and services to improve the decisions doctors make every day. On a day to day basis, doc2doc is run by its community manager, community clinical editor, and the editor of bmj.com, all of whom are based at BMJ Group’s London office.”

Doc2doc.bmj.com does not offer blog hosting. Interested blogging doctors/students have to apply with our own ideas and writings in order to blog there, and new bloggers will be reviewed based on the content of their blog posts. I don’t have my own URL on doc2doc, so my writing are published on doc2doc blog page. I was so excited that when I was accepted, it wasn’t just doc2doc who twittered me, but also BMJ Group.

This is the frontpage of the bloglist.

Another look on the summaries,

And, I’m really excited about this one:

So, maybe it’s time to take the blogging one step higher.

–Rahajeng

Filed under: miscelaneous, medical education, medical students and residents, miscelaneous, popular, writing

Twittering medicine and science

My relationship with twitter has not been the most mutual, but when I got to the ground zero of boredom I came back to do some twittering around (by now if you haven’t realized what twitter is, you should just let Uncle Google explain). Anyway, due to my enormous capacity and stamina to read and surf the net, I found so many new science writers and medical writers on twitter. OK reading journal articles are exhausting after a while, but pop science is always somewhat lighter and more fun to read (and good to share with students in the class). So I started going through the tweets, and found interesting articles whether in journals (my fave: Nature and NEJM) or on science blogs (I always love to see how these science writers look like: a nerdy nerd/mad scientist or a hippie in the mad world of science).

I’m sorry, but I belong in this universe where scientific advances are entertainment, writers are celebrities, scientists are even more famous celebrities, and science writers are rock-stars (and this last category includes scientists who write as well). Seriously.

Just the other day, I read this article on Nature, http://bit.ly/aa72f4 and decided to follow the respected writer, Erika Check Hayden on twitter. I loved the Mandelbrot set analogy she used. I followed her, tweet her, and nearly fainted of excitement when she responded back to my tweet. I. Am. Such. A. Nerd. (Please refer back to my previous statement: science writers are rockstars!). And afterwards I followed several other science writers/bloggers and always being amused of how you can have mutual contact via twitter when it comes to pop science and writing (also, thanks to Dr.Isis the Domestic and Laboratory Godess).

I think sometimes I just get tired of the intensity and seriousness of medical blogging and reading, and these pop culture in science and medicine give me new light on staying informed in a fun and relaxing way.

So thank you all twittering science writers!

* Rahajeng

Filed under: miscelaneous, genetics, miscelaneous, popular, research, writing