Facing Down the Blank White Page:

Step-by-Step Writing Case Reports to Help Other Homeopaths

and Patients

by, Iris R. Bell, MD PhD MD(H)

Many practitioners who work long and hard for their patients’ well-being just can’t deal with facing a blank white page when asked to put down case information on paper (some may even need Gelsemium for “stage fright” first aid). So, we have developed a user-friendly way to face down this major writer’s block for people in clinical practice.

Below you will find a step-by-step series of questions on-line to answer about your case. Save your material as you go along. You can edit the case at any time, or even delete it, if you decide not to post it for any reason. Acute case reports will often include less information and less detail than will chronic cases. It is up to you how much or how little you give to summarize the case (you can answer Not applicable or Not available in any field) – but think about what you would want to know as a practitioner reading the case report.

When you are done, the system will generate a nicely composed case report with all of the key pieces in it from the answers you give. There will be plenty of room to write about the case in your own (and the patient’s own) words. This form simply guides you through the process of knowing what to say and when to say it.

Think how much your own practice benefits from reading other homeopaths’ cases and looking for “clinical pearls” to help others. You can contribute to the field with your own cases by sharing your real-world experiences with practicing homeopathy. The cases do not need to use the most obscure remedy on the planet or have the rarest of allopathic diagnoses to be extremely valuable to your colleagues and their patients. You do not need to show yourself to be the most clever or articulate of homeopaths to have something very important to tell people.

If you want even more information on writing up case reports and case series, check out the following book, available through various online book sales sites:

Edward J. Huth. Writing and Publishing in Medicine. 3rd edition. Williams and Wilkins, 1999, chapter 10 (The Case Report and Case Series Analysis). Dr. Huth lists the major reasons for reporting on a case as follows (we will add examples of homeopathic considerations after each one as a guide – but do not limit yourself to these in deciding whether or not your case is “good enough”). Realistically, most homeopathic cases fall at least in the Unique Case category, and many have aspects that fall into the other categories as well.

The Unique Case

• A case cured by a remedy whose “stereotypical” or polycrest-based clinical picture differs from your patient’s presentation

• A treatment strategy that you used in terms of potency dosing leads to benefit where as previous strategies had not helped or seemed to get antidoted

The Case of an Unexpected Association

• Treatment with an acute remedy for a minor condition reveals a new perspective on the proper remedy for the patient’s chronic constitutional case

• The patient reports cure or sustained improvement in a condition they did not mention originally during the initial case-taking interview

• Information from a friend or family member or an observation of a patient’s behaviors (e.g., during a webcam follow-up interview in the patient’s home environment) unlocks a better way to treat the patient successfully

The Case of Important Variation

• The clinical presentation of a child or animal cured by a specific remedy differed from the “usual” remedy pictures based on provings in adults

The Case of Unexpected Events

• A case that the allopaths had “written off” as hopeless – or maybe just annoying - improves under homeopathic care

• The “usual” and “expected” course of an acute illness changes markedly under homeopathic care

• Palliative treatment with remedies extends life for months or years past expectations of the allopaths

• Homeopathic treatment leads to unexpectedly severe aggravation or adverse outcome, especially in the context of other concomitant treatment

Now, let’s get started with your case report:

Click here for a step-by-step questionnaire

or Upload Your Case File (.doc or .txt)