Nobody knows you’re a patient: Getting used to identifying as a researcher

As opportunities for me to take on roles as a researcher have increased over the last few years, I keep thinking about that classic cartoon in The New Yorker, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

Here’s my take on it. Apologies to Peter Steiner, the original artist.

“On the journal’s online submission site, nobody knows you’re a patient.”

My mentors and colleagues increasingly place their trust in me as a collaborator. They think I’m great, however I have the sinking feeling I do not belong.

This sense of being an outsider is due in part to imposter syndrome, and in part due to not having many people who look like me in research. And by “look like me,” I mean people who successfully entered the realm of research through a nontraditional path… as a patient first.

There are some emerging pioneers in this space whom I look up to, and some I call friends!

If you’re on Twitter, go follow people like Dana Lewis, Doug Lindsay, Carolyn Peterson, and Sara Riggare. When I feel like I don’t belong, I look to these patient-researchers as guides.

Being an outsider isn’t all bad, and it may have advantages. For example, patients-turned-researchers may see things others do not see, think of questions others may not know to ask, and keep going where others may be discouraged.

For me the motivation is intrinsic and personal, and keeps me going every day. Our lives are what’s at stake.