When "where'' is more important than "when": Birthplace and birthdate effects on the achievement of sporting expertise

In this study, we assessed whether contextual factors related to where or when an athlete is born influence their likelihood of playing professional sport. The birthplace and birth month of all American players in the National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and Professional Golfer's Association, and all Canadian players in the National Hockey League were collected from official websites. Monte Carlo simulations were used to verify if the birthplace of these professional athletes deviated in any systematic way from the official census population distribution, and chi-square analyses were conducted to determine whether the players' birth months were evenly distributed throughout the year. Results showed a birthplace bias towards smaller cities, with professional athletes being over-represented in cities of less than 500,000 and under-represented in cities of 500,000 and over. A birth month/relative age effect (in the form of a distinct bias towards elite athletes being relatively older than their peers) was found for hockey and baseball but not for basketball and golf. Comparative analyses suggested that contextual factors associated with place of birth contribute more influentially to the achievement of an elite level of sport performance than does relative age and that these factors are essentially independent in their influences on expertise development.

The information specialist in the clinical team: Building expertise in evidence-based healthcare

The Clinician Development Program (CDP) is an initiative of Queensland Health’s Quality Improvement and Enhancement Program. At the Royal Brisbane & Royal Women's Hospital Health Service Districts, evidence-base practice (EBP) is an important CDP area in which several projects were carried out in 2002. This paper describes one such project. A medical librarian was invited to accompany the clinical team on morning rounds in the Medical Assessment & Planning Unit (MAPU). The librarian conducted information skills training in the ward and helped clinicians to answer questions directly related to patient care. Questions not answered during the round were followed-up, usually within 48 hours, and responses emailed to the consultant who led the rounds. At the project’s conclusion the librarian was invited to continue as a member of the MAPU clinical team, thus acknowledging the valuable role an information specialist can play in incorporating research evidence into patient care. Clinical librarianship (CL) creates a space, albeit a contentious one, for the health librarian at the bedside. This paper describes an Australian CL project and attempts to demystify the role of an information specialist in EBP. It also highlights some of the challenges facing librarians and clinicians attempting to embed EBP in clinical settings.

Embodied expertise: women's perceptions of the contraception consultation

This research, based on qualitative interviews and non-participant observation, emerges from a larger study investigating what factors influence the ‘contraceptive careers’ of British women in their 30s. The women informants recognized that contraceptive products often impacted on their health, but viewed them as distinct from ‘medical matters’. Rather than doctors being seen as having expertise, it was women health professionals, be they nurses, midwives, health visitors or doctors, who were perceived as the ones who ‘know’ about contraception, through an assumption that they are contraception users.This embodied knowledge is valued by the women above their formal medical training. I will also show how general practice surgeries and family planning clinics were viewed as gendered spaces, which altered the expectations and experiences of the women during contraceptive consultations. This study found that as ‘real’ expertise over contraception stems from embodied rather than textual knowledge, the women’s choices were grounded by a gendered sense of trust.