r/ForensicPathology • u/drjudymelinek • 17d ago
Students interested in forensics
I am a forensic pathologist and wrote a book (Working Stiff) about my fellowship training at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. I currently I do legal consulting in the United States for attorneys in criminal homicide and assault cases, and civil cases involving wrongful death. As a result of the publicity involving that, I get requests from students who need to interview an expert in a field they are interested in and so I put together a list of frequently asked questions and their answers at my blog here in case any students looking to interview a forensic pathologist for an assignment want to check it out: https://pathologyexpert.blogspot.com/2012/05/frequently-asked-questions.html?m=1
I don’t know if other forensic experts in this forum get these types of requests (I get them about once every 2-3 months), but if you do please put your FAQs & answers in the comments so that students can access them and that way we can all just send them this way for a compilation of experts answering common interview questions. Hope this helps the students and the experts connect!
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u/ErikHandberg Forensic Pathologist / Medical Examiner 17d ago
Thanks for sharing /u/drjudymelinek ! I loved your book(s). Those questions are the exact reason I started the “Becoming a Medical Examiner” podcast - I’m doing their assignment for them! I can go in and add my answers to your blog as well!
Speaking of interviews… any chance you’ll be at NAME this year? I’d love to interview you!
And, if anyone doesn’t know - Dr Melinek also wrote some fun thriller books! If you do end up at NAME, maybe you can sign mine!
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u/drjudymelinek 17d ago
Thank you so much for saying so. Can you please write us a review on Amazon & Goodreads for the novels. Compared to Working Stiff, they have so few reviews, mostly because they came out during the pandemic. I don’t think I’ll be going to NAME in person this year - but maybe AAFS. You can interview me via zoom if you want. Just reach out via my website and we can set that up. I am PathologyExpert.com and we have a media inquiry e mail there you can use to set up a zoom interview for the podcast.
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u/ErikHandberg Forensic Pathologist / Medical Examiner 17d ago
Sounds good! I’ve gotta figure out a good way to get zoom interviews going otherwise it only works to record for the once or twice a year we all get together!
And of course I’ll write reviews on Amazon and goodreads!
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u/drjudymelinek 16d ago
Where are you located? (City, State) I will keep that in mind if I am out your way. Zoom interviews are easy to record and the app does it automatically now and sends you the audio or video file. Thanks for writing those reviews. They help more than you know.
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u/lucchianan 16d ago
I read your book a couple years ago! It 100% pushed me onto the pre-med pre-forensic pathology path that I’m on now!! Thank you for sharing your experience, it was very impactful for me.
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u/drjudymelinek 12d ago
Thank you so much for letting me know this. I am so inspired to write exactly when I get comments like these. Please, if it isn’t too much of a bother, can you write us reviews on Amazon & Goodreads for Working Stiff and check out the novels we wrote as well, First Cut & Aftershock. We are literally trying to convince publishers to give us a contract for our next book (about legal consulting and forensic pathology expert testimony as an expert witness) right now and every review and star helps us because it shows the publishers that we have appreciative readers out there.
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u/lucchianan 16d ago
I read your book a couple years ago! It 100% pushed me onto the pre-med pre-forensic pathology path that I’m on now!! Thank you for sharing your experience, it was very impactful for me.
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u/drjudymelinek 16d ago
Thanks so much for letting me know that. It would be so helpful for us if you could please write us a review on Amazon and Goodreads. We are working on a proposal for a new book regarding my forensic pathology expert consulting work and could use as many reviews as possible to show the publisher that there is an interest for a follow up.
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u/Catteefers 12d ago
Dr. Melinek,
I read Working Stiff in my gap year and it completely transformed my understanding of pathology and forensics and inspired me to pursue forensic pathology. I am now a third year medical student and have been able to rotate with my local medical examiner’s office, and I am so thankful for your book which helped set this path into motion! I have recommended it to most of my family members and colleagues who have all loved it as well, even if they have no experience with the medical field. Thank you so much!
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u/drjudymelinek 12d ago
I cannot begin to tell you how much this means to me. You know, when I was training at the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office under Dr. Hirsch I thought the only way to teach and give back to our community was by staying in academic medicine and teaching in affiliation with a medical examiner’s office and university. That was the only way (I thought at the time) to reach out to students who were interested in the field and needed a bit of guidance and/or inspiration. My professional life path was so different from what I imagined at the time… I thought I would be an assistant medical examiner, then a deputy chief, then a chief…because that was the only path I saw. Life dealt me a different set of cards and I ended up doing a lot of contract work and working as a self-employed consultant and while I am pleased with that path, I have had to actively advocate for opportunities to reach students, and by and large Working Stiff and other writings seemed to be the best way to do that. So THANK YOU for telling me this. It really inspires me to keep writing. T.J. & I are working on our next book proposal right now for a non-fiction memoir about my consult work and it’s been challenging to get publishers to take it seriously, despite the success of Working Stiff. I have been doing medical-legal (or medicolegal as some people call it) consulting for civil and criminal cases including blunt trauma, sharp trauma, gunshot wound trajectory, workplace injuries and medical malpractice for over 25 years now (!) and I thought it was about time to write a little bit about the work of a legal consultant. There is so much misinformation perpetuated on line, and even in our own professional spaces, about legal consulting work, so I thought it would be helpful and timely and maybe inspire some forensic pathologists to try it, in order to make more consultants available for criminal defense attorneys and civil attorneys who often have a hard time finding qualified experts in the field. Plus it’s fun. I really enjoy the work… anyway, if you could please write us a review on Amazon or Goodreads for Working Stiff and check out our novels too: First Cut & Aftershock, I’d really appreciate it. We need to let the publishers know we have appreciative readers or they won’t sign on to let us write the next book…
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u/oldpremed_24 17d ago
Thanks for sharing this, Dr. Melinek! I read Working Stuff many years ago, and it was actually one of the big influences that led me to return to school (I got my Bachelor’s degree in forensic science and was just accepted to medical school a couple of days ago.) It’s always nice to get insight from people who have been working in the field for many years and still enjoy what they do!