Experts and Thought Leaders
Our clients and coauthors have included academics, acupuncturists, administrators, consultants, physicians, program planners, and researchers. We have participated on projects with three chiropractors who also hold PhD degrees from major universities.
Thought leaders with whom we have worked have included Leo Galland, MD; Tracey Gaudet, MD, Director, Duke Center for Integrative Medicine; Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies; William B. Stewart, Director, Institute of Health and Healing; and Thomas Trompeter, CEO, King County Public Health Department.
Work Products
• Articles for consumers, journal articles, newsletters for professionals
• Books, book chapters, book proposals, manuscript evaluations
• Publishing consultations, publicity
• Research and analysis, literature reviews, information design
• White papers, manuals
• Web content, website evaluation, blogs
• Bids and proposals
Publications for Health Care Professionals
The Book – David Rakel, MD, and Nancy Faass. Complementary Medicine in Clinical Practice. Jones & Bartlett; 2006. Soft cover, 553 pages, 70 chapters, 2 printings.
The Project – This book involved identifying and recruiting 50 contributors including faculty at the medical schools of Northwestern UCSF, University of Maryland, U. North Carolina, and U. Wisconsin. Many chapters were developed through phone interview and then the entire book was edited to create a cohesive voice, while retaining the individual style of each author.
Client Testimonial – “Ms. Faass is a consumate professional who knows her business and I recommend her highly.” Martin Rossman, MD, Physician and Best-Selling Author
The Book – Robert Gorter, MD, PhD, and Erik Peper, PhD. Fighting Cancer: A Nontoxic Approach to Treatment. North Atlantic, 2012.
The Project – This important book focuses on the role of immune function in cancer. Dr. Robert Gorter, trained in Amsterdam and for 10 years served as physician, researcher, and then medical director of the Department of AIDS Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco Medical School, a department which provided world leadership in defining and treating AIDS. He has spent the past 20 years applying lessons learned from the AIDS epidemic to the treatment of cancer. The editor’s role involved organizing the massive amount of supporting research and making it accessible to lay readers, while retaining scientific accuracy.
Colleague Testimonials – “The author’s extensive research demonstrates the scientific basis for this comprehensive approach to immunotherapy that focuses on supporting and stabilizing the immune system … This is a book every patient should read.” Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD(hc), professor, University of Arizona and UCSF
The Book – Nancy Faass. Integrating Complementary Medicine into Health Systems.Aspen / Jones & Bartlett, 2001.
The Project – This hardcover edition is 763 pages, with 67 chapters and 100 contributors from organizations that include Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Griffin Hospital, University of Arizona, and Harvard Medical School.
Professional Review – “This is a remarkable compilation of strategies, articles, how-to, and opinion which should prove to be the enduring core text for CAM integrators and would-be integrators. This definitive work is a labor of love from editor Nancy Faass, who managed to bring between two covers exceptional information from diverse, hands-on workers who are all leaders in the multi-stakeholder, integration undertaking – from research to coding, from network-based CAM coverage to hospital-based CAM delivery, from present utilization to a vision of optimal placement in a patient-centered system. For newcomers, Faass wisely includes a half-dozen sections on leading CAM modalities. But even for seasoned old-timers in CAM, this volume will be repeatedly pulled off the shelf as a valuable resource.” John Weeks, The Integrator & The Integrator Blog
Anatomy of a Book Project
For an author with a scientific orientation, writing for consumers means translating ideas and language from abstract science to a more accessible form.
The first step in book development is always an evaluation to determine what is involved in the project. The initial goal is to identify the book’s greatest strengths and most compelling ideas. Does it provide a new concept, an innovative approach, or explain the subject from a fresh perspective?
Some books capture our imagination by offering such compelling examples that they change the way we think about an issue forever. The photos of melting glaciers in An Inconvenient Truth come to mind. Other books offer us a window into idea—the work of Malcolm Gladwell comes to mind in Tipping Point and in Outliers.
The book may be developed from a single idea, an outline, or a rough draft. In the case of The Germ Survival Guide, the authors are two physicians with busy practices and busy lives, which include family, teaching, leadership, and professional conferences. To accommodate their schedules, much of the book was developed and written by interview.
Books for professionals present another kind of challenge. Typically the content is provided by a number of experts, and as a result, the text can be choppy and lack cohesion. We serve this type of project by editing the work to a common parlance, while retaining the voice of each individual contributor. The final text is highly readable, with a unified voice and a wealth of information.