History of Journal Club

The origins of Journal Club are not lost in the mists of time. Journal Club was quite clearly founded in Laziness and Fear. Or at least the fear of Laziness and Fear. But before this becomes completely clear, let me obfuscate.

I noted after I completed Fellowship with Paul Manske that I rarely found time to read the Journal. I tried to motivate myself with the idea of Greater Knowledge, and learning all there was to know about hand surgery, just by reading the Journal. That didn't work.

I decided that unless some Great Power intervened, I surely would go my whole professional career without reading another issue. That Great Power is Fear. And Pizza.

Let's forget the Pizza for a moment, and concentrate on Fear. Fear has a great ability to make us concentrate, and I hypothesized that if I put on a journal club myself, especially if it were at my house, I would be too afraid of embarassment to show up and not have read the journal. I had tried the carrot of Greater Knowledge, and now I was going to try the sword of Fear.

The Fear worked great: on October 15, 1991, I sent out a letter to anyone I thought might be interested, and invited them to my house for pizza and beer, and casually mentioned that we would be reading the Journal, too.

It worked. Sort of. I read the Journal. But hardly anyone showed up. Perhaps one or two. I do not know whether it was Fear or Pizza that motivated them, but they came.

And so Journal Club started, and the list of attendees increased as I met hand surgeons who I thought might be interested and invited them. I believe Mat Masem and Kendrick Lee had been helping out in the Hand Clinic at UCSF at the time, and were probably early attendees. I happened to run into a fellow hand surgeon, Bob Hoffman, in Yosemite at a California Orthopedic Association meeting, and had sent him a letter inviting him to join us, on February 3, 1992. Bill Newmeyer was an early member, as was Jay Hann, Noah Wiess, and Jeff Weil. Sheldon Brown was added in 1994. Relton McCarroll was invited but turned us down. Cold. Flat.

Over time I got rather tired of paying for Pizza and beer every month, and prayed that some other soul might help out. I can remember clearly the time (October, 1994) that Bob Hoffman said to me, "David, you have been buying all the pizza and beer, why don't we meet at my house next month and I'll buy the pizza and beer." I dropped down on my knees, saying, "Thank you, God, for listening!"

And so, Journal Club began. A partial list of early invitees is here.