2010 issue Please download or visit this entire issue online at http://www.bcmj.org/november-2010-0

1. BC MEDICAL JOURNAL VOL. 52 NO. 9, NOVEMBER 2010 www.bcmj.org490
What profession might you
have pursued, if not for
medicine?
Aerospace engineering.
Which talent would you most
like to have?
Playing bagpipes.
What do you consider your
greatest achievement?
Initiatingandbringingthepubliccam-
paign against BC Hydro’s Kootenay
Diversion Project to a successful con-
clusion.
Who are your heroes?
Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin,
Steven Hawking, and Abram Hoffer.
Dr Paterson is a GP in Creston.
What is your idea of perfect
happiness?
Now that’s way too personal.
What is your greatest fear?
Human extinction.
What is the trait you most
deplore in yourself?
“Why do today what you can put off
until tomorrow?”
What characteristic do your
favorite patients share?
They are open with their problems.
Which living physician do you
most admire?
Dr John O’Brien-Bell.
On what occasion do you lie?
When truth would do more harm.
Which words or phrases do you
most overuse?
“Tell me about it.”
The Proust Questionnaire has its
origins in a parlor game popularized
by Marcel Proust, the French essay-
ist and novelist, who believed that, in
answering these questions, an indivi-
dual reveals his or her true nature.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Please complete and submit a
Proust Questionnaire—your colleagues will appreciate it.
Online
www.bcmj.org/proust-
questionnaire. Complete and
submit it online.
E-mail
journal@bcma.bc.ca. E-mail
us and we’ll send you a
blank MS Word document
to complete and return.
Print
www.bcmj.org/proust-
questionnaire. Print a copy from
our web site, complete it, and
either fax (604 638-2917) or mail
it (BCMJ 115-1665 West Broad-
way, Vancouver BC V6J 5A4).
Mail
604 638-2858. Call us and
we’ll mail you a copy to com-
plete and return by mail (BCMJ
115-1665 West Broadway,
Vancouver BC V6J 5A4).
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What medical advance do you
most anticipate?
Acceptanceoftheefficacyofnutrients.
What is your most marked
characteristic?
Tenacity.
What do you most value in your
colleagues?
Acceptance of my idiosyncrasies.
Who are your favorite writers?
John Buchan, Arthur Conan Doyle,
Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Rankin.
What is your greatest regret?
Selling our first house when we did. If
we had kept it, I could have retired
upon its proceeds years later.
How would you like to die?
Like Alfred Nobel, laughing.
What is your motto?
Never give up.
Proust questionnaire: Erik T. Paterson, MD