Medical writing: Not just for medical writing, also for any medical work related communication needs.
Medical writing involves writing scientific documents of different types which include regulatory and research-related documents, disease or drug-related educational and promotional literature, publication articles like journal manuscripts and abstracts, content for healthcare websites, health-related magazines or news articles. The scientific information in these documents needs to be presented to suit the level of understanding of the target audience, namely, patients or general public, physicians or the regulators. Medical writers require an understanding of the medical concepts and terminology, knowledge of relevant guidelines as regards the structure and contents of specific documents, and good writing skills. They also need to be familiar with searching medical literature, understanding and presenting research data, the document review process, and editing and publishing requirements.
Academic and School Paper Editing.
New knowledge and information is constantly being added to the field of medicine by way of an ever increasing number of research studies, growing clinical experience, and new ideas and thoughts. All this information needs to be effectively communicated to different audiences, e.g. the physicians and other healthcare professionals, patients and consumers and the drug regulators. Medical writing is the discipline of writing scientific documents by writers in the field of medicine – the “medical writers”. Medical writers may not be the original scientists who did the actual research, but work with the physicians/scientists involved in the generation of data, and help present the information in an appropriate manner. The importance of good medical writing cannot be ignored as science depends on clear and accurate reporting – an otherwise meticulous research can appear flawed if it is poorly presented.
The medical writer needs to have a clear understanding of the medical concepts and ideas, and be able to present the data and its interpretation in the way the target audience will understand. Medical writers combine their knowledge of science and their research understanding to present information at the right level for the target audience. Moreover, the writing needs to meet the specific requirements for different types of documents. Medical writing has become established as an important function in the pharmaceutical industry, because it requires specialized knowledge and skills to be able to write scientific documents which are well- structured, and presented in a clear and lucid manner.
The demand for medical writing has gone up considerably in the last few years. The reasons are many – more research studies are being conducted today in the biomedical field; pharmaceutical companies are developing more new drugs and medical devices, and various scientific documents need to be generated for submission to regulatory authorities during their approval process; the number of biomedical journals has gone up considerably and many more scientific articles are now published than before; similarly, with the addition of a new and a powerful medium like the ‘internet’ a lot of medical information is generated as ‘web content’ for medical professionals as well as for the general public.
According to the CenterWatch analysis, the medical writing market has doubled in size in the last five years, increasing from an estimated $345 million in 2003 to $694 million in 2008. Moreover, according to a separate survey, medical writing is also the fourth most frequently outsourced service.1 As pharmaceutical companies outsource more and more work to Asia, Indian graduates can look at medical writing as a valuable career option, and develop knowledge and skills required to take this up as a full-time profession.
Types of Medical Writing
Medical writing involves writing different types of documents for different purposes, and for different audiences. Following are examples of different kinds of medical writing:
Medical Journalism
Medical Education
Medical marketing of healthcare products
Publication/Presentation
Research Documents
Regulatory Documents
Each of the above types of medical writing is meant for a distinct set of audience, e.g. medical professionals, patients & general public, medical sales representatives or drug regulators. Hence, the language used and the level of technical information has to be appropriate to the level of understanding of the respective audience. For example, while documents meant for medical professionals and regulators can be highly technical and can include scientific data and its explanation, those meant for patients and general public need to simple and free of technical jargon. In addition, documents for regulatory submission are required to fulfill set formats and structures, and their contents are guided by regulatory rules and guidelines. Hence, a medical writer involved in the preparation of these documents needs to be conversant with the regulations and prescribed formats for such type of documents.
It is possible, therefore, that the knowledge and skills required for writing different types of medical documents are different, and one may decide to specialize in a specific type of medical writing, depending on one's aptitude and liking.
Who requires medical writers?Medial writers mostly work with the pharmaceutical industry. However, there are many other setting in which medical writers are required:
The scope for medical writers is therefore tremendous and growing. This is also a profession which one can practice either independently as a freelancer, or as an employee in an organization, depending on one's experience, level of expertise and liking. So, learning medical writing can be the beginning of a life-long profession.
Medical writing is both a science and an art. It requires an understanding in medical science and an aptitude for writing. In addition, a thorough knowledge of specific requirements for different types of medical documents, and keeping up to date with the relevant guidelines is a must. The demand for medical writing is growing steadily over the years. The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry offers number of job opportunities for medical writers. Graduates and post-graduates in life sciences who have the right skills and aptitude can consider taking up medical writing as a full-time profession. One Gengo guarantees professional quality with only qualified linguistics, editing, and TESOL professionals.
Standard editing
Medical writing involves writing scientific documents of different types which include regulatory and research-related documents, disease or drug-related educational and promotional literature, publication articles like journal manuscripts and abstracts, content for healthcare websites, health-related magazines or news articles. The scientific information in these documents needs to be presented to suit the level of understanding of the target audience, namely, patients or general public, physicians or the regulators. Medical writers require an understanding of the medical concepts and terminology, knowledge of relevant guidelines as regards the structure and contents of specific documents, and good writing skills. They also need to be familiar with searching medical literature, understanding and presenting research data, the document review process, and editing and publishing requirements.
Academic and School Paper Editing.
New knowledge and information is constantly being added to the field of medicine by way of an ever increasing number of research studies, growing clinical experience, and new ideas and thoughts. All this information needs to be effectively communicated to different audiences, e.g. the physicians and other healthcare professionals, patients and consumers and the drug regulators. Medical writing is the discipline of writing scientific documents by writers in the field of medicine – the “medical writers”. Medical writers may not be the original scientists who did the actual research, but work with the physicians/scientists involved in the generation of data, and help present the information in an appropriate manner. The importance of good medical writing cannot be ignored as science depends on clear and accurate reporting – an otherwise meticulous research can appear flawed if it is poorly presented.
The medical writer needs to have a clear understanding of the medical concepts and ideas, and be able to present the data and its interpretation in the way the target audience will understand. Medical writers combine their knowledge of science and their research understanding to present information at the right level for the target audience. Moreover, the writing needs to meet the specific requirements for different types of documents. Medical writing has become established as an important function in the pharmaceutical industry, because it requires specialized knowledge and skills to be able to write scientific documents which are well- structured, and presented in a clear and lucid manner.
The demand for medical writing has gone up considerably in the last few years. The reasons are many – more research studies are being conducted today in the biomedical field; pharmaceutical companies are developing more new drugs and medical devices, and various scientific documents need to be generated for submission to regulatory authorities during their approval process; the number of biomedical journals has gone up considerably and many more scientific articles are now published than before; similarly, with the addition of a new and a powerful medium like the ‘internet’ a lot of medical information is generated as ‘web content’ for medical professionals as well as for the general public.
According to the CenterWatch analysis, the medical writing market has doubled in size in the last five years, increasing from an estimated $345 million in 2003 to $694 million in 2008. Moreover, according to a separate survey, medical writing is also the fourth most frequently outsourced service.1 As pharmaceutical companies outsource more and more work to Asia, Indian graduates can look at medical writing as a valuable career option, and develop knowledge and skills required to take this up as a full-time profession.
Types of Medical Writing
Medical writing involves writing different types of documents for different purposes, and for different audiences. Following are examples of different kinds of medical writing:
Medical Journalism
- Newspaper & magazine articles. These are mostly for general public and lay people and need to be written in simple, non-technical language.
Medical Education
- For Physicians – textbooks, Continued Medical Education (CME) programs, slide decks, e-learning modules
- For Patients – patient education material
Medical marketing of healthcare products
- Promotional literature targeted at healthcare professionals, product monographs, brochures, handouts
- Sales force training manuals, e-learning modules
- Internet content for physicians and patients (consumers)
Publication/Presentation
- Journal articles / manuscripts (research articles, case reports, review articles)
- Abstracts
- Posters & presentations for scientific meetings and conferences
Research Documents
- Clinical trial protocols
- Investigators′ Brochure
- Informed Consent Documents
- Study reports
- Research proposals
Regulatory Documents
- Package Inserts (prescribing information) & Patient Information Leaflets
- Clinical study reports, web synopses
- Subject narratives
- Regulatory submission documents – Common Technical Document (CTD) modules such as nonclinical and clinical overviews & summaries, expert reports, safety & efficacy summaries; Aggregate safety reports such as Periodic Safety Update Reports ( PSURs), bridging reports, Periodic Adverse Drug Experience Reports (PADER), Annual safety reports (ASR)s; policy papers etc.
Each of the above types of medical writing is meant for a distinct set of audience, e.g. medical professionals, patients & general public, medical sales representatives or drug regulators. Hence, the language used and the level of technical information has to be appropriate to the level of understanding of the respective audience. For example, while documents meant for medical professionals and regulators can be highly technical and can include scientific data and its explanation, those meant for patients and general public need to simple and free of technical jargon. In addition, documents for regulatory submission are required to fulfill set formats and structures, and their contents are guided by regulatory rules and guidelines. Hence, a medical writer involved in the preparation of these documents needs to be conversant with the regulations and prescribed formats for such type of documents.
It is possible, therefore, that the knowledge and skills required for writing different types of medical documents are different, and one may decide to specialize in a specific type of medical writing, depending on one's aptitude and liking.
Who requires medical writers?Medial writers mostly work with the pharmaceutical industry. However, there are many other setting in which medical writers are required:
- Pharmaceutical / healthcare product companies including medical device companies
- Contract Research Organizations (CROs) & Business/Knowledge Process Outsourcing companies (BPOs/ KPOs)
- Scientific content and healthcare communication companies (Functional Service Providers)
- Media & Publishing companies and Medical Journals Academic medical institutions, Medical/scientific societies
- Healthcare Websites
The scope for medical writers is therefore tremendous and growing. This is also a profession which one can practice either independently as a freelancer, or as an employee in an organization, depending on one's experience, level of expertise and liking. So, learning medical writing can be the beginning of a life-long profession.
Medical writing is both a science and an art. It requires an understanding in medical science and an aptitude for writing. In addition, a thorough knowledge of specific requirements for different types of medical documents, and keeping up to date with the relevant guidelines is a must. The demand for medical writing is growing steadily over the years. The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry offers number of job opportunities for medical writers. Graduates and post-graduates in life sciences who have the right skills and aptitude can consider taking up medical writing as a full-time profession. One Gengo guarantees professional quality with only qualified linguistics, editing, and TESOL professionals.
Standard editing
- The document will be proofread, including Table and Figure legends.
- The flow and readability of the language will be checked, and light editing to improve these will be provided as necessary.
- Standard editing is appropriate for papers that should be considered as a “final draft” with the exception of the English presentation.
- What is not included in the standard edit:
- Reorganization of text and removal of repetition.
- Word length reduction.
- Complete rewriting of large portions of text (>15% of the document)
- Includes rewriting and substantial editing of the text, as appropriate, as well as the core components of a standard edit.
- Word count reduction of the Abstract according to the guidelines of an identified target journal.
- Reformatting of the paper according to the guidelines of the journal
- Large sections (>15%) of the original text will be rewritten to ensure clarity and correct English usage.
- Feedback is given to the authors in the form of a letter which highlights ways that the paper can be improved, or to identify areas that need further clarification.
