Careers in Medical Writing Services
Posted by dunitzsantrino on June 16th, 2014
Medical writing, an altogether distinct profession, can be classified into scientific medical writing and non-scientific medical writing, depending upon the tasks carried out by the medical writer, their training, exposure in the field and work setting. Scientific medical writing mainly involves communications projects and specialized content areas for scientific or medical audiences. Many writers in this segment will have qualifications in basic/ clinical areas.
Non-scientific medical writing involves communication projects containing lesser technical contents like general medical and health articles meant for magazines, newspapers, marketing products and patient education materials. The targeted audience may be lay persons or even professional. Many writers in this segment get themselves acquainted with the medical contents by experience; they may have qualifications in journalism, communications, English or some related disciplines. There are some writers, especially established ones, who write on both scientific and non-scientific medical writing.
Career opportunities for writers in both the categories are bright and hence the medical writing course will come handy for them to sharpen and strengthen their knowledge and profession. The course curricula will bring out the latent talents in the writers, induce the existing zeal in them and lead them to learn the techniques of fulfilling the expectation of their clients besides easily understandable to the targeted people.
The overall characteristics of the personnel who offer medical writing services would include knowledge of medicine, skills in clear thinking, writing and computer and internet operations/ research, some basic qualifications, deadline orientation, accuracy, logical organization and ethical considerations. Medical writers can be permanent employees or freelancers.
There are various certificate programs or under/ post graduate programs conducted by AMWA – American Medical Writers Association and various recognized universities and educational institutions. They offer formal training in the fields of medical/ health communication/ journalism, medical writing and editing. There are various e-learning web portals, through which one can study the intricacies of the medical writing technologies; since the medical writing course is online, the participants can undergo the course at anytime and from anywhere.
By joining the AMWA and participating in the local and national activities conducted by the chapters, workshops/ conferences, establishing contact with the experienced members, you may explore the possibilities excelling as a medical communicator. Besides, there is a good chance for the professionals in the fields of medicine/ surgery and all the inter-disciplines. Doctors, various medical professionals or medical organizations, who/ which concentrate on their core works, seek the services of medical writers, who will put the knowledge and findings and observations in black and white for the benefits of the professionals and general people.
Some of the categories of medical writing services are clinical report writing, SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) writing, Protocol writing, abstract and excerpt writing, writing for web and consultancy for medical writing.
