Before you consider medical writing as a career, it is important to know the facts about what it takes to achieve this goal. A medical writer is an individual who writes, edits, and develops different documents regarding health and medicine and within allied domains like clinical research, pharmacovigilance medico-marketing, pharmacoepidemiology, etc. Medical writers are responsible for communicating clinical and scientific data in different formats to a wide selection of audiences.
Medical communicators, in the general sense, may be researchers, writers, healthcare journalists, editors, educators, project managers, and many others. A medical writer knows precisely how to gather, interpret, and present medical information in a way that is targeted towards a specific audience. It is a profession that is extremely diverse and requires very specific tasks on a wide selection of projects that will depend on the audience and the work setting.
Who Needs Medical Writers?
Medical writers work in a diverse environment in the different type of companies, research centers, academic institutions or regulatory agencies. They may work with
- Pharmaceutical / Biotechnology companies
- Contract Research Organizations
- Life Science BPOs / KPOs
- Government / Regulatory agencies
- Academic medical centers
- Clinics or hospitals
- Independent Researchers
- Managed care companies
- Medical publishers, journals, magazines or newspapers
Some of them may also choose to work on a freelance basis in different areas.
On choosing a career in medical writing, depending on your expertise, you may be writing specifically for audiences that may include pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical device companies, researchers, medical communication companies, etc. A medical writer and communicator are responsible for creating a number of different types of work documents. The list is endless. To name a few:
- Clinical Study Protocols
- Clinical Study Reports
- Safety Summary and aggregate reports for the regulatory agencies
- Books
- Advertisements for healthcare products
- Proposals for grants
- Newspaper and magazine articles
- Scientific and medical journals
- Summaries for advisory boards
In any work environment, a medical writer is a vital member of interdisciplinary teams responsible for documenting any scientific communication or reports.
Education for a Medical Writer
A medical writer will be responsible for writing content in a number of different formats such as traditional print or electronic forms depending on the target audience. So it is important that they have a broad educational background that touches base with all of these factors. A medical writer must take advanced medical writing courses through a program that is accredited. Many of these programs such as the ones provided by JLI, offer both in-person courses as well as various opportunities for e-learning.
Becoming a medical writer requires a high quality education in areas of Life Sciences and medical writing training. The better the education, the more opportunities you will have to find the career that you have been looking for. Check out the selection of courses in medical writing at jliedu.com.
