Medical writing comes in many shapes and forms, such as preparation of regulatory documention, drafting journal manuscripts or congress reports. Common to all these forms however is the need to carefully select the relevant information from a potentially huge body of data, process and present that data, and produce a synthesis or overall picture. In short, a medical writer must be able to see the wood for the trees.
During my 6 years with Young Medical Communication, a small CRO, I accumulated experience in the preparation of a wide range of regulatory documents (according to ICH guidelines) and journal manuscripts (according to the appropriate guidelines [CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, etc).
Document types |
Therapeutic areas* |
|---|---|
| Regulatory
Medical communications
Conference and meeting reports |
|
*Just a representative sample. I have broad experience in other areas and can quickly come up to speed in a new area
In addition to writing regulatory documentation, I have experience compiling, bookmarking and hyperlinking regulatory pdf documents, and have been involved in QCing submission dossiers.
Since turning fully freelance, I have extended the types of document with which I have worked, and now have experience with congress abstracts, posters, Powerpoint presentations, training material, etc.
Project management and larger projects
Many writing projects also involve a strong component of project management. When necessary, I can work with a number of contacts as a given company to ensure that the project comes to a successful conclusion. My role as a coordinator in translation projects has also strengthened my management skills.
Collaboration with my colleague, Dr. Iain Patten, also an experienced medical writer, means that we can accept projects that may well be too large for a single freelancer to take on. Given that we are both also translators (Spanish to English), we can also accept hybrid projects, for example, where the source material is in Spanish but the final documents are in English.
Conference reporting
In a more journalistic capacity, I also regularly write comissioned reports of international medical congresses. This has given me a quick introduction to a number of new therapeutic areas and broadened my outlook of the pharmaceutical industry. Now, one way or another, I have been involved in writing documents from most stages of the life cycle of a drug.
Keeping up to date
Professional development is important to me. I recently completed the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) Professional Development Programme (subject area, drug development) and regularly attend the EMWA conferences. I also keep an eye out for local training opportunities, and recently attended a course on drug development organized as part of the Complutense University (Madrid) summer school programme.