#1: What is medical writing?

The most fundamental question to ask before you even want to consider giving medical writing a try is: What kind of job is that exactly? What does it involve?

My teacher in school never told me such an occupation exists. Neither did the local universities offer any related degree to this field during my varsity days (probably still none by now). People may be aspired to become a journalist or TV news reporter, but have you ever heard of someone enthusiastically declaring “I want to be a medical writer when I grow up!”? Never.

Is it because it is not a profession as highly acclaimed like doctor, lawyer and accountant, or as common as teacher, police and secretary? Nope.

In Western countries, there are in fact medical journalism degrees or courses offered in higher educational institutes. Well, they even have medical writer associations. There medical writers are highly in demand, either employed by companies or on freelance. Medical writers do play a major role in the process of disseminating important information on health and medicine. But it remains an unfamiliar profession to many here in Malaysia.

So, it’s really high-time that this occupation is made known to more Malaysians, especially the young ones who are still wondering about their future direction.

Ok, now let’s go into the really important stuff. What is medical writing?

Simply put, medical writing is about communicating medical or health information to different groups of audience in a variety of written formats. The readers range from healthcare professionals, such as specialists, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and healthcare workers, to laypersons like you and me. Depending on the targeted audience, the writing style and format of presentation varies accordingly.

Medical writers work in different types of organization, and so their job nature differs. Medical writers working for communications companies, like me, are just sitting on one side of the medical writing pie. I don’t know much about what’s going on at the other side of the pie, but in general medical writers in pharmaceutical companies and research centers write documents or reports for submission to regulatory authorities. They may also produce manuscripts for publication in medical journals. Those working in a pharmaceutical company may also need to write training manuals and marketing materials for the company’s products.

Sounds like a serious job? Well, take a look at this side of the pie. Medical writers attached to communications companies are more likely to have fun as they are involved in more creative type of projects. Yeah, more creative juices are needed! These companies are usually commissioned by pharmaceutical companies to produce promotional materials to market their products (ie, medicines, medical devices, etc) or by medical societies to help them publicize an event. Depending on the objective of the project, a wide variety of materials can be produced, such as newsletter, event posters, conference report, disease chart, patient education brochure, even websites and CD-ROMS! We’ll talk about that in detail some other day.

As I’ve been trained and worked in a communications company, therefore all my advice, tips, suggestions or whatsoever mentioned from now on will be referring to medical writing or medical writers who work in communications agencies.

So, have you gotten some idea what medical writing is about? Keep coming back if you want to know more. Probably next week I will talk about what qualifications or background you need to become a medical writer in a communications company. See ya!