Interested in medical sales jobs?

It's a new year. Have you been contemplating of a career change? So, if you are tired of being a medical writer, what else could you be? A medical sales rep, perhaps? I don't see why a medical writer can't try for Medical Sales jobs.

Basically, a medical sales rep is involved in promoting and selling pharmaceutical products, e.g. cardiovascular medicines, drugs for diabetes, antibiotics, etc. Or you may be asked to deal with Medical equipment sales, ranging from large medical instruments such as X-ray machines and imaging equipments, to small medical devices, such as insulin syringes and blood sugar meters.

Your basic background knowledge in several areas of health, accumulated during your years of writing medical newsletter, is an advantage. The most important factor is probably your personal characteristics, whether you like to go out and meet people, interacting with them, enrolling them into buying the products you're selling.

If you can perform and prove yourself to be a good salesperson, it's quite easy to secure a top-paying job with a major pharmaceutical company. Of course, if you want to know which company is currently hiring medical sales reps, you need to keep abreast with the latest Medical Sales News to avoid missing the best opportunity for a career switch this year. ;)

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Writing a clinical study report?

So, this is my first post for a brand new year! Although it's already two weeks into 2011, but better late than never! ;)

Anyway, work has been busy with lots of writing assignments in the office, one after another. And amidst my already tight assignment deadlines in the office in the last couple of months of 2010, I had also faced tight deadlines after work - a freelance clinical study report (CSR) project for a drug company.

I had no experience in writing CSR in my previous job as a medical writer, so that was my first time. Thankfully, it was a small clinical study and results were pretty straightforward to interpret, and a standard template was provided for my reference.

However, for a medical writer who has not written a clinical study report before, it still appears as a daunting task, and I started to look around for information to assist me in this project. If you are a freelance medical writer interested in getting clinical study report projects or about to embark on one, here are three resources that may be of great help to you:

1. Efficacy guidelines from ICH - Here you'll find a list of guidelines to writing various regulatory documents pertaining to clinical studies, e.g. CSRs, clinical trials, good clinical practice, dose-response studies, etc. The guidelines are available in downloadable PDF format.

2. 48 Things Medical Writers Need for Clinical Study Reports (CSRs) - If you're wondering what information you need to acquire from your client before you can start writing a CSR, visit this blog belonging to an experienced medical writer, Susan Caldwell. In that particular post, you are given a list of things required to help you draft a clinical study report. Without having all the necessary information at hand before you begin writing, the writing process may be delayed as you would have to keep going back to your client to request for the missing information.

3. Targeted Regulatory Writing Techniques: Clinical Documents for Drugs and Biologics 

- As I was searching for a guidebook to help me prepare the CSR, I came across this book from Amazon. The book is useful for those who writes regulatory documents for the biopharmaceutical industry. It covers not only CSRs, but also on writing clinical study protocols, investigator's brochure, product dossiers, patient informed consent form, etc. The book also includes samples of clinical protocol synopsis, clinical protocol signature page, informed consent form and more. Basically, it covers all documents needed right from the preparation of a clinical study to submitting its report.

Get this book from Amazon now and save 10%!

I didn't buy the book because, firstly, it is not available in my local bookstores, and secondly, I'm not sure if there will be a second CSR project for me. But I definitely will keep this book in mind for future reference.

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How to become a freelance writer?

Okay, my last post was written 4 months ago. As usual, my wrong. Working as a full-time health writer is definitely more hectic than the life of a freelance medical writer. :)

I still take in freelance writing projects occasionally, but it's not a necessity anymore for me to make a living. Of course, it's always good to have double income, right?

If you think you have the flair and skills for writing, and have been aspired to become a writer yourself (not necessarily in the fields of health and medicine), BUT you just lack the opportunity or training to really become one, perhaps you can take your first step by being a freelance writer.

How to become a freelance writer if you don't know of anyone who works in publishing company? Well, nowadays you have internet, you can actually search for writing jobs online!

Many online freelance writing jobs are simple writing tasks, such as writing a movie review for a blog, proofreading simple documents or writing a short opinion about a skincare product. As long as you can write decent articles with correct grammar and spelling, you can make money writing articles, from being a website content writer to press release writer.

The main advantage of such online writing jobs is that you are able to work on it from home on a part-time or full-time basis. Of course, you may also find it cool to tell people that you actually make money from writing online. ;)

To find yourself online freelance writing jobs with topics you're interested in, you may check out this website RealWritingJobs.com. I have no experience using their service, but I think it's worth checking out.

Happy freelancing! :)

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If you need help in career planning

If you ask me how did I find my new job or how fast I got an interview from the company, well, I found it on an online job search website and submitted my application through the website as well.

I did that on a Friday night, and received a call on Monday morning to invite me for the job interview. Interviewed on the next day, and was offered the job on the spot.

It's partly the wonders of internet, where job search and applications have been made so much more convenient for job seekers. Of course, it also depends on your experience and skills, and whether the type of job you're looking for is in demand.

If you're currently considering of a career change, but don't know what's the best way to do it, did you know that you can get career advice from expert career coaches through the internet too?

Today's job market is very competitive; looking for a job can be very challenging and time consuming, even if you have the expertise required. So it's always good to have somebody to point you to the right direction so that you won't be drown out by other competing job seekers.

Today, if you need some guidance to assist you in your career advancement plan, there are online career coaches available to teach you all the necessary steps and strategies to land a better job faster. You can even make use of online resume writing software to generate professionally written resume, or attend online career planning workshop. That's so cool, right? :)

I call that the Power of the World Wide Web!

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Resigned from full-time freelancing, back to work

After working from home on a freelance basis for more than a year, I've now gone back to a full-time job. Reasons: Enough time spent at home, not enough money to sustain the lifestyle I like. Haha!

This post is to update my blog readers about what I'm doing now. I currently work as a health writer in a company that mainly serves as a secretariat for local NGOs that are related to nutrition, paediatric health and parenting.

The company set up, system and operation are very different from the medical communications company I previously worked in. The target audience of my writings now are mainly general public and parents. Therefore my writing style has to change from now onwards. :) But my years spent in medical writing (and multitasking on project management) are not wasted; my previous working experience will certainly help me a lot in this new job.

Working as a health writer - this may be something that I can write more about in the future. So, just drop by from time to time to see if I have anything to share. I won't be posting on a regular basis though. Not sure if I will be still in the mood to blog after spending 8 hours of brain squeezing and keyboard typing in the office. ;)

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Considering project management training?

Do you need to go through a formal project management training or PMP Exam to be a project manager in a medical communications company? Well, myself and several project managers I know didn't go through any formal education or training to be able to work as a project manager in this industry. It's all 'get your hands dirty' kind of job, and learn through experience. ;)

Of course, it will be helpful to know a little bit about this credential offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI) known as the Project Management Professional or PMP Certification. Who knows one day you might venture into a new area of career that requires such qualification.

PMP certified project managers are employed by government, commercial and other organizations with the purpose to improve the success rate of their projects. It can be in any areas of knowledge, and it involves applying a set of standardized project management principles as contained in PMI's PMBOK Guide. Having this credential will help project managers to find job more easily. Self-employed project managers may be able to sell their service to customers more convincingly if they are certified by PMI.

If you already have 5 years experience working as a project manager, would like to consider taking the PMP exam but are too tied up with busy daily schedule, then you may want to look at the possibility of a self-learning course. You can visit http://www.project-management-prepcast.com for more information.

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A quick update after 8 months of inactivity!

This will just be a short post to update readers about this stagnated blog. Haha!

As you can see, I have changed the template of this blog, which is the first thing that I did after missing in action for almost 8 months, haha! Actually, I'm hoping that by changing the look of this blog, that I will be able to make a fresh, new start with this blog.

One of the reasons that I have not been updating this blog for so long a period is because I felt like I've bumped into a dead end - I didn't know where I want to lead this blog to. So I decided to leave it for a while. In addition, I have been pretty tied up with freelance writing projects and other self-learning pursuit since early this year.

Only recently I decided to 'reactivate' this blog. ;) However, I won't be writing in the way I did previously. I am taking things in a more casual manner, so no more numbering of posts. ;) Since I'm into freelance medical writing now, I will share more information regarding this work-from-home job, including my rants and rambles about the most difficult client, okay? ;P

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#27: From medical assistant to medical writer?

I think I have mentioned in one of my earliest posts that you don’t need to be a medical doctor to be a medical writer. As long as you have a science-related tertiary education qualification, you can be trained to become a medical writer. Even a medical assistant who is interested to write may consider medical writing on a part-time basis, or even turn it into a full-time career later.

In case you would like to know more about the job of a medical assistant, here’s some information.

A medical assistant is basically the assistant to a doctor. People who want to become a medical assistant have to go through medical assistant training.

A doctor is usually extremely busy consulting patients in his or her office, and needs to focus on providing direct patient care. Therefore, a doctor relies a lot on his or her medical assistant to keep the office running smoothly. The responsibilities of a medical assistant vary from day to day (or from hour to hour, in fact). At times the medical assistant have to perform clerical work (e.g. record keeping, appointment scheduling, billing) and some times assist the doctor in carrying out clinical duties (e.g. simple lab tests, changing dressings and sutures, assisting doctor in administering electrocardiograms, explaining medication and procedures to patients). In short, a medical assistant is not like any other assistant jobs; a certain level of professional medical knowledge is required.

Medical assistant programs are usually available in the medical faculty of universities. In the US, there are also specialized schools - medical assistant schools - that provide further specialized medical assistant trainings in different areas of health care, including (but not limited to):

• X-ray technician training
• Occupational therapy assistant training
• Natural health practitioner training
• Massage therapy training
• Medical laboratory technician training
• Physical therapy training
• Dental assistant training
• Diagnostic medical sonography training

As you can see, being a medical assistant gives you an edge in medical writing, because you have already possessed a certain degree of knowledge about the healthcare industry. You also have had experience in patient care. Those knowledge and experience you acquired will help you in your medical writing, e.g. understand medical presentation more easily, recognize the important aspects to be included in a patient healthcare brochure, etc.

So, if you a medical assistant who wishes to write, by all means give medical writing a try. You can start off writing part-timely at the beginning. If you like it and feel that medical writing is a ‘new’ career path you wish to pursuit, then I would say give it a go! :)

P.S. Vice versa, if you are a medical writer now, but thinks that it’s time to switch career for good, there’s nothing wrong with that either. :)

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A quick update

Oops (a big one)! Looks like I'd been through another long session of hibernation. ;)

Just a quick update here. I had been busy with lots of things in the past 6 months, both work and personal affairs. I am still writing on a freelance basis, providing my writing services to researchers who need help on putting together background literature related to certain psychiatric disorders. Interesting, huh? I'm glad that I still have my sanity in tact after writing so much about mental illnesses. ;)

Anyway, I would like to thank some blog readers who dropped their comments in my blog, and sorry that I only saw them now.

First of all, thanks to Notarazi.

Notarazi has given a link to download a PDF file called 'The Complete Guide to Medical Writing'. You all can access the download page by clicking here. The size of this file is around 10 Mb, so you may need a little bit of patience if your internet connection is slow. (I'm downloading the file now, and am trying to be very patient...)

To ZayZayEM, thanks for your question, but let me answer that in a separate post one of these days. I promise I will answer it before I go hibernating again. ;P

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Back in action again

I know I have been ‘hibernating’ for half a year here. Sorry to keep you waiting :)

This extremely long hiatus is partly due to a continuous stream of freelance writing assignments that I received over the past 6 months. Although not highly paid, I manage to make a moderate living out of it.

That’s one advantage of being a medical writer. You could go on a freelance basis once you acquired the necessary experience and skills. What if the local job opportunities for medical writers are limited? Well, you can always explore the possibility of working overseas.

The job prospect for medical writers is very good in UK, and their incomes are lucrative. With excellent medical writing skills and ability to produce high-quality materials, and depending on experience, one can earn a salary as much as £60,000 per year as a medical writer in a healthcare and medical communication company!

Use online job search engines or any recruitment agency to help you out. There is a possibility that you may find a line of medical writing Jobs In Manchester waiting to be filled up. (That's one way to be near to your favorite football team, huh?) ;)

Why not try to do a quick search on www.search.co.uk? Even if you are no longer interested in a writing career, you can also use it to locate other jobs, such as Pharmaceutical jobs or accounting jobs.

Okay, I've gone too far. Let's get back to this blog. ;)

The other reason for my long absence is that I’m still in the middle of finding a new direction and ideas for this blog. I have so far touched on all the various types of project that I had involved in as a fulltime medical writer. Perhaps it’s time to talk a little bit more about project management, which includes weekly meeting and ‘managing’ clients. ;)

What else would you like to know? Any suggestions?

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#26: Writing tips on the internet

As medical writers, we need to constantly practice and sharpen our writing skills to able us communicate more effectively with our readers.

Besides referring to writing guidebooks, reading up some good articles produced from good writers and learn from them definitely helps us to write better.

Well, you may also conveniently find some good general writing tips on the internet, such as from the Daily Writing Tips. Sometimes we do need to refresh our 'memory' on the proper application of even the simplest grammar and punctuation, or learn the 101 rules for writing numbers. Believe it or not, numbers and numerals can be very confusing if not written in the right way.

If you are also keen to learn about fiction writing and business writing, then do drop by Daily Writing Tips to see what they have to offer. :)

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#25: Besides being where I am now

Since it is still the first week of 2008, let's put the seemingly never-ending projects aside for the time being and talk about something more inspiring. ;)

What are the career prospects of a medical writer when he or she no longer wishes to work in a medical communications company?

Well, pharmaceutical companies and research organizations need medical writers. The type of writing needed in those institutions may be very different from what you are doing right now, but you will be able to adjust your writing style once you have undergone some training and practice.

Being a freelance medical writer is also an option. As a freelance writer, you can offer custom research papers writing or custom essay writing services to individuals such as medical researchers or even college students. Don't be surprise that there is a great demand for such services.

Of course, it is up to your own deliberation whether you should take on this type of projects. Are you willing to help a college student to write custom essays that are part of his semester assignment? ;)

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#24: The making of a CD-ROM

Again, apologies for my long 'disappearance'! I've been up to many things that got me almost fully occupied. Of course, the year end holiday mood has made me slow down a bit. ;)

Anyway, on this last day of 2007, I would like to talk about managing a CD-ROM project. I have explained about the format and purpose of a CD-ROM publication in one of my very early posts. Here, I am going to briefly talk about the process of making one.

The example I'm using here is a post-event CD-ROM, which contains:

* An animated introduction that shows element related to product or company, title of the talk or event, and introducing the speaker(s).
* A footage of the presentation, coupled with a presentation slide show synchronized to the speaker's speech.
* A footage on the Q&A session that is broken down to individual clips.
* Additional features: view slides only, print slides, product information in PDF form, etc.

Before the event
* Hire a camera crew - inform them the date, time and duration of the event; remember to get the contact number from at least one of the camera crew! You need to update him of last minute changes, if any.

During the event
* If possible, arrive an hour earlier before the event starts. Make sure the camera crew has all their equipments set up, and all the cables and wires are connected to the right place.
* Don't forget to collect the presentation slides from the speaker.

After the event
* Your job is first to proofread the slides, correcting any spelling errors and inconsistencies.
* A copy of the footage and presentation slides (PowerPoint) will be passed to the designer-programmer for designing and programming.
* Also pass over other relevant materials (e.g. product information, design elements, speaker's photo and CV) that need to be incorporated into the CD.
* Check the synchronization of the presentation and all links and functions in the CD before sending it to your client for review.

The above is just a very simple outline of the work flow for a CD-ROM project. If you want to know more in details, you can always leave your question in the comment box. :)

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I would like to take this opportunity to wish my blog readers a wonderful and fruitful 2008 ahead!

Happy New Year!

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#23: I forgot to do that...

Apologies on this much delayed post. Well, sometimes my time (and mind) is occupied by so many other things, that I forgot there are other stuffs, like this blog, awaiting my action. ;)

I believe you will feel this way too in your work as a medical writer-cum-project manager. You may find yourself working on two or three or more projects at the same time. There is no such thing as "let me complete this project before starting on the second one". And as time goes on, you may find more and more project files piled up on your in-tray. ;)

So it is not surprising that you may sometimes forget to, for example, follow-up with client for approval on a particular project or get the designer to make a specific correction in the layout of a bulletin.

What can you do to 'curb' your forgetfulness and avoid missing out on important tasks?

It's really simple. Everybody knows how. Just write them down on a piece of paper.

BUT, it's not just scribbling them all over the paper without order. Do write down the tasks that you need to act on according to its urgency and importance.

I find it useful to list tasks in this order - most urgent, most important, least urgent, least important.

Urgent tasks are such as getting the client to approve the layout first thing in the morning, so that the bulletin could be sent out for printing by noon and delivered on time for their company meeting 3 days later.

Important tasks are such as having the designer to change the chart before it is sent to the client for approval when he is back to work from his holiday next week. Putting in the wrong chart simply reflects the project manager's incompetency. You wouldn't want your client to think of you that way.

And the best time to prepare your urgent and important to-do list is at the end of your working day, before you leave the office. Write them down clearly and orderly, so that you immediately know what to do when you step into the office next morning.

Once you have completed the task, cross it off. You will feel a sense of accomplishment when you see that the list for that day getting shorter and shorter.

Hope this will help you remember better at work. :)

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#22: The different ‘faces’ of detail aids

Besides being presented in the conventional booklet form, detail aids can also put on different ‘outfits’.

Flipcharts
Flipcharts are usually made up of 6-12 pieces of cardboard with information printed on single or both sides of every cardboard. They are normally placed on doctors’ desk. There are calendar flipcharts and patient education flipcharts.

Calendar flipcharts
Obviously dates are printed on one side of the cardboards, while product information, figures and data on the other. While doctors use the calendar side to check dates or mark important appointments, they are at the same time reminded of the presence of the product.

Patient education flipcharts
Patient education information printed on one side of the cardboards, where doctors can use them to explain disease to patients, and possibly treatment with the particular product highlighted in the flipchart. Again, as when doctors use the flipchart, they are constantly being reminded of the product.

Folders
Although not considered as a detail aid, but sometimes a conference kit folder – basically a paper folder with a pocket that is used to contain sample of clinical papers and writing pads - can have the relevant product information printed on the insides, hence serving as a simplified detail aid.

Others
In fact, detailing information can be presented in any creative way that you can think of. For example, treatment guidelines and product information printed on the four sides of a cardboard folded in a pyramid shape.

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Special message: Looking for a writing job in London?

Job hunting in modern days no longer limited to reading classifieds in newspapers. You can hunt for jobs online, put up an electronic resume to be browsed by potential employers, or receive job alerts from career service web sites.

Locally, we have job search sites like Jobstreet, JobsDB and JobMarket. For job opportunities in foreign countries, there are also a plethora of job search sites to choose from.

If you are looking for a medical writing, freelance writing or in fact any editorial related jobs in London, you can try your luck with Gumtree.

Under the Jobs page, put in a keyword to search for the job in your mind. Even if there are no relevant opportunities listed under Gumtree, you’ll definitely see some under the sponsored links. Try it yourself and good luck!

A message brought to you by: www.gumtree.com

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#21: Working on a detail aid

As mentioned in my previous post, a detail aid is a marketing tool that helps your clients to promote their products. Therefore, understanding your clients' needs is the very first step to producing effective detail aids that fit nicely into their product marketing strategies.

Getting a clear brief from client
Before you start the project, most likely you will discuss with your client face-to-face on several aspects. You want to get answers on the following questions:

- What are the specific reasons for having this detail aid?
- Who is the target audience?
- What key messages should the detail aid convey?
- Are there any key published papers that support those messages?
- What kind of design style does your client like?
- What are the design elements to be included (eg, colors, images, photos, illustrations, logos)?

Where is the content?
Content in a detail aid comes from a variety of sources pertaining to the particular product.

Usually your client will provide the related materials, such as product monograph, existing detail aids, clinical papers, or abstracts from scientific conferences. Reading these materials carefully will help you understand their product better. You will also be turning some of the data and facts from those materials into content of the detail aid.

At times, materials provided may not be sufficient or up to date, you then need to do some research yourself. Start searching for review papers and clinical papers (the more recent the better) with PubMed.

How to ‘utilize’ the clinical papers
From clinical papers, you can:

1. Extract key results from the abstract.
2. Use the introduction to set the scene for the detail aid.
3. Get in-depth details and figures or charts from the study results.
4. Use the discussion to emphasize the significance of the key results.

Plan your story
The next thing you need to do is to plan a story for the detail aid.

Using a conventional 4-page detail aid as example, this is how you can divide the detail aid into different sections.

Page 1: The detail aid cover, usually carries an eye-catching design and title.

Pages 2 and 3: Spread the content between these two pages. For example, set the scene with an introduction to the disease or treatment concept, followed with drug product characteristics, efficacy and safety, data of which are supported by clinical papers.

Page 4: Keep the top part of this page for conclusion. You can use bulleted points to summarize the key information presented in the main content. Other things like product shot, references and logos are placed at the bottom part of the page.

Depending on the number of pages available, emphasis of the detail aid, or the amount of data you have, you may adjust the story or flow accordingly.

As with other projects, you and the designer are very likely to make a few rounds of changes based on your client’s comments before the detail aid can be finally approved for printing.

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#20: Let’s talk about detail aid

When compared with an event highlight bulletin or patient education brochure, the number of words in a detail aid is much, much fewer. However, the work involved is not. And many times you may need to rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite.

What is a detail aid?
Detail aid is a marketing tool containing promotional messages incorporated with creative elements. It is a sales aid that pharmaceutical sales representatives used to engage doctors in a dialog about a drug. The detail aid can be in a print form (eg, booklet, flip chart) or an electronic document (eg, PDF file, on the web).

The detail aid contains information about a particular product, including clinical data supporting the product’s efficacy and safety, charts and graphs illustrating those clinical data, and also possibly guidelines on dosing and administration of the drug.

Nature and style of a detail aid
Simply put, detail aid is all about promotion. Clients would like to see their product look good in a detail aid – the product must appear at least as good as, if not better than, the competitor’s product, either in terms of efficacy, safety, tolerability or any other factors of relevant significance.

While a detail aid can be produced to introduce a new drug or new treatment concept, it may also serve as a reminder of an existing drug, to provide latest clinical data, or to address specific concerns and issues regarding the use of the drug.

Sometimes clients may just want to focus the whole detail aid on a particular clinical paper by highlighting the positive results reported on their product.

If you have one detail aid sample in front of you, you will probably notice these few characteristics of a detail aid:

- The sentences inside are mostly short.
- Promotional language is maximized.
- Every statement is substantiated with good references.
- Design is creative and eye-catching.

So how do you get started on a detail aid? Well, find out in my next post! :)

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#19: Newsletter - How to go about it?

The process of developing a newsletter is basically the same as any other projects – writing, editing, obtaining approval on text, designing, and getting final approval from client.

The only difference is that you have more preparation work to do.

Get a good briefing from the client
* Ask questions like – How many issues (bimonthly or quarterly)? How many pages? What kind of format (eg, 6 short articles or 3 long articles)? Is there an ad placement?
* Collect relevant materials for background study or to be incorporated into the newsletter.

Plan your work
Based on the frequency of issues and number of pages per issue, estimate the amount of time you need to work with and generate a working timeline.

Source for content
The materials provided by your client are probably not sufficient to fill up the newsletter. You need to do additional research and gather all necessary information and data for its content. Try online resources.

Presentation format
Depending on the nature of the newsletter, it can be, for example:
* Simply showing a number of clinical abstracts.
* Featuring medium-to-long articles, which are in fact a re-write of shorter articles or abstracts put together.
* A combination of an interview with a medical expert, plus some clinical updates (abstracts, conference reports, etc) for some variety.

Lastly, don’t forget to give the newsletter a title!

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#18: Why newsletter?

The target audience of newsletters is usually the healthcare professionals – primary care doctors, medical specialists, pharmacists and nurses.

Briefly, the objectives of having a newsletter are mainly:

To provide updates on a specific health area, drug development or clinical studies
Example: A nutritional company may want to use data from recent clinical studies to emphasize the benefits of certain nutrients in supporting a child’s brain development.

To disseminate disease management knowledge, perhaps based on interviews with key opinion leaders
Example: Knowing how ophthalmologists treat their patients with different ophthalmic conditions indirectly helps to promote particular ophthalmic products.

To introduce a new drug, or simply remind of the existence of a long-existing product (or several products).
Example: A new antihypertensive drug has been launched, so the medical professionals need to read more about the new drug to understand its efficacy, benefits, side effects, etc.

Up next - How to go about a newsletter project.

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