Medical Writers
Medical writers are also known as biomedical communicators, biomedical writers, or health science writers or communicators. Writers and editors who also have an interest or education in health sciences have tremendous opportunities to share their skills and abilities in a variety of publications and media.
Duties, Activities, and Scope of Practice
Medical writers can write for medical professionals or the general public. The responsibilities will change depending on the audience. For the medical profession, the writer is usually delivering facts and statistics and must be very detail-oriented and specific. For the general audience, the medical writer interprets information and presents it in a language that can be understood by those who don't understand medical terminology.
Medical professionals — such as physicians, dentists, nurses, and other scientists — usually write research reports and most medical textbooks. Medical writers may assist with these as ghostwriters or editors.
Medical writers may write television or radio health news reports, drug package inserts for pharmaceutical companies, or technical instructions for the use and maintenance of medical equipment. They may translate medical and scientific discoveries for professionals as well as for laymen. They may also write for publications for hospitals, clinics, and other facilities, or patient teaching materials, or question-and-answer columns for newspapers.
Education and Training
Education requirements can vary depending on the job. Usually a minimum of a bachelor's degree is needed, but in many cases advanced degrees are required. Some employers may want a degree in a health science with a minor in journalism or English, and others may require the opposite. Competency in the use of computers as well as publishing software is also often a requirement.
Licensure/Certification
The American Medical Writers Association offers a program called the Core Curriculum. This program consists of instruction in six areas designed to improve the skills of the medical writer. These areas are editing and writing, audiovisuals, pharmaceuticals, freelancing, teaching and public relations, and advertising. The AMWA awards certificates to those who successfully complete the courses.
They also offer advanced certificates to those who complete advanced curriculum courses and meet employment requirements.
Work Settings and Salaries
Many medical writers freelance, and others work directly for magazines, journals, newspapers, television, and radio. They write for textbook publishers, medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies, Web sites, and medical schools, hospitals, clinics, and physicians.
The salaries are as varied as the opportunities and can range from $25,000 to over $100,000 per year, depending upon employer, education, and experience.
Career Potential and Additional Information
Advances in technology and new discoveries in medical science happen almost every day and need to be communicated to the health care profession as well as to the general public. The Internet makes information available almost as soon as it happens and opens many avenues for disseminating the information. The need for medical writers and researchers in all areas will continue to grow, but the competition for jobs (especially the highest paying and most prestigious) will continue to be stiff.
To find out more about becoming a medical writer, contact the American Medical Writers Association. Their Web site is
Alert
Promoting wellness is a focus of the health care industry. As the general public has adopted the need to improve their own health status, they have come to demand more and more information. They expect it to be current, timely, accurate, and written in a language (or terminology) that they can readily understand.
