The Importance of Quality Control in Medical Writing

It’s hard being right all the time.

In fact, we aren’t. Even the best medical writer makes the occasional mistake. It’s challenging to ensure that your project’s content, style, and format are high quality.

That’s where our good friends the quality control (QC) specialists come in. QC specialists look at a document with “fresh eyes” that can spot mistakes an author may overlook. They may also have specific expertise in editing styles, data formatting, data presentation, or document design.

That’s why QC reviews are critical to medical writers.

Quality Control Review of Safety Narratives: Beyond Checking the Data

This article is based on content presented by Kent Steinriede, MS, at the AMWA Medical Writing & Communication Conference. It was originally published in the AMWA Journal.

“Find out what the story is,” Kent Steinriede stressed throughout his session about the quality control (QC) review of safety narratives. Steinriede highlighted the elements of the safety narrative, source documents and tools used in QC review, and tips for best QC work.

Everyone Leads: What You Need to Know About Servant Leadership

What is a servant leader? Servant leaders know their employees as whole people and strive to be a positive force in their lives. They build a first-hand understanding of the workplace. They create teams, address disparity, and create a vision for the growth of individuals and business. While most leaders are considered bosses or supervisors, all of us can serve as leaders to our colleagues and to peers as well. To start the path to leadership, it’s important to understand the qualities needed to act as a servant leader.

How to Find a Medical Writing Mentor and Become a Mentor

I don’t make my living as a writer; let’s get that out of the way right now. However, I recruit writers and managers/directors of groups of medical writers, and I’ve been a mentor to many people. I’ve seen people succeed and fail, overcome obstacles and get back up again. A mentor or two (or more) can catapult an average career into a stellar career if you align yourself as early as possible with people who will be in your corner as you navigate your future.

Should Freelance Medical Writers Specialize?

This article was written by freelance medical writers Lori De Milto, Elizabeth L. Smith, and Cathryn D. Evans. It was originally published in the AMWA Journal.

Pros and Cons of Specializing

There are good reasons to specialize in certain types of projects and/or therapeutic areas—and good reasons not to specialize. In general, if you’re a new freelance, you should focus more broadly to attract more clients. As you gain experience, you can narrow your focus, which is what I did.

The Proofreading Solution for Perfectionists

Once Upon a Time…

When I wrote my first manuscript 23 years ago, I had to do all the formatting manually. Many of you probably still remember that feeling of sand under the eyelids after manual imputation and formatting of a long reference list, and cursing badly if, at the end of the day, the text contained 33 citations while the reference list included 35 positions…