What Are the Medical Writing Skills You Need to Succeed?

People take different paths in their journeys to become medical writers. Some are scientists and clinicians who come to the field with medical or scientific backgrounds. Others are professional writers who want to leverage their background in communications to write about science and medicine. 

Package Inserts: A Medical Writer’s Primer

Medical writers can find vast amounts of information about prescription drugs and biologics from a variety of resources, such as scientific publications, electronic databases, and free online content from sites such as drugs.com.

A challenge for medical writing professionals is sorting through these resources to find information that is accurate and acceptable to use as a reference source when writing content that will ultimately go through medical‑legal review. 

What to Expect When You Hire a Freelance Writer or Editor

The hunt for freelance medical writers and editors begins when you have a need for a communication professional who can help you complete or improve your writing project. Sometimes you have an urgent need, and you don’t know where to turn.

Your first call will be to trusted freelancers, people you have worked with before. As any client working on a tight timeline knows, chasing down new freelancers in a pinch is exhausting, time consuming, and stressful. The key is to cultivate successful partnerships so you have a pool of freelancers who are eager to work with you when you need them. Why are they eager to work with you? 

What Is an Academic Grant Writer/Editor?

An academic grant writer is a medical communicator who is hired for their medical writing or editing skills to support either an academic scientist or a department (typically within a research institution or university/school).

Grant writers and editors help to ensure that research grant proposals satisfy the funder’s guidelines and provide a clear, concise, evidence-based message about why the research should be funded.

Writing Excellent Conference and Meeting Abstracts

How do medical communicators distill the results of complex studies into just a few hundred words? 

Many times, they do it by writing conference or meeting abstracts.

The Basics of Freelance Contracts for Medical Communicators

How familiar are you with the language of freelance contracts? Do you know how to spot a problematic contract clause?

As a freelance medical communicator, you are running your own business. Even if you’d rather be writing than wading through legalese, learning the basics of contracts is part of the job.