Medical Writing Distance Learning: Medical Writing involves writing of medical and scientific documents primarily for the pharmaceutical and the medical community. It involves writing of documents for  pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, healthcare websites, journals, magazines etc.  The kind of documents that medical writers typically write are study reports, case reports for publications, study protocols, investigator brochures, patient education material, drug package inserts etc.

When applying for any freelance writing jobs remember the competitive nature of the business. It isn’t hard to land the perfect jobs, but it takes a little preparation. Your aim is to have enough work to maintain your lifestyle and express yourself through your writing skills. With the help of a few tips you will be able to stay on top of your freelance writing goals. Read over these points and remember to put them into practice and see the benefits in your writing career. It may feel like a lot of tedious work, but the rewards are worth the few minutes it takes to get completely organized. Allow yourself about a half an hour for each job, to implement the steps below.

Ten Principles for Effective Writing - There is a debate as to whether you can actually teach someone to write. Some believe that you must be born with the ability. Even if you were born with an innate talent for putting words in a pleasing order, it may be possible to learn how to do it better.

An English professor of 40 years named F.L. Lucas; (1894-1967) wrote a book on the subject entitled Style (Cassell, 1955) where he outlined 10 principles to improve one’s writing skills. No matter the reason for your putting pen to paper, it would be wise to read these points and keep them in your writing arsenal.

The first and maybe the most important principle Lucas describes is brevity. We will say no more about that. He cites clarity as the second rule of good writing. It is no good to expound on any topic if no one knows what you are talking about. State your meaning clearly. Your job as a writer is to inform your readers without unnecessary muddle. Communication comes in third on our list. Lucas illustrates this principle with humor. Without communication we are all basically talking to ourselves.

If you have ever thought of becoming a Medical Writer you are not alone. Medical writing is a fast growing, lucrative career that many people find challenging and rewarding. Unlike other occupations, most people arrive at it through different channels. Several medical writers are scientists first. After an education and time in the work force in either the scientific, pharmaceutical or health industry, they find that they enjoy the writing aspects of their jobs and decide to take it to the next level.

There are a few who do start out as writers or journalists and end up pursuing a career in medical writing. For those who start out this way they need to acquire some medical writing training to enhance their writing skills.

A friend of mine in the early days of her career as a writer only focused on writing, without being concerned about whether she had the required skills or the talent to become a writer. She believed that if she continuously kept herself busy writing, sooner or later some of it would eventually turn out good. This tremendous focus on the act of writing finally did get her the awards and honors that come to mind when we think of ‘real’ writers.

This has led me believe that making writing a habit along with some more effort can turn any person into a good writer. Following are some suggestions that will help you become a better writer:

One of the finest Medical Writing Institute that provides training in Medical Writing is James Lind Institute (JLI). If are looking for online medical writing training programs that can be completed from any location by harnessing the power of internet, James Lind Institutes online medical writing programs are your best bet. JLI’s medical writing training covers training related to basic writing skills, pharmaceutical regulatory writing, medico marketing writing, academic writing and other important areas necessary for a medical writer. You have the option to choose between an Advanced Training Program that covers both Clinical Research & Medical Writing, and a standalone medical writing program which is the Professional Diploma in Medical Writing. 

It is essential for you as a medical writer to learn and polish your proofreading and editing skills, even though a senior writer or an editor is available and will edit and proofread your work before it is submitted to the client.

A systematic approach for editing and proofreading:

- Helps you to find and correct unnoticed language errors.

- Gives you a chance to recheck, rearrange and polish your work.

- Helps you to enhance readability of your writing.

- Reflects professionalism by ensuring accurate and consistent work.

Writing educational reading material for patients and public at large can be an interesting break from the technical and scientific writing, written specifically for an audience with varied medical backgrounds. So what makes writing patient education brochures interesting? Well, a couple of things:

Different Source Content

Writing a patient education brochure is very different from technical writing. It involves searching information from all possible channels and resources, unlike technical writing where most of the content comes from lectures, presentations, scientific articles, research papers and event highlight bulletins.

The client might provide the basic information and material, but assembling the information in the brochure requires a good internet search for latest facts and data relevant to the topic. Journals and magazines available in the company library may also prove helpful.

In the earlier post we discussed that medical writers may be involved in creating post-event CD-ROM’s. Let us look at some simple steps that you should follow when working with CD-ROM’s:

A good post-event CD-ROM contains the following, so try to incorporate most of these in your CD:

• Introduction of the product or company, title of the event, & introduction of the speakers; preferably all in a simple and professional animated format.
• A complete footage of speakers with the presentation slides and audio in sync.
• Footage on the Q & A session, which may be clipped to relevant small individual clips.
• Some extra material such as slide presentations presented during the event, product information in PDF format, event pictures, CV’s of the speakers etc.

The increasing use of technologies such as multimedia devices and the internet has opened up new opportunities for the pharmaceutical and communications companies to achieve multiple objectives such as product marketing, creating company training programs, communicating with potential and existing consumers, conducting CME (continuing medical education) programs for physicians etc.

Some electronic projects (non-print publications) that may require a medical writers contribution in content development are: