Health and Safety Information for Specialized Vocational Audiences  

Using examples from commercial fishing and farming, this article shows how models of health beliefs and risk communication can inform the creation of health and safety materials and campaigns for specialized vocational audiences. These models state that risk communication efforts must balance strong statements of risk with equally strong statements of ways to reduce or avoid risk if they are to motivate change. Audience research can help communicators address attitudes that impair workers’ perceptions of risk, as well as workplace practices, norms, and conditions that the limit the methods that can be used to reduce risk.

Freeman, Krisandra S. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Writing>Biomedical>Risk Communication

Issues in Medical Writing

In this country several factors influence the medical writing of medical professionals, professionals in a field that prides itself on combining art with science. The fairly exclusive culture of the medical professional, the power and highly competitive nature of publishing within that discourse community, and the need for accurate, reliable information for immediate use in solving problems, and a strong inclination to put medical 'facts' first and communication of those facts second create interesting dynamics and rhetorical complexities in medical writing.

Taaffe, Maura. Michigan Tech University (1998). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Writing

Medical Technical Writing  

In a multibillion-dollar-per-yearcindustry, medical technical writers are well situated between companies that manufacture drugs and medical equipment and the federal government, which regulates the manufacture of drugs and medical equipment. The government requires that these companies produce specific types of documents, which must be of a very high standard. This situation creates lucrative opportunities for technical writers.

English, Wayne A. Intercom (2003). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Technical Writing

Workplace Genres as Outcomes of Affiliated Professions' Interests and Practices  

Often the first of many documents written about patients, the Emergency Medical Service's run report genre is a preprinted form on which prehospital care providers record the events of an emergency. These forms are important analytically since they represent the evolutionary outcome of the practices and interests of the multiple professions engaged in caring for critically ill or injured patients. Relative positions of power, authority, status, and autonomy among a set of affiliated professions can be examined by studying the historical evolution of a shared workplace genre such as the run report.

Munger, Roger H. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Genre>Biomedical

Medical Writing

This resource contains information on medical journalism. The material explains the objectives of medical journalism and its applications in the media. Moreover, this resource demonstrates ways writers can accurately translate complex, scientific literature into layperson's terms.

Ardaugh, Brent. Purdue University (2008). Articles>Writing>Journalism>Biomedical

Issues in Medical Writing

There is no doubt that medical communications is a very young field. The clearest picture of the issues, problems, and needs of a discourse community with as complex a membership as that of medical communicators comes from the AMWA materials. Drawing boundaries between academic vs. medical professional vs. medical communicator seems pointless because of the nature of the medical communication. It also seems to be an area ripe for study by those interested in power issues in rhetoric and certainly in research in communication systems. Medical communication really is both the most and least specialized area of technical communication.

Taaffe, Maura. Michigan Tech University (1998). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Biomedical

How Do People at FDA Read Documents On-Screen?

With the substantial move to submitting electronic documents versus paper documents to FDA, it is useful to pause and consider how a regulatory reviewer actually reads a large complex technical document on screen.

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Scientific Communication>Regulatory Writing>Biomedical

What You Need to Know to Create High Quality Electronic Documents

Submitting regulatory documents electronically to the FDA is beneficial for sponsors and regulatory reviewers, but the use of electronic submissions brings with it a set of problems associated with how these documents are read by reviewers.

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Usability>Regulatory Writing>Biomedical