Toolkit for New Medical Writers

Medical writing is a great career! The work is interesting and often lucrative, and the demand for medical writers is high. Few people start out to be medical writers; most of us fall into it. Some of us have scientific or medical degrees (e.g., MD, PharmD, PhD in a scientific field) and have worked in the field (e.g., as an academic, bench scientist, physician, pharmacist) or in administration and somehow find ourselves doing medical communications work. Some of us have Journalism or English degrees, work in communications, and end up writing about health and medicine.

De Milto, Lori. AMWA (2004). Resources>Writing>Technical Writing>Biomedical

Working as a Medical Writer

The term "medical writing" encompasses different kinds of work for clients in media, government, and industry. Pharmaceutical companies, medical-device manufacturers, and clinical-research organizations (CROs) all employ writers to prepare regulatory documents used to seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for drugs and devices. Medical writers help doctors write research articles, monographs, and reviews on medical topics. Continuing medical education (CME) companies employ medical writers to produce educational materials and slide kits that doctors and nurses use to prepare for license renewals. Medical writers produce sales training materials, press releases for industry, and fact sheets or Web site materials for government organizations. Medical writers also write about research discoveries for medical journals, Web sites, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, and any other medium that includes coverage of health and medical issues.

Webb, Sarah. Science (2007). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing>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

Why the Focus on Review Practices?

improving document review practices is of great concern to many in the biopharmaceutical industry. The reason for this interest can be explained by the following observations which provide some insight as to why review is, or needs to be, a central focus for improving knowledge propagation and dissemination.

Mahajan, Jessica. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Scientific Communication>Technical Editing>Biomedical

Merck's Open Letters and the Teaching of Ethos    

In fall 2004, Merck faced a significant threat to the company's public image because of the withdrawal of VIOXX, and Merck executives were forced to defend the company's actions, its motivation for those actions, and its reputation. Confronted with enormous rhetorical challenges, Merck tried to generate public goodwill toward the company by creating a personalized image of a corporate giant worthy of understanding, sympathy, and trust. Open letters released during the initial response to the VIOXX crisis rely on the intimacy of interpersonal communication and demonstrate to students of business communication arguments based on ethos.

Griffin, Frank. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Biomedical

The Rhetorical Helix of the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries: Strategies of Transformation Through Definition, Description and Ingratiation    

Transformation wields great power. As individuals, we can define who we are and describe those essential characteristics that make us unique. Our view of ourselves, however, may not necessarily align with the opinions of those around us. Thus, the ability to reinvent oneself, to change how others see us and react to us, is critical for the process of ingratiation.

Gretton, Linda Burak. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Business Communication>Biomedical

A Grounded Investigation of Genred Guidelines in Cancer Care Deliberations    

Genred documents facilitate collaboration and workplace practices in many ways—particularly in the medical workplace. This article represents a portion of a larger grounded investigation of how medical professionals invoke a wide range of rhetorical strategies when deliberating about complex patient cases during weekly, multidisciplinary deliberations called Tumor Board meetings. Specifically, the author explores the role of one key document in oncological practice, the Standard of Care document. Each Standard of Care document (one for every known cancer) presents a set of national guidelines intended to standardize the treatment of cancer. Tumor Board participants invoke these guidelines as evidence for or against particular future action. In order to better understand how genred, generalizable guidelines like Standard of Care documents afford decision making amid uncertainty, the author conducts a temporal and contextual analysis of the document's use during deliberations as well as a modified Toulminian analysis of a representative sample. Results suggest that, while on its own the document achieves an authoritative, charter-like purpose, it fails to make explicit a link between individual patients' experiences and the profession's expectations for how to act. Implications for how genred, generalizable guidelines—given the way they encourage certain ways of seeing over others—organize and authorize work are discussed, and a modified Toulminian approach to understanding the relationship between claim and evidence in multimodal texts is modeled.

Teston, Christa B. Written Communication (2009). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Genre

Ethical or Unethical Persuasion? The Rhetoric of Offers to Participate in Clinical Trials    

Based on a sample of 22 oncology encounters, this article presents a discourse analysis of positive, neutral, or negative valence in the presentation of three elements of informed consent—purpose, benefits, and risks—in offers to participate in clinical trials. It is found that physicians regularly present these key elements of consent with a positive valence, perhaps blurring the distinction between clinical care and clinical research in trial offers. The authors argue that the rhetoric of trial offers constructs and reflects the complex relationships of two competing ethical frameworks—contemporary bioethics and professional medical ethics—both aimed at governing the discourse of trial offers. The authors consider the status of ethical or unethical persuasion within each framework, proposing what is called the best-option principle as the ethical principle governing trial offers within professional medical ethics.

Barton, Ellen and Susan Eggly. Written Communication (2009). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Ethics

Gestural Enthymemes: Delivering Movement in 18th- and 19th-Century Medical Images    

This article contributes to recent efforts to add life and movement to rhetorical studies by focusing on the representation of movement in medical texts. More specifically, this study examines medical texts, illustrations, and photographs involving movement by Johann Casper Lavater, G. B. Duchenne de Bologne, Charles Darwin, and Étienne-Jules Marey. By identifying how figures of speech epitomize arguments, this examination follows a shift in the way arguments about movement are represented, a shift from static, visual arguments to gestural enthymemes, as they are named, arguments that are made in movements; these shifts are linked to developments in medical technologies involving photography. These arguments about and using movement attempt to “capture” or express the moments within which life, through the embodied gesture, resides. This extended understanding of the enthymeme broadens current understanding of argument to include delivery, links medical and rhetorical discursive practices, and informs how we make sense of and study the relationships between technology and rhetoric both in the past and present.

Newman, Sara. Written Communication (2009). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>History

Exploring the Concept of “Profession” for Organizational Communication Research: Institutional Influences in a Veterinary Organization    

Recent scholarship has argued that the concept of profession is undertheorized and accepted uncritically. The authors address this issue by summarizing the characteristics of professions and articulating professions as institutionalized occupations. Their study of a veterinary call center suggests that profession influences the workplace through (a) knowledge providing, seeking, and sharing; (b) self-management of behavior, emotions, and productivity; (c) internal sources of motivation; (d) a service orientation; (e) the invocation of field standards; and (f) participation in a knowledge community beyond the workplace. Although these features may be distinguishable analytically, they are unified in the experience of work. Moreover, the close match in this case between the service orientations of the profession and of the organization strengthened the workers' commitment and thus the legitimacy of the organization.

Lammers, John C. and Mattea A. Garcia. Management Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Business Communication>Biomedical>Professionalism

Seeing and Listening: A Visual and Social Analysis of Optometric Record-Keeping Practices  

This article investigates the contribution visual rhetoric and rhetorical genre studies (RGS) can make to health care education and communication genres. Through a visual rhetorical analysis of a patient record used in an optometry teaching clinic, this article illustrates that a genre's visual representations provide significant insights into the social action of that genre. These insights are deepened by an insider analysis of the patient record that highlights how content analyses of visual designs need to be elaborated by contextual considerations. A combined visual rhetoric and RGS analysis shows that clinical novices learn to interpret the record's visual cues to safely traverse the complex requirements of this apprenticeship genre. The article demonstrates that visual rhetoric research can meaningfully contribute to the understanding of genres by presenting an enriched contextual analysis achieved by consulting with context insiders.

Varpio, Lara, Marlee M. Spafford, Catherine F. Schryer and Lorelei Lingard. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Documentation>Biomedical>History

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

Playing Doctor? Trends in Health Information Seeking on the Web

Evolving and improving technology can improve health and healthcare in a myriad of ways. Equipment that is designed with the user, task, and environment in mind will reduce errors and improve outcomes. New designs make it possible for patients to do things for themselves that previously only doctors could.

Straub, Kathleen. UI Design Newsletter (2007). Articles>Information Design>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Can Two Established Information Models Explain the Information Behaviour of Visually Impaired People Seeking Health and Social Care Information?    

This study provides a new and valuable insight into the information behaviour of visually impaired people, as well as testing the applicability of a specific and generic information model to the information behaviour of visually impaired people seeking health and social care information.

Beverley, C.A., P.A. Bath and R. Barber. Journal of Documentation (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Accessibility>Biomedical

A Grounded Theory Model of On-Duty Critical Care Nurses' Information Behavior: The Patient-Chart Cycle of Informative Interactions     

Critical care nurses' work is rich in informative interactions. Although there have been post-hoc self report studies of nurses' information seeking, there have been no observational studies of the patterns of their on-duty information behavior. This paper seeks to address this issue.

McKnight, Michelynn. Journal of Documentation (2007). Articles>Information Design>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Use and Outcome of Online Health Information Services: A Study Among Scottish Population    

The purpose of this paper is to report on a research designed to find out how people in Scotland access and use online health information.

Harbour, Jenny and Gobinda G. Chowdhury. Journal of Documentation (2007). Articles>Information Design>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

My Journey from Technical Writing to Pharma Quality Management

Like most people who entered the technical communication profession in India in the mid to late 1990s, I too became a technical writer more by accident than by design. I enjoyed my technical writing career thoroughly, but slowly moved away, and a decade later, I now find myself heading the Quality Management function at a multi-national clinical research and technology company in India. The career paths of no two individuals are similar. And yet, there are always some common themes in successful transitions from one career path to another.

Narasimha, Kumar. Indus (2009). Careers>Scientific Communication>Technical Writing>Biomedical

Health at High Speed: Broadband Internet Access, Health Communication, and the Digital Divide    

The study reported here explored the broadband digital divide in the context of Internet- based health communication. Inequities in the adoption of broadband technology were examined and the comprehensive model of health information seeking (CMIS) was used to make predictions about the implications of broadband Internet for personal health. Data from a population-based survey conducted by the National Cancer Institute in 2005 (N = 5,586) were analyzed. Results showed that those who were younger, more educated, and lived in an urban area were more likely to have a broad- band Internet connection in their home. Furthermore, consistent with the CMIS, those with a broadband connection were more likely to use the Internet for health-related information seeking and communication than those with a dial-up connection.

Rains, Stephen A. Communication Research (2008). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Centralized Translation Processes: Overcoming Global Regulatory and Multilingual Content Challenges

Accurate translations of clinical trial documents play an important role in meeting global product demands. Mistakes from poorly done translations can result in product delays, cost overruns, malpractice or product liability lawsuits, and confused subjects / patients.

Kassatkina, Inna. SlideShare (2007). Presentations>Content Management>Translation>Biomedical

Localizing Medical Information for U.S. Spanish-Speakers    

Examines focus group data about Spanish speakers' preferences for health communication. Contrasts known preferences of Mexican Spanish speakers with Spanish speakers in the U.S. Makes recommendations from the data for communicating health information to Spanish speakers within the U.S.

Germaine-Madison, Nicolet St. Technical Communication Online (2009). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Localization