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

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. For over a century the quality of medical writing has been a great concern to both medical professionals and lay readers. According to Dr. Lester King, physician and retired, long-time editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) 'more than a century ago critics deplored the repulsive quality of medical prose' to such an extent that the AMA set up committees to evaluate the problem of medical literature as early as 1851.

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

Kairos in the Rhetoric of Science  

If there is a canonical text in this still-early period of the rhetorical criticism of science, it is the 1953 Nature paper in which James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick proposed the double helix structure for DNA.

Miller, Carolyn R. North Carolina State University (1992). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Rhetoric

The Key to Mayo's Successful Publications? Dave Swanson

Mayo wants to give people actionable, not merely interesting, information.

Smith, Sally. Editorial Eye, The (1997). Articles>Scientific Communication>Publishing>Biomedical

Knowledge Management and Pharmaceutical Development Teams: Using Writing to Guide Science    

This article introduces a way of working with drug development teams that relies on writing as a key development activity. The work of cross-functional teams in pharmaceutical research and development can be guided by the use of tools normally thought of as 'writing' tools. Writing can be used intentionally to help teams develop their thinking, identify and respond to troublesome issues, and develop project documentation efficiently. The article introduces the use of a 'seed document' (one step in a systematic, wholly collaborative, document development process) to establish a conceptual knowledge bank for a development team, and demonstrates how complex documentation can flow naturally out of the evolving seed document. The authors argue that structured writing can help team members, who have varying perspectives and expertise, engage in substantive conflict and reach consensus on team responses to difficult issues.

Bernhardt, Stephen A. and George A. McCulley. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Knowledge Roles in the Workplace: an Example from HVAC

The following paper discusses my experiences with knowledge management at a large pharmaceutical company. I will begin with a brief description of the operation of my department. Then I will go into some detail about the knowledge market at my job. I will continue with a discussion on knowledge mapping and finally the importance of a common language.

STC NJIT Student Chapter (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>Case Studies>Biomedical

Latino Culture and Health Communication  

Many Latinos face barriers to receiving health care in the U.S. These barriers can include lack of English and literacy skills, as well as cultural differences in the communication styles used by Latino patients and non-Latino health care providers and communicators. Simply translating health materials into Spanish may not be enough to overcome these communication barriers. However, research has shown that oral forms of communication such as Spanish-language radio broadcasts, lectures in English-as-a-second-language classes, or small-group discussions led by Spanishspeaking leaders can be very effective in disseminating health information to Latino audiences.

Freeman, Krisandra S. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Scientific Communication>Ethnic>Biomedical

Learning-to-Communicate and Communicating-to-Learn in Veterinary Medicine: A Survey of Writing, Speaking, and Reading in Veterinary Medical Curricula    

This article reports the results of a survey of thirty-one colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States and Canada to identify common writing, speaking, and reading tasks performed by veterinary medical students and practicing veterinarians. From the twenty-seven colleges that responded (87% response rate), we learned that writing, speaking, and reading tasks are assigned in almost every veterinary medical course and that the communication tasks assigned in veterinary medical courses accord well with the communication tasks expected to be performed by practicing veterinarians. Along with these learning-to-communicate tasks, veterinary medical students are also assigned communicating-to-learn tasks. Unlike many of the writing-to-learn tasks associated with writing-across-the-curriculum programs, communicating-to- learn tasks in veterinary medical courses seem concerned with teaching students to think like veterinary medical practitioners. The emphasis on communication in veterinary medical curricula is probably due to some extent to the emphasis on problem-based learning, a curricular innovation popular in veterinary medical education. Problem-based learning requires that instruction be designed around cases or problems to be solved rather than topics or information to be covered. This merging of research and practice in the education of veterinary medical students may offer lessons for the education of professional practitioners in technical communication.

Thompson, Isabelle and Charles M. Hendrix. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Veterinary

Lessons from the Medical Community: Physicians Access Patient Information via PDAs

Genesys, a system of medical care facilities in central Michigan, has introduced an innovative way to couple emerging mobile communication technology with sophisticated medical care. Recently, the hospital system introduced the use of hand-held wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs) by physicians in its 440-bed system, which is made up of three local hospitals merged into one.

Ficorelli, Cindy. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Information Design>Wireless Web>Biomedical

Lessons Learned from Building a HealthWeb Site: Implications for Technical Communicators  

The presentation reports on an iterative design process using formative evaluations to develop a user-oriented nutrition education Web site, 5-a-Day, The Rio Grande Way, for a rural multicultural population in the Upper Rio Grande River Valley in Southern Colorado and Northern NewMexico. The presentation will outline the overall project and then focus on three studies. Study One, used a card-sorting process, to generate the basic structure and labeling of the Web sites. Study Two, using verbal protocol analysis and a questionnaire evaluated the prototype for the Web site. Study Three, using verbal protocol analysis, evaluated the redesigned Web site. The presentation will share the lessons learned in developing the Web sites and the share the lessons learned for conducting usability testing and technical communications. The presentation will close by highlighting the technical communication and usability lessons learned.

Zimmerman, Donald E., Carol Akerelrea and David Buller. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Biomedical

Look Who's Talking: Teaching and Learning Using the Genre of Medical Case Presentations    

In a pediatric teaching hospital, the authors examined 16 novice medical case presentations that were classified as instances of a hybrid apprenticeship genre. In contrast to strict school and workplace genres, an apprenticeship genre results from the sometimes competing activity systems of student education and patient care. The authors examined these novice case presentations for the amount and patterns of time devoted to student learning and expert teaching, the difficulties created for participants, the sometimes misunderstood implicit messages delivered by experts, and the opportunities to address educational objectives. This study offers professional communication researchers a model that combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies to assess the effects of competing activity systems in the development of communication expertise.

Spafford, M.M., Schryer, C. F., Mian, M. and Lingard, L. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Case Studies

Making Disability Visible: How Disability Studies Might Transform the Medical and Science Writing Classroom      

This article describes how disability studies can be used in a medical and science writing class to critically examine the assumptions of scientific discourse.  An emerging, interdisciplinary field, disability studies draws on feminist, postmodern, and post-colonial theory and extends their critiques to the medicalization of disability.  Deconstructing the medical model of disability helps students understand how science is socially constructed.  After conceptualizing disability studies, this essay discusses sample disability-related classroom activities, readings, and writing assignments.

Wilson, James C. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Education>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Making the Rules: A Day in the Life of a Regulatory Drafter

David Spicer, Senior Regulatory Drafting Officer with the CFIA, discusses the regulatory drafting process, writing complex texts in the context of federal plain language principles, and what it’s like to write the words that define and protect Canadians.

Boucher, Lorie. Writer's Block (2003). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Masters, Slaves, and Infant Mortality: Language Challenges for Technical Editing      

In this article we explore how some contemporary language usage presents challenges for technical editing. Drawing on scholarship in the rhetoric of science and in critical linguistics, we argue that language does affect our perception of reality. Consequently, the language used in some technical documents needs to be reconsidered or even challenged by technical editors. Present textbooks on technical editing do not directly confront this issue, though some scholars have begun to challenge the use of terms such as 'studgun.' We conclude by demonstrating how a critical analysis of metaphors in everyday technical documents would help students question these language choices and draw attention to the consequences of using them.

Graves, Heather Brodie and Roger Graves. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Editing>Biomedical

MD:Notes: Designing an Information System for Public Hospitals  

By its very nature, an EMR (electronic medical record) is not subject to the physical limitations of a paper chart. Many clinics can access a patient’s EMR at once. EMRs are never in transit or waiting to be filed. For these reasons, using all-electronic records would greatly alleviate the problem of missing charts, and result in more efficient patient care.

Ahern, Katherine, Zachary Gillen and Jill Blue Lin. University of California Berkeley (2008). Articles>Information Design>Biomedical

The Median Isn't the Message

Many people make an unfortunate and invalid separation between heart and mind, or feeling and intellect. In some contemporary traditions, abetted by attitudes stereotypically centered on Southern California, feelings are exalted as more "real" and the only proper basis for action -- if it feels good, do it -- while intellect gets short shrift as a hang-up of outmoded elitism.

Gould, Stephen Jay. Edward Tufte. Articles>Scientific Communication>Statistics>Biomedical

Medical Communications

In order to promote the results of their medical research to other healthcare professionals, researchers must publish their work. This is usually done by publishing manuscripts in medical journals and by presenting papers and posters at conferences. Medical writers may write these documents on behalf of the researchers that carried out the studies. This is termed ghostwriting. This is most common when studies are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, but academic researchers sometimes also use the services of medical writers. The medical writer and researchers collaborate to determine what should be written and the researchers gain from the expert writing skills of the medical writer.

Dianthus. Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Medical Tables, Graphics and Photographs: How They Work    

An examination of a random sample of four medical journals--The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine--reveals that one-fifth of the space of articles in medical science is devoted to an average of three tables and three flow charts, graphs, or photographs. Given these figures, the absence of discussion of visuals in the literature on medical communication may seem puzzling. But the puzzle is easily solved: our basic education gives us a coherent vocabulary for talking about prose, but no coherent vocabulary for talking about tables and visuals. Once we have this vocabulary in hand, we make another step in the direction of an explanation of the nature of communication in the medical sciences. We may note that understanding the meaning of a medical article is not just a consequence of understanding its texts; it is a consequence of understanding all its meaningful components working together--verbal, tabular, visual.

Gross, Alan G. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Biomedical

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

Medical Usability: How to Kill Patients Through Bad Design

A field study identified twenty-two ways that automated hospital systems can result in the wrong medication being dispensed to patients. Most of these flaws are classic usability problems that have been understood for decades.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Usability>Biomedical

Medical Writers Give Career Changers Plans of Action

Those who are interested in breaking into medical writing received the inside scoop from L. Megan Day and Dr. Susan Dakin, the panelists at the chapter meeting on January 9 at Dreyfus Auditorium at Research Triangle Institute. Day has a bachelor's degree in chemistry, a master's degree in anatomy and has written for pharmaceutical companies for 10 years. Dakin has a bachelor's degree in biology and psychology and a Ph.D. in zoology. Self-employed since 1984, her specialties are scientific writing and proposal writing.

Harvey, Rachel A. Carolina Communique (2003). Careers>Writing>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Medical Writing Forum

Forum for the discussion of medical writing.

WritersWrite.com. Resources>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Methods of Knowledge Transfer: an Example from the Pharmaceutical Industry

Knowledge management plays a very critical role in the day-to-day operations of my organization. The transfer of knowledge is shared verbally through casual conversations, meetings, conference calls, brainstorming sessions, and voice mail. Written communication appears daily in the form of memos, sticky notes, and e-mail. Documents such as records, change control forms, policies and standard operating procedures must be retained by my company. These papers often contain business critical data that needs to be stored and referenced at a later time. In order to manage this extensive list of documents, there are several management systems implemented throughout the corporation. Areas such as Human Resources, Finance, Clinical Research and Content Management utilize these systems to support their business activities. As a content specialist in the Pharmaceutical industry, I am responsible for supporting some of these systems. Some of the content that I support can be considered simply data. This type of material includes image files, such as GIFs and JPEGs, javascripts and customized ASP or JAVA files. These files are not referenced by employees and are used to support the functionality of the management systems. The primary system used throughout the organization for managing content is Documentum.

Green, Eugene. STC NJIT Student Chapter (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>Case Studies>Biomedical

The Missing Metaphor    

To determine the metaphor that represents cloning, a contemporary scientific revolution, this study examines articles published in Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Science, and Time that describe the cloning of the sheep Dolly. A plethora of figurative language may be garnered from these articles, and this study describes a number of them: metaphor (dead, natural, and technical), simile, hyperbole, personification, irony, cliché, paronomasia, antithesis, metonymy, anthimera, oxymoron, the rhetorical question, and analogy. The significance and relationship to cloning are explicated. The article concludes that the figures do not support a central metaphor. Further research is suggested to determine if the lack of a metaphor is a fluke or a trend in the development of scientific research and what the difference may be between scientific and technical metaphor.

Giles, Timothy D. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Tropes