Knowledge Management and Communication in the Life Sciences

This Knowledge Management and Communication in the Life Sciences Blog is for those interested in medical, pharmaceutical, biological, and chemical research and development: the world of life science research.

Bernick, Philip. Brainery.net (2009). Resources>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication>Blogs

Defining Quality for Documentation Practices

Defining quality means developing expectations or standards of quality. Standards can be developed for inputs, processes, or outcomes; they can be clinical or administrative. Unfortunately when it comes to documentation, many companies only focus on the standards related to time and accuracy. Quality standards should be in place for all aspect of the documentation development pathway—moving from planning, to authoring, to reviewing.

Cuppan, Gregory. Brainery.net (2009). Resources>Business Communication>Documentation>Standards

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

Medical and Pharmaceutical Writers Must Use Knowledge Management Tools To Create Their Documents

Full-time writers in the life sciences must see themselves as much more than just writers. Writers must see themselves as knowledge managers, not merely the managers of data or the “shapers” of information. Writers must make use of knowledge management tools to help them represent the explicit, and more importantly, the tacit knowledge of a development or research project.

Cuppan, Gregory. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Knowledge Management>Regulatory Writing

Rethinking the Design of PowerPoint Slides: Claim-Evidence Structure

One of the criticisms leveled against technical PPT slides is the overuse (perhaps abuse is a better descriptor) of the topic/subtopic organization structure. One of the simple ways PPT presentations can be improved is to follow the BLUF principle. Bottom Line Up Front.

Cuppan, Gregory. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Presentations>Business Communication>Microsoft PowerPoint

Markers That Help Measure Communication Quality

In our consultancy, we have developed a set of terms that represent what we consider to be an effective set of descriptive markers. Markers that help to measure how well a document is communicating. We characterize our set of markers as “Document Standards” for all forms of technical and scientific writing.

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Documentation>Quality>Standards

How Do You Measure Communication Quality?

Most people involved with authoring and reviewing process do not have good markers to inform them of the overall communication quality of a document. So without good markers they are left to utilize really poor markers to help them measure document quality.

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Documentation>Quality>Standards

The McCulley/Cuppan Standards Development Process We Use with Our Clients

People use different terms to describe quality and if they actually use the same term, then it is highly unlikely that they will use the same definition for the term. So the first problem faced in the review process is the vocabulary used to describe quality attributes in a document.

Cuppan, Gregory. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Documentation>Quality>Standards

Musings: What do you Mean Knowledge Management and Negotiating Meaning in Technical and Scientific Reports

"Meaning must be negotiated and confirmed." This is an important concept not just for developing a working definition for a term like knowledge management, but it is also an approach critical to the conveyance of knowledge in scientific and technical report.

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication

Improving the Practice of Document Review

Document reviews should be used as a tool to build quality into research and technical reports. In most handbooks for professional writers, review is recommended for clear and simple reasons: it is intended to identify problems and suggest improvements that enable an organization to produce documents that accomplish its goals and meet readers’ needs.

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Documentation>Quality>Assessment

Unproductive Review Practices: Why They’re Still Around Even Though People Know Better…

I have a theory about why we continually see subject matter expertise for review applied to the task of copy-editing, and why that practice is so hard to change. The theory is built around how we: learn to write, learn to review, and ask for review.

Bernick, Philip. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Documentation>Editing>SMEs

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

What’s Wrong with PowerPoint as a Document Authoring Tool?

It is our position that use of PowerPoint for document planning negatively impacts all potential collaborative authoring and review outcomes. Though PowerPoint is commonly used because it is a familiar tool, it is not the most effective tool for managing knowledge either intellectually or financially.

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Project Management>Technical Writing>Microsoft PowerPoint

What Reviewers Need to Know About the Regulatory Reader, Continued

One of the big problems in document review is that reviewers often fail to recognize that their principal job as a reviewer is to act as a surrogate for the document end-user, in this case the regulatory reader. In this article, we offer a characterization of the reading style of the regulatory reader which is useful to keep in mind when reviewing any document or group of documents to be submitted to pharmaceutical and medical device regulatory agencies.

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

Why Is It That Teams Do A Poor Job of Post-Writing-Project Analysis?

Project teams may recognize that reviews are not working well, though the may not understand why. A valuable solution is to conduct ”lessons learned” analysis following the end of the project. Too often, though, post-writing-project analysis receives little commitment or meaningful effort, but why?

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Documentation>Collaboration>Assessment