Medical writing is often perceived to be a dry job where you are expected to sit for long hours and pen down your thoughts. But in reality, it is one of the most stimulating and inspiring fields with infinite learning potential and is definitely something one could be passionate about. Medical writing is relatively an unknown field which involves communicating a myriad of scientific knowledge to a diverse audience ranging from general public to healthcare professionals and regulatory authorities. Medical writers work in association with physicians, scientists and subject matter experts and create scientific information that disseminates knowledge clearly and concisely. The scientific information includes research discoveries, educational and training materials, press releases, fact sheets and website content. It involves a lot of interdisciplinary work as it allows collaboration with physicians, regulatory authorities, research and development, marketing, data management, statistics, economics, legal and other related fields.

Medical writers are recruited by pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturing companies, biotechnology companies, clinical research organizations, healthcare units, websites, newspapers, magazines and any other medium that publishes health and medical news. Medical writing can be classified into two types: regulatory medical writing and educational medical writing. As the name suggests, regulatory medical writing involves creating regulatory documents such as study protocols, patient informed consent forms, investigator brochures and summary documents that are required for the approval of drugs, devices and other biological products. Educational medical writing involves writing documents about drugs, devices and other biological products for general public, sales documents, journal articles, data presentations etc.

Several professional organizations namely Indian Medical writers association (IMWA), American medical writers association (AMWA), European Medical Writers Association (EMWA), Australasian Medical Writers Association (AMWA), Russian Medical Writers Association (RMWA) and Chinese Medical Writers Association (CMWA) represent medical writers around the world and serve as a forum to meet and exchange their knowledge and experiences.  There is no formal academic requirement to become a medical writer and the eligibility criteria vary based on the needs of the organization and employer. However, candidates with at least a bachelor’s or master’s degree in areas like biology, microbiology, biotechnology, biochemistry, chemistry, medicine, pharmacy, nutrition, journalism or communications (well acquainted with medical terminology and concepts) are usually preferred.

James Lind Institute is one of the leading global education institutes that provide specialized online training and education programs in medical writing. Currently available online professional training programs in medical writing are:

Advanced PG Diploma in Clinical Research and Medical Writing

Advanced PG Diploma in Pharmacovigilance and Medical Writing

Advanced PG Diploma in Regulatory affairs and Medical Writing

Professional Diploma in Medical Writing

These programs are online and can be completed in 4 to 8 months. James Lind students are employed in some of the leading global organizations such as Novartis, Cognizant, Biocon, Pfizer, Accenture, GlaxoSmithKline, GE healthcare, TCS, Dr. Reddy’s, iGate Patni, Ranbaxy, Quintiles, Thomson Reuters, Global Hospitals, TTK healthcare, Wockhardt etc to name a few.

To know more about the list of available programs you may visit the following link: Medical Writing
Programs

You may also watch our medical writing video here: