Working in a team spread across countries
A medical writing team can be built across countries and cultures, as departments place their writers where their clients need them. The spread brings its own advantages and difficulties, asks particular skills of each writer, and leaves the team to choose its communication technology and to meet by teleconference.
Why a writing department spreads across countries
In 2011 the biopharmaceutical industry increasingly relied on outsourcing, particularly where demand for global experience and therapeutic expertise was high. To meet this demand, medical writing departments were executing globalisation strategies, placing people, systems and infrastructure in locations that meet their clients' needs. This global model creates opportunities for colleagues from many regions and cultures to work together on client deliverables.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies were already working toward global regulatory submissions, with their medical writers playing a key role. During the pandemic, the need for greater collaboration under fully remote working, for inclusion and transparency, and for unprecedented speed and quality in clinical development brought global ways of working into even greater focus. The pandemic also increased the ways in which a medical writer can work on a global team regardless of their own location. In 2024 one journal's editors held that the pandemic had irreversibly reshaped the global landscape, and that virtual meetings, remote work and international collaboration had become commonplace, broadening writers' opportunities to connect and work together across continents.
One writer held in 2022 that, with increased demands on the speed, quality and complexity of clinical development, globalisation through social integration had been one of the biggest outcomes of the pandemic. In that writer's account, medical writing had predominantly been a geographically diverse team, but the pandemic pushed it to focus on sustainable and inclusive growth, which required changing its work culture to make the most of people's contributions globally, and medical writing was quick to implement platforms for global collaborative work. One head of medical writing held in 2022 that the unprecedented demand for speed and quality in clinical development had driven medical writing to pursue even higher levels of globalisation, and that ever-increasing global standardisation and automation should be the key drivers of a successful medical writing organisation.
The same head of medical writing expected that harmonised regulations across the globe would enhance simultaneous global development and make drugs available to patients quickly, and that writers in different countries and regions would work more closely and share knowledge and understanding, contributing to establishing a global document strategy and the process that supports simultaneous global submission. Given no limit of budget or technology, the same head pictured writers from different countries and regions working on global master documents, with knowledge and technical support, and contributing to the packages submitted in different regions.
What a global team gains and what it finds hard
In the view of writers in one globalised team, medical writing is an ideal discipline for globalisation, and an integrated global team offers many advantages. Global working allows growth into new markets and the possibility of new or expanded service offerings. Employees also learn about different cultures through working with other team members. But working as a global team can bring difficulties, such as language barriers, appreciating the subtleties of different cultures, and even tasks as seemingly simple as scheduling a meeting for the whole team. Despite these challenges, the same writers held, a globalised medical writing team can deliver exceptional service, consistent quality and innovative ideas that help clients and partners achieve their research and development goals.
In one writing leader's view in 2022, virtual teams were a necessity during the pandemic, and still were, but they also brought benefits such as the ability to hire diverse talent in places where office-based working had been the norm.
What working across countries asks of a writer
In 2014 one group of writers experienced in global research teams held that contemporary medical writers collaborating globally with researchers who develop device, pharmaceutical and combination products must work effectively through telecommunication channels, assess and incorporate cultural values, and navigate input from a variety of stakeholders with competing priorities to generate comprehensive and accurate documents. As a result, in their account, writers who could work effectively with global stakeholders were increasingly in demand, both in industry and as freelances. They treat global collaboration as a learned and measurable medical writing skill, critical for success in global research teams. Their strategies address improving relationships with project managers, regional regulatory experts, biostatistics groups, research and development teams of engineers and laboratory scientists, and medical investigators, to build a documentation knowledge base. In their view, building on their lessons can allow writers of all experience levels to advance their careers by working more effectively with global teams.
In one writing leader's experience by 2022, successful writers had been able to drive effective collaboration and communication, mediate differences and validate actions to meet overall goals. In the same leader's view, cultural awareness, whether of a country, a company or a team, had become key to encouraging open discussion and ensuring that all parties are heard and understood, and future collaboration may require refined skills in managing conflict, negotiation, influence and persuasion. The head of medical writing who expected harmonised regulations advised that writers working in countries or regions with unique regulatory requirements should take the initiative to understand a global approach, promote local requirements with solutions, and take the bridging role to implement global standardisation.
One global team of protocol experts names five soft skills as critical for medical writers developing protocols with international teams, to meet the needs of the trial team and to produce a high-quality protocol: critical thinking, leadership, communication, teamwork and adaptability. The same team recognises that soft skills are not one-size-fits-all and that cultural elements must be considered when approaching a multinational trial team.
Choosing the communication technology
Because communication technology offers many possibilities for working globally, one speaker held in 2011 that it is best to decide what works well for the team at the start of any collaboration. In the same speaker's account, email and teleconferencing were relatively easy, cheap and crash-resistant, whereas web-based conferencing and real-time and interactive tools might need additional training to use effectively. She advised having a viable back-up plan in case the chosen system fails.
Running a teleconference
Teleconferencing loses nonverbal communication, which the same speaker put at 50% to 80% of all communication. To mitigate the loss, she advocated a face-to-face kick-off meeting or a videoconference at the start of a group project.
Before the call, arrange the teleconference in advance; send a straightforward agenda ahead of it that clarifies expectations and responsibilities; send the attendees any materials for review; and give those who cannot attend a chance to contribute. During the call, introduce all the attendees with their titles and roles and restate the goals of the meeting; ask everyone to identify themselves when they speak, and articulate clearly; prioritise the important issues; encourage participation; summarise each discussion point or action item before moving to the next topic; and thank everyone for their input. After the call, send the minutes promptly, with action items carrying names and due dates; document the understanding and the action items, follow the action items through, and involve subject matter experts where specific input is needed.