The software medical writers use and recommend
Medical writers use software for drafting, editing, references, communication and the administration of a practice. Tool choice depends on the work, the client's systems and the time and cost of learning and using it.
Choosing tools
Features, cost, potential time savings, ease of use, integration into working routines and system requirements are factors in adopting new software. Colleagues' experience can narrow the choices and reduce the unbillable time spent researching them. Independent research, consultation with colleagues and the writer's own judgement still matter when deciding what to buy. Free trials provide an opportunity to try unfamiliar software. Learning a less familiar tool can take time initially but may save time later.
Client compatibility matters: a cheaper alternative to Acrobat needs to interact correctly with clients' Acrobat files, so that the delivered output retains the expected functionality. A 2019 recommendation for midcareer editors was to keep software and hardware up to date and buy the best equipment they could afford, because remote work makes the freelancer's virtual presence part of their reputation.
Practitioners differ in how much software they find worthwhile: in 2022 one experienced writer bought only essentials such as Word, having abandoned EndNote and Grammarly as unhelpful or unreliable in that writer's own work. Another subscribed to Office 365 in 2019, later moved to Microsoft 365 and online QuickBooks, and valued incremental updates over learning new software alongside a replacement computer. A 2022 recommendation for new freelancers comprised Microsoft Office for Word, PowerPoint and Excel, optional integrated Outlook and OneNote, Acrobat Pro DC for reference annotation, an accounting program, online time tracking, a medical dictionary and cloud storage such as Dropbox.
Categories of software
A 2014 inventory grouped medical-writing software into twelve categories. The product and platform list used W for Windows, M for Mac OS and L for Linux.
| Category | Software | Listed compatibility in 2014 |
|---|---|---|
| Word processing | Microsoft Office | W, M |
| OpenOffice | W, M, L | |
| Scrivener | W, M, L | |
| Reference management | EndNote | W, M, Web |
| Reference Manager | W | |
| Mendeley (free) | W, M, L | |
| Zotero (free) | W, M, L | |
| PDF readers | Adobe Acrobat | W, M |
| Foxit Reader (free) | W | |
| Bluebeam Revu | W, M | |
| Skim (free) | M | |
| Project planning and mind mapping | MindManager | W, M |
| Docear (free) | W, M, L | |
| Evernote | W, M | |
| Backup | Carbonite | W, M |
| CrashPlan | W, M, L | |
| Dropbox (free) | Online | |
| File transfer | FileZilla (free); Dropbox | W, M, L; Online |
| Time tracking and invoicing | TraxTime | W |
| QuickBooks | W, M | |
| WorkingPoint | Online | |
| FreshBooks | Online | |
| Speech recognition and transcription | ExpressScribe (free) | W, M, L |
| Dragon NaturallySpeaking | W, M | |
| Medical dictionaries, grammar and spellchecking | Stedman's Plus medical spellchecker | W, M |
| Taber's Medical Dictionary | Online | |
| WhiteSmoke Writer | W, M | |
| Rest breaks | Workrave (free) | W, L |
| Workpace | W | |
| Imaging | Adobe Photoshop | W, M |
| Adobe Illustrator | W, M | |
| GIMP (free) | W, M, L | |
| Antivirus and internet security | Norton Antivirus | W, M |
| Sophos Antivirus | W, M, L | |
| Avast Antivirus (free) | W, M | |
| AVG Antivirus (free) | W, M |
An editor's 2016 software selection included these tools.
- PerfectIt Pro for inconsistencies and acronyms.
- Grammarly for grammar checks.
- StyleWriter.
- Editor's Toolkit.
- VisibleThread for document review.
- TextPad for unformatted text and HTML.
- Acrolinx for multilingual editing using standard applications such as Word and Google.
- WhiteSmoke for translation and non-native English writers.
- WordRake for automated editing in Word and Outlook.
- SnagIt for image and video screen capture.
- ClipMate for saving and retrieving copied items.
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking for speech recognition.
- Edifix for citations and bibliographies.
In 2009, Lifehacker offered searchable computing tips and downloads for Linux, Mac and Windows, including Outlook and Gmail attachment-reminder plugins, productivity advice and email etiquette. Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better (2008) covered email management, automatic backups, productivity and data management.
A late-2023 digital workspace grouped its tools as follows; a dagger (†) marked primary features available free of charge.
| Work | Tools in late 2023 |
|---|---|
| Management and collaboration | Todoist†, Descript, Fantastical, Zoom, Cardhop, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive†, Google Meet†, Notion Projects†, Clockify†, Trello†, Zoho Invoice† |
| Research | Zotero†, Scite, PubMed†, Google Scholar†, MEDLINE†, Microsoft Excel |
| Drafting and refinement | Microsoft Word, Google Docs†, Scrivener, ChatGPT-4 |
| Visualisation | Microsoft PowerPoint, Keynote†, Canva†, BioRender†, Visme |
Software use and recommendations
The 2016 Freelance Medical Communicator Tools of the Trade survey was open to working self-employed medical communications professionals and ran from 3 October to 15 December. Of 381 people who started, 324 answered the work-history section, 307 answered the last mandatory tools question and 300 completed the survey; among completers, 70% were in the United States. Participants were recruited through conference fliers, professional forums, social networks, chapter emails and colleagues' communications. Self-report and selection bias limit the results, and the survey's usage questions did not ask whether participants liked the software they used. Its participants' representativeness of the AMWA and EMWA freelance populations could not be established.
Among 225 answers recommending one essential application, Microsoft Office or Word received 58 mentions, Adobe Acrobat 20, PerfectIt 18 and EndNote 17. For business email, 53% used Gmail, 50% Outlook and 12% Apple Mail; multiple answers were allowed.
A 2018 survey of 175 freelancers received frequent recommendations for EndNote and Zotero for references; Harvest, Pomodoro timers, RescueTime and Toggl for time tracking; and QuickBooks and FreshBooks for bookkeeping and invoicing. These software preferences were similar to those in the 2016 tools survey. A separate survey reported in 2018, with 88 respondents, about 70% regulatory writers, also found broadly similar overall software use, but its small sample limits extrapolation to the profession.
Planning and project tools
In 2013, Curio 8 combined mind mapping with visual project management, calendar and reminder synchronisation, file management and Evernote integration. It supported outlining and tracking Word or Pages documents and PowerPoint or Keynote slide sets, while its Sleuth feature found and downloaded images and retained their source URLs. PDFs, documents, recordings, videos and links could be attached to a project folder and worked with there. Curio 8 cost $99.99, required Mac OS 10.7.4 or later, and included a trial, training module, electronic manual and user forum.
Curio 8 had these advantages in 2013:
- A visual way to develop, organise and track projects, unlike a Gantt chart.
- A free 25-day trial.
- Many useful features.
Curio 8 had these disadvantages in 2013:
- No iPad or tablet version, though it imported mind maps from iThoughts, MindManager and other applications.
- Time needed to learn and remember its features.
- Mac-only availability.
In a 2022 freelance workflow, OneNote held client notebooks for meeting notes, invoices and tasks, including notes in calendar invitations imported from Outlook; PayMo's scheduling view replaced a paper planner by showing project deadlines across weeks and months.
A 2023 freelance workflow used Todoist for reminders and prioritised tasks, Fantastical to combine personal and work calendars with task and meeting tools, and Cardhop as an address book. Google Drive supported real-time document collaboration, while Notion Projects offered task breakdowns, assignments, milestones and discussions. The practitioner preferred Notion Projects to Trello for dependencies, Gantt views, AI summaries and project prioritisation, while still using Trello for some clients. Clockify supplied project-specific time tracking and year-end breakdowns.
At a November 2024 freelance discussion, project-management choices included Monday, Freedcamp, Things for Mac and ClickUp, alongside Calendly for meeting scheduling, Google Calendar, Google Notes and Sorted for German invoicing and taxes.
Meeting platforms
Screen-sharing options discussed in 2018 included Join.me, Cisco Webex, Zoom, UberConference and Google Hangouts.
In 2023, one freelance account valued GoToMeeting's ease of use, separate slide and participant windows and slide screenshot control, but preferred Zoom because colleagues reported better screen-reader and captioning accessibility. The same practitioner found Teams and Google Hangouts less easy to use despite familiarity with other Microsoft and Google applications. Another practitioner could not join Teams meetings on a 27-inch iMac despite three attempts with client IT support, whereas Zoom worked on desktop, iPad and iPhone for five to eight weekly meetings since the pandemic shutdown.
A 2023 workflow used Zoom, Google Meet or Teams for client meetings and Descript to record and transcribe demanding discussions, with structured playback for revisiting specific passages.