Choosing a specialism

This branch covers choosing where to focus a medical-writing career or practice. It divides by the decision involved: comparing fields, deciding whether to specialise, choosing an employer setting, entering a particular specialism and recognising adjacent markets. Entry into the profession, continuing craft development, the content of specialist documents and marketing a chosen practice belong to neighbouring branches and topics.

• The areas of medical writing work and how they compare — field boundaries, activities beyond writing, working patterns and movement between areas
• Whether to specialise, and along which line — scope, timing, depth and variety, benefits, costs and specialisation by client or industry
• Writing for a pharmaceutical sponsor or a CRO — division of work, skills, commercial priorities, career directions and starting on either side
• Entering a particular specialism — entry into regulatory and communications fields, therapeutic areas and neighbouring professions
• The regulated sectors next to medicines — transferable pharmaceutical writing skills, cosmetics, chemicals, pesticides and nanomedicine
• Markets that are not labelled medical writing — public payers, informatics, equity research, contract research organisations, other buyers and opportunities built from existing skills