Moving into device writing

This branch covers moving into medical devices as a writer's specialism, divided by the question a writer faces on the way in: why the sector opened to writers, the routes people took into it and what crossing from pharmaceutical writing involves, how working life compares between the two industries and what writers who crossed between them found, how much device experience an entry needs, and where a device role sits and how employment compares with freelancing in the sector. It leaves what the device documents contain, the rules they answer to and how both compare with a medicine's to medical devices under regulatory writing, the association group that helps writers into the niche to special interest groups, and the entry cost of the smaller regulated sectors beside medicines, diagnostics among them, to the regulated sectors next to medicines.

• Entering medical device writing — the size of the device industry, why the sector opened to writers and what it offers them, the job titles to look for, the routes in from research, through in vitro diagnostics, from clinical medicine and from pharmaceutical writing, the pharmaceutical skills that carry across and what has to be learned, how working life, guidelines, clinical areas and publication compared between the two industries in 2016, and what the writers who had moved between them found
• How much device experience an entry actually needs — whether the crossing runs both ways, entering with little or no experience, which clients require prior device experience, and the questions to ask before accepting a device post
• Where a device writing role sits — how small device companies are and the all-rounder that asks for, the wider range of document types in a device job, the support a small company, a contract research organisation or an established company puts behind the writing, employment against freelancing, and the subjects and clients a freelance meets