Continuing to learn through a career

Medical writers continue learning throughout their careers, through work, colleagues, reading and formal training. Self-employed writers also need to plan, fund and record that development themselves.

Learning at every career stage

Continuing learning is needed to stay current whether a medical writer is new to the profession or has twenty years of experience. ¹ Developing skills and knowledge can also help a writer stand out in a competitive market. ¹

Recognising unanswered questions and gaps in knowledge supports clearer, more effective writing; lifelong learning does not necessarily require formal college courses. ² Reference works remain useful even for experienced specialists: the author of a basic-grammar self-study module continued checking her knowledge daily. ²

Professional development can include conferences, workshops, webinars, training sessions and certification programmes, alongside regularly reading journals, guidelines, updates and relevant standard operating procedures (SOPs). ^{3, 4} Joining professional associations offers access to networking and formal courses and workshops. ⁵ Medical writers should also understand changes in the profession and become familiar with the online environment. ⁵

Goals and gaps

Training choices should begin with career goals and skill gaps. ^{6, 7} A practical planning sequence is as follows. ^{7, 8}

1. Define the career goal for six or twelve months ahead and plan the steps towards it.
2. Decide whether the objective is a freelance business or an employed role, since the options differ.
3. Identify missing skills, such as business knowledge, consumer-health writing experience or familiarity with AI.
4. Connect with writers already succeeding in the intended area to learn about their routes and practical steps.

^{7, 8}

At the end of a project, a writer should ask what they learned: a new software package, improvement in an existing skill, or a newly discovered weakness can all guide subsequent development. ⁹ Freelancers should be willing to invest in their own development to support business growth. ^{9, 10}

Learning through work and colleagues

The 70–20–10 learning approach distinguishes learning on the job, through communities and shared sessions, and through formal training in those proportions. ¹¹ It encourages learning built into everyday work and investment in missing capabilities, rather than concentrating only on formal courses. ¹¹

An early-career television producer learned to assemble her first story by recognising familiar features of television and working through the task with an editor, despite initially believing she did not know how. ¹² Experience of failure can also contribute to learning the writing craft. ¹³

Peers provide another source of knowledge: writers should ask experienced colleagues questions, and conferences and workshops offer opportunities to learn practical tips from them. ¹⁴ An in-house writer can seek allies who support professional development and conference attendance. ¹⁵

Clients may train contract writers in in-house procedures, regulatory guidance and Good Clinical Practice updates, data integrity, business ethics or systems such as Datavision and EndNote; this training should be recorded. ¹⁶ Client therapeutic-area training is generally informal background intended to put a product into context. ¹⁶

Time and records for freelance development

Training can recede behind finding clients, delivering projects, invoicing and collecting payments once a writer becomes self-employed. ^{17, 18} Whereas employees may have scheduled e-learning, SOP updates, workshops and annual manager reviews, freelancers take sole responsibility for their training. ^{18, 19}

Freelancers owe clients current knowledge of relevant regulations, guidelines and recommendations and, where required, developments in the therapeutic areas they serve. ^{19, 20, 21} Improving writing skills and knowledge supports service quality and lasting client relationships. ^{19, 10}

Time for training should be scheduled like other business tasks, perhaps monthly to review relevant subjects. ²² Regular reading also needs protected time, such as thirty minutes daily or a morning each week; relevant audiobooks or podcasts can fit around commuting or other tasks. ³

A spreadsheet or equivalent training record should include the date, provider or trainer and their accreditations, and topics covered; recording whether training was online or face-to-face is another useful practice. ²³ Reviewing it periodically, at least annually, reveals gaps and prompts updates to a curriculum vitae and summary of experience. ²³ Some clients have asked freelance writers for such documentation. ²³

In one case reported in 2023, a freelancer encountered an Italian clinical-research-organisation decree requiring at least thirty hours of applicable training each calendar year for personnel, including contractors, performing clinical-study activities involving data collection from at least one Italian site. ²³

A training record can include reading applicable guidance, recommendations, pharmacovigilance regulations, medical-device legislation, International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines and clients’ SOPs, as well as checking for updates. ²⁴ Listing the relevant subjects helps organise that record, while content alerts from organisations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics and TransCelerate BioPharma, therapeutic-area websites and journals bring updates automatically. ²⁴

A regulatory writer who had taken Good Clinical Practice refresher training every two years at a contract research organisation continued that cycle after becoming freelance. ^{25, 26}

Professional-development practices in freelance surveys

In EMWA’s 2023 freelance business survey, personal research, including specialised journals and medical conferences, was the most frequently reported continuing-development route at 50.7%. ^{27, 28} Online workshops accounted for 26.0%, EMWA workshops 24.2%, other associations’ workshops 23.8% and EMWA webinars 22.0%; 5.3% reported other routes. ²⁸ Respondents could select more than one option, so the percentages do not sum to 100. ²⁹

In 2018, online workshops were most common at 57.3%, followed by EMWA workshops at 50.3%, other associations’ workshops at 47.6%, and personal research at 18.9%. ²⁸ The printed 2018 questionnaire offered only the three workshop categories and “other”, whereas the 2023 question separately listed personal research and EMWA webinars as well. ^{30, 29}

Other development routes named in 2023 included business and personal marketing, MedComms webinars, the CORE Reference newsletter, networking, on-site learning, client-requested training, podcasts, TOPRA and RAPS. ²⁸ The 2018 responses included on-the-job training, client-requested training, mentors, peer learning, professional memberships and no development activity. ²⁸

Courses, webinars and podcasts

A freelance writer’s 2018 learning routine combined free business podcasts, webinars and self-paced courses; free webinars often included a sales pitch but could still offer relevant material. ³¹ Her podcast choices were Brian Clark’s Unemployable, High-Income Business Writing and Marketing Mentor, and her three Udemy courses covered freelancing, video and infographics, costing $29–$49 each. ³¹ Another freelancer found free and paid webinars on income, marketing and LinkedIn beneficial and cancer-therapy webinars from Fierce Biotech less useful but still worthwhile. ³¹

Podcasts can provide education, inspiration or a break while listeners drive, exercise or do housework; they are selected on demand and can be heard through earphones, with advertisements often easy to skip. ^{32, 33} A podcast player can find shows by subject, and a web search combining “podcast” with a topic offers another route. ^{34, 35}

The following selection records podcast hosts, typical durations and release frequency in 2019. ³⁶

Topic	Podcast	Hosts	Minutes	Episodes per month
Education	Best Science Medicine	James McCormack; Michael Allan	30	4
Education	BMJ Best Practice	Several	20	2
Education	Emergency Medicine Cases	Anton Helman	40–60	2–3
Education	HelixTalk	Sean P Kane; Khyati S Patel	40	1–2
Education	Pediatric Emergency Playbook	Tim Horeczko	35	1
Education	Real Life Pharmacology	Eric Christianson	10–15	4
Education	The Curbsiders	Mathew Wato; Stuart Brigham; Paul Williams	60	6–7
News	BBC Science in Action	Roland Pease	30	4
News	Health Report	Norman Swan	30	4
News	Nature	Shamini Bundell; Benjamin Tompson	25	6
News	Science Weekly	Ian Sample; Hannah Devlin; Nicola Davis	30	4
Writing and freelancing	High Income Business Writing	Ed Gandia	20–40	2
Writing and freelancing	Hot Copy	Kate Toon; Belinda Weaver	40	1–2
Writing and freelancing	The Editing Podcast	Denise Cowle; Louise Harnby	15–50	1–5
Writing and freelancing	Unemployable	Brian Clark	30–60	5–7
Statistics	More or Less	Tim Harford	10	4–6
Statistics	Not So Standard Deviations	Roger Peng; Hillary Parker	60	1–2
Statistics	Stats + Stories	John Bailer; Richard Campbell; Rosemary Pennington	15–30	4–6
Entertainment	Bedside Rounds	Adam Rodman	20–60	1
Entertainment	Hidden Brain	Shankar Vedantam	30–50	4
Entertainment	Sawbones	Sydnee McElroy; Justin McElroy	35–50	3–4
Entertainment	The Knowledge Project	Shane Parrish	50–120	1–3

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Keeping up with technology

Keeping technological knowledge current can save time and money, protect data, improve productivity, enhance a professional brand and attract business. ³⁷

A 2012 selection of general-news technology coverage included Marketplace Tech Report, Austin360 Digital Savant, The Daily Beast Innovation, Huffington Post Tech, NPR Technology, NPR All Tech Considered, Salon Tech Tips and Slate Technology. ³⁷ Dedicated sources included CNET for product reviews and news, Gizmodo for consumer electronics, Lifehacker for productivity, Mashable for social media and applications, PCWorld for product reviews and downloads, WIRED for technology’s wider effects, ZDNet for IT hardware, software and security, and 10,000 Words for journalism and communication technology. ^{37, 38} Platform-specific sources were MacRumors, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, Microsoft News Center and TechSpot. ³⁸

Four habits can support continuing technology learning. ³⁹

1. Subscribe to RSS feeds so that updates from chosen sites and blogs arrive together in a feed reader; examples in 2012 were Google Reader and Feedreader.
2. Ask questions and learn from colleagues through professional forums and LinkedIn groups.
3. Attend technology conferences or neighbouring professional associations’ meetings outside the usual field; examples in 2012 included SXSW Interactive and the Society for Technical Communication, National Association of Science Writers and Association of Women Communicators.
4. Listen to informative podcasts, which are generally free to try; examples in 2012 included Marketplace Tech Report, CNET Tech Review, WIRED’s Gadget Lab, This Week in Tech and TED lectures.

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