The American association's certificates
The American Medical Writers Association's educational certificates organise workshop learning into foundational and specialist skills. The programme's development and its 2010 redesign explain the distinctions between certificates, the requirements for earning them and the treatment of credit earned under earlier curricula.
Development of the curriculum
AMWA appointed a task force in 1977 to develop education that would help science-trained writers improve their writing skills. Its Core curriculum debuted at the 1979 annual conference with four workshops, growing to 19 in 1980 and approximately 100 by 2009. Before the 1970s, annual meetings had consisted mainly of lectures and panel discussions, with few educational workshops. The certificate programme accompanied the Core curriculum to provide a framework for education and professional development.
An Advanced curriculum certificate followed in 1986 to offer more experienced writers further learning opportunities; 14 advanced workshops were scheduled for the 2009 conference, from advanced data presentation to semantic analysis of medical writing. The Science Fundamentals certificate began in 2007 in response to requests for more science education in the 2005 membership survey. It covered scientific terminology, basic concepts, common methods, and references and resources, and attracted members from different educational backgrounds despite having been designed for liberal arts graduates. In 2009, 22 Science Fundamentals workshops were scheduled: 18 for certificate credit and four noncredit workshops.
In 2007, Core certificates were awarded in Editing/Writing, Freelance, Multidisciplinary, Pharmaceutical, and Public Relations/Advertising/Marketing concentrations, alongside Advanced certificates. The 2008 awards included Core, Advanced and Science Fundamentals certificates; the Core award list included Editing/Writing, Freelance, Multidisciplinary, Pharmaceutical and Science Fundamentals concentrations.
A separate Professional Development Certificate required 50 points in 2009: attending the annual conference earned five points automatically, and each noncredit workshop earned another five.
Member experience and international access
In the 2008 membership survey, 32% of respondents were very satisfied with the Core certificate programme, compared with 14% in 2005. The 2008 figure rose to 52% when respondents who were unfamiliar with the programme or had no opinion were excluded. Unfamiliarity affected 17% of respondents for Core, 25% for Advanced and 34% for Science Fundamentals.
In 2009, an Australian medical communications company leader considered the predominantly in-person Core programme difficult for international writers to complete: it required eight modules, with ethics optional, and she estimated that a writer in India or Australia might need three years of conference attendance, subject to workshop availability and the cost of travel and time.
The 2010 certificate structure
In 2008, AMWA was preparing to realign Core courses with members' operational activities, including a comprehensive regulatory track. AMWA announced the expansion in 2009, including an ethics component in every certificate, and introduced the redesigned programme in 2010. Its purpose remained the development of communication skills across job functions, workplaces and specialties; AMWA intended the discipline-based structure and consistent requirements to make the programme easier to navigate, support growth, increase flexibility and improve employment marketability.
Essential Skills (ES) replaced Core as the foundation, covering skills for all medical communicators, including sentence structure, punctuation and bibliographic resources. The four specialty certificates were defined as follows in 2010.
- Composition and Publication (CP): specialised editorial and publication skills, including copyediting, grant writing and medical journalism.
- Regulatory and Research (RR): specialised writing in drug development, regulation, scientific research and clinical research, including clinical trial reports, new drug applications and investigator brochures.
- Business (B): management and operations for freelance businesses and larger organisations, including freelance business management, project management and public relations.
- Concepts in Science and Medicine (SM): introductory science and medicine for nonscientists and refreshers for those with relevant training, including molecular biology, anatomy, physiology and pharmacokinetics.
Four advanced specialties were also planned. Advanced Composition and Publication would cover advanced editing, rhetorical grammar and critical appraisal; Advanced Regulatory and Research would cover pharmaceutical document quality and research techniques such as sample size and study power; Advanced Business would address experienced freelancers and managers; and Advanced Concepts in Science and Medicine would build on introductory scientific and medical concepts. The planned advanced certificates required eight subject-matter workshops. In 2011, the five foundational and specialty tracks remained Essential Skills, Composition and Publication, Regulatory and Research, Business, and Concepts in Science and Medicine. Certificates could be earned through workshops and self-study modules, and advanced workshops were becoming available for further training.
The 2010 conference programme offered nearly 100 workshops and introduced the redesigned programme, with particular emphasis on developing the science and medicine area. New offerings included biological macromolecules, evidence-based medicine, laboratory methods, virology and cancer pharmacology in SM; classical rhetoric in CP; summaries of clinical efficacy and safety for a new drug application in RR; and Essential Ethics in ES. The 2011 annual conference was scheduled to offer 100 workshops.
Requirements and enrolment
Under the 2010 rules, ES and each specialty certificate required successful completion of eight workshops within six years of enrolment: seven subject-matter workshops and one ethics workshop relevant to the track. ES had to be earned before a specialty certificate, but multiple certificates could be pursued concurrently; an earlier Core or Advanced certificate could substitute for ES. Advanced specialty enrolment required prior completion of the related specialty.
Credit required enrolment in the applicable certificate programme when the workshop was completed, and each workshop credit could be applied only once, towards one certificate. The six-year enrolment could be extended for four more years for an additional fee, with the extension measured from the original expiry date. Existing enrolments could transfer without an additional charge and retain their remaining time. Previously earned credits remained on the curriculum record permanently.
The SM certificate was intended to orient nonscience-trained communicators to scientific areas and provide a foundation for further study. Its 2010 workshop offerings included the following.
- Basic Cell Biology
- Basic Immunology
- Basics of Human Anatomy and Physiology
- Basics of Molecular Biology
- Chemical Equilibria in Physiology
- Communicating Results of Routine Clinical Laboratory Tests
- Diseases of the Nervous System
- Drug Interactions
- Introduction to Basic Virology
- Introduction to Cancer Biology
- Introduction to the Cardiovascular System
- Introduction to the Endocrine System
- Introduction to the Musculoskeletal System
- Introduction to the Nervous System
- Introduction to Orthopedic Surgery
- Introduction to the Renal System
- Pharmacokinetics in Clinical Practice
- Principles of Epidemiologic Research: Beyond the Basics
- Sex and Beyond: Fertilization and Early Development
Ethics workshops
The new ES ethics workshop was scheduled to debut in 2010, combining lectures and small-group case discussions about stakeholder perspectives, steps for resolving ethical problems and application of the AMWA Code of Ethics. By 2012, the ethics options included Essential Ethics for Medical Communicators for ES, also available by self-study; Ethical Standards in Medical Publication for CP; and Ethics of Communicating Regulated Drug Development Articles or Fundamentals of Ethics and Practical Applications for RR. New ethics workshops for Business and Concepts in Science and Medicine were due at the 2012 conference. RR workshop leaders recommended taking both RR ethics workshops, with the second counted as an elective, because they addressed different aspects of regulatory writing ethics.
Credit through the transition
Members already enrolled in Core, Science Fundamentals or Advanced could complete their certificates under the original rules, but new enrolments in those programmes were no longer available in 2010. Alternatively, unapplied Core credits could transfer to ES, and unapplied Science Fundamentals credits to SM. Workshops retained both old and new designations during the transition; eventually each would have one designation and count only towards that certificate. During a transition through October 2011, many Science General workshops could also count for Core credit. The Science Fundamentals workshop categories were Science General, Science Body Systems, Science Disease State, and Science Diagnostics and Therapeutics.
Three hypothetical 2010 cases illustrated how career stage, education, employment and professional development goals affected the transfer decision.
- A career-changer with three completed Core workshops could retain all three towards Core or transfer one to ES and two to RR; she chose the transfer to work towards both certificates, planning further workshops and self-study to complete ES.
- A hospital medical editor with a Core certificate, four Advanced workshops and two years of enrolment remaining chose CP because it matched his work; the Core certificate substituted for ES, and unapplied Advanced credits remained available for a future advanced specialty.
- A regulatory writer with five Core and three Science Fundamentals workshops transferred to ES and SM because the requirement to earn ES first matched the order in which she expected to complete the earlier certificates.
In 2009, members could review progress towards Core, Science Fundamentals and Advanced certificates through an online curriculum record updated after the 2008 conference. After the redesign, the online record continued to list workshops completed for credit, and members enrolled before 2010 were advised to read the revised curriculum information carefully.