Whether an advanced degree is needed
An advanced degree can support a medical writing career without being a requirement for every role. Its relevance depends on the work sought, the employer's requirements and the scientific and writing skills a candidate can demonstrate; further education can also follow entry into the field.
Requirements for particular roles
Advanced degrees in science or health-related fields are not always prerequisites for medical writing but can provide a strong foundation. Some scientific medical writing jobs do require advanced degrees, with the requirement stated in the job description. A PhD can be valuable in complex or research-intensive specialties and can enhance credibility and expertise, while many successful writers have relevant experience and strong writing skills without a PhD.
In 2010, one freelance writer with a doctorate reported that most job descriptions in some fields, including regulatory writing and continuing medical education, asked for an advanced science degree or a professional medical qualification. In her experience, obtaining work in those fields without an advanced degree was challenging for both staff and freelance writers. Another freelance writer, who had a communications degree and entered through animal-health pharmaceuticals, reported that education-based requirements left her underqualified for nearly all American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) freelance job listings despite her work experience.
Writing ability and scientific understanding
One communications graduate's view is that a scientific or medical qualification does not demonstrate writing ability: a medical communicator needs to demonstrate an ability to write and know the subject, or learn it quickly and thoroughly enough for the project.
One doctorate-qualified freelance writer likewise considers people capable of reading and understanding complex topics able to become medical communicators with or without an advanced degree, and regards the degree's contribution to actual writing capability as debatable. In ten years of freelance work, her dissertation subject had been relevant only once or twice, and then peripherally. She found graduate school's practice in working through scientific papers and locating information more helpful than the specific subject knowledge, while acknowledging that experience might teach those skills too. She considers a science undergraduate degree useful, but also holds that an intelligent, skilled writer can write about any subject with access to information and willingness to acquire background knowledge. In her view, an advanced degree is a marketing tool for freelance work whether or not that advantage is justified.
Further study after entering the field
One medical editor entered the field with a fine arts undergraduate degree and completed a Master of Science in Biomedical Writing in 2006 after becoming established in the profession. Looking back in 2009, she said she might have pursued the degree earlier had she known how much weight an advanced degree carried for higher-level positions.