Where a newcomer can find out about medical writing
Newcomers can explore medical writing through introductory events, association websites and career guides, practitioner networks, and learning resources.
Association websites and career guides
In 2010, the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) made its About Medical Communication pages accessible from its home page without signing in. They answered seven questions.
- What is a medical communicator?
- Where do medical communicators work?
- What do medical communicators do?
- How much do medical communicators earn?
- What is the demand for medical communicators?
- How can someone learn the necessary skills?
- How can someone break into medical communication?
The skills pages linked to formal training, self-study workshops, AMWA certificate programmes, style manuals and how-to books. Other public resources included a career-path brochure, a collection of journal articles about careers in medical communication, and a slide deck members could download for presentations to schools, colleges and community groups. By 2019, AMWA also provided a New Medical Writer Toolkit for people starting a medical communications career.
The European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) published its November 2016 Career Guide to Medical Writing, by Sally Jackson and Raquel Billiones; it became the centrepiece of its A Career in Medical Writing website section in March 2017, alongside other downloads for new and aspiring writers. The guide addressed seven questions.
- What is medical writing?
- What are the different types of medical writing?
- What skills and qualifications are needed?
- Where do medical writers work and what do they do?
- How does someone get started?
- How much can a medical writer expect to be paid?
- What are the career prospects?
The updated Career Guide for New Medical Writers was marked revised April 2023 and released in May 2023, free on EMWA's website. The updated guide remained available on EMWA’s website through March 2026, with comments invited by email to the Getting Into Medical Writing group. Reading the guide before a conference can help newcomers choose workshops and identify disciplines to ask members about.
Practitioner networks and resource collections
Word of mouth introduces many people to medical writing through former colleagues or university alumni; talking with people in the industry helps newcomers understand the work day to day. University careers events about further science degrees and alternative biomedical careers offer another introduction.
In 2019, MedComms Networking served a global community, while its sister site FirstMedCommsJob.com focused particularly on UK entrants. FirstMedCommsJob offered advice on researching the market and preparing a CV and cover letter, profiles including writers 18 months into their first jobs, guides to writing and client services or account management careers, agency office maps, and archived virtual meetings. MedComms Networking’s free live meetings, predominantly held across the UK, combined career presentations with opportunities to question agency representatives and network. EMWA's archived webinars, job board, reading list, resources section and career guide also provided introductions to the field. Specialist recruitment and careers-for-scientists websites could also provide information about the career.
Health Writer Hub was an online community with material on starting a health-writing career, becoming a successful health writer and freelancing. A 2014 search for health writing also found resources about health magazines, wellness and sports, and freelance health writers' websites.
Starting resources recommended in December 2019 included the following.
- EMWA's 2016 career guide.
- The spring 2019 careers issue of Medical Writing, covering entry to retirement.
- MedComms Networking and FirstMedCommsJob's free getting-started guides covering medical communications, regulatory writing and market access jobs.
- The spring 2014 AMWA Journal issue for newcomers.
- Cheeky Scientist, a platform helping PhD graduates move into industry, with alternative-career lists, transition e-books and a medical writing contingent.
- Nature Careers, including Matt Edmonds's account of an evidence-based career move into medical writing.
- LinkedIn's career-advice and career-interest features, then available on a basic free profile.
Introductory events
EMWA's introduction to medical writing seminar explains the work, the backgrounds writers come from and the soft skills they need, with opportunities to exchange experiences and ask the presenters for advice. Introductory workshops also show the range of jobs a medical writer can hold and provide contact with established writers.
When EMWA's next internship forum was planned for April 2019, the forum ran only at spring conferences and usually shared a day with the introductory seminar. The seminar was free and open to delegates and the general public. The forum was free for EMWA members without requiring registration for the surrounding conference. Companies offered internships, and advance registration allowed participants to arrange appointments with the companies they wanted to meet. Appointments lasted about 15 minutes; people without appointments could attend the presentation and approach representatives between booked slots. In August 2019, both the getting-into-medical-writing workshop and internship forum were described as free, without registration for the rest of the conference.
EMWA's online Getting Into Medical Writing event on 22 September 2023 attracted 200 participants. Its programme introduced medical writing and its role in biomedical research, offered practical LinkedIn advice and time for discussion, and explained EMWA's special interest groups, ambassadors, journal, creative team and freelance forum. It also presented regional networking experiences from the UK, Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy and Spain, and the new Local EMWA Groups.
On 8 May 2024, EMWA held a day-long programme at its Valencia conference for people considering medical writing or beginning their careers. The programme included an introductory seminar, CV and LinkedIn clinics, and networking; the all-day seminar attracted 60 newcomers.
Independent exploration
In 2016, a molecular biology master's student discovered medical writing through Sarah Blackford's Career Planning for Research Bioscientists after helping with the English of a grant application. A Berlin freelancer whom she approached about an apprenticeship recommended organisations including EMWA. She explored EMWA's website and webinars, read archived Write Stuff articles, used Hilary Glasman-Deal's Science Research Writing and Annick Moon's From Academic to Medical Writer, took a free Duke University course in basic medical writing and practised translating a research poster from German into English.
The student volunteered to review a draft of EMWA's career guide from a beginner's perspective and reported learning more about the career through that exercise than through three months of web searches. Contact with a committee member who was also an EMWA journal associate editor gave her someone to ask questions. MedComms Networking's weekly newsletter supplied freelance tips, event reviews, forthcoming events and job vacancies. She also began a free statistics course and planned to take Stanford's online medical-writing course.