Medical writing is a process that will result in producing scientific documents by a writer who specializes in such activity. It is a function that has been established in the pharma world as the medical industry recognizes it as a special skill that assists in producing well structured documents that present the required information clearly and succinctly. The writer is not a qualified doctor or scientist but one who researches the information that is required. He or she works with doctors, scientists or other SMEs and assists in creating specific documents that proves effective and which provides description of the research results clearly, produce useful and other medical information. Medical writing in terms of content, format and structure also complies with the regulatory, journal or any other specified writing guidelines. This is especially true because new medicines have to go through a complex system of clinical trials and regulatory procedures that would lead to approval from the market. This is true because there is a huge demand for well written, standards compliant document that people who are well versed in science can read and understand easily and very quickly. Generally, medical writing for the pharmaceutical industry is of two types – regulatory medical writing or educational medical writing. Regulatory medical writing is the creation of documents that agencies which regulate the production of medicines require to get their drugs, devices and biologics approved. These documents can have a number of formulae and therefore are quite large as they include clinical study details and reports along with the addition of patient consent forms, brochures from investigating agencies and the final summary documents that any pharmaceutical company gathers while developing a medical product. Educational medical writing means writing documents about drugs, devices and other biology products for a wider general audience or even for specific people like health care professionals. Included are detailed literature to assist the sale of newly launched drugs, data presentations for medical conferences, journals for health care professionals and material for continuing education. Most companies have an in-house medical writer or outsource it to external medical writers. In general, medical writing is about communicating clinical and scientific data and relevant information to a wide variety of audiences in different formats. Usually medical writers combine their knowledge of science and research with their ability to present material in an easy to understand format and pitch it at the correct level to the concerned audience. Freelance medical writing can be a good opportunity to those who have good writing skills. Some companies want their freelance medical writer to have an essential first degree in life sciences e.g. biology, biochemistry, physiology, or chemistry and good writing skills. Some language experts have become good freelance medical writers with just simple knowledge of diseases and their treatment and great word processing and writing skills. Gyan Ojha is the author of this article on Medical Writing. Find more information, about Freelance medical writing here.
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