What Does a Medical Writer Do?
Medical writing is a profession dedicated to the communication of medical, scientific, and health information, including research reports, consumer (patient) information, and regulatory documents.
What is a Medical Writer?
A professional medical writer is someone who has an adequate understanding of medical, scientific, and health terms and concepts, and the skills to translate such information into a variety of formats for different audiences. Medical writers come from various backgrounds and can find work in a variety of fields.
What does a Medical Writer do?
For the most part, medical writers write things, but what exactly do they write? Medical writers are most often tasked with producing or assisting with the production of technical, informative, educational, or promotional medical content. The specific jobs that a medical writer may do will depend on their background, expertise, skills, and area of employment.
Types of Work
Examples of the types of work a medical writer may do, grouped by area of employment, are listed below.
Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Industry
- Clinical trial publications
- Clinical trial protocols
- Study reports
- Consumer medicine/device information
- Product marketing
Contract Research Organizations
- Preclinical research reports
- Clinical trial protocols
- Participant information and consent forms
- Study reports
- Clinical trial publications
Healthcare Organizations and Institutions
- Hospitals, health insurance companies, not-for-profit, private practices
- Educational content
- Health promotional content
- Clinical research publications
- Case reports, case series, cohort studies
- Conference abstracts and presentations
- Grant writing
- Patient stories
Whether you are just starting out or looking to advance your career as a medical writer, you’re in the right place. Medical writers serve the public in critical ways by detailing, documenting, and sharing news and research that improve health outcomes and save lives.
