Rhiannon Roberts has been an Associate Medical Writer with Real Science for 10 months now, and reflects on her experience of MedComms so far…

As I came towards the end of my PhD in Cell Biology, I started looking at the obvious (and what I thought at the time was the only) next step – a postdoc in the same field. I didn’t know much about MedComms, and I had definitely never considered a career in it.

During my search for a postdoc position I became worried about getting stuck in the same field/doing the same experiments forever. At this point a friend of mine who had already made the leap out of academia encouraged me to explore the world of MedComms. I haven’t looked back.

I’ve been an Associate Medical Writer with Real Science for 10 months now, and I can’t believe how much I’ve learnt already – the time has flown! Medical writing is so far away from my experience of academia as a PhD student, but it’s different in all the ways that suit me. I love the fast pace and the sense of team spirit. There are so many different projects that we work on simultaneously, and everyone throws themselves into each task and really gets involved. I’ve found both the writing and account handling teams amazingly supportive, and I love the variety of work. Far from churning out research articles, we use a variety of media to communicate clinical data; from internal training workshops, to global congresses, to short video segments and animations. I love the focus on medicine but I also enjoy being involved in the creative design process, which is something I’d never considered it would be possible to combine in my career. I’m so busy and exposed to so many new therapy areas daily.

Looking back at the past 10 months I can’t believe that I’ve already been to a congress in Germany, a meeting in Spain and I’ve watched a presentation that I developed being presented to over 800 clinical delegates. I’ve already learnt so much and I’m so excited to keep doing new things and learning new skills. They say that time flies when you’re having fun, and I really am loving my work!

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