From academic to medical writer: a guide to getting started in medical communications
By Dr Annick Moon, 10th edition published March 2018
This guide focuses on medical writing careers in medical communications, in particular in MedComms agencies. The MedComms industry provides consultancy services to pharmaceutical companies, and the role of the medical writer is to use science and language to deliver these services successfully, while working to the highest ethical standards and adhering to industry regulations and guidelines.
The aim of this guide is to give you the information you need to decide if you are suited to the role of medical writer, and to provide the insider knowledge you need to excel at interview.
This issue includes nine personal profiles written by current medical writing specialists in leading MedComms agencies, describing their personal journeys in to MedComms and the day-to-day work they now do as well as an updated directory of agency contacts.
The 10th edition of this careers guide about medical writing is freely available here, published by Burntsky Ltd in March 2018, and it will now be updated every year.
My journey to become an Associate Medical Writer (AMW) for Ashfield Healthcare Communications (AHC) began on 21 November, 2016. I made the move North in pursuit of a career in Healthcare Communications, having spent several years working in roles that had left me feeling either unsatisfied professionally, or bored. It had always been my intention to go into Medical Writing, but after numerous rejections citing ‘a lack of experience’ I felt it wise to get in on the ground floor and work my way up. So it was with great enthusiasm that, having passed the interview and editorial test stages of the recruitment process, I began my new role as an Editorial Assistant (EA) for CircleScience (one of AHC’s agencies).