Careers in MCB: Medical Writing Paul Ferguson Senior Account Manager

My Background Paul Ferguson, Senior Account Manager BS in Biology, Southeast Missouri State University MS in Biology, UIUC Certificate in Business Administration from UIUC Course coordinator, MCB, UIUC Prescott Medical Communications Group

What is Medical Writing? “Medical writing is the activity of writing scientific documentation by someone who is a specialized writer (a medical writer) and is generally not one of the scientists or doctors whose research it was.” Source: www.wikipedia.org

Examples of Medical Writing Journal articles Original research Review articles Editorials, case reports, etc. Abstracts Publication in journals Submission to medical meetings Posters Presentation at medical meetings

Examples of Medical Writing Slide presentations Original research Symposia Roundtables Advisory boards Medical education materials Monographs Training materials Prescribing information

Examples of Medical Writing Regulatory documents Clinical Trial Reports (CTR) New Drug Applications (NDA) Investigational New Drug Application (IND) Marketing materials Advertisements Public relations materials Internet documents Patient education

Required Skills for Medical Writing Attention to detail Excellent writing skills Interpersonal skills Organizational skills Scientific skills

Education by Degree Medical Writers (%) Gray and Hamilton. AMWAJ, 2004. Medical Writers (%)

Level of Education Gray and Hamilton. AMWAJ, 2004.

Primary Employers of Medical Writers Gray and Hamilton. AMWAJ, 2004.

Freelance 1/3 of Medical writers Work at home Set your own schedule Income based upon ability to get work Discipline Experience Ability to market yourself

Salary Commensurate with experience and education $38,000-100,000+ Mean income of full-time employees approximately $74,000 Pharmaceutical and communication companies pay best “Interesting 6-figure job” as seen on CNNMoney.com Gray and Hamilton. AMWAJ, 2004.

Tips for Writing Career Build skills Composition, grammar Read medical literature Training Medical writing certification Statistics Networking American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)

Resources American Medical Writer’s Association (AMWA) American Medical Association Manual of Style International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)