Write in brief about your understanding of medical

writing.
Medical writing is a scientific writer by people who are specialized writers (medical writers)
and a doctor involved in research. A medical writer involved in communication in the
profession and medical science or allies. The aim is to get people involved in producing
sensitive data to create data that communicates efficiently and clearly with data-based
messages. Medical writers also work to improve documents that are in accordance with any
rules or journals according to their official content, format and interm structure. Medical
Writing continues to strive because of its role in communicating results to other people who
do not know the search results or research fields. Medical writing is defined as
communicating clinical and scientific data for a varied audience. This audience may include
physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, pharmaceutical companies, scientists and even
the general public.

Despite the variety of readers, medical writing is an activity which involves writing scientific
information in a logical and precise manner. According to Silvia Rogers, PhD., its main
purpose is to record data obtained through research. This research could include that of
journals, websites, peer reviewed articles, books etc.

The history of medical writing can be divided into three ages namely:

Age I – when medicine and writing became linked. Ancient medical texts have recorded
beliefs and traditions of various medical institutions of the past.

 Age II – when medical physicians became authors and began writing and spreading
information through their literature. Medicine was now not only recorded but written and
exchanged.

 Age III – when writing included scientific development. This development led to all
experimentation and evidence to be published and made available to the public.

 Age IV – when medical writing finally became more sophisticated and required
incorporating multimedia, sounds and pictures.

Age III ushered in a new era for medical writing. During this period the first scientific journal
was published in the early 1600’s. Following this Louis Pasteur established his IMRD
(Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion). This was an introduction to formatting and
publishing all scientific experimentation and discourse. Style manuals and books were
prescribed for publishing scientific material. Publication became an integral final step of
research. Any research that was not published was void. During and after World War II
medical writers were no longer physicians. Age IV is the period post 2000. At this stage
evidence based medicine came to be established. With the advent of new technology,
reporting research and its interpretation required more accuracy and analysis. Medical
literature now came to include sounds, pictures, videos, graphs, charts and various new
formats to make it more vibrant. Patient and physician education materials became more
detailed and informative. Medical writing is broadly divided into two namely educational or
academic medical writing and marketing medical writing.Educational or academic medical
writing usually taken up by
health professionals involves writing about various diseases and clinical conditions. Most
health practitioners, present research and findings about varied clinical situations in journals,
articles and books. With their science backgrounds, they learn to write about medicine. This
forms the bulk of academic medical writing. Marketing medical writing is often taken by
graduates in journalism or literature graduates and involves writing about development of
drugs and creating content for pharmaceutical companies. With their literary background,
they learn medicine as they write. Regulatory writing is preparing a range of documents for
regulatory submissions, including protocols and final reports for clinical trials, and clinical
expert reports. They may also involve preparation of manuscripts for publication in medical
journals. This is usually required by pharmaceutical companies to get productsregistered with
international regulatory authorities.

Characteristic of a good medical writing should be:

  Thoroughly researched: Any article, presentation or medical content should be

researched well with the most recent representation of the content and its findings as
far as its possible.
  Accurate: It should be accurate and precise so that readers can arrive at a conclusion
after what they have read.
  Logically organized: Since most sciences are based on logic it is important for
writers to demonstrate a logical train of thought as they write.
  Readable: It should be easy to read without any complicated language or terms. The
content written must reflect a coherent thought process.

Good medical writing should also be written convincingly in terms of concept, style and
language so that readers find it credible.By improving skills it can be written efficiently using
all the tools of modern’s technology so as to present scientific data. One of the most
important characteristics is transparency. Good medical content is transparent and simple not
confusing and vague. Currently there are four medical writing organizations that train and
organize lectures and seminars for medical writers. They provide forums or platforms for
medical writers to learn from each other. India also now has an organization of its own
namely the Indian Medical Writers Association. The others being the American, European
and Australasian Associations. For medical writers today the scope is vast. Depending on
your qualifications and skills medical writers can take up a role as any of those mentioned
above. As one gains experience, the position becomes more specialized and focused.
Publications specialists, Regulatory Affairs Associates and Medical editors are writers who
have spent years on the job. looking to hire them. Many pharmaceutical companies, medical
schools and associations also need medical writers to help market drugs and report risk/
benefits of the same. Biotechnology companies and medical diagnostic companies also rely
on medical literature to create awareness regarding breakthroughs in medical technology.
With media now encompassing the television, radio and internet the scope of medical writing
has increased by leaps and bounds thus making it a vibrant and dynamic field to work in. One
might begin asking where medical writers are needed. Medical writers are now needed at
advertising agencies, contract research organizations, government agencies, hospitals and
other health care centers. Since its conception the medical writing field has been constantly
growing with more and more institutions
In the future medical writing is likely to become more specialized. As communication
techniques, become more sophisticated, it will allow more specialization.
Also as more research comes to be published, new formats for print and electronic coding
may come into place thus formalizing the way medical literature is prepared and written.
Since the medical writing is growing exponentially, it would become necessary to establish
programs that could teach and mentor students in the field. With the sub specialization of
science and medicine, medical writers will increasingly be pressured to focus on diversifying
into a particular subject or format.

How is medical writing different from writing

fiction?

Medical writing differs from literary writing. ‘Literary writing is an art based on principles of
personal style, fiction, and originality.’ Its success largely depends on the creative
imagination of the author. However medical writing is often considered a craft as it requires
certain skills, to communicate scientific data in a logical manner. It involves little room for
creativity and builds on skills required for effective communication of scientific data.