Medical Copywriter
How To Become A Medical Copywriter
A medical copywriter offers copy based on medical, scientific, and health terms and concepts. A medical copywriter needs to have adequate skills to transform this information into a variety of formats for various audiences. Medical copywriters mostly produce or assist with the production of technical, informative, promotional, or educational medical content. Some medical copywriters write for a highly educated and professional audience while others focus on writing for educated laymen. Medical copywriters commonly work for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. They can also find employment with hospitals and other health care providers.
Medical copywriters can write for newspapers, general interest periodicals, and trade publications. In the education field, they may work for medical and health care book publishers, medical education companies, and academic institutions. Medical copywriters come from a wide variety of educational backgrounds. It is therefore not an obligation for a medical copywriter to have a medical background. Some medical copywriters are physicians or other medical professionals who were interested in medicine and found their niche in medical writing. Others have formal education in medicine or science and have picked up education doing research on the job.
The job duties of a medical copywriter are pretty much the same as those of copywriters from other writing fields. Some of the job duties of a medical copywriter include:
- Keeping up to date with medical literature and advancements. In order to be effective in their job, Medical copywriters must be aware of the current industry practices and regulatory requirements that affect medical writing. They must be up to date with the current literature, emerging science, technological developments, and medical trends. They write summaries and maintain files on informative medical and scientific journal articles.
- Researching and understanding requirements. Medical copywriters work with clinical teams and clients to understand the nature of the scientific work that they will be covering. They assess data or products using their medical expertise, and quickly develop expertise in new areas as needed for their writing. Medical copywriters conduct comprehensive literature searches to enhance their background understanding and evaluate and analyze the information they will be writing about.
- Writing, reviewing, and editing marketing medical writing. Medical copywriters write scientific copy for a broad medical audience, including scientific liaisons, healthcare professionals, and pharmaceutical representatives. They prepare abstracts, scientific exhibits, posters, and verbal presentations. They also develop and write pharmaceutical training materials, eLearning content, video scripts, magazine articles, and presentations to be used by a variety of audiences.