The medical writing market is projected to grow to a staggering 11.1 billion USD in 2034, and the increase in freelance and in-house medical writers reflects its expanding nature.
As demand for qualified medical writers has increased, more people—whether they’re writers, academics, doctors, or come from some other career—recognise the potential of a medical writing career. Some of the perks I enjoy as a freelance medical writer include the ability to work on a wide array of projects and the decreased likelihood, when compared with other industries, that AI replaces my work due to the nuance it requires.
If you’re considering transitioning into a career as a freelance medical writer or want to find a full-time medical writing job, you may be wondering if you’ve got what it takes. Will you need medical writer qualifications like a particular degree or years of experience in life sciences that you may not have yet?
There’s no doubt that medical writing is a field that demands some expertise, but anyone can learn to be a medical writer. So, let’s talk about how to start your medical writing career – and what medical writer qualifications you need.
General Medical Writing Qualifications: Foundational Skills You Need
There are some medical writer qualifications (think: foundational skills) all of us should have to be proficient at our work.
Having some educational background in the sciences is often helpful, although some medical writers (including myself) have communications, journalism, or marketing backgrounds. As long as you’re willing to learn, you can hone your skills as a medical writer.
It’s important to understand medical terminology and scientific concepts. This means that you can understand concepts you read about to a point where you can explain them to other people in easy-to-understand language. You should be able to think critically about information and contextualise what you learn for yourself and your audience (this may be patients, consumers, healthcare professionals, or some other audience).
Distilling complex topics for specific audiences is an important skill all medical writers need, no matter the audience. Medical writers write for patients, physicians, and other stakeholders.
However, most people don’t want to spend time deciphering what you’re saying, even if they can. Understanding the audience you’re writing for and taking jargon and overly complex phrasing out of your writing is essential.
Medical writers also need to be able to interpret research findings and critically analyse methodologies, the review process, and other context clues that can give you an idea of how rigorous and relevant specific research is. Discerning the relevance of journal articles is a crucial skill that comes with practice. You’ll want to look at a few things when deciding if specific research is valuable to the project you’re working on, including: date of publication, scope, funding, relevance (cultural and geographical), sample size and methodology, author credibility, peer review and transferability of findings.
While we’re talking about research, medical writers need to be able to merge their ability to critically analyse data with the ability to tell a story. While literature reviews or whitepapers may not tell the kind of story you would read for fun, they still tell a story about what’s been done in a particular field, what’s missing from that field, and what the next steps might be to improve the situation.
Good medical writers turn their research into compelling, evidence-backed stories that persuade readers to take an action or educate them.
Do You Need an Advanced Degree to Become a Medical Writer?
The most recent available data shows that only 78% of medical writers have an advanced degree – so you don’t need one to become a medical writer. Many medical writers have advanced degrees, and the knowledge of those former clinicians or academics can be helpful. However, it isn’t necessary.
People come into medical writing from all sorts of careers. Many transition from practising medicine to academia. However, others include health communicators (like me), scientists who don’t have advanced degrees, writers who want to explore a new field, journalists, or even science teachers and professors.
It can be more challenging to find a job in medical writing without an advanced degree. Many jobs advertise for someone with significant experience in communications or for someone with an advanced degree, and many writers who don’t fully meet either of those criteria may choose to go freelance in the beginning as they build their portfolio and professional experience.
A lack of an advanced degree doesn’t equal a lack of success. With so many people coming into medical writing from different areas with different skill sets, your clientele is waiting for you — you just have to find them.
Qualifications by Type of Medical Writing
We won’t go in-depth on specific medical writing qualifications today, partly because there are so many avenues you can take as a medical writer – as we’ve already discussed. However, particular fields require certain specialised skill sets. There are so many avenues to explore in medical writing, from writing advertorials to summarising patient advocacy meetings. Each one requires practice via experience and training, too.
For example, several types of writing, including continuing medical education (CME) writing, research manuscript editing, and regulatory writing, require a fair and balanced perspective instead of a promotional one.
Regulatory and CME writers need to understand the regulations surrounding the work they produce. Regulatory writers sometimes interface with very stringent clinical trial regulations and manuscript review board submissions.
Medical editors may also be asked to help review and prepare a research manuscript for third-party review.
CME writers need to be aware of regulations around physicians’ education, which are set by the Accreditation Councils for Continuing Medical Education.
Medical writers who write for patients may have completed specific qualifications, such as a Plain English qualification or a course with the Patient Information Forum.
Maintaining and Growing Important Skills
If you’re ready to dive into a medical writing career, assess what you bring to the table right now. What are you interested in? What medical and scientific knowledge do you already have? Can you tell a story? Would you like to sharpen your writing skills?
Find ways to learn more in the areas you feel you need to grow in. Start reading academic publications in your areas of interest, attend local conferences and lectures, and network with other medical writers who can give you pointers.
Consider taking a course from a local university or online through a learning platform like Coursera to increase your knowledge and understanding of your subjects of interest.
5 Ways to Continue Building Your Medical Writing Skills
I know that getting started as a medical writer can be daunting. It can be hard to know where to begin, what types of writing to focus on, or where to start looking for clients. It’s well worth the hard work, and I’ll leave you with some actionable tips to get you started.
- Take free or reasonably priced courses to improve your writing and medical knowledge skills. Consider taking more specialised courses once you settle on a specific niche.
- Have a game plan for your career transition, especially if you’re considering leaving a full-time job to go freelance.
- Know some of the best tools for medical writing, including citation tools like Zotero and EndNote, note-taking tools like Otter.ai, and the general suite of Google or Microsoft digital tools like Word and Excel.
- If your job isn’t heavily desk-based, prepare to be a medical writer by incorporating stretching and small movements into your day to keep your wrists happy and your mind limber.
- Get a medical writing mentor! Medical writing mentors (like yours truly) are experienced medical writers who have been where you are and can share their experience with you. We’ll impart our knowledge and expertise so you can get a head start on your medical writing career.
Leverage a Qualified Medical Writer to Your Advantage
Whether you’re looking for a mentor to walk you through the beginning of your medical writing journey or a freelancer with medical writer qualifications that match your project, I’m your writer.
With over a decade of experience in medical writing under my belt, I’m ready to show you the ropes and dedicate my time and expertise to my next project.
My name is Rachel Pascal. I’m an accomplished and versatile freelance medical and health writer with over a decade of experience writing content to educate healthcare professionals, empower patients, communicate research findings, and raise brand + disease awareness.
- Click CONTACT above to drop me a line
- Read some samples in my writing portfolio
Check out my latest blog on how medical writers take your business to the next level
