Medical Writing Training

[Wanda Reese]

For those professionals who've expressed interest in medical writing training--particularly in the area of regulatory and/or marketing, please see the following information:

www.mjota.org

Training is only 12 weeks, conducted by experienced medical writers, and affordable. Students are also given publishing opportunities, resume assistance and assistance in obtaining work.

[Wanda Reese]

You should talk with Dr. Dodgson. You know she's no longer with USP, right?
The program she and Dr. Mac teach now, that I sent the link for is only 12-15 weeks, at $1k.
That includes working on your resume following completion of the course, and GETTING YOU A JOB.
My plan is to do both, if I can. I simply want to finish what I started @ USP with the MS program, since I hate to leave anything unfinished. Why don't you email her and discuss it? I'm sure she'd be happy to hear from you.

sjdodgsonphd@yahoo,com.

Best,
~Wanda

[Wanda Reese]

oops. Make that: [e-mail]

[Wanda Reese]

what specific info were you looking for from me?

[Manoj Kumar Yadava]

The weblink provided does not work!

[shalini]

Wanda,

I recently joined this network and was very interested in your post. I was thinking about doing a certificate course at USP as well but this looks more promising. The link provided does not open however and was wondering if you could give me some information on how to get in touch with the people who offer the course.

thanks
shalini

[Wanda Reese]

http://mjota.org/mjotacourses/rw2regulatorywriting.html
Also, contact Dr. Susanna Dodgson at : [e-mail]
See my discussion info posted today for details on certificate training(12/7).

[G. P. Cuppan]

This is a nice thread. I want to add to the mix of what people need to think about as the core skills needed to survive and more importantly, thrive as a medical writer. First and foremost, you must recognize that good medical writers bring skills well beyond "writing" to the task of developing medical, scientific, and regulatory documentation.

None of the definitions for the term medical writier you'll find onthe web begins to approach what I consider a true description of what professional medical writers do and can do in the task of codifying knowledge into highly usable reports, summary documents, and manuscripts. The group I am part of, McCulley/Cuppan (www.mcculley-cuppan.com) sees the work of the medical writer in the life sciences as an engagement in the task of knowledge management. For those entering the field, do not think of yourself merely as a writer. Think of yourself as a knowledge manager and look to augment your skill sets in the spirit of this job title.

I want to bring your attention to an article I coauthored for the American Medical Writers Association with my colleagues Julie Dyke Ford and Stephen A. Bernhardt. The article, "From Medical Writer to Communication Specialist: Expanding Roles and Contributions in Pharmaceutical Organizations." (American Medical Writers Association. June 2004) describes our vision of the expanding roles of the medical writer working in the clinical research industry. If you do not have access to AMWA, then you can find a different version of this article here (http://brain.brainery.net/mcblog).

[Wanda Reese]

This is great and the type of contribution this group needs to see. Well familiar with the work of your colleague Steve Bernhardt and have enjoyed the opportunities we've communicated by email (one of my undergrad writing professors is a colleague and friend of his). He's brilliant. Also very familiar with the work of McCulley-Cuppan. You folks should branch off into teaching if time allowed you to, although I'm sure it wouldn't be a realistic endeavor with the work and your client load. Yours would be some of the most valuable, real-world training available to new and experienced medical writers.

You're absolutely correct that the descriptions found on the Web leave much to be desired about what professional medical writers actually do, as well as what the scope of the expectations from clients/employers are.
Bravo.

[G. P. Cuppan]

I hate to see this Forum string Wanda started come to a premature end. There remains much to be said on the topic. I encourage others (new to medical writing and especially the experienced practitioners) to wade in with comments and questions.

I know there are many people on this blog who are looking to create a career for themselves in medical writing. Often they are focused on only two aspects of what it takes to be a successful medical writer: clinical insight and proficiency on the key board. There are other concepts and skill sets that are essential to launching a career in medical writing. Two I find to be undersubscribed are managing organizational expectations for the syntactical and lexical aspects of writing (structure and style) and conflict resolution. Good writers recognize that they must be proactive is understanding the document culture of an organization and they also recognize they must be facilitators of discussion and know how to resolve differences of opinions especially between strong personalities. You can find more on this topic here http://brain.brainery.net/mcblog/.

[Abdul Aziz]

These links are not working anymore..

[Dr. Singh]

Anything like this in the UK

[imambaba]

hello
please give me that online trianing details regarding medical writing..

thanks
regards
imambaba