Finding medical writing jobs when you are new to the field of medical writing isn't easy. As a relatively new medical writer, I was delighted when a friend recommended me for a freelance assignment. The job was to write articles for a daily newspaper published for a 5-day medical conference.
 
First, a word of explanation. At medical conferences, the number of lectures and symposia is usually huge--no one can attend all of them. For this reason, sometimes companies are hired to write and publish a newspaper that covers the main conference events. The newspaper is delivered to the attendees each morning, beginning on the second day of the conference. The companies that publish these newspapers aren't necessarily local, so they hire local freelance medical writers to do the writing.
 
I had a telephone interview with a representative from the publishing company. Much to my chagrin, I found myself talking about my experience years ago, as the editor of my high school newspaper! Yet, some of the rules I learned about journalism back then applied to this job, and I was offered the position.
 
The publisher sent me their writer's manual, which included rules about grammar, punctuation, and reminders to avoid using passive voice. The manual also described how to write in the inverted pyramid style, which allows the reader to get the gist of the article by only reading the first few sentences.
 
A few days after I received the manual, the publisher recruited some advance writers, and I offered my services. The advance writing team was to write articles before the meeting, based on medical abstracts and online interviews with some of the authors. The articles ranged from 300 to 700 words, and each summarized two to four abstracts. For the first time since high school, I tried to write in the inverted pyramid style.
 
Writing for a medical conference newspaper requires the writer to decipher medical information in a field they don't necessarily know much about. Despite my medical background, I still had to look up abbreviations that the abstract authors assumed their readers would know. Wikipedia was very handy for these searches, and was also a quick source of background information. I also used PubMed's archive of peer-reviewed biomedical journal articles; it was an invaluable resource for referencing earlier works by the abstracts' authors.
 
The day before the conference began, the publisher asked me to summarize some more abstracts written by the speakers. Once again, I sat down at my computer to draft an article.
 
The difficult part of the assignment--writing articles under time pressure, on site, without prior information--was yet to come. What was it like to work as a medical writer at one of these conferences?
 
As it turned out, my job during the conference was mostly to get a few good quotes and capture new information presented at the meeting. After the first day, I amended the article I had written the night before to include some quotes and new information. I submitted my article, and it was published without any major corrections.
 
Although I didn't get to work as much on site at the convention as I'd hoped, I'm still very glad I accepted the assignment. I'd recommend this sort of work to freelance medical writers living near cities with a major convention center. Not only did I gain a little experience in medical journalism that I'll add to my resume--I even had a good time doing the job!
 
About the Author
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Karen Rappaport holds an MD and a PhD in health services research, and is a board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologist. She is embarking on a new career as a medical writer, which will draw on her expertise in medicine and public health. Her current work focuses on preparing manuscripts ready for publication in the peer-reviewed medical literature. In the foreseeable future, Karen plans to broaden her areas of medical writing expertise into other genres, including regulatory documents. 

Write for the Pharm, LLC

Email: karenmrappaport@yahoo.com

Tel: 650-315-4411