WHAT IS A MEDICAL WRITER?

Medical Writing As a Career Choice (PDF), by MaryAnn Foote, PhD, Director of Medical Writing at Amgen, made available by permission of the DIA.

Medical writers present information related to health care and medical science to professional and general audiences. Historically, we worked mostly in print media, but now our scope includes radio, TV, video, and computer-based media.

Medical writers have many different job titles:

  • Clinical Research Associate (CRA)
  • Communications Specialist or Communications Officer
  • Documentation Specialist
  • Drug Information or Medical Information Associate
  • Health Writer, Health Editor
  • Public Affairs or Public Communications Associate
  • Publications Specialist, Coordinator, Manager, or Director
  • Regulatory Affairs or Regulatory Compliance Associate
  • Science Writer, Science Editor
  • Technical Writer, Technical Editor
  • Web Content Administrator

Medical writers are employed by many types of companies and institutions:

  • Advertising, marketing communications, and public relations agencies
  • Contract clinical research organizations (CROs)
  • Government agencies, such as National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Health communications companies
  • Healthcare centers, particularly in research
  • Healthcare marketing communications, and public affairs departments
  • Healthcare information companies
  • Hospital and university public affairs or public information departments
  • Medical associations, particularly those that publish journals and newsletters
  • Medical device, medical instrument, and medical diagnostics companies
  • Medical and pharmaceutical software companies
  • Medical schools, medical research facilities, and other academic institutions
  • Nonprofit organizations, such as the American Heart Association
  • Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies
  • Publishers, specifically publishers of medical/scientific textbooks and journals
  • Newspapers and other print media companies
  • Television and radio stations

Medical writers have diverse educational backgrounds:

  • Language arts, including foreign languages
  • Library science
  • Research scientists
  • Education
  • Medical, including physicians, veterinarians, pharmacists, nurses, and many others

Medical writer pay scale

It is difficult to get any information about pay scale without being a member of an organization that conducts salary surveys; even then the variety of jobs, experience, and educational background leads to quite a range in expected income.

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics. A section of the Occupational Outlook Handbook section covers writers and editors in general.
  • National Association of Science Writer's informal freelance survey.
  • The American Medical Writers Association and Society for Technical Communicators both conduct salary surveys, but they are posted on Member's Only areas of their website or are available for purchase by nonmembers.

Want to know more?

See the Toolkit for New Medical Writers, created by the AMWA Delaware chapter. Attention medical writers: If you don't see your job title or working environment here, send us an email.