Author: Andrii Nikulin

If you read this article, you probably dream of getting your foot in the door with medical writing. Or maybe you are an employer eager to add a medical writer to the crew. Regardless of your goal, you must understand that the ready-aim-fire approach will not work in this occupation. You should know what medical writers do, what value they bring, how much they make, who hires them, and how to become one.  

In this in-depth guide, the Viseven team will help you learn more about the medical writing job and feel more confident while testing the waters in a new field. But before we begin, let’s define medical writing. 

What Is Medical Writing? 

Medical writing refers to creating healthcare-related textual content that aims to improve doctor-patient communication and provide insights on industry topics. Medical writing presupposes compliance with regulatory guidelines and industry requirements regarding structure, content, style, and format. 

Some types of medical writing include: 

• Grant proposals 
• Abstract for medical journals 
• Advisory board summaries 

• Ads for medical devices and drugs
• Clinical study reports
• Healthcare education materials 
• Marketing materials 
• Newspaper articles 
• Healthcare books 

Necessary Skills and Expertise 

Medical writers create technical, educational, promotional, and informative healthcare-related content. Since healthcare is heavily regulated, a medical writer must be familiar with industry standards, regulations, and medical concepts. While having a healthcare degree is preferable, it is not mandatory. 

It is also worth noting that more than a basic understanding of healthcare is needed to excel in this profession. Medical writers must be outstanding communicators, capable of breaking down complex ideas for the public and healthcare professionals in a digestible way. They must create a compelling story to which the audience can relate, especially when crafting ads and marketing materials. 

Equally important for a medical writer are analytical and research skills. These experts must be able to analyze and synthesize large volumes of evidence-based information to create a coherent, compliant content piece. Since each piece will undergo the approval procedure (for example, the Medical Legal Regulatory (MLR) process), they should be able to work with facts and interpret research findings and statistics without falling prey to biased thinking.

Source: Technical Writer HQ

Benefits of Having a Medical Writer in Your Team 

Whether you are an employer or a would-be medical writer, you need to know what these experts bring to the table. Here are some of the key perks: 

Compliance made easy 

Medical writers are experienced in writing healthcare content, so they know how to ensure compliance with the industry requirements. For example, in pharma marketing, each content module or assembly must undergo a rigorous MLR process. For the businesses that do not employ a modular approach to content creation, it may take up to 2 months to approve a single content asset.  

If competent writers are assigned to create the content, the MLR teams will be more likely to approve it on the first attempt. This means savings in costs, time, and improving the quality of writing. 

High-quality content 

Medical writers understand the healthcare industry, their audience, and the job to be done better than other writers or marketers. They know how to connect with different types of readers, such as providers, regulatory authorities, patients, and caregivers.  

They also have the skills to write easy-to-read, engaging, and ethical healthcare materials. All their claims are well-researched and supported by data. 

Standardization 

One aspect often overlooked is content consistency. Medical writers ensure standardization across materials. This allows pharmaceutical companies to maintain their brand voice and facilitates information sharing. Since content quality and messaging remain consistent, reviewing and comparing different materials is more effortless.  

Who Hires These Specialists? 

Many aspiring medical writers falsely believe they should market their services only to pharmaceutical and medical device companies. This biased assumption greatly impacts their career progress. While pharmaceutical companies need medical writing services, they do not usually hire these specialists directly. 

Pharma companies often turn to medical education companies and medical communication agencies for medical writing. These vendors offer complete services, from project briefing to website development, making them time-efficient and convenient for life sciences businesses. 

It is not uncommon for MarTech companies operating in pharma to hire medical writers. For example, Viseven’s Digital Content Factory (DCF) provides interactive content development for life sciences brands, including those in the Top 50. Our team has been delivering medical writing and marketing services for over 15 years. 

Connect with these companies on LinkedIn or find their websites to check medical writing job openings. Depending on your goals and preferences, you may apply for in-house positions or seek freelance opportunities. 

How Much Do Medical Writers Earn? 

Medical writers’ salaries heavily depend on their skills, experience, and location. Salaries can vary significantly in the United States, even from state to state. According to Glassdoor, a medical writer makes an average of $86,556 per year. Meanwhile, Salary.com gives a somewhat lower figure of $70,784. This website allows you to determine the salary based on years of experience, location, reporting structure, and performance level. 

How to Become a Medical Writer 

Here are some time-tested pieces of advice to become a medical writer: 

Find a good mentor 

Finding a mentor is one of the most effective strategies for beginning your career path. However, you must be ready to soak up new knowledge and not be afraid to ask questions. 

You may encounter two types of writers when searching for a mentor. The first group consists of writers with a medical degree and extensive experience in healthcare, but their writing skills may be average. Life sciences brands often employ these writers if they have medical editors on their teams.  

Another type of mentor is a medical writer with adequate medical knowledge and exceptional writing skills. Their work typically requires minimal editing and is approved from the first draft, saving companies time and money.  

The choice of mentor depends on your preferences and available resources. Yet, it is preferable to find a mentor who can teach you both medical science and the art of writing, thereby making you a more competitive expert in the market. 

Build a diverse portfolio 

Your work speaks for itself, and a well-crafted portfolio is a must when you start your path as a medical writer. You might say, “But wait, how can I build my portfolio if I do not have anything published?”.  

One mistake that novices make is to wait for publications in authoritative medical journals to begin composing your portfolio. Your prospective employers would like to see examples of your work to check whether you are a good fit for them.  

They also tend to prefer writers who can produce content for diverse audiences. Therefore, it is always a good idea to include, for example, patient handouts along with healthcare magazine articles. This would prevent you from pigeonholing yourself to one niche only and make you appear more valuable in the employers’ eyes. 

Network, network, and network 

Whether you plan to become a freelancer or an in-house employee, it is crucial to connect with the community to break into the field. Building a network of contacts, both locally and internationally, is increasingly important.  

One option to consider is joining the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), an international association of specialists in biomedical communications. This will give you access to industry expert-led courses, scientific workshops, and mentoring opportunities. Most importantly, you can form valuable professional relationships, learning from other writers’ mistakes and success stories. 

Also, let’s not forget about virtual communication. Adding contacts on LinkedIn will help expand your network. You might also want to add employees and corporate pages of companies you want to work for. 

Become more tech-savvy 

Technical literacy will help you produce content quickly and with minimal to no revision requests from your employer or client. As a medical writer, you must be proficient in software such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat.  

The latter program is essential when creating marketing materials. To get content approved by MLR, you need to reference all your claims by mentioning the exact author, page, and paragraph number and highlight the sentences you are referring to. As most documents come in a PDF format, Adobe Acrobat is helpful for this task.  

Learning new tech skills also helps professionals stay abreast of industry trends. For example, medical writers at Viseven can leverage our advanced content experience platform, eWizard, to plan, brief, modularize, analyze, and distribute content. The knowledge of the AI-driven solution helps them speed up their content creation process, accelerate MLR approval, and tailor messages to their audiences. 

Spend money to earn money 

Medical writing is a highly dynamic field, so it is crucial to stay updated on the latest innovations, guidelines, and healthcare regulations. As stated by Cynthia Kryder in the book ‘The Accidental Medical Writer,’ you have to spend money to make money. 

There is no specific degree in medical writing, but you can always find plenty of self-education opportunities. Many organizations provide training sessions for newly hired medical writers. In these courses, new employees learn about various types of regulatory documents, in-house templates, style guides, the drug development process, and more. These organizations may pair new employees with senior medical writers who act as mentors. 

Alternatively, consider enrolling in short courses offered by professional entities. These sessions typically last up to three days and focus on specific topics (drug safety, medical writing for newspapers, ethical standards, and more). Upon completion, you will receive heaps of condensed, valuable information shared by experienced industry professionals. 

It is also vital to read high-quality content produced by other medical writers. You do not have to consume every content piece under the sun, but you should familiarize yourself with different writing styles to find your own voice.  

Identify the types of content you would like to create and read as much as possible. For example, if you want to write for healthcare journals and newspapers, explore the most prominent ones on the market. 

Gain medical science knowledge 

More than basic healthcare knowledge is required when starting a career in medical writing. It is vital to have professional literature at your fingertips. Essential resources include a nursing procedure book, physician desk reference, and medical dictionary. The Control of Communicable Diseases Manual can help you understand disease biology.  

There is also a wealth of evidence-based information available on the Internet. One of the most reputable databases is PubMed, which contains millions of healthcare manuscripts dating back to the 1950s.  

Meanwhile, do not use online encyclopedias and blogs, which people without a healthcare degree write and edit. You should be able to differentiate fact-based materials and personal opinions to provide high-quality medical content. 

Final Words 

Medical writing brings together the art of writing and the science of medicine. Life sciences brands rely on medical writers to engage, educate, and establish long-term relationships with their audience.  

Viseven is a future-inspired MarTech company that collaborates with medical writers specializing in various therapeutic areas, from endocrinology to rare diseases. Our experts work with marketing specialists and medical advisors to produce high-quality, compliant, and impactful content. Our team includes medical doctors who grasp the legal aspects of promoting different types of drugs and ensure that your content complies with regulations and cultural nuances. 

If you are interested in our medical writing and content creation services do not hesitate to drop us a line. 

In the pharmaceutical industry, customer relationship management is not just nice-to-have — it’s a fundamental necessity. Pharma is changing fast. New business models, complex regulations, and advanced technologies are pushing drug companies to work harder than ever to stay competitive. On top of that, the global pharmaceutical market has grown plenty in recent years, reaching an estimated $1.6 trillion in 2023. This is an increase of more than $100 billion compared to 2022.

Source: Revenue of the worldwide pharmaceutical market from 2001 to 2023, Statista

Just like in other industries, effective marketing and sales strategies in pharma rely on understanding and managing relationships with your clients. At the same time, the internet has made it easier for patients and doctors to find information about medicines, giving them more power to choose what works best for them.

Because of these changes, pharmaceutical companies are rethinking how they do business. Instead of just focusing on making different drugs, they’re now trying to understand their customers better. And you can’t do it well with spreadsheets and manual data tracking. 

That’s where CRM software comes in to help pharma companies maintain and enhance these relationships. So let us see what makes this technology so indispensable in the sector nowadays.

What is Pharmaceutical CRM?

CRM, or customer relationship management software helps you manage relationships and interactions with your customers or prospects, track sales activities, and optimize marketing strategies. Often this software offers features like data analytics, personalized engagement tools, compliance management capabilities, and more. Pharma CRM software enables companies to build better relationships and enhance engagement with customers, improve sales effectiveness, and overall drive business growth.

Main Advantages of CRM in the Pharma Industry

Current market research shows steady growth in the global pharmaceutical CRM market, confirming the increasing adoption of the solution. In 2023, the market size was valued at $4,156 million, reaching $4,356 million in 2024. Experts predict this growth will continue. They expect the market to grow by 4.8% each year from 2024 to 2033. By 2033, they think it will reach $6,643 million. The rising adoption of these systems can be attributed to several key benefits they offer to the pharmaceutical industry.

Better data management and analytics

The first big benefit of pharma CRM systems is that they serve as a centralized repository for all customer-related data, consolidating information and interactions that previously were scattered across multiple departments and systems. This centralization is advanced even further by the CRM’s ability to integrate data from different sources, like sales, marketing, research, and even external databases, providing a comprehensive view of each customer and the market as a whole.

Moreover, the real-time nature of data updates in a CRM solution ensures that information remains current and accessible. Sales representatives can input data during or immediately after their interactions with healthcare professionals, keeping everyone at the company informed and on the same page.

With this wealth of consolidated data, pharmaceutical companies can utilize analytics tools to gain impactful insights, from predicting future market trends to analyzing products’ performance across various regions. This empowers companies to focus on relevant metrics and make data-driven decisions.

In-depth view of a customer lifecycle journey

Another key benefit of pharma CRM software is the ability to track customer lifecycle journeys, allowing pharmaceutical companies to see and study the entire process of converting potential leads into loyal customers. 

This feature offers complete visibility of each HCP’s journey, from initial contact to becoming a regular prescriber or customer. The system tracks various stages such as awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, adoption, and loyalty for each product or service, allowing for a complete understanding of the customer’s progression. By understanding where each customer is in their journey, you can personalize your communication and marketing strategies accordingly.

Advanced workflow automation

Most pharma CRM software solutions can automate various sales and marketing activities. The CRM solution can automatically schedule follow-up calls, send reminders for important meetings, and even generate personalized emails to healthcare professionals based on their interactions and preferences. This not only saves time for sales representatives but also ensures consistent and timely communication with customers.

Marketing efforts also benefit greatly from automation. The CRM platform can automatically segment customers based on various criteria, allowing for targeted marketing campaigns. It can then track the performance of these campaigns in real time, providing valuable insights for future strategies. Automated reporting tools can generate regular performance summaries, saving hours of manual data compilation and analysis.

Key Features of Pharma CRM Software

Pharma CRM systems differ from traditional CRM software because of specific industry requirements and regulations. For instance, while standard CRM software focuses on general customer data, the pharmaceutical CRM system needs to be tailored to manage relationships with healthcare professionals, like doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. Hence, these industry-specific systems may often include features for tracking prescribing behavior and influence.

Real-time monitoring and insights

Getting real-time insights is crucial for any business, as it allows you to make decisions quicker and overall be more agile in your responses to market changes. This feature enables pharmaceutical companies to track and analyze data as it’s being entered or updated, providing visibility into different areas of business. Depending on your vendor, certain CRM platforms can even analyze and report how your audience interacts with your content.

At the heart of this feature are live dashboard updates. As data is being entered or changed, your dashboard should update automatically, giving you an instant view of required KPIs. This is valuable both for tracking sales representatives’ activities and results, and for marketing to see the feedback on their campaigns.

Closed-loop marketing

Closed-loop marketing is a process that uses client feedback and data to continuously enhance marketing efforts, creating a cycle of constant refinement. This detailed information on interactions, preferred channels, and more help sales team personalize their approach to meet the clients’ need and expectations. 

With a pharmaceutical CRM software both sales and marketing team can access real-time insights which are shared between the teams to guide sales strategies and marketing decisions. 

Consent management

Consent management is a feature that is rarely discussed, existing mainly in pharmaceutical CRM software. This functionality addresses the complex challenge of collecting and managing customers’ consent in the life sciences industry. As pharma companies grow, it becomes increasingly harder to handle consent manually. Not to mention, risky. 

Therefore, certain pharma CRM systems offer to automate the consent collection process while ensuring compliance with industry regulations. All collected consents are managed in a centralized platform, eliminating the risk of data loss, and allowing to see a full consent history. Sales representatives can send a tailored consent page to customers with checkboxes for different types of personal data. And if a customer refuses to consent, the CRM software immediately disables communications. 

Visits and route management

This special functionality in the pharma CRM system is designed to help out the field sales and service teams optimize their daily schedules and travel routes when meeting with healthcare professionals or visiting pharmacies. The CRM platform uses advanced algorithms to create the best itineraries, taking into account location, priority of clients, and time constraints. It also helps track travel time and distances between appointments and allows for adjusting schedules on the fly when unexpected changes occur

Sample management and compliance

Pharma businesses can occasionally send samples of their products to healthcare professionals as a part of their promotional activities. All of these activities need to be tracked. The sample management feature does just that. It monitors sample requests, manages inventory levels, records distribution, and captures data on sample usage and feedback.

The CRM platform ensures that sample distribution complies with industry regulations, which can vary by country or region. It typically includes features to set limits on the number of samples that can be distributed to a single HCP, track expiration dates, and maintain detailed records of all sample-related activities.

Omnichannel communication

If you notice that your communication with customers is getting ineffective and slow, it might be time to involve a CRM system that has a multi or omnichannel communication feature. Today, patients and HCPs interact through many channels, from phone calls to Instagram tags. A good CRM platform brings together these diverse customer interactions into one unified platform, ensuring that all customer queries are handled efficiently and no feedback falls through the cracks. With this integration you’ll be able to reach your target audience on their preferred channels, improving customer experience, and it will be much easier for your team to handle communications. In the end, you’ll have consolidated customer data with detailed insights, allowing you to make informed decisions.

How to Choose Your Pharma CRM

The pharma industry needs CRM software. Emerging regulations and policies, complicated procedures and processes, intense market competition — it’s all too much to handle without adequate technological assistance. Which begs the question — how do you choose the best pharma CRM software for your business?

First, it’s vital to understand your immediate goals and strategic objectives. Don’t just go for a CRM system that has the most features, because you might end up paying for functionality that you won’t ever use. Define the KPIs that you want to improve and focus on CRM software that is designed to do just that.

Another factor that’s crucial to mention is how a CRM provider helps its clients to migrate to new software. Often, migration is not a walk in the park, it needs to be handled professionally and with an individual approach. Ask your candidate providers about the whole process. Here are some questions that you might want to ask:

• Are you able to customize the CRM platform to ensure that it integrates with the existing tech stack? 
• Will you provide a dedicated manager to help us handle the migration?
• Are you helping clients with the import of data?
• Can the CRM software be customized to our requirements and workflow?
• Do you have a 24/7 customer support service?

Oftentimes, generic CRM solutions will not fit your needs compliance-wise. That’s why it’s best when a CRM platform is specifically designed for the pharmaceutical sector and includes compliance management features. Look for CRM that offers robust customer data management, sales force automation, and marketing campaign tools tailored to the industry.

Next, focus on the ability of a CRM platform to support digitizing customer experience. In the modern age, HCPs expect seamless, personalized interactions across various channels. Good CRM software should offer multi-channel engagement functionality, allowing your team to interact with customers through their preferred methods: email, mobile apps, online portals, and more. Look for features that enable personalized content delivery, virtual meeting support, and digital signature capabilities to enhance the overall customer experience.

Another crucial aspect to consider is the analytics and reporting capabilities of CRM software. The system should provide real-time insights into customer interactions, sales performance, and market trends. Advanced analytics can help you make data-driven decisions, optimize your marketing strategies, and identify new opportunities. 

Lastly, consider the vendor’s reputation, client portfolio, case studies, and future development roadmap. Choose a vendor with experience in the pharma industry who understands the unique challenges and requirements of the sector. Look for a provider that offers comprehensive training and ongoing support to ensure your team can fully utilize the CRM’s capabilities.

Bottom Line

As we’ve stated at the beginning and proved along the way — pharmaceutical CRM isn’t just nice-to-have, it’s an absolute must-have. By leveraging the power of industry-specific CRM, pharma businesses can streamline operations, build strong customer relationships, and stay ahead of the competition. From improving sales force effectiveness to ensuring regulatory compliance, the right CRM solution acts as a catalyst for growth. The industry continues to evolve, and those who embrace and optimize their CRM systems will be best positioned to thrive in the digital age of healthcare.

Over the past decade, biopharmaceutical researchers have made significant progress in discovering innovative drugs. Once-deadly diseases, like melanoma, multiple sclerosis, and malaria, have become more understood and manageable. 

Despite these breakthroughs, many life sciences companies search for a more comprehensive approach to discovering drugs and predicting which therapies will be effective for which groups of patients. The industry faces challenges in collecting and organizing high-quality, abundant human data that allows researchers to form hypotheses and, by using technology, discover trends and patterns invisible to the human eye. 

Effective health data management enables pharma to unravel disease biology and advance prevention and treatment. That is why the Viseven team wants to share insights on the importance of health data and best practices for managing it correctly. 

What Is Health Data? 

Before we dive into the core aspects of health data management, let’s discuss the key types of health data. Typically, data falls into two main categories:  

• Traditional data includes information gathered through research, healthcare providers (HCPs), healthcare organizations, and public health agencies.  
• Expanded data encompasses socioeconomic, behavioral, environmental, and lifestyle factors. For instance, health data might include information about an individual’s education, wearable sensor readings, or lifestyle habits. 

Source: Deloitte

Combining these types of health data allows pharmaceutical companies to understand a person’s health and genetic profile better, thereby improving the quality of healthcare products and services. 

What Is Health Data Management? 

Pharma companies deal with enormous amounts of health data. According to the Deloitte report, the volume of health data rose by 40% between 2010 and 2020 and is predicted to climb even higher by 23% by 2025. Yet an overwhelming 97% of data generated by healthcare facilities stays unused.  

To shake the dust off the dormant data, companies must learn how to manage it to their advantage. Health data management presupposes systematically collecting and organizing data on a digital platform and preparing it for analysis to support drug research and development while safeguarding privacy. Key examples of health data management include electronic health records (EHRs), health data platforms, and even healthcare providers’ notes scanned into a digital library. 

Why Does It Matter? 

Taming large volumes of health data offers numerous benefits. Let’s explore some of them: 

Accurate differentiation between disease stages 

By tracking data from healthy individuals, those newly diagnosed, and those who have been living with a condition for some time, researchers can more accurately differentiate between disease stages. This, in turn, helps to better predict the onset of diseases and contributes to a finer understanding of disease progression. 

Holistic care 

Collecting and organizing large-scale human data can reveal how different factors, such as nutrition, behavior, or medical devices, can be integrated and sequenced to address specific patient conditions holistically. Moreover, data collected from different health systems ensure a bird-eye view of the patient’s state and a more comprehensive approach to treatment. 

Improved disease biology understanding 

High-quality data enables pharmaceutical companies to understand disease biology better and develop hypotheses for conditions that were previously difficult to treat and manage, such as dementia. It also helps meet the specific needs of patients with manageable conditions, like therapy complications. 

Personalized medicine 

Data analytics is an indispensable part of effective data management. Thanks to data insights, personalized medicine is no longer science fiction, and the days of trial-and-error medicine are numbered.

Typically, HCPs establish a most likely diagnosis and prescribe a medication, often a blockbuster drug, and choose dosage based on the patient’s body weight. If it does not help, they change the dosage or choose another drug if possible. In contrast, personalized medicine enables providers to identify a disease at the outset and determine the right drug and dosage based on the patient’s unique physiology and ability to metabolize drugs. 

Better research & development process 

The research and development process can become less challenging and risky. More complete real-life evidence would help generate and validate hypotheses more quickly, accelerating the release of new drugs. 

Health Data Management Challenges 

The past decades have been truly transformative for the pharmaceutical industry, shifting from paper-based data organization to digitalization. However, even with most data now digitized, it has become hard to consolidate and manage its ever-growing volume. Here are some of the key challenges the industry faces: 

Fragmented data 

Health data can live in various databases and spreadsheets and come in different formats, such as text documents, video, and audio files. This data is often duplicated and collected by hundreds of different HCPs, pharmaceutical companies, insurance bodies, public health agencies, and others.  

This results in silos within healthcare systems, which hinders artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms from correctly analyzing the data and leads to a “one size fits all” approach to patient treatment. Life sciences brands need a single source of truth to ensure the AI model’s outputs are complete and accurate. 

Data collection costs 

From the first challenge, it is clear that consolidating all data onto one platform is crucial. The issue is that the more data you collect, the more expensive the solution becomes. 

In the context of drug discovery, it may cost up to $27,200 to gather data on a single person. This sum can skyrocket to $27.2 billion with at least one million participants. However, these costs are justified. This platform has the potential to generate around $25 billion annually within 20-25 years, even with slow innovation.

Ever-changing data 

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, once said, “Nothing is constant but change,” and we could not agree more, especially when it comes to health data management. Patients undergo treatments, surgeries, and various tests, causing their health states to change and their therapy courses to evolve. They relocate and change their HCPs, and new medical treatments and screening methods are developed, producing volumes of new data. 

These changes in data necessitate innovative data management methods. Companies need to find effective ways for data standardization to keep it relevant and updated easily over time. 

Legal compliance 

As hacker attacks become more frequent, it is crucial for life sciences businesses to focus on legal compliance to improve their data security measures. Evidence shows that last year was particularly bad for healthcare organizations, with a staggering 239% increase in attacks. Unfortunately, it is not just the number of hacker attacks that has skyrocketed; these data breaches are also becoming more serious and costly. 

Pharmaceutical companies must comply with stringent government regulations, like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in the United States or GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe, to safeguard sensitive data from hackers’ eyes: 

• HIPAA provides a structure to ensure the privacy of patients’ medical records and other protected health information. It outlines how medical data should be used, protected, and disclosed. 
• GDPR treats healthcare data as a type of personal information and offers guidelines for its protection. This regulation sets rules for accessing, editing, and deleting health data and requires healthcare organizations to have legal permission to process it. Notably, the GDPR applies to many industries, not just healthcare. 

Best Practices for Healthcare Data Management 

The question now is how to overcome these challenges and fully leverage your health data. Here are some tips to help you on your journey: 

Prioritize data governance 

Effective health data management begins with robust governance. This involves overseeing processes, employee conduct, and technology use throughout its lifecycle so that health data remains accurate, secure, and usable. 

With proper data governance, internal policies are established to govern data collection, usage, and disposal. Equally important is to comply with external standards set by government agencies and industry bodies. 

However, none of these policies can be effectively implemented without a culture of transparency. Holding the entire organization accountable for maintaining ethical standards and meeting regulatory requirements becomes a task with a caveat when stakeholders are unaware of organizational processes. Transparency is key to maintaining a sense of accountability among employees, continuous improvement, and role understanding. 

Merge health data management systems 

Patient care needs to be holistic, meaning all healthcare providers should work together to deliver the best possible outcomes. When data is siloed, professionals are left in the dark about what interventions and therapies their colleagues have already prescribed. Even though each provider’s treatment might make sense on its own, combining different approaches without coordination can harm the patient. It is like they say, “The operation was successful, but the patient died.” 

You need data interoperability to ensure all efforts are well-coordinated. This means different systems can interact seamlessly and exchange data quickly. As a result, pharmaceutical companies can gather and process large datasets from various platforms, speeding up drug discovery, ensuring patient safety, facilitating clinical trials, and improving the organization’s efficiency. Additionally, efficient data exchange minimizes redundant procedures and processes, leading to substantial cost savings. 

Therefore, you should also pour resources into interoperable systems that “talk” to each other, regardless of the vendor. Do not forget to deliver proper training for all stakeholders on how to use the technology correctly. It is also crucial to follow data exchange frameworks and regulations to ensure data transmission is fully secure. 

Ensure data privacy 

Neglect this aspect of data management, and you risk significant financial trouble and irreparable reputational damage. Unfortunately, your employees remain one of the main weapons in hackers’ hands. This does not necessarily mean your workers are directly causing data leaks, but their negligence and lack of data security education do. Security awareness training enables the organization to make smart decisions when storing and transmitting patient data. 

Access management is another important consideration in ensuring data security. It is essential to track who accesses which information to prevent your data from leaking into unauthorized hands. Multi-factor authentication is the way to go to protect your data with various validation methods. These include anything from a PIN number, password, facial recognition, or even eye scanning. 

Data encryption is also one of the most effective ways to minimize the risk of data breaches. Even if hackers gain access to sensitive information, they would not be able to decipher or make sense of it. Industry regulations like HIPAA provide guidelines on implementing encryption methods, but they allow healthcare professionals and other stakeholders to select measures that align with their unique business goals and needs. 

Facilitate data storage and retrieval 

Effective data storage and retrieval processes enable life sciences companies to boost operational efficiency, accelerate decision-making, and improve research and development efforts. This allows them to access data quickly and reduce downtime, speeding up clinical trials and the release of drugs to the market. Whether you advocate for moving to the cloud or prefer more traditional on-premises solutions, your storage solution should be secure, scalable, and cost-effective. 

The next step is to tag all your data for efficient retrieval. For example, we developed a content experience platform, eWizard, which uses AI to break down information into logical chunks and tag them automatically. This helps our clients navigate the vast amounts of data generated during marketing activities more effectively. We also recommend making regular backups to ensure no data sets are lost.

eWizard auto-tagging engine

Turn raw health data into insights 

There are three types of data analytics: descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive. Descriptive analytics lets you summarize historical data to identify patterns and trends that would otherwise be lost in the vast sea of information. For example, descriptive analytics lets scientists trace the connection between disease pathology and environmental factors. 

When it comes to predictive analytics, machine learning can be used to anticipate future outcomes. For instance, researchers can utilize big data to predict the onset of a condition or pandemic. This could be an invaluable advantage, especially after what we have learned from COVID-19. 

Prescriptive analytics, on the other hand, provides actionable insights to help you make the most effective and rational decisions. For example, with medical data on when and where a disease will occur, pharmaceutical companies can proactively develop and stockpile the right medications. 

Make sure your employees can easily digest health data and quickly spot patterns and trends. Use clear visualizations like diagrams, charts, or graphs. Interactive dashboards are also great, especially if you want to customize the visuals to different job roles. 

Final Thoughts 

Given the complex nature of disease biology, researchers need advanced technology to uncover patterns that explain various conditions. Proper medical data analysis is crucial, but it is also essential to securely store, collect, retrieve, and visualize information. This blog post is designed to provide an overview of the core aspects of healthcare data management to help you start and navigate your own data management journey.  

Trust the numbers and hands-on expertise. With over 14 years of experience in developing digital solutions for health data management, the Viseven team creates robust native, hybrid, and web apps that automate health data collection and organization, improve health outcomes, and personalize patient care. Our solutions comply with GDPR, HIPAA, and numerous other industry standards. We also pride ourselves on a 95% client satisfaction rate, with 80% of our clients coming from referrals. 

If you are looking for a reliable service provider, do not hesitate to contact our experts.  

Ever wondered how complex medical jargon gets translated into something we can all understand? The answer is medical writing. It’s like a bridge connecting the intricate world of medical science to everyday healthcare communication. As a specialized field, medical writing encompasses the creation of various documents, from regulatory submission documents to medical journal articles, that convey critical medical knowledge to diverse audiences.

In an era where accurate and timely information can critically impact patient outcomes, effective communication in healthcare becomes paramount. Medical writers, thus, serve as key intermediaries between researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and the broader medical community.

Today, let’s explore the multifaceted role of medical writing in healthcare communication, delve into how competent medical writers contribute to spreading medical science awareness, and facilitate the approval process for new treatments. 

Importance of Clear and Accurate Medical Writing

Let’s talk about why clear and accurate medical writing is a big deal. Imagine a game of telephone, but instead of funny phrases, we’re passing along critical medical information. Scary thought, right? That’s why medical writers, whether they’re crafting promotional materials for pharmaceutical companies or penning articles for medical journals, need to be spot-on with their words. A single misplaced comma or ambiguous phrase could lead to misunderstandings that put patient safety at risk. It’s not just about using fancy medical terminology, it’s about translating complex medical concepts into language that healthcare professionals and patients alike can grasp. 

This crucial role explains why the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10% from 2024 to 2032, potentially reaching $2.57 billion by 2032. 

Clear writing can make the difference between a patient following their treatment plan or getting confused and failing. For medical device companies and research organizations, precise technical writing in clinical study reports or efficacy summaries can speed up the approval process for life-saving innovations. So next time you breeze through a well-written healthcare website or easily understand a scientific publication, thank a competent medical writer. They’re the unsung heroes making sure medical knowledge flows smoothly from research data to real-world application, keeping the wheels of health communication turning smoothly.

Key Roles of Medical Writing in Healthcare Communication

Medical writers are the oil that keeps the engine of healthcare communication running smoothly. Whether it is a patient reading a pamphlet, a researcher poring over a journal article, or a doctor consulting treatment guidelines, all of them are benefiting from the expertise of medical writers. Medical writers make sure that vital medical knowledge doesn’t get lost in translation, playing a crucial role in advancing medical science and improving healthcare for all of us.

Enhancing patient education

Medical writing plays a vital role in enhancing patient education by bridging the gap between complex medical knowledge and the general public. Skilled medical writers transform technical medical terminology and clinical research data into accessible, easy-to-understand information for patients.

These writers create a wide range of educational and promotional materials, like brochures, healthcare websites, and informational leaflets. They work closely with medical practitioners, pharmaceutical companies, and medical device firms to ensure accuracy and relevance. By simplifying medical concepts and describing research results in layman’s terms, medical writers help patients better understand their conditions, treatment options, and preventive measures.

For instance, a competent medical writer might develop a patient-friendly guide explaining a new medication’s benefits and potential side effects. They may also create comprehensive healthcare websites that break down complex medical procedures or clinical trial protocols into digestible information for patients.

By enhancing patient education through clear, concise, and informative materials, medical writers contribute significantly to improved health communication and patient outcomes. Their work empowers patients with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their health, ultimately supporting better overall healthcare delivery.

Supporting clinical research

As the number of clinical trials has grown significantly over the past two decades, with over half a million studies conducted every year worldwide, the demand for competent medical writers has increased. 

Medical writing is a cornerstone of clinical research, playing a vital role throughout the entire process. From drafting study protocols and informed consent documents at the outset, to preparing clinical study reports and regulatory submissions upon completion, medical writers are integral to every stage. They assist in documenting ongoing trials, analyzing and presenting research data, and crafting manuscripts for publication in medical journals. Their expertise is crucial in translating complex scientific information into clear, accurate documents for diverse audiences, including regulatory bodies, healthcare professionals, and patients. 

Medical writers contribute to post-market activities such as pharmacovigilance reporting and developing educational materials. Their work spans pharmaceutical companies, research organizations, and medical device firms, requiring a deep understanding of medical terminology, research methodologies, and regulatory requirements. Increasingly, medical writers are also becoming adept at omnichannel communication, ensuring that their content is effectively distributed across various platforms and mediums to reach target audiences more efficiently.

By bridging the gap between scientific data and comprehensible communication, medical writers play an indispensable role in advancing clinical research, facilitating drug approvals, and ultimately improving patient care. Their contributions ensure that the growing number of clinical trials worldwide are properly documented, analyzed, and disseminated, driving forward the progress of medical science.

Facilitating regulatory compliance

Medical writers help with facilitating regulatory compliance throughout the clinical research process. They prepare essential documents like trial protocols and clinical study reports, ensuring accuracy and consistency across all materials while adhering to current regulatory guidelines. These professionals excel at interpreting complex regulations and translating scientific data into clear, concise language for regulatory review. They implement rigorous quality control measures and work collaboratively with research teams to accurately represent study findings. 

As regulations evolve, medical writers must adapt quickly, updating documents and processes to maintain compliance. Their expertise in standardization, ethics, and transparency helps streamline the submission process and supports ethical research conduct. By fulfilling these crucial functions, medical writers enable pharmaceutical companies and research organizations to navigate the intricate regulatory landscape effectively, ultimately contributing to the successful development and approval of new treatments.

Improving healthcare professional communication

Medical writers develop useful tools like clinical guidelines, treatment protocols, and drug information summaries. These help doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers make informed decisions quickly. By creating consistent, well-written materials, they help ensure that all healthcare professionals follow the same best practices. 

Furthermore, medical writers continuously produce educational materials for medical journals, helping healthcare workers stay current with the latest developments in their field. Most crucially, they summarize and present research findings in a way that helps healthcare professionals apply the latest evidence to their work.

Challenges in Medical Writing

Medical writing is a challenging and complex field that requires a unique blend of scientific knowledge, communication skills, and regulatory understanding. Medical writers face numerous obstacles in their profession, including:

• Rapid evolution of medical research: Staying in touch with the latest medical science and clinical research developments is crucial. Medical writers must continuously update their knowledge to ensure their content reflects the most recent advancements.
• Regulatory compliance: The life sciences industry requires strict adherence to regulatory guidelines. Medical writers must create regulatory submission documents, clinical study reports, and other materials that comply with technical guidelines set by international committees.
• Diverse audience expectations: Medical writers must tailor their content for different target audiences, from medical journal editors to patients accessing healthcare websites.
• Technological adaptation: Medical writers need to keep up with evolving tools and platforms used in medical communications and technical writing.

How can medical writers overcome these challenges? At Viseven, our medical writers stay at the cutting edge of medical knowledge by actively participating in conferences and workshops. The writers benefit from mentorship within the company, leveraging the expertise of team members with MD degrees in various specialties and pharmaceutical industry experience. This internal knowledge-sharing, combined with our extensive network of healthcare professionals, provides Viseven’s medical writers with valuable insights and opportunities.

Furthermore, our team is proficient in using various omnichannel tools, enabling us to create and distribute content effectively across multiple platforms. This commitment to ongoing education, skill development, and technological advancement ensures that our writers consistently produce high-quality, scientifically accurate, and compliant content across all therapeutic areas, from cardiology to rare diseases, while maximizing reach and engagement through diverse communication channels.

Best Practices for Effective Medical Writing

Effective medical writing stands on a couple of essential fundamentals that add to its clarity and impact. To create materials that are credible, accurate, and succinct, it’s crucial to master these fundamentals.

EMWA even provides a checklist to help medical writers review and improve their work.

Maintain clarity and clear structure

Clarity is the cornerstone of effective medical writing, a principle emphasized by organizations like the American Medical Writers Association and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Competent medical writers employ plain language, avoid unnecessary jargon, and eliminate ambiguity to ensure their target audience effortlessly understands the intended message. 

Structuring information logically is another key aspect of effective medical writing. Whether working on clinical trial protocols, sales force training manuals, or healthcare websites, medical writers enhance comprehension and facilitate knowledge retention by organizing content clearly. Utilizing headings and subheadings enables readers to navigate complex documents easily, whether they’re healthcare professionals reviewing clinical research data or patients seeking to understand their treatment options.

Think about your audience

Medical writers must consider their audience when creating content. For instance, when writing for medical practitioners or producing content for medical journal articles, using specific medical terminology is appropriate. However, when developing health communication materials for patients or the general public, it’s essential to translate complex medical knowledge into layman’s terms to ensure comprehension.

Verify and stay consistent

In the medical writing profession, accuracy and consistency are of utmost importance. Whether working for pharmaceutical companies, research organizations, or medical device firms, competent medical writers must meticulously verify information and cite credible sources to maintain the highest standards of accuracy. This rigorous approach helps prevent misinformation and ensures the validity of the information presented.

Consistency in medical terminology, formatting, and style is equally vital. Adhering to established guidelines promotes uniformity across various materials. This consistency is essential whether writing for healthcare professionals, developing educational medical writing materials, or preparing regulatory submission documents.

Final Thoughts

As the field of medical science continues to advance, the importance of clear, accurate, and accessible medical writing will only grow. It remains an indispensable tool in ensuring that life-changing medical knowledge reaches those who need it most — from researchers and healthcare professionals to patients and the general public. In this era of information abundance, skilled medical writers will retain their value, translating complex data into knowledge that saves and improves lives.

As we’ve explored, the role of medical writers extends far beyond mere translation of technical jargon, they are essential contributors to patient education, clinical research, regulatory compliance, and professional communication among healthcare providers.

In this landscape, companies like Viseven play a crucial role in supporting the life sciences industry. Offering a comprehensive suite of medical writing services — from publications and educational content to promotional materials and digital solutions — we can help you with the multifaceted nature of modern medical communication. Moreover, our context experience platform, eWizard, allows pharma marketers to plan, create, modularize, and distribute digital content at scale. Fill out the form below, and we’ll contact you shortly to help you start and navigate your journey.