AMWA Journal Blog

Happy (Green) New Year!

2012-01-05T11:20:00.001-05:00

As hard as it is to believe, the holiday decorations have been taken down (or are fading), and new year's resolutions have been written (and hopefully not yet broken). If you don't have "Be More Green" on your list of resolutions, you should, and the December issue of the AMWA Journal is specially designed to help you keep that resolution.

A green theme runs throughout the current issue of the Journal, with a wealth of tips to help you save a bit of our environment while working more efficiently. Articles in the issue focus on how technology is helping to reduce those mounds of paper and to conserve other types of resources. Regulatory writing has seen this effect of technology, and the Regulatory Insights section describes the evolution from paper to electronic submission of regulatory documents.

Technology also brings us closer to each other, allowing us to work, network, and learn regardless of geographic distances. Telecommuting is an option offered by many employers these days, and Meredith Rogers, an "experienced" telecommuter, describes the joys (and woes) of telecommuting in a Practical Matters article. In the Social Media section, Cyndy Kryder relays stories of members who found success (ie, work!) through social networking sites, and elsewhere in the issue, David Caldwell describes how using podcasts can expand the reach of your chapter events. You haven't podcasted yet? Don't despair, a new AMWA Pocket Training on podcasting will be available this month.

Using less paper is perhaps the easiest way to be green. If you still use a hard copy résumé or CV and writing samples, take a look at Cheryl Lathrop's article on how to develop an electronic portfolio. Sharing your samples this way not only saves paper but also allows you to be creative in highlighting your experience or accomplishments.

To learn more about how to make your office paperless—or at least have less paper—check out the Freelance Forum, where our resident freelance experts talk about their versions of the paperless office. As medical writers, we often use a great deal of paper during research and source documentation. Why not read the reprinted article on creating a paperless office (thank you, International Journal of Clinical Practice), which provides advice on how to gather references and store them as electronic documents, helping to reduce the clutter in your office while saving trees. (If you're worried about how to use electronic files for source documentation, read Tim Peoples' article "An Electronic Method for Confirming Documentation," which was published in a previous issue of the Journal.)

You can learn more about being green and green initiatives by checking out the LinkedIn Groups and blogs noted in the Social Media section and the Web sites described in Web Wanderings. Also, in his summary of the (outstanding) 2011 AMWA Annual Conference, Steve Palmer lists several ways AMWA headquarters has gone green.

If you're already green enough, you still need to read the December issue because you will find additional valuable information. You'll find summaries of the invited lectures and several of the open sessions at the 2011 Annual Conference. (More summaries will be published in the March 2012 issue.) You can also read about AMWA members who were recognized with awards in 2011 and learn the steps to AMWA fellowship. The issue also features original research on the effect of editing on time to manuscript acceptance, and offers the debut of a new section—CME Rising. With the addition of this new section, the Journal now addresses the needs of the three greatest factions of AMWA membership: medical communicators in the regulatory, freelance, and continuing medical education settings.

Sadly, the December issue also marks the end of reign of our queen of medical word usage. Our Dear Edie column ends with thank you notes to Edie for more than 30 years of answering our grammar and usage questions. No words can convey our appreciation for her knowledge, humor, and commitment over the past decades.

If you need more inspiration for resolutions, review my list of new year's resolutions from last year. That blog post drew one of the biggest audiences, which can mean only one thing—medical communicators are dedicated to professional development! I'm pleased to report that I kept many of those resolutions in 2011—well, for varying lengths of time. I can definitely do better, and that's my resolution for 2012. My other resolutions for this year? To continue to improve the Journal during 2012, my last year at the helm (more on that in an upcoming post), and to post blog entries on a more regular schedule. I encourage you to make reading the Journal and the Journal blog one of your resolutions. Make that resolution greener by signing up to get the Journal online only.

Happy new year!

Our Spirit of Giving

2011-10-13T18:18:00.001-04:00

AMWA's mission is education, but its spirit is giving. Our organization is one of the most volunteer-driven professional associations out there, with many members dedicating hours to AMWA at both the chapter and national levels. I always say—to anyone who will listen—that I have never met a group of people as generous as AMWA members. Our organization is full of people who give freely of their time and expertise to help other members, as evidenced by our chapter programs, networking events, and social media participation.

At no other time is our volunteer effort more profound—and visible—than during our annual conference. This year, about 200 AMWA members are lending their expertise as leaders of breakfast roundtable, workshops, open sessions, and coffee klatches. Many are volunteering time to be conference coaches, helping first-time attendees learn how to get the most out of the conference. Others are volunteering to report on the conference, contributing posts to the conference blog and more in-depth summaries to the AMWA Journal. It's the spirit of giving en masse.

I have the honor of being one of the local arrangement coordinators of this year's conference in Jacksonville, FL. In that capacity, I have been working with many local establishments to negotiate deals for AMWA attendees, and I'm happy to say that the community has responded! Among the benefits that conference attendees can enjoy include

50% off admission at the Museum of Science and History (check out The Body Within exhibit and the space film in the planetarium)
50% off admission at the Museum of Contemporary Art (works of art, plus Café Nola, a popular restaurant serving lunch and dinner)
10% off dinner at Bistro Aix (named Jacksonville's best restaurant)
Free house wine, home brewed ale, or soft drink with the purchase of an entrée at River City Brewing restaurant (fun restaurant and bar across the river, with the best bar deck downtown)
10% off dinner at Vito's Italian Café (conveniently located at Jacksonville Landing)
10% off Jacksonville's water taxi (purchase your discounted tickets at the Florida Chapter table)

We thank these local merchants for supporting AMWA and its conference! If you're coming to Jacksonville, make sure to stop by the Florida Chapter table (in the Exhibit Area) to find out more about these discounts, as well as other local information—and surprises too! You can get additional local information with a Jacksonville app—a few are available in the App Store. The spirit of giving grows.

The Florida Chapter is also proud to announce a special drive to collect donations for Hubbard House, a Jacksonville shelter for victims of domestic violence. The shelter has general needs as well as special holiday food and gift needs. We encourage conference attendees to pack "a little something extra" to help make the days easier and brighter for these women and their children. You can drop off your contribution to the Florida Chapter table. We thank you in advance for being part of this spirit of giving.

Two Florida Chapter members you may see at our chapter table are 2010-2011 AMWA President Melanie Ross and Publications Administrator Donna Miceli. Our chapter thanks Melanie and Donna for their service over the past few years, helping to develop and implement AMWA initiatives that enhance our organization as well as our profession. I am honored to count them among my chapter colleagues and friends.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank a group of people who give to AMWA throughout the year with their work on the AMWA Journal. Most readers of the Journal probably skip right past the inside cover. But on that inside cover are the names of more than 50 people who raise the quality of the Journal with each issue. I am immensely proud of the Journal but prouder still of the largely unheralded contributions of this talented and dedicated group of people. Thank you, my friends and colleagues.

You can thank Journal volunteers too by visiting the AMWA Journal table (in the Exhibit Area) at the conference. While you're there, ask these volunteers about what they do—it just may be something you'd like to do yourself! And be sure to take a few minutes to complete a short survey on what you'd like to see in the Journal. You give us a few minutes, and we'll give you an opportunity to win an AMA Style Manual, 10th ed. Stop by the AMWA Journal table for more details.

One last note. According to weather.com, the days of the conference promise to uphold the state name, offering sunny skies, with temperatures in the high 70s. Perfect weather. AMWA and Jacksonville…we just keep giving.

People Are Talking

2011-09-27T17:30:00.004-04:00

The topic of certification certainly has people talking. The last blog entry drew the most attention of all entries to date, with the topic generating quite the buzz. As is true for any important issue, debate is healthy and consideration of all aspects will ultimately lead to better decision-making and outcomes.

Medical communicators are talking about more than certification—they're also talking about medical communication. The most recent evidence of this conversation includes an interview on BitesizeBio (brain food for biologists), in which Lauren Donaldson, PhD, describes her move from science to medical writing, and an article published in Nature, in which Laura Bonetta discusses a medical writing career. Medical writers on the other side of the ocean have contributed to the conversation, primarily through MedComms Networking, a UK-based site that offers short videos of medical communicators describing their careers and other "starting out" resources.

I love that people are talking about medical communication as a career because, let's face it, our profession needs more exposure. (How many times have you had to explain exactly what it is you do?) However, two things concern me.

First, many people talking about medical communication are not AMWA members, and I think this may skew the outside perception of our field. For example, in a videotaped panel discussion on science writing, one of five panelists (none of whom was an AMWA member), drew a distinction between "science writing" and "medical writing," noting that the latter "tends to be" writing regulatory documents. However, every type of "science" writing and editing discussed by the panel fell into the category of what we know as "medical writing." Pharmaceutical writing is also the focus of Donaldson's interview and the videos on the MedComms Networking; neither Donaldson nor the video presenters are AMWA members. In contrast, the Nature article includes information on various types of medical writing—probably because Bonetta spoke with several AMWA members in developing the article. (As a point of disclosure, I was one of the members quoted in the article.) We have to let people know that we are more than regulatory writers

The recent conversations on medical writing also included an article by one writer (not an AMWA member) who left the field because of authorship issues. Obviously, our profession is not presented at its best by articles declaring rampant authorship fraud. So, we also must let people know we are not g-writers! (AMWA members are loathe to spell out or say that dreaded word.) We should be talking about our ethical handling of authorship issues and the resources AMWA provides for such issues, primarily the AMWA Position Statement on the Contribution of Medical Writers, the AMWA Code of Ethics, and easy access to a host of publication and ethics guidelines and statements.

AMWA members should also be doing more of the talking because we know the value of AMWA's educational resources, particularly for those new to the field. If more AMWA members were engaged in the public conversation of our profession, people considering the field would not only better understand the various career options in the field but would also discover an organization that can help them enhance their professional skills and knowledge.

My second concern is the intended audience of these career descriptions. Most articles are directed at young scientists, with medical communication presented as a career alternative to a life at the bench. Targeting young scientists has a long history, and previous articles in magazines such as Science have extolled the virtues of our profession. What's wrong with this? Nothing in and of itself. But where are the articles targeted to people in nonscientific fields, such as writing, communication, mass media, English, and journalism? Where are the "starting out" videos for students who may be interested in applying their writing/communication education and skills to the field of medicine and health? Why is it always about attracting people in science who like to write rather than attracting people skilled at writing who may like the complexities and challenges of writing in the medical field?

Because of the paucity of articles directed at writing/communication professionals, I was thrilled when the Society for Technical Communication (STC) asked me last year to write an article about the medical communication profession for its member magazine. Together, I and Lili Fox Velez compared medical communication and technical communication as two branches of the same family tree, hoping to entice some technical communicators to venture out on our branch. It was the first time (to my knowledge), that another organization of communicators wanted to promote our specific profession. Similarly, the freelance writing community recognized our niche and interviewed AMWA member Cyndy Kryder about her life as a freelance medical writer, publishing the article on the FreelanceSwitch Web site. Kudos to Kryder for promoting AMWA as a valuable resource throughout the interview! But these two articles seem to be the exception, and for some reason, the writing/communication world has not presented medical writing as a career option to the same extent that the scientific community has. That means we must take it upon ourselves to promote our profession within the writing/communication world. And we should broaden the focus to encompass not only experienced writers but also writing students early in their education.

Why? Because our profession will benefit by having more people preparing for a career in medical communication rather than falling into it, as most of us have. Sure, the majority of us made successful career transitions, but just as we have benefitted from the expertise that scientists have brought from the bench, we will benefit from what writing/communication experts bring to the table. As Tom Lang has written, we create the most effective documents when we draw on the evidence base for writing and editing; ie, theories of composition, cognitive processing and learning, persuasion, publication design, visual perception, instructional design, Web design, memory, and so on. We need people with expertise in these areas in our profession.

AMWA has a variety of materials to promote itself, and they are valuable for both the nonscientific and the scientific community. One example is the AMWA Annual Conference Student Scholarship, and the subsequent success of scholarship recipients is a testimony to the value of conference attendance as a "starting out" resource. AMWA members also collaborated on a slide set that introduces medical writing as a career. I have used this slide set myself, as have others, to talk to research postdocs and students in pharmacology and other science-based programs. We need to use the slide set more often for students in writing/communication programs. The most recent AMWA effort is a compilation of AMWA Journal articles on the theme of exploring a career in medical communication. This compilation will be available as an e-book at the time of the annual conference. (You will hear more about it here when it's available.) We should ensure that this compilation is marketed to a broad audience in a variety of fields.

What can AMWA members do on the individual level? Volunteer for career day or a career exhibit at a local high school or university. Ask the faculty of university writing programs to consider a panel presentation on various careers in writing—and tell them you'd be happy to speak about medical communication. (You can use the AMWA slide presentation, after all.) Send flyers to colleges and universities about your chapter conferences and other regional events to give students an opportunity to learn about the field. Have copies of the AMWA Career Path brochure on hand for them. Most of all, just keep talking!

If you're not an AMWA member, why aren't you? Visit the AMWA Web site to see what you're missing, and join the conversation as an AMWA member.

Are We Certifiable?

2011-09-12T10:20:00.008-04:00

Certification is a hot topic in all corners of the medical communication field. The concept of certification appeals to us for many reasons: it reflects skills and knowledge; it enhances credibility; it proves value; it may even command higher pay. Medical writers want certification to become a reality, but are we certifiable?

Beyond the personal advantages of certification, an objective measure of proficiency helps define a profession. According to most dictionary definitions, a profession is an occupation or vocation that requires mastery of a complex set of knowledge and skills that are gained through formal education and/or practical experience. Most of us, however, did not have formal education in medical writing, as that curriculum emerged only within the past decade. According to the AMWA 2010 membership survey, only 13% of us had formal education in English—a major you would expect for writers. The most popular formal education is biology/chemistry, with nearly one-third of members having this background. The lack of a universal core educational background leaves our profession to be defined most often by "practical experience."

The core problem is how to convey "mastery." I can say that I've been a medical writer/editor for more than 25 years, but does that necessarily mean I'm good? It would be easier for me to validate my abilities by saying "I'm a certified medical writer" than to rely on the testimonials of employers and clients. In the September Freelance Forum, devoted to the question of the value of certifications, long-time AMWA member Brian Bass notes that certifications "differentiate" medical writers. The ability to differentiate yourself is important in a time of tough competition among writers. A means to differentiate is also essential in a field in which any a person can one day declare "I'm a medical writer" without needing any documentation of formal education or a credential.

With no official credential available to us, some burgeoning medical writers may be tempted by the offerings of training companies that invite people to become "certified" in medical writing through educational programs of varying length and breadth of topics. Beware of these claims. You can only become "certified" if you successfully complete a credentialing examination. This means that we cannot call ourselves "certified" if we have completed an AMWA certificate program. The AMWA certificates certainly have value, as Kristina Wasson-Blader found in talking to many AMWA members, but we must not overstate ourselves. There is a tremendous difference between a certificate program and certification.

Although we cannot become certified in medical writing right now, we can add a veritable alphabet soup after our name by becoming certified in as many as six different medical communication niches:

Editing (in life sciences): Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS) certification
Publications planning: Certified Medical Publications Planning (CMPP) certification
Regulatory writing: Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC)
Continuing medical education: Certified CME Professional (CCMEP)
Public relations: Accredited in Public Relations (APR) credential
Grant writing: Grant Professional Certification (GPC) credential

The multiple choice questions on these certification exams address best practices and standards in fields broader than medical writing/editing, and an actual writing or editing component is lacking in most of these exams. (Only the grant writing certification exam includes a writing component.) Even the certification program recently developed by the Society for Technical Communication (STC) does not have a writing component. Completing an "editing exercise" is, however, part of that application process. It seems necessary (to me, anyway), that a medical writing certification process actually include a writing component. Yes, we should know best practices, standards, and ethics, but the bottom line is that employers and clients want to know if we can write well.

The availability of these various credentials is clearly not sufficient for many AMWA members, as evidenced by the 2010 member survey. Nearly two-thirds of us answered "yes" to the question "Is professional certification with a competency examination desirable for the medical communication profession?"

As the umbrella organization for all medical communicators, AMWA is best suited to develop a certification process specific to medical writing.
And our association has stepped up to the challenge and is committed to making us all certifiable. The September issue of the AMWA Journal features a discussion of medical writing certification, and the article (which has been granted public access) outlines AMWA's efforts to date and the challenges of developing a certification process that best measures the knowledge and skills of a medical writer.

The first step in developing any certification process is to define the competencies needed for the profession. That step has been made, but down only one medical writing pathway. As published in the June issue of the Journal, a special interest group in the Drug Information Association (DIA) developed a competency model to describe the work functions, activities, knowledge, skills, and behaviors deemed necessary to perform successfully as a medical writer in the pharmaceutical industry. Despite being relevant only to regulatory writers, many attributes in the model could be applied more universally, which could make the model a starting point for defining competency more broadly. However, the broad approach has its problems. As Tom Lang notes in this month's featured discussion, a "one-size-fits-all" exam may not be the best tool to assess medical writing competency because of the wide variety of tasks performed by medical writers and editors in a range of settings.

The challenges are clear. How do you develop a certification process that is both broad and specific? Can we assess skills essential for medical writing in all areas without the questions being too basic? Can we establish objective measures for something as subjective as a writing sample or portfolio? Can we address our diversity through eligibility criteria or through a core exam, with additional exam "modules" based on specialty area?

These are just some of the many issues AMWA is tackling in the early stages of exploring certification in medical communication. AMWA is consulting with experts both within our ranks and in other organizations to find solutions. And we are lucky to now have the expertise of Susan Krug, who joined AMWA to replace Donna Munari as Executive Director when Donna retires in October. Susan has worked with other organizations that have developed a certification program and is eager to help us achieve our goal of becoming certifiable.

Until that goal is reached, we must rely on our writing to speak for itself.

What Do YOU Make?

2011-05-20T15:38:00.001-04:00

Salary is usually a taboo topic. No one wants to let others know what he or she makes. But admit it, you want to know what other people make, don't you? Well, you have to give a little to get a little, so open up and participate in the 2011 AMWA Salary Survey. In the end, you'll know what your colleagues make, yet your information will remain anonymous. It's a win-win, if you ask me.

How exactly do you benefit by participating in AMWA's effort to collect data on salaries? In a nutshell, AMWA is the largest organization of medical writers, which makes the results of our survey the best representation of what medical writers and editors actually earn.

Having an accurate account of what medical communicators earn is important no matter where you are in your career. If you are looking for a job, knowing the true industry standard will arm you with the ammunition to negotiate a fair salary. The same goes for those of you preparing for an annual review as well as freelances deciding whether to accept a client's offer. If you're thinking about jumping ship to try another, less stressful career, you can compare the industry standards for medical writing and quiltmaking (for example). If you're a hiring manager, you can use salary survey data for salary benchmarking to make sure you're paying your employees fairly. If you're solidly employed, you should know your market value. So, every one of us has a reason to take part in the survey!

If you need further evidence for participating, you should know that other sources of salary data can't compete with the AMWA Salary Survey in terms of value. Often, the discrepancy is related to the lack of an appropriate job definition. For example, the US Department of Labor doesn't have "medical writing" as a job classification; the closest job is "technical writer." It seems as though medical writers could be found in the sub-industries of "Management, Scientific and Technical Consulting Services" or "Scientific Research and Development," which happen to be two of the four sub-industries with the highest levels of employment of technical writers. According to US Labor statistics from 2010, the mean annual wages for these two sub-industries were $67,400 and $66,140, respectively. These wages are far lower than the majority of wages reported 3 years ago in the 2007 AMWA Salary Survey. The lowest AMWA survey-reported mean salary was $68,769, which was for women with no more than an associate's degree. (Don't get me started on the gender differences in salary!) Most of us have more education than this, and reported wages ranged from $73,522 to $101,872 for bachelor's degree up to advanced degree.

Are other sources of salary data better than the US Department of Labor? There's salaryexpert.com, but that name seems to be a misnomer, given that the site reports US national averages for "medical technical writer" in 10 states, with a range of $34,208 (Phoenix, AZ) to $52,148 (New York, NY). What??

You'll find higher salaries at salary.com, where you can search salaries according to state. There is a listing for "medical writer" with levels of I, II, and III, and the description indicates a position in the pharma/biotech industry. The median salaries (for a Boston location) listed on the site are $62,475; $65,410; and $82,663 for the three levels. These compare with medians of $93,000 (pharma) and $94,500 (biotech) reported in the 2007 AMWA survey. Not only that, but the pharma/biotech industry typically offers the highest wages, which means salaries in other medical communication settings would be lower than those reported on salary.com. Only one of the 14 settings in the 2007 AMWA survey had a mean salary lower than $62,475 (publishing, including journalism: $58,692).

Then there is payscale.com, which bills itself as a "leader in online compensation information." On that site, the "typical" salary for a "medical writer" is $81,602, which is a bit closer to many of the AMWA survey-reported wages in 2007. But the "high" salary ($96,494) is lower than most salaries in the 90th percentile in the 2007 AMWA survey.

Only one of our sister organizations provides data on salaries, and that's the Society for Technical Communication (STC). The findings of the STC surveys are not publicly available (you must purchase the STC salary database). The Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) offers guidelines on hourly rates for a range of editorial services but no data on annual salaries. This information is of limited benefit; although you can easily multiply the hourly rate of $50-$100 to get a annual salary of $104,000-$208,000, that salary does not take into account nonbillable hours and overhead and applies only to freelance writers and editors (in all specialty areas). You can, however, compare the rate with the mean hourly rate for full-time freelances in the 2007 AMWA survey: $90. At last, a match! (The topic of hourly vs. project-based rates is one for another blog post.)

It should be clear to you by now that other sources offer poor representations of what we really earn. Would you want the information from one of these sources if you were seeking a new job, preparing to ask for a raise, or just wanting to feel good about your work? Without a doubt, the AMWA Survey paints a brighter picture of our worth.

The AMWA Salary Survey also paints a more detailed picture, with salaries broken down by many variables (geographic area, employment level, years of experience, employment setting, job category [writing, editing, supervising] etc.). Plus, a nifty formula lets you start with a base salary and then add specific dollar amounts according to your employment setting, years of experience, educational level, and gender. (Do you know that if you're a man, you get to add nearly $9,000 to the base salary?? I told you not to get me started!) So, in addition to all the other benefits already mentioned, the AMWA survey data can help you decide if the money really is greener in a medical education company than in an association/professional society (about 8,500 shades greener) or if an advanced degree is worth the investment (you can add nearly $28,000 to your base annual salary according to the 2007 formula—take that, men!).

I don't need to tell you that the more of you who participate in the survey, the more representative the data are of our field. In 2007, just under one third of AMWA's members participated, but 47% of members answered the 1994 survey, so let's think big and try to break that record. This means I'm counting on around 2,600 of you to take the survey. Don't let me down.

The survey is easy and takes about 10 minutes to complete. So grab last year's tax form and log onto the survey. Act fast—the last day of the survey is Wednesday, May 25. If you still need motivation, participants can enter a drawing to win one of three great prizes. But the real prize is the survey results, which will bring you a wealth of information about your worth.

Note: The results of the 2011 Salary Survey will be published in an upcoming issue of the AMWA Journal.

New Guidelines Related to Ethical Misconduct

2011-04-26T16:10:00.001-04:00

Following up on the last post, new guidelines on investigating claims of ethical misconduct in journal publishing are now available. The International Society of Managing & Technical Editors (ISMTE) is offering its newly released "Publishing Ethics 101: A Guide for the Editorial Office" for free but you should act fast, because the resource is freely available for only 30 days (from today, April 26, 2011). The guide describes different types of publishing misconduct, presents the basics of a solid ethics policy, and outlines steps for correcting literature associated with verified misconduct. One appendix to the guide includes examples of policies and procedures from such associations/journals as the American Statistical Association, Gastroenterology, The Endocrine Society Ethical Guidelines, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, and The New England Journal of Medicine. A second appendix provides examples of letters used in investigating and resolving claims of misconduct.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to obtain this resource. After the 30-day free period, the guide will be available only to ISMTE members.

While we're on the subject of ethics, remember that AMWA has its own Code of Ethics, and all AMWA members (and all medical communicators) should be familiar with the code's eight principles, as well as with the AMWA Position Statement on the Contributions of Medical Writers to Scientific Publications. You can also learn more about ethical situations and decision-making in various medical communication settings at the 2011 AMWA Annual Conference, which features five workshops on ethics. The AMWA Annual Conference will be held October 20-22, in Jacksonville, FL.

Beware the Retraction

2011-04-11T16:45:00.001-04:00

The MMR vaccine is linked to autism.
Embryonic stem cell lines can be established from cloned human embryos. These are just two claims made in articles—published in prestigious medical journals—that were retracted from the scientific literature, but not before they had a substantial impact in the scientific community and beyond. Consider that the 1998 Lancet article linking the MMR vaccine to autism led to a worldwide campaign against vaccination. The rate of MMR vaccination in the United States alone dropped from 93% to 79%, and the number of mumps cases increased 21-fold from 2005 to 2006.

Not all retractions have such widespread effect. Still, many people accept scientific data or interpretations as valid before fraud is recognized. In listing the top 10 retractions of 2010, The Scientist noted that four articles were cited 200-300 times and the MMR vaccine-autism article was cited 640 times before it was retracted by The Lancet in 2010. Even more astonishing is the finding by Redman et al that 325 retracted articles were cited 3,942 times before retraction and 4,501 times after retraction!

An exploration of some "striking trends" in retractions is the lead feature article in the March issue of the AMWA Journal. The author of the article, R. Grant Steen, found that 788 scientific articles were retracted in the past decade. Steen has been busy in his pursuit of gaining a better understanding of retractions. His AMWA Journal article is one of four that have been published since November 2010. In the first of these articles, he reported that more than half of fraudulent articles were written by a first author who had written other retracted articles; in
the second, he noted an increase in the level of retractions since 2000 (which may, he says, be either a real increase in misconduct or the result of greater efforts to police the literature); and in the third article, he noted that error is a more common reason for retraction than fraud.

Steen has found that most retractions (nearly three-quarters) were errors (mistakes, duplicate publication, plagiarism, etc) and that the remaining quarter or so of retractions were considered fraud—either data fabrication (15%) or falsification (13%). When Elizabeth Wager and Peter Williams, members of the UK-based Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), analyzed 312 of 529 retractions in PubMed (from 1988 to 2008), they found data fabrication and falsification to be the least common reasons (5% and 4%, respectively) for retractions, with "honest research errors" as the most common reason (28%). Wager and Williams reported these findings at the 2009 Peer Review Congress.

It is difficult to know the actual reasons for retraction because most journals do not indicate a reason, according to a news article in the March issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. This is despite guidance from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) stating, "The text of the retraction should explain why the article is being retracted and include a complete citation reference to that article."

Regardless of the reasons for retractions, the big question is how to identify articles that should be retracted. Some point to the need for improved peer review, but most disagree with this as a solution. In an examination of the peer review process in a 1995 AMWA Journal article, Kendall Wills Sterling wrote that while the peer review process needs improvement, the process is unable to detect falsified data (or plagiarism). Similarly, in his 2006 Swanberg Address, Dale Hammerschmidt, MD, FACP, said, "…peer review was not introduced with the idea of detecting and preventing fraud, and peer reviewers are not now given that task by journals."

Whose job is it, then? The ICMJE guidance notes that if there is "substantial doubt" about the honesty or integrity of a manuscript (either submitted or published), it is the editor's responsibility "to ensure that the question is appropriately pursued, usually by the authors' sponsoring institution." Journal editors can find additional resources on dealing with suspected misconduct from the US Office of Research Integrity, which offers "Managing Allegations of Scientific Misconduct," and COPE, which has developed 17 flowcharts for handling suspected cases. In his AMWA Journal article, Steen notes that all stakeholders—first authors, coauthors, editors, referees, and peers—must share responsibility for maintaining scientific integrity.

The good news in all of this (I always look for that silver lining) is that medical writers seem to be far from the madding crowd of retractions. In her Keynote Address at the 2009 AMWA Annual Conference, Karen Wooley, PhD, noted that her research (also presented at the 2009 Peer Review Congress) showed that very few retracted articles had declared medical writing and industry support or declared medical writing support alone. Although the significance of this finding is uncertain because of the overall low rate of declared medical writing support, it is interesting that almost all of the retractions were articles with no declared industry funding—articles that have been criticized much less than those with industry support.

You can keep up with retractions by following Retraction Watch, a blog written by Adam Marcus (Managing Editor of Anesthesiology News) and Ivan Oransky, MD (Executive Editor of Reuters Health). Dr. Oransky, along with Liz Wager and editors of prominent medical journals, will speak at "What Can Editors Do to Deter and Detect Scientific Misconduct?" a session at the 2011 annual meeting of the Council of Science Editors (CSE). If you're attending the CSE meeting, your report on this session would be a valuable asset to the AMWA Journal. Contact the Journal Editor at amwajournaleditor@editorialrx.com for more information.

Gaining Recognition

2011-02-24T18:09:00.001-05:00

What are you proud of? If you're like me, you're proud when you meet a deadline and even more proud when a client or peer says "great job." We all want recognition—and not much is better than earning recognition for the quality of your work. Testimonials from clients boost your confidence and can even translate into additional work (ie, money), but awards add even more prestige and benefit. Like a feather in your cap, an award can get you noticed among a sea of other potential employees or freelances. So if you want to stand out from the crowd, try earning an award in one of several medical writing competitions. You'll have to act fast, though, the end of the month signals the deadline for many competitions—at least you have the week-end!

Look through your clips from 2010 and see what you can submit to AMWA's Eric Martin Award. This award is given for articles (print or online) in two categories: public or health care consumer audience and professional (medical) audience. The deadline for submissions is February 28, 2011.

The Health and Science Communications Association (HeSCA) offers a competition with a different perspective. Entries into the 37th Annual HeSCA Media Festivals are judged not on content but on criteria of technical quality, production values and techniques, educational design, technological innovation, creativity, and craftsmanship of the media product. Again, the deadline is February 28, 2011.

Are you a credentialed journalist who wrote a fascinating article that enhanced the public understanding of a health issue related to endocrinology? If so, consider submitting the article to the Endocrine Society's Fourth Annual Award for Excellence in Science and Medical Journalism. Submissions must be received by March 2, 2011.

You have a bit more time to find that perfect piece to submit to the 23rd Annual APEX Awards for Publication Excellence, an annual competition for writers, editors, publications staff and business and nonprofit communicators. Apex Awards are given in 130 communications categories in 11 main categories, including newsletters; magazines and journals; newspapers; annual reports; brochures, manuals and reports; electronic media and video; Web and intranet sites; campaigns, programs and plans; writing; design and illustration; and special publications. The deadline for entries is March 17, 2011.

You also have ample time to find an entry for the AMWA Pacific Southwest Chapter 2011 Frances Larson Memorial Award For Excellence in Writing a Medical Article. Entries for this competition must be a medical article or essay written for either a lay or a professional audience, with the exception of research articles (journal format). This competition is open to AMWA members only, and the deadline is May 1, 2011.

So take some time over the week-end to look through what you wrote last year and find what you're most proud of. Think of the advantages of mentioning the award on your resume or putting an award logo on your Web site. Come on, try to stick a feather in your cap.

Spreading Our Professional Wings

2011-02-09T17:33:00.001-05:00

How far do you fly professionally? Do you hover in your office, working day in and day out, honing your skills through a "roll up your sleeves and work" experience? Or do you venture out and tap into the expertise of others to help you gain even more knowledge and skills? Perhaps more importantly, have you ever considered what you might be able to offer to others?

Expanding our professional wings is something we all think about every summer, as we pore over the registration brochure for the AMWA annual conference, trying to select workshops and sessions from the wealth of outstanding educational options. Those options are available to us because other AMWA members made a commitment to share their knowledge and experience. What about you? What can you share?

If you're an AMWA member, you've received reminders about the various ways you can contribute to the annual conference. Take advantage of these opportunities to help you fly a little farther professionally. The AMWA breakfast roundtables and coffee and dessert klatches are the perfect opportunity for a first-time presenter: the setting is informal and the number of attendees is low. The deadline to submit proposals for either roundtables or klatches is March 31, 2011. Maybe you have a way of streamlining or improving the quality of your work or have done some research that would be of interest to other medical communicators. If so, think about submitting a proposal for an AMWA poster; the deadline is March 18, 2011. Are you a workshop leader in the making? It's too late to become a workshop leader at the 2011 conference, but it's never too late to plan for a future as a workshop leader.

What will you gain from presenting at an AMWA conference? Much. The December 2010 issue of the AMWA Journal featured "Enhancing Oral Presentation Skills" in the Professional Development section. In this article, Kristina Wasson-Blader described the many benefits of giving oral presentations—you enhance your organizational and visual aid development skills, expand your professional network, improve your communication skills, learn new subject matter, and mentor students. You will also gain self-confidence, which helps prepare you for even more professional engagements.

AMWA is home for us, but as we all know, there's benefit in flying from the comfort of home. We should explore additional venues where we can help other professionals enhance the quality of writing and editing in a wide variety of medical and health care settings. I recently attended the Alliance for CME conference and, while I enjoyed the experience and gained some valuable knowledge, I was disappointed by the dearth of sessions on the actual work of developing CME content. My conversations with other AMWA colleagues who were at the conference confirmed that, indeed, such sessions were lacking. We joked that maybe we were the ones who had to lead those sessions. But that's not really a joke.

As a result of my experience at the Alliance conference, I am submitting an abstract for a session related to developing CME content at next year's event. I asked a client to present the session with me so that we can combine our areas of expertise to offer a more comprehensive session for attendees. The collaboration also enhances my working relationship with my client. In short, it's a win-win situation. Could you, too, offer knowledge or skills to others in the CME world? The deadline for abstract submission is March 18, 2011, and information on submitting abstracts is available on the Alliance Web site.

The Alliance conference was not the only time that I've felt that more of an "AMWA presence" was needed at a professional meeting. I was happy to see at least one or two AMWA presenters at last year's Health and Science Communications Association conference, but I thought there was definitely room for more of us and what we know. A quick review of the program schedule for the 2011 Association of Teachers of Technical Writing meeting revealed approximately three sessions with a topic related to medical communication. Surely there are more of us who can help shine greater light on this topic.

Think about the work you do and what other organizations you belong to. Who would best benefit by your wisdom? If you're a regulatory writer, you could present at a future Drug Information Association event. If you work in a corporate environment, the Association of Business Communication convention may be the place for your presentation. If you're from the public health arena, you can share your expertise at the American Public Health Association meeting. If you're in public relations, the Health Academy conference (a group within the Public Relations Society Association) can be an outlet for your wisdom.

I know what you're thinking. You don't have the time—or the money—to travel all over the place. But if you plan to attend one of these meetings anyway, consider making it an opportunity to present. Your employer may even be more inclined to support your travel (with time and money). Also, check out the locations of the meetings; if one is scheduled for a city near you, seize the opportunity.

Expanding yourself professionally is not limited to what you can learn from others. It also involves sharing what you've learned. If we all venture out into venues beyond AMWA, we not only spread our professional wings but we also heighten awareness of AMWA and enhance the credibility and value of our profession.

We are the ones with the unique blend of education, skills, knowledge, and experience regarding medical communication. It's time for the rest of the world to know that.

Health Literacy is a Priority

2011-01-12T13:54:00.001-05:00

As medical communicators, we have access every day to the latest information in health and medicine. This experience probably makes us feel good about our ability to understand health information and make informed health decisions. But more than half of Americans don't have that same ability, also known as health literacy.

Health literacy is the theme of the December 2010 AMWA Journal, with two research-based articles and a practical guide on the topic, along with an editorial that provides an overview of the issue and the medical communicator's role. The Journal is honored to have as contributors to this themed issue some of the top experts in the field: Leonard and Cecilia Doak, considered to be the grandparents of health literacy and the authors of the gold standard,
essential text for writing effective health information materials; Beth Lanning and Eva Doyle, leading academicians in health education; AMWA member Helen Osborne, founder of Health Literacy Out Loud (podcasts) and Health Literacy Month; and AMWA member Sharon Nancekivell, MA, who has led numerous AMWA workshops and sessions on plain language and writing effective patient educational materials.

The December issue of the Journal is the first to have a theme in nearly a decade. The high cost of inadequate health literacy warrants the attention. The human cost of inadequate health literacy is high. People with limited health literacy are less likely to use preventive health services, more likely to have chronic conditions, and more apt to be hospitalized. And older people with low health literacy have a 50% greater chance of dying earlier. The estimated price tag for low health literacy? $238 billion a year. Clearly, improving health literacy must be a priority.

The AMWA Journal joins a host of publications highlighting the problem of health literacy. The topic has been addressed in the lay press, with articles in US News & World Report and The Wall Street Journal, and research on the subject has been reported in prestigious medical journals, such as the Archives of Internal Medicine, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and The New England Journal of Medicine. One indication of the importance of health literacy within our own field is that three of the top 10 articles in the Journal of Communication in Healthcare in 2010 focused on issues in health literacy. Lucky for us, access to those top 10 articles is free, and I encourage you to check them out.

I also urge you to review as many resources on health literacy as possible. You can begin with the list of resources Sharon Nancekivell includes with her editorial. You will also find a wealth of information on health literacy and communicating effectively, as well as Web-based training, on several government Web sites, including the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, and the US Food and Drug Administration. The American Medical Association has a comprehensive section on health literacy, and the Group Health Research Institute provides a toolkit and online training to improve the readability of consent forms and other print materials used in communications with study participants. Lastly, thanks to the generosity of the Doaks, their seminal book, Teaching Patients with Low Literacy Skills (which is out of print) can be downloaded free from the Harvard School of Public Health Web site.

Armed with knowledge on health literacy, medical communicators can make a substantial difference in improving health literacy. We can promote better patient understanding by making educational materials, informed consent forms, and drug information and labels easier to read. We can foster better physician awareness by highlighting the importance of assessing patients' health literacy and communicating effectively in our continuing medical education programs. We can add to the evidence base in communication theory by making health literacy a priority for research. And we can ensure optimal training in effective communication by positioning ourselves as the most qualified professionals for the task.

Learning to write more clearly for people with lower health literacy will not only help improve the health of millions of Americans, it will help us strengthen our skills as well as enhance the credibility of our profession.

New Year’s Resolutions

2010-12-28T11:19:00.002-05:00

Yes, it's that time of year again! Ringing in the new year is usually a call to arms for overhauling yourself to become a better you. Most of us focus on the all-too-familiar personal goals: lose weight, exercise more, spend less money. But how many of you take the time to set professional goals for the new year? I was inspired to think about professional resolutions last year when Debra Gordon, who heads the Journal's Blog Log, listed her resolutions in her own blog. (Thanks, Debra!)

Here are my top 10 professional resolutions for 2011.

Evaluate where I've been and where I want to go. To do this, I think I'll follow the advice of Laura Ninger, who wrote "Mind Your Business with a Year-End Review" (page 180). (Here and throughout, links will take you to the contents page of the issue; after you log in as a member, click through to the page number in parentheses.) Laura suggests that freelances should evaluate their client mix, profitability, workload, and marketing efforts at the end of the year and look at trends over the year and from year to year. I will do that this year…this week!
Increase the number of days I love my job. I like my job…most days. Some days I really love my job. I want to discover how to maintain the passion and enthusiasm I have for my work so I can end up with more days that I love my job. In thinking about this, I came up with approaches such as varying the projects I take on, continuing to learn, and evaluating clients. These are the very topics that veteran freelance Cathryn Evans discussed in answer to the question "How do you keep the spark in a lengthy career as a freelance writer?"(page 77) in a recent Freelance Forum.
Work more efficiently. This resolution will require a variety of tasks, from avoiding Bubbleshooter to finding ways to be better organized and to work collaboratively. In her 4-part series on online tools, Joanne McAndrews described some free online organizational tools (Web Watch, page 142), such as Remember the Milk, and collaborative tools (page 145) such as Google Docs and Zoho. I will definitely check these out. Finally finishing the book Getting Things Done, by David Allen, might help. (Is it ironic that I can't finish a book called Getting Things Done? Or does my challenge just reflect my overwhelming need for the book?) Learning how to get more out of Outlook would also help (see #4). And maybe I need to think about a virtual assistant.
Become one with Adobe…and EndNote…and Word…and Outlook. I consider myself fairly tech savvy, but I can become frustrated by these applications so easily! I took a 6-week online course in Adobe Acrobat last year and learned some great things, but my mind is not the same steel trap it used to be, and I need to refresh. Thankfully, Adobe has some great tutorials. And EndNote—find me a tutorial stat! Microsoft offers detailed how-tos for Outlook, and The Editorium provides tips for Word. Of course, these resources will help only if I use them! It's hard to find the time, but I know that in the end, the time spent learning will save time working (not to mention sanity), which, of course, will help me work more efficiently (see # 3).
Engage more in social media. And I don't mean spend more time checking in on friends on FaceBook. I mean use LinkedIn, Twitter, and FaceBook pages to promote myself and my business (see # 7), as well as the AMWA Journal. First I need to learn exactly how these social media tools will help me, and the new Journal section on Social Media will be a great resource, thanks to Cyndy Kryder, who writes features about the benefits of social media and Mali Schantz-Feld, who writes about the AMWA Group on LinkedIn. This resolution also applies to this blog—I vow to post more often in 2011; I hope you think that's good news.
Check out at least one online resource each week. With so many blogs and Web sites launched every day, it's tough to keep up. But the Journal's Blog Log (thanks to Debra Gordon) and Web Wanderings (thanks to Barb Woldin) highlight the ones that will be of most interest and/or usefulness to medical communicators. I'm going to collect all those pages, explore the blogs and sites, and bookmark the ones that will be the best for me. Maybe I'll even check out iResolve, the site that claims to help you make and keep your resolutions.
Market myself. For more than 5 years now, I've had the luxury (?) of more than enough work consistently throughout the year. I continue to be busy enough, but I think I should branch out to some new clients, to avoid the "all my eggs in one basket" problem. A review of Lanie Adamson's "Ten Marketing Strategies" (page 72) will help me identify the best ways to promote my freelance business.
Submit my work to at least one writing competition. With more medical communicators competing for fewer jobs, distinguishing myself with an award or honor could give me an edge. The best places to start are the AMWA Eric Martin Awards and AMWA Book Awards. I may even think about how I could earn an AMWA Best Published Research Award. (There are many other competitions out there for writing and editing, and they will be the topic of a future blog entry.)
Make time for creativity. In my head are television scripts, a coffee table book, a novel, and short fun videos. I want…need…the time to make at least one of them a reality in 2011. It will require discipline to carve out time for such pursuits, which means I'll have to work more efficiently (see #3), but this creativity will come in handy in my "day job" and, more important, it will feed my heart and soul. A satisfied heart and soul will make me happier and more inclined to be productive overall.
Find better balance. This has been my mantra for years now, but I have to at least keep trying. Closing the office door at night and on week-ends is the only way I'll have time for those creative pursuits (see #9) and to take advantage of all the good that has come my way—for which I am eternally grateful.

I learned an important lesson in compiling this list: Browsing the AMWA Journal archives online for professional advice will help jump-start my quest to fulfill these resolutions. It could do the same for you!

Share your professional resolutions—and your tips for keeping them—with your colleagues by commenting below. And be sure to take the survey.

The Conference Never Ends

2010-11-22T20:29:00.001-05:00

My bags are unpacked, the workshop notes are safely stored for next year, and I'm in catch-up mode, trying to get as much done as I can before the holiday. But my mind still invariably wanders to Milwaukee. Milwaukee—where I reunited with so many friends/colleagues and once again was reminded of why I love being a medical writer. Every year's AMWA conference is an outstanding educational value, and this year's seemed to be an especially good experience. If you weren't able to get to Milwaukee, fear not, because the AMWA Journal will once again bring you a wide range of highlights from the conference. And, this year's Journal coverage is better than ever.

In keeping with tradition, the December issue will contain brief reports of several conference sessions, and they will be featured as part of an online-exclusive section of the Journal. Be sure to watch for that section to go live on the AMWA Web site in early December. Never before has news from the conference been made available in the Journal so quickly after the conference! The section will also include the inaugural address by our new President, Melanie Fridl Ross, MSJ, ELS, who shares her vision for the coming year and introduces the members of the new Executive Committee, and will provide details on this year's award e recipients.

The March 2011 will feature more brief reports of sessions, as well as an enhanced version of Marianne Mallia's Swanberg Address: "Demons and Idols…and a Blue Corvette." Marianne's speech chronicled an amazing career, with inspiration and applicability to us all. I'm so happy we can share her speech with the entire membership through the Journal. The March issue will also feature some accounts from first-time attendees. It's always good to see the conference experience through their eyes. And I hope that the articles prompt other members to say, "I think I'll go to the conference next year!"

What's new this year about conference coverage in the Journal? Thanks to the tremendous generosity of many open session moderators, full-length feature articles on select sessions are planned for future issues of the Journal. I thank the many moderators who, in addition to assembling a panel and developing a successful session, also agreed to work with their speakers to develop a full-length manuscript and submit it to the Journal. As a result, all AMWA members, whether they came to Milwaukee or not, will be able to benefit from the expertise of these panelists. Other leaders of short sessions and/or roundtables have agreed to write Practical Matters articles that will help enhance your skills in a variety of areas.

Thanks to the AMWA Conference Blog, you don't have to wait patiently for reports. The blog is a great way to get highlights from sessions while waiting for Journal coverage. Take a few minutes to browse through the more than 25 blog entries that reflect the varying experiences of this year's group of enthusiastic bloggers.

Thanks to the Conference Blog and the AMWA Journal, the educational value of the conference is never-ending.

So, You Want to Be a Freelance?

2010-11-02T21:45:00.001-04:00

If I had a dime for every person who told me "I think I want to be a freelance medical writer/editor," I could…well, I'd have a few bucks. Still, the allure of a freelance life is strong in our field, with many budding and established medical communicators alike feeling the need to break free into the glamorous and independent world of freelancing. How do you know if that's a good decision? What kind of background is "ideal"? What kind of person is most successful? Is freelancing really glamorous?

In a search for the answers to these questions, the AMWA Journal sought advice from its Freelance Forum, a panel of freelance writers who collectively have more than 200 years of experience. Within the carefully thought-out answers in the September 2010 issue of the Journal, the 7 panel members agreed on the ultimate importance of one factor: experience in the medical writing field. As panelist Sherri Bowen notes, "The training and experience I received in company settings were invaluable to my success as a freelance."

How much experience is ideal? The panelists offered a range, from Cathryn Evans' "extensive experience…at least a few thousand hours" to Barbara Rinehart's "minimum of 5 years in a writing environment." Barbara adds," Note, I said writing environment, not just as a person who can write. I'm talking about working in a job where you have to meet the demands of writing full time."

Barbara's point is important. Many scientists consider medical writing because they enjoy writing and have been told by their scientist colleagues that they write well. Even if that's true, it's not sufficient—for either your clients or yourself. Put yourself in a client's shoes and consider Cathryn's analogy: "Would you hire a gardener to remodel a room in your house simply because she or he built a garden shed for you, and now wants to try out other skills as a professional builder at your expense?" As for your own benefit, once you're in the freelance medical writing arena, you will compete with many other freelance medical writers/editors with years of experience, and the only way to do that successfully is to have solid experience.

The comments from the Freelance Forum echo age-old advice published in previous issues of the Journal. In a 1988 issue of the Journal, a special section featured essays by 5 seasoned freelances offering advice on how to start a freelance career. One of the essayists, Donald Radcliffe, who developed the AMWA credit workshop Launching a Freelance Writing Career, advised, "A beginning freelancer should plan for a full-time career with a running start: steady part-time work in progress, clients carried over from a regular job, clients coming on stream from earlier proposals, promising queries out, firm assignments in sight, or a combination of these sources of work and income."

Similarly, in a Freelance Roundtable in a 1999 issue of the AMWA Journal, Daniel Byrne made this comment: "I prepared for 6 years. I would recommend that people take their time. I bought equipment, got clients, learned lessons the hard way, and figured out how to build my business."

As important as experience is, it is not the only key to success as a freelance. As noted in all the aforementioned articles, freelances must be willing to engage in a myriad of functions other than writing and editing. "…[Freelancing] is about 10 jobs all rolled into one every single day. Remember, you are the CEO and the janitor," says Barbara.

The personality traits integral to success have also been extensively explored. In a 2006 Freelance Forum, Donna Miceli noted that a sense of self-discipline is "probably the most essential mindset you need to be a freelance." Some additional characteristics that Donna and the other Freelance Forum panelists described are the ability to work in relative isolation, a sense of curiosity and joy of learning, the ability to roll with the punches, a thick skin, the ability to withstand the financial pressure of periods with no work and the emotional pressure of too much work, optimism, flexibility, and self-awareness of how clients perceive you.

Summing up the need for a variety of skills and characteristics, Brian Bass notes in the September 2010 issue, "Regardless of how you came to medical communication, and no matter how good at it you are, being a medical communicator does not automatically qualify you for becoming a freelance. In fact, thinking it does can be a real detriment to one's career. Freelancing is a completely separate skill set; one that not nearly as many people have as think they have."

What about the glamour of freelancing? Again, freelances are united in their belief that freelancing is far from glamorous. Sure, you can work in your sweats or pj's, but does that define glamour? Judith Gunn Bronson, another essayist in the 1988 special section, summed up the issue with "Myth Number 1: Freelancing is a glamorous hobby-like affair. Fact Number 1: Successful freelancing is a business, and glamor [sic] is in short supply." As an illustration of her point, Judith discussed the ample funds needed to launch and maintain a freelance career—a point that all of us freelances know all too well.

My words—and the advice from others—is not to discourage anyone from exploring the idea of a freelance medical writing career. But it is meant to make you carefully consider several aspects before taking the leap. Network with freelance medical writers in your AMWA chapter or local area to get their take on what being a freelance is really like. If you're going to the AMWA conference in Milwaukee next week, several open sessions can provide you with valuable information, especially Tales from the Trenches (OS 2), Scope of Medical Communication (OS6), and Build Your Bottom Line (OS 14). (See the AMWA registration brochure for more details.) Also, AMWA now offers 2 credit workshops that are helpful for fledgling freelances; in addition to Launching a Freelance Career, there is Business Aspects of a Freelance Career. Ask your chapter leaders to offer one of these workshops at your next chapter event.

One way to see if you're have it what it takes to be a freelance is to take the self-assessment quiz, "Are You Made for the Freelance Life?" created a few years ago by Cathryn. Answering the 25 questions in this quiz will tell you if you should "find a rich spouse," should "consider a regular job," "have a fighting chance," or should "go for it."

Take the quiz and post your score on the blog survey!

PS: I thank all the Freelance Forum panel members—Brian Bass, Sherri Bowen, Cathryn Evans, Emma Hitt, Donna Miceli, Phyllis Minick, Barbara Rinehart, and Elizabeth Smith—for their unending source of comments and advice.

Writers Unite

2010-09-14T22:05:00.005-04:00

The AMWA annual conference is always a wonderful reunion of medical writers and editors from around the globe. The conference has so much to offer: We learn in workshops, sessions, and roundtables, and we network at lunches, dinners, and receptions. And we miss our colleagues who weren't able to come. So, AMWA members being what we are--incredibly generous and supportive--we devised ways to bring news from the conference to members unable to attend.

For years, we've done this the old-fashioned way, by asking members to don a reporter's cap, take notes at a session, and write a summary that's published in the AMWA Journal. With the explosion of social media, we now have other, more timely, ways to bring conference news to those at home; namely, the conference blog and the AMWA Twitter account. Last year saw the the dawn of these two high-tech communication tools, and a group of conference attendees happily blogged and tweeted their way through Dallas.

Again this year, we need reporters and bloogers and tweeters (oh, my!) to capture news from the conference. Reporting and blogging are wonderful ways to exercise your writing skills, adding yet another benefit to the conference (as if there weren't enough already). Tweeting is just plain fun, with the greatest challenge being "How do I possibly convey my important message with just 140 characters??" Anyone and everyone can tweet from the conference--there'll be more on that social media tool later, as we get closer to the conference. For now, I'm focusing on reporting and blogging.

Although it's all about writing, reporting and blogging are very different animals. Reporting requires an objective approach to summarize the discussion of a topic at a session, while blogging offers a more free-spirited approach to commenting on a session or the conference experience itself. Blogging also gives you a wider range of ways to express yourself, as you can post audio files, video clips, or photos in addition to commentary in words. If you need more proof of the differences between the two means of communicating from the conference, check out some of the previous conference summaries and blog posts. One thing that reporting and blogging have in common is that they provide a great benefit to you as a writer.

"I always enjoy writing AMWA conference reports because it helps me sharpen my reporting skills and demonstrate my writing ability to my peers. Perhaps best of all, it gives me writing samples that actually have my name on them to show to potential clients," says Donna Miceli, a long-time AMWA member and conference reporter.

Faith Reidenbach, one of the aforementioned members who blogged her way (quite successfully) through Dallas, comments on the benefits of blogging: "If your job requires you to cover medical congresses, or if you're interested in entering the lucrative world of advisory board reporting, gain experience by blogging for the AMWA conference. It's a supportive place to practice turning a report around within hours instead of days or weeks. And it's fun! Instead of expressing other people's thoughts, as we medical communicators do for a living, you get to give your own opinions."

Debra Gordon, a veteran blogger, provides another take on blogging: "Want to get the thoughts rattling around your head out into the world? Want to share your opinion of the AMWA conference freely? Then offer to blog! It takes only a few minutes, it's fun, and it's a good excuse to run out and by an iPad."

If you're going to the conference in Milwaukee--and there are many great reasons to attend--think about your friends and colleagues who can't go. Heck, think about yourself and honing your writing skills. Think about reporting! Thinking about blogging!

To volunteer to report on session from the conference, contact Kristina Wasson-Blader, Conference Coverage Coordinator for the AMWA Journal. To volunteer to blog, contact Vicki White, the Conference Blog Creator and Coordinator.

To Sleep, Perchance to Operate

2010-08-05T23:20:00.006-04:00

Where would we be without the wonders of anesthesia? The art of surgery would not have advanced as it has without the means to safely deliver a person to sleep, void of sensation. Despite the importance of anesthesia to modern surgery, I’ll wager that many of us are unfamiliar with the history of anesthesia, which makes the article by Arthur and Odo in the June issue of the AMWA Journal all the more valuable.

Anesthesia is not a typical subject for the Journal’s Science Series; most articles in this recurring section have focused on a systems approach to the human body. But anesthesia seemed like an interesting departure, and the article provides an overview of the evolution of anesthesiology, complete with photos of early anesthesia apparatus. Obviously, Arthur and Odo could not address the complete history of anesthesia in the article; after all, entire books have been dedicated to the topic. If the article left you wanting to know more about the miracle of anesthesia, you can find supplementary information online.

As an odd coincidence, anesthesia is the topic of a post on the recently launched New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) blog. In the post “The Knife and the Cutting Edge,” Rena Xu notes that the NEJM archives includes an article, published in 1846, in which Henry Jacob Bigelow, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, described the first use of ether in a surgery performed by William T. G. Morton. The event, as Arthur and Odo write, was a “turning point” for anesthesiology.

You can also find more about the history of anesthesia on an MGH Neurosurgical Service page celebrating 150 years of ether (a page created in 1996). Referring to ether as “medicine’s greatest gift,” the site contains several articles, one of which recounts the controversy of 4 men who each claimed to be the first to use an anesthetic to prevent pain during surgery. (A controversy also noted by Arthur and Odo.) Another article on the site describes the famous painting by Robert Hinkley that depicts the seminal event in anesthesiology.

According to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, nurses were the first professional group to provide anesthesia services in the United States. In recognition, the association’s Web site includes a brief history of nurses’ involvement in the practice of anesthesiology.

If you enjoy documentaries, check out a 10-minute video on YouTube that chronicles the history of anesthesia. (The documentary was an award winner in the St. Louis National History Day competition.) YouTube also features a shorter video that presents the history of anesthesia through images.

Who knew that “going under” could be so interesting?

Welcome

2010-07-13T12:32:00.004-04:00

The AMWA Journal Blog is part of an overall effort to enhance the interactivity of the AMWA Journal, the premiere peer-review journal for medical communicators. As with most professional journals, the AMWA Journal has long held an online presence, with posting of its issues on the AMWA Web site.

Our goal now is to enhance that online presence by offering online exclusive content and facilitating access to related material. For example, in the most recent issue (June 2010), an online exclusive Practical Matters article provides practical support to a more theory-based article on effective slide design. Together, the articles offer a comprehensive learning experience that can help medical communicators develop more effective slide presentations. (Just in time to help workshop leaders [myself included] to develop more engaging presentations for the 2010 Annual Conference!)

Another article in the June issue, “From Bench to Bedside to Breakfast News—Eliminating Roadblocks on the Continuum of Medical Communication,” was specially formatted with embedded links for easier access to references within the text. '

Perhaps the most exciting feature in the June issue are links from many articles that lead readers to the 2010 annual conference section, where they can learn about conference sessions on related topics.

The Journal now also features a new section, Social Media, designed to keep readers current with the evolving use of social networking tools. The June issue provides information on who to follow on Twitter and what blogs to read. The Journal Blog will include a running list of blogs listed in the Journal (see My Blog List). The Journal list is compiled by Debra Gordon, a master blogger! If there are blogs you can’t live without, send information on them to either me or Debra, and we’ll share them with your colleagues here and/or in the Journal.

As Editor of the AMWA Journal, my goal is to bring AMWA members and other subscribers information that helps them enhance the knowledge and skills they need to be better medical communicators. Your participation in the Journal Blog’s surveys will help me develop Journal contents that meet your continuing needs. I encourage you to take just a few seconds to answer these one-question surveys.

I encourage you to check in on the Journal Blog; entries are scheduled for at least twice a month. I hope you’ll use the Journal Blog to comment on Journal contents and engage in discussions with your AMWA colleagues.