Have you ever seen a shabby medical publication with outdated information displayed by trusted medical personnel? Well, don’t blame them cos they ain’t the writers. That’s actually what one gets for employing the services of ‘wack’ medical writers.
We know that the medical field mostly deals with sensitive information and should be treated as sacred. Therefore, if you are a busy practitioner who cannot afford the luxury of time to write his publications, try hiring the services of qualified medical writers.
Don’t worry about how to go about it. We have carefully outlined the ‘how’ in this article. In addition, we have also listed the possible questions to ask any acclaimed medical writer plus tips to hire the best.
This promises to be an interesting one, read along!
What is Medical Writing?
Medical writing is the art of creating well-structured medical and scientific documents. These documents include clinical research documents, content for healthcare websites, health magazines, journals, and news.
Fundamentally, Medical writing is classified into two types:
- Regulatory medical writing
- Educational medical writing
Regulatory medical writing: As a writer, you’ll typically craft documents for regulatory agencies that are seeking approval for devices, drugs, and biology. Some examples are clinical trial data, regulatory submission documents, post-approval documents, etc.
Educational medical writing: Here, writers write documents about devices, biology, and medicine. They are generally about articles and topics relating to the medical field.
This is a must-read: Top 10 Tips On How To Hire Health And Wellness Writer
Who Is A Medical Writer?
There are some qualities and qualifications that guide buyers in hiring a good medical writer, especially on a site like WritersGig.
An ideal medical writer isn’t just someone in the medical career but someone who knows how to communicate his ideas in a manner understandable by the layman. This is an important trait for a good writer.
The scientific information in these documents needs to be presented to suit the level of understanding of the target audience which can be patients, physicians, and the public.
Essentially, hiring a medical writer should be with a writer who:
1. Understands Medical Terminologies
A good medical writer understands medical terminologies and concepts. He should also have knowledge of the relevant guidelines, and structures needed for medical documents.
Every field has its distinct laws and standards that guide operations. Medical writers should be well aware of the rules that guide the practice of medicine and writing.
Every check this point before hiring a medical writer.
2. Keep up with Trends
Medicine is one of the fields that is constantly changing with new innovations. Every day, practitioners come up with new researches that change the way things are done.
An ideal medical writer should be in tune with the trends as they will alter the information some of their writings will convey. It will be catastrophic to feed your audience with stale news.
Just imagine a writer teaching on a subject like Polio while offering treatment like bed rest, pain relievers, and portable ventilators as remedies? Wouldn’t you see him as crappy?
Once upon a time those would have been good treatments but a vaccination will and has sufficed.
3. Great Analytical Skills
A great medical writer needs to be able to analyze data and information for writing medical documents.
Since medical documents are read by many readers who can be medical and non-medical practitioners, medical writers must learn how to analyze the numerous data.
Check the analytical skills of a medical writer before hiring.
You need this resource: 15 Productive Apps for Freelance Writers in 2024
4. Journalism skills
It is expedient for a medical writer to understand how to communicate his ideas, thoughts, and data in a manner understandable to his audience.
Every article has an intended audience and your ability to communicate the information in a manner they’ll understand makes you a master medical writer.
As a result, open your mind and learn basic journalism/communication skills. Understand basic English language grammar, learn summary writing, and gain insight into editing. SEO content writing is also necessary if you’ll become a blog writer.
These are essential qualities every medical writer must have to make his hiring easy.
Tips For Hiring A Qualified Medical Writer
It is not every medical writer that is best to be hired for your project. Aside from expertise, many other factors come in relevant when you want to seek out the best medical writer for your project.
In effect, the timely tips to hire a medical writer are explained below.
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#1 Availability
The nature of your project will determine the availability of the medical writer you’ll hire. Regardless, you need a writer who will be available to start and complete your projects.
#2 Cost to hire the freelance medical writer
This can be a pointer to the experience and expertise of the medical writer you wish to hire. A writer who has had many years of experience and education cannot agree to be paid peanuts for a medical writing job.
They basically charge by the hour, while others charge by project, word, or a mix of hours and words.
#3 Ask the right questions
When interviewing or hiring a freelance medical writer, ask the right questions. You should know that freelancers are smart, streamlining your questions to the context of his job description will reveal his expertise.
Additionally, we have given some sample questions to ask a medical writer you wish to hire.
Read Also: 5 Tips to Hire a Freelance Grant Writer in 2024
#4 Don’t look for just any medical writer
Yes, that’s right! Look for a medical writer who has specific knowledge of the type of medical writing you wish to do.
Although a writer inexperienced in medicine can produce a well-written article, it might be unreasonable to hire a regular freelance writer for articles on complex medical topics.
Thus, look for writers with medical experience, publications, and even degrees.
#5 Find the right job Platform
After identifying the kind of writer you want, the next step is to find the right platforms to hire these pro-medical writers.
WritersGig was created to give you access to countless medical writers for hiring purposes.
#6 Know the topics you want
Specify the type of topics you want your freelance writers to write about. The reason is that the medical field is very vast and some writers specialize in specific topics.
It helps focus the hiring process while ensuring that the medical writer you end up hiring can reliably deliver your desired content.
#7 Review published work
Where possible, review the previous works of the medical writer you wish to hire. This will give you insight into the actual outlook your job will have.
Check for plagiarism, spelling errors, proper research, sentence construction, and accordance with stated standards (if there are any).
Sample Hiring Questions For Medical Writers?
After getting a grasp of the candidate’s writing abilities, you have to ask him certain questions before hiring a medical writer.
Start by asking them about specific experiences and capabilities with writing medical literature. Some sample questions for hiring a medical writer include:
- Have you had a medical writing training/course before?
- Do you have a professional background in writing for the medical industry?
- What is your overall educational background in medicine or healthcare?
- Medicine and medical writing are broad subjects, what specific subjects are you most knowledgeable and experienced about in writing?
- Share an experience where you had to gather information from multiple medical sources. How did you determine which were most relevant? This answers the analytics question.
- What do you know about [ name a specific medical field or subject]?
Conclusion
Thousands and millions of medical writers are willing to provide their expertise to you. In fact, the well-crafted resumes and gigs will confuse buyers. However, this article is here to provide clarity on how you can hire the best medical writers who will deliver top-notch service.
We recommend WritersGig for finding the best-verified writers.
FAQs On Hiring a Medical Writer
A medical writer is a professional who specializes in creating written content related to healthcare and medicine. Their responsibilities include producing documents such as research papers, regulatory submissions, clinical trial protocols, and educational materials.
Consider hiring a medical writer when you need assistance in communicating complex medical or scientific information accurately and effectively. This includes tasks such as preparing research manuscripts, regulatory documents, or educational materials.
Yes, medical writers are skilled in preparing regulatory documents such as Investigational New Drug (IND) applications, New Drug Applications (NDA), Clinical Study Reports (CSR), and other documents required for regulatory submissions.
