Rick Flemming, Director at Aspire Scientific, talks about his career in medcomms and what to expect when working as a medical writer.

Recorded 6 October 2016 at a MedComms Networking event in Oxford. Produced by NetworkPharma.tv

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ABSTRACT:

Medical writers in medcomms typically help pharmaceutical companies communicate about their drugs to healthcare professionals. Medical writing is above all about writing high quality scientific copy, generally across many different therapy areas and formats. Medcomms agencies typically deliver publications, educational materials, coverage of scientific meetings, strategic and commercial services and digital materials, such as websites, apps and e-learning. Besides clinical study manuscripts, publications encompass review articles, meta-analyses, and abstracts, posters and slide presentations for scientific congresses. Manuscript writing generally involves a good deal of liaison, incorporating multiple rounds of author comments, and adherence to guidelines, such as Good Publication Practice for Communicating Company-Sponsored Research.

Rick started out as a medical writer after having competed a PhD and an 18-month postdoctoral contract; he enjoyed writing, wanted to stay in science, and could see many benefits to a career in medcomms. There are challenges: the work is highly deadline driven, involves a steep learning curve, built on criticism of your work over the first year or two, and it can sometimes feel like a treadmill. On the upside there will usually be lots of variety across projects and therapy areas, the benefits of teamwork and working with experts, the potential for travel, and a clearly defined career progression.

As a medical writer your PhD and postdoc experience will be valued. You must be prepared to start at the bottom and prove your worth, but once you have succeeded at this there are lots of opportunities. Rick ends with some tips on preparing for medcomms job applications.

Written by Penny Gray, Freelance Medical Writer

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We are building a library of free webcasts, like this one, for the global MedComms Community and others at http://www.networkpharma.tv and we’d welcome your suggestions for new topics and speakers.

Full details of this MedComms Networking event are at http://medcommsnetworking.com/event79.html

Rick’s presentation (PDF format) is at http://medcommsnetworking.com/presentations/flemming_061016.pdf

Rick’s Linkedin page is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-flemming-4199a86/

More about Aspire Scientific can be found at http://www.aspire-scientific.com

You’ll find lots more information about starting a career in MedComms at http://www.FirstMedCommsJob.com

Filming and technical direction by Mario Crispino, Freelance Cameraman & Editor

[For the avoidance of doubt: this video is intended to be freely accessible to all. Please feel free to share and use however you like. Cheers, Peter Llewellyn, Director NetworkPharma Ltd and Founder of the MedComms Networking Community activity at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com]