Highly-skilled medical writers can add substantial value to the discovery and development process for drug and device companies. Here are some key roles they fill:
- Writing
the bulk of the text: The
bulk of the writing can be completed by the medical writer, with
functional groups acting primarily as experts, advisors, and
reviewers. Medical writers are
skilled in presenting a consistent story within and across documents and
will follow the template, style guide, and publishing requirements. In addition, completing the document
will be the top priority for the medical writer. The result is better
documents faster.
- Analyzing
data: Highly-skilled medical writers are
capable of thoroughly and accurately analyzing complex data and should
participate in every aspect of data analysis including data review
meetings, review of the statistical analysis plan, and review of mock
tables, figures, and listings.
- Coordinating
the document review process: The medical writer is the ideal person to
distribute drafts, collate comments, run the document review meetings, and
resolve issues in collaboration with key decision makers.
- Performing
literature searches:
Highly-skilled medical writers are capable of performing complex
literature searches on specific subjects, analyzing the information
obtained, and preparing a summary. On a smaller scale, the medical writer
can find and obtain scientific and/or medical references that support
specific concepts or statements in the document. In addition, the medical
writer is well positioned to add citations to the text, prepare the
document reference list, obtain the reference articles, maintain the
literature database, and upload reference articles to the publishing
group.
- Coordinating
the appendices process:
The medical writer is the
best person to identify, locate, store, and distribute document appendices
since the medical writer has relationships with all of the document owners,
access to many of the master or published documents, and knows the history
of the project (eg, number of protocol amendments).
You don't have to be a sales person or even be selling something to have an "Elevator Pitch." You are trying to get an idea across in a short period of time to entice the receiver to want more information from you!
There are some great summaries on how to create the Perfect (Elevator) Pitch, and the same idea holds true even when in the hunt for a job.
The history is sketchy, but appears to stem from perhaps one of two places:
- Wall Street: when entrepreneurs would try to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists or angel investors while riding with them up and down the elevators in a high rise office building
Pfluent is growing rapidly.
As new clients engage our great writing staff (i.e. the demand goes up), we need to increase the availability of our writers. Pfluent's model is to hire writers to work in-house at our Emeryville, CA location, east of San Francisco. Initially, we look for contractors to fill in the variable needs (who often convert to full or part time status), but we are now adding full-time positions as we continue to grow and have sufficient work for the employed staff.
Pfluent is now hiring to fill some of these positions and is looking for medical writers with experience in the pharmaceutical industry and medical/scientific expertise.
