Medical Writing Medical Writing Around the World Medical writing around the world

Volume 22, Issue 2 - Medical Writing Around the World

Medical writing around the world

As many of you are already familiar, Medical Writing began as The Write Stuff, a publication written by and for EMWA members. One of the goals in making the transition to Medical Writing was that it would become an international journal with readers outside of Europe and EMWA. We are already on our way, with contributors frequently coming from outside of EMWA and Europe.

But for me this is not enough. I am convinced that Medical Writing should reflect the increased globalisation of medical writing. More and more, medical writing is being done locally and not only in the traditional areas of Western Europe and North America. Medical writing is also now often being outsourced to countries like India, and many regions of the world, especially Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, have a substantial need for medical writing but are currently underserved. This creates vast new opportunities and challenges for medical writers.

I therefore thought it important to organise an issue on medical writing around the world. When I sent out requests for contributions, I had no idea that I would get such a fantastic response. In this issue, we have 11 articles on medical writing in 10 countries or regions on 5 continents.

As a side-benefit of putting together this issue, EMWA has developed new collaborations with the Spanish Association of Medical Writers and the Australasian Medical Writers Association, both of which have provided short articles on their associations.

We will continue to seek out contributions from medical writers from around the world for future issues. This should make Medical Writing richer and more attractive to the global medical writing community.

EMA's clinical trial data and transparency initiative

In the last few years, there has been much discussion about open access to clinical trial data. This has recently come to the forefront since the publication of Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre (see the March 2013 In the Bookstores and Regulatory Writing columns). Because of increasing complaints, the EMA has decided to start making clinical trial data more widely accessible. In November 2012, they organised a workshop to bring together key stakeholders to discuss this initiative. Because of the importance of this topic to medical writers, this issue of Medical Writing includes articles by Susan Bhatti summarising the workshop discussions and by Faiz Kermani and Walter Fürst discussing the potential implications of wider data transparency.

Other highlights of this issue

In addition to these articles Sanja Pavlica discusses the need for registration of preclinical studies, an important but often overlooked issue related to the subject of increased transparency of trial data.

Also, Josalita Salita explains how a mentorship programme can enrich EMWA members' experience. As budgets tighten and companies are less willing to pay for conference attendance, this may become an important value-added feature of EMWA.

A friendlier Medical Writing

In talking to EMWA members at recent conferences, it has become clear that although the more professional look and feel of Medical Writing is appreciated, most prefer a less technical publication. Starting with this issue, we will be including logos for all regular sections and photos for the President's Message and the Editorial. We have also moved the Editorial to the first page of the issue to make the journal more welcoming.

I hope that you get as much enjoyment out of reading this issue as I did putting it together. I also hope that you like the changes that we are making to Medical Writing, and I appreciate any comments or suggestions for further improvements.

 

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Articles

Medical writing around the world
Message from the President
The yin and yang of medical writing in China
The changing face of medical writing in India
Medical writing in India at a crossroads
Medical writing in the Middle East
Medical writing in Finland
On the western edge of Europe – medical writing in Portugal
Announcing AERTeM, the Spanish Association of Medical Writers
From editors abroad into businesswomen back in Brazil
Science writing workshops for AIDS vaccine researchers in Africa
Medical postcard from Australia, the world's largest island
Teaching English for Medical Academic Purposes at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade, Serbia
Regulatory medical writing in Switzerland
Medical writing in the Russian Federation: Promises and pitfalls
Report on the EMA Workshop on clinical trial data and transparency
Potential implications of wider data transparency in medical communications
The need for registration of preclinical studies
Mentorship in EMWA: A perspective
In the Bookstores
The Webscout
Regulatory Writing
English Grammar and Style
Medical Journalism
Medical Communication
The Light Stuff
Out On Our Own

Member Login

Links

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Editoral Board

Editor-in-Chief

Raquel Billiones

Co-Editors

Evguenia Alechine

Jonathan Pitt

Managing Editor

Victoria White

Associate Editors

Anuradha Alahari

Jennifer Bell

Nicole Bezuidenhout

Claire Chang

Barbara Grossman

Sarah Milner

John Plant

Sampoorna Rappaz

Amy Whereat

Section Editors

Daniela Kamir

AI/Automation

Jennifer Bell

Biotechnology

Nicole Bezuidenhout 

Digital Communication

Somsuvro Basu

EMWA News 

Ana Sofia Correia 

Gained in Translation

Ivana Turek

Getting Your Foot in the Door

Wendy Kingdom / Amy Whereat

Good Writing Practice

Alison McIntosh 

In the Bookstores

Maria Kołtowska-Häggström

Lingua Franca and Beyond

Maddy Dyer

Publications

Lisa Chamberlain-James

Medical Communications/Writing for Patients

Payal Bhatia

Medical Devices

Evguenia Alechine

My First Medical Writing

Anuradha Alahari

News from the EMA

Adriana Rocha

Out on Our Own

Tiziana von Bruchhausen

Pharmacovigilance

Clare ChangZuo Yen Lee 

Regulatory Matters

Sam Hamilton

Regulatory Public Disclosure

Claire Gudex

Teaching Medical Writing

Louisa Ludwig-Begall / Sarah Kabani

The Crofter: Sustainable Communications

Louisa Marcombes

Veterinary Writing

Editors Emeritus

Elise Langdon-Neuner

Phil Leventhal

Layout Designer

Chris Monk