Medical Communications and Writing for Patients - Volume 33, Issue

Section Editor: Lisa Chamberlain James

Involving patients in company-sponsored medical publications: Learning from collaboration with a patient advocacy group to engage patient authors

Authors: Aki Yoshikawa, Atsuko Iwata, Miho Hatano, Yuko Koji…

The use of machine translation and AI in medical translation: pros and cons - Volume 33, Issue

In this article, I provide a retrospective look at the emergence of translation technologies and summarise the pros and cons of the use of neural machine translation and generative AI tools in medical translation. I will examine both the advantages…

A medical writing primer for oncology dossiers - Volume 31, Issue

Oncology is one of the most common areas of drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. As a medical writer, it is important to be aware of the unique aspects of oncology studies and have some understanding of the principles underlying cancer…

Medical abbreviations with multiple meanings: A prescription for disaster - Volume 29, Issue

A partial list of medical abbreviations that have dangerous contradictory or ambiguous meanings is presented. The purpose of presenting this list is to sensitise healthrelated practitioners and medical editors to this problem. Suggestions are made…

Translating medical devices: A rule-driven game - Volume 33, Issue

Translation for medical devices often presents a unique set of challenges arising from the products’ complex natures and associated regulatory requirements. Beyond medical expertise, linguists – from translators and editors to bilingual quality…

Books to support your medical writing journey - Volume 32, Issue

On your journey as a medical writer, you will need many types of books: style guides, dictionaries, thesauruses, books about language and grammar, and books about how to be a medical writer. This article is not about these books – it is about the…

A wonderful "Medium" for medical writers - Volume 30, Issue

With the advent of social media platforms and the increasing availability and access of information on the internet, we are not limited by information sources on any subject. Medium.com, since its inception in 2012, has become a very good blogging…

Medical Writing Humour - Volume 30, Issue

To celebrate the festive season, we’d like to share with you the elfs’ cover letter. The target journal was the The Polar Express, which has an enviably high impact factor. Santa Claus is its editor-in-chief. We run medical writing courses for PhD…

Regulatory Matters - Volume 33, Issue

Section Editors: Clare Chang, Zuo Yen Lee In regulatory submission writing, a project facilitator is the yin to a medical writer’s yang Authors: Yoko Komatsuzaki, Julia Forjanic Klapproth Authoring and reviewing complex, parallel regulatory…

The hard truth about soft skills in medical writing - Volume 33, Issue

Historically, hard skills – such as technical, digital, or life sciences qualifications – have been seen as more valuable than soft skills in successful medical writing. However, hiring managers now recognise soft skills as one of the top…