Abstracts from the EMWA Spring Conference Poster Session - Volume 32, Issue

At the 2023 EMWA Spring Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, EMWA hosted a poster session. There were posters related to many aspects of medical writing or of relevance to medical writers. The poster session presented an excellent way for…

Plain language summaries of publications: What has COVID-19 taught us? - Volume 30, Issue

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the whole world, and the public has had to struggle with understanding scientific data on a daily basis. The impact of scientific misunderstanding became painfully apparent with the decline in vaccine…

Publisher perspectives on plain language summaries of scientific publications: An Open Pharma survey - Volume 33, Issue

Plain language summaries (PLS) of scientific publications can help to make scientific literature more understandable. In healthcare, PLS can contribute to informed decision- making by healthcare professionals, patients, and their caregivers. In late …

Out on Our Own - Volume 30, Issue

We have finally reached an era where talking about our mental health is no longer a taboo, it’s just taken a pandemic for us to do so! Life has dramatically changed in the last 18 months and mental stressors are even more apparent

A case study from Pakistan: Improving medical publications in non-English speaking countries - Volume 33, Issue

Copyediting is crucial for enhancing the quality and credibility of medical manuscripts in Pakistan. Although English is an official language used in government and education, many researchers are not native speakers, leading to linguistic inaccuraci…

Presenting secondary endpoints in plain language clinical trial result summaries: Considerations for emerging practice - Volume 30, Issue

Background: The European Union Clinical Trials Regulation 536/2014 (EU CTR) requires sponsors to submit summaries of clinical trial results in plain/lay language (Plain Language Trial Summaries [PLTS]). A multidisciplinary working group developed…

How can we maximise patient engagement with Plain Language Summary of Publication articles (PLSPs)? A publisher’s perspective - Volume 33, Issue

Plain Language Summary of Publication articles (PLSPs) are aimed at non-specialist audiences, using non-technical/jargon-free and easy to understand language to provide summaries of publications. The introduction of PLSPs has added to the growing…

Plain language summaries of clinical trial results: What is their role, and should patients and AI be involved? - Volume 33, Issue

Plain language summaries (PLSs) of clinical trial results are vital tools in the clinical development process for enhancing transparency and encouraging and facilitating patient engagement. The production of a PLS is now mandated in the EU for all…

Medical Writing in Russian: From Russian to English and back again - Volume 33, Issue

What do writers need to know about user testing? - Volume 24, Issue

Increasing amounts of information are being made available to patients – but how do we know if we are getting it right and meeting people's needs? In this article, we describe how we have employed user testing to test and improve not just…