Lay titles for clinical trials: Is industry achieving the balance? - Volume 32, Issue

Titles of clinical trials may directly influence whether patients, caretakers, or healthcare professionals will want to obtain more information about the trial. Major clinical trial registries require lay titles (referred to as “brief” or “public”…

Unlocking the power of emotional intelligence in medical writers - Volume 33, Issue

Emotional intelligence (EI), the ability to recognise and understand emotions (one’s own and those of other people), is a valuable attribute for medical writers (MWs). MWs play a pivotal role in communicating medical and scientific information to…

Creating educational materials about clinical research data for patients and the public: A multifaceted journey in the current digital age - Volume 33, Issue

With scientific advances during the COVID- 19 pandemic and expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) in research, there has been a simultaneous increase in misinformation about data collection, privacy, and sharing in clinical trials. This increase h…

Transparency through the lens of data protection and privacy: A clinical research organisation medical writing perspective - Volume 33, Issue

Medical writers maintain a fine balance between data transparency obligations and personal data protection in clinical reports. Hence, we must stay informed of data protection requirements outlined in the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)…

From the Editor - Volume 33, Issue

On multilingualism and medical writing I arrived in Europe in September 1991 and was completely unprepared for the multilingualism of this continent. My first European home was the bilingual city of Brussels in the trilingual country of Belgium.…

Medical Communications and Writing for Patients - Volume 30, Issue

Dear All,

As I write this, at least some of us are likely to still be in some form of lockdown or quarantine. I pray that you and your families are all managing to stay as sane as possible, and I sincerely hope that you all stay safe and healthy.

I…

English Grammar and Style - Volume 24, Issue

In this issue •  We continue Michael Schneir's fascinating series on distractions in medical and scientific writing, this time concentrating on non-pronoun-induced backtracking with adverbs, verbs, and nouns. This sounds a little…

From the Editor - On social media: Once a passive observer – now an active user - Volume 30, Issue

It is with great pleasure that I write my first editorial for this amazing issue on social media. The idea of this issue came to me in 2019, inspired by two special colleagues.

I had social media accounts even before I became a medical writer. I rec…

Translation: A transcultural activity - Volume 29, Issue

Effective communication is the goal of any professional medical and communication writer. Transferring the correct messages from one language to another is a task that is increasingly covered by software, but translation machines cannot confer the…

Getting what you want from your scientific writing: tips for writing clearly - Volume 21, Issue

Good medical writing is like good writing in any discipline: the writer should explain complex concepts and ideas clearly and accurately and engage the reader. In this article, I provide four suggestions to help clarify writing on complex subjects:…