Medical Gems - Volume 25, Issue

Every discipline employs its own secretive words – jargon that allows initiates to communicate with one another in a way that excludes others. The world of medicine is no exception. The idioms used by doctors and surgeons range from the humorous to…

The Webscout - Volume 24, Issue

The word ‘plain’ in its original sense just meant ‘flat, smooth’. In the thirteenth century, it also gained the meaning ‘evident’. And from the fourteenth century on, ‘plain’ has been used in the way we understand it in the term ‘plain language’: to…

Good pharma - Volume 22, Issue

Drugs companies publish only a fraction of their results and keep much of the information to themselves. Drug companies are ‘debasing’ drug trials whose publication in journals can apparently confer scientific approval. Merck had fought for years to …

In the Bookstores - Volume 22, Issue

The Spirit Level

Ever had a ‘ping’ moment? This book might have been mine. I'm not a natural pessimist, but Western society today seems less cohesive and people more materialistic, stressed, unhealthy, and unhappy than in times gone by. Wealth and s…

In the Bookstores - Volume 26, Issue

What Every Medical Writer Needs to Know: Questions and Answers for the Serious Medical Author They say “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but the title of this book lends itself to curiosity. In What Every Medical Writer Needs to Know, Dr Robert B.…

Attribution, advocacy, disposable authors, corporate ghosts and cultural assimilation: new themes in the ethical critique of commercial medical literature - Volume 25, Issue

This interview provides solutions to some of the common pitfalls that face medical writers when working with large teams. Practical tips are provided on key topics including manuscript planning, agreeing on key messages and the use of figures,…

Medical Communications - Volume 23, Issue

I must admit to feeling very strongly about information that is written for patients – both about the quality and the appropriateness of the information itself, and about how it is communicated. Thankfully, this topic is now enjoying some long…

The Light Stuff - Volume 23, Issue

Anecdotes and quotes related (more or less) to scientific writing   Pigeons are like editors, they both do the icky to your most cherished work, but at least pigeons don't say, Now it really sings. Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope Ignorant people…

New documents required by the medical device regulation - Volume 29, Issue

This article introduces four documents associated with the new Medical Device Regulation 2017/745: the clinical evaluation plan, post-market clinical follow-up (PMCF) plan and PMCF evaluation report, and the summary of safety and clinical…

Regulatory Public Disclosure - Volume 32, Issue

Editorial Sam Hamilton (author and section editor) Medical Writing. 2023;32(3):91–95. https://doi.org/10.56012/hnnl8161 Clinical Data Publication (Policy 0070) relaunch Alison McIntosh (author) In preparation for the relaunch of EMA Clinical…