Discovering Medical Education:
A Circuitous Road to Success
 Adrienne S. Zion, Ph.D.
MEDCON
 

While finishing my doctorate in physiology from a prestigious university, it seemed all the advice I was given regarding career tracks was to pursue either a post doc in clinical medicine, research, or in academia. Having worked in research for many years, the idea of chasing grants, tenure track, or committing to many long years of research in one (or a few specific) areas of science with little in the way of remuneration did not seem appealing.

One of the things that helped shape my career path was the ability to develop keen editorial skills via writing original scientific abstracts and student grants. As any researcher can attest, the discipline to stay within a precise word count, effectively communicate principal ideas, and provide adequate information can be a challenge. Further justifying the relevance of the research to clinical practice also led me to learn to “market” the science. Given the fact it seems as if no one reads anymore, the secret to communication, and yes, even the most highly complex science I have found, is to synthesize the salient features and translate it to an appropriate audience. When I would ask smart scientists to explain their research in a couple of sentences, and in a way mere mortals could understand, time and again, they could not. While at an APS career sympo, the concept of working in industry was suggested to me, but, no leads were offered. Searching the web with key buzz words, scrutinizing my strengths and promoting them accordingly, ultimately led me to stumble into a career in Medical Education (MedEd) which couldn’t make me happier.

“Like many, I was completely unaware of the existence of medical advertising or medical education. Trained as a synthetic organic chemist, I was working in the research department of a plastics firm and hating it. A photographer friend suggested I speak to a NY medical advertising agency where potentially, I could combine my background and outside interests. Eventually, I joined a well known company and from there worked briefly in medical public relations, and then, finally, in Med Ed, at which point I immediately knew I had found my niche.” Alan G. Morrice, PhD, Director, Scientific Services, MEDCON.

What is MedEd?

Education related to the practice of medicine and designed for healthcare professionals, patients, or consumers. The business of MedEd involves:

• Development of scientific materials of a variety of calibers on a given therapeutic agent, device, or condition

• Collaboration with KOLs (key opinion leaders: experts in respective fields)
• Working with medical strategists either on the pharmaceutical or medical education side to align appropriate educational messages
• Exploring the wide realm of opportunities as new business initiatives, whether in the print or website domain
• Researching new venues to disseminate original or repurposed content through electronic media driving towards a wider physician population
• Collaboration with other medical education organizations to build and leverage strategies and resources

Venues Utilizing MedEd

• Communications and professional relations agencies
• Medical Education Companies (MEC)
• Publishing companies (journals)
• Pharmaceutical companies
• Web-based venues utilizing new and competitive trends in electronic media
• Healthcare and policy organizations
• Nonprofit organizations
• Academic institutions
• Hospitals and group practice settings
• Medical Societies

Preparing for a Career in MedEd

An advance degree in science is a given. Supporting degrees in English or Journalism are helpful but not required. A passion for precision in language is essential, as is humility: it’s not about you, it’s about the data and interpretation of the data. Matching the right personality for the type of job is key. Do you like to chat up KOLs and pick their brains for new ideas about research? Do you prefer to stay in the background and immerse yourself in data and facts? Do you like to market science to help promote physician education or enhance patient care? Are you better sticking with one project over a protracted time or are you better juggling a variety of projects? Do you have a knack for strategically marketing science for education and the ability to understand the principles of adult learning?

Few schools offer formal programs in medical writing. Most of us arrived in the field serendipitously, dissatisfied with what we found ourselves doing after graduation. Now imagine collaborating with the finest minds in their respective medical fields, working on cutting edge research--work that will not be in the public domain for years. That’s why we stay. As with other fields, there is a spectrum. A useful analogy is to consider Law or Journalism. It’s easy to come up with bad examples of those professions. But, fundamentally, they are concerned with objective not subjective fact, as is MedEd, and the firms that are based on that represent the high end of that spectrum.

Supporting skills one should have include understanding medical terminology, clinical study designs, statistics, and complex data. The ability to work in mixed media is a necessity nowadays. There can be a tremendous amount of flexibility regarding working remote or onsite with occasional travel to attend client meetings, international congresses, etc. The ability to work within tight timelines and work as part of the team is crucial as is having excellent organization skills and precise attention to detail. Because the skills writers, editors, and medical directors bring to this industry, there is a high premium to recruit and retain smart individuals. Working in this business is never dull; one is constantly learning to obtain diverse therapeutic experiences.

“After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and working at a Master’s level in basic medical research, I did not see a career path in primary research as a great fit for me. I spent a number of years in Marketing, Consumer Research, and freelance writing before hitting upon MedEd. The mix of writing, editing, fact-checking, and proofing in MedEd is a welcome combination guaranteed to keep me fully engaged. I find working on high quality, scientifically rigorous slide kits, monographs, web postings, and other formats extremely satisfying.” Pamela J. Clark, Senior Editor, MEDCON

Distinctions in MedEd

Traditionally, MedEd is divided into two broad categories, CME and promotion. A CME piece must be developed to follow strict rules as determined by an accrediting institution or organization offering continuing medical education accreditation. All information must be fair balanced, not include product brand names, and should discuss both the merits and flaws of a drug class. CME material should foster the development of tools to enhance physician care in regard to optimizing quality patient care and the continuum of medical education.

CME projects in regulatory agencies or legal entities should be aligned with AMA, related regulatory requirements, and copyright laws, as needed. Educational activities must comply with regulatory CME requirements and legal mandates through site visits and annual reports as set forth by the accrediting institution.

Promotional materials are used by pharmaceutical companies to highlight a drug. Information is provided from the package insert as reviewed by the FDA and does not discuss off-label uses in the development of teaching tools to physicians. A strict medical legal review process is required in the development of these materials that can be used. Examples of promotional work are seen in ads in a variety of media and may often be linked selling a product.

Working Collaboratively

There is a great deal of both internal and external collaboration when developing educational materials. External collaboration with principal investigators, CME departments, grantors, and faculty, in addition to collaboration within the internal teams including account development, program management, editorial, and art departments, to name a few.

Selling Out?

I have often heard scientists and medical doctors refer to the idea that working in industry is akin to “selling out.” While no doubt there may be exceptions to every rule, in general, all the scientists I have encountered take scrupulous efforts to ensure their research is transparent and reproducible, and all data may be checked by external reviewers. At the end of the day, a good scientist is an ethical scientist. Results, whether positive or negative beg to be disseminated. Some of the most beautiful labs, yes I mean beautiful, have been owned by pharmaceutical companies - a far cry from the dismal basement labs some major teaching hospitalities run.

Careers in Medical Education, a Partial List

• Medical Writers, Editors, Proof Readers, Fact Checkers, Copywriters, Publication Managers
  All work within medical publishing, including regulatory, promotional, and educational materials. These individuals develop scientific content via literature review or primary data for publications (manuscripts, posters, abstracts, slides, etc, for symposia/focus groups/advisory board meetings etc), clinical study reports, FDA filing reports, slide kits, newsletters, and websites.
• Grant Writers
  Conduct medical education market analysis; develop medical education strategy for educational area of focus. Can develop Request for Proposal (RFP) to external medical education vendors that support the strategic initiatives to satisfy unmet medical education needs. Responsible for maintaining currency with FDA, CME, PhRMA and OIG Guidelines.
• Medical Directors
  Used by all procurers of MedEd, Medical Directors counsel clients and develop medical strategies that are consistent with product marketing goals in an assigned disease area through content review of journal articles and other communication materials.
• Medical Liaisons
  Work with pharmaceutical companies to educate physicians on a given therapeutic medication, device, or condition.
• Medical Marketing
  Understand key business processes, business drivers, roles/responsibilities of decision makers and influencers, common issues and obstacles faced by healthcare institutions and other distinctive industry attributes to drive marketing campaigns, market awareness, and sales training, and to meet revenue goals.
• Account Services
  Manage components of an account or grant. Oversight includes budgeting, tracking, logistics, and generating sales.
• Business Development
  Help to identify potential new business opportunities; keep teams abreast of all current competitive intelligence, develop strong relationships with KOLs, and lead the team in identifying pertinent research related to grants or clients.
• Creative and Production Services
  Direct and maintain the print and design process, develop branding concepts and apply throughout the specific initiative; vendor selection and print delivery and fulfillment; lead the team in the best design applications and research.
• Program Management
  Interface with faculty, grantors and all internal teams; traffic components for projects from start-up to delivery, update current trafficking systems and project management, track budgetary details and report results to team, create standard operating procedures specific to cost and time efficiencies.
• Operations
  Liaise with both internal and external teams in the day-to-day management of projects from inception to completion, work with teams in budget development and management, participate in the development and execution of new business proposals, research new vendor opportunities and selection, create resourcing and staff opportunities and build the right team.

COMMENTS:

QUESTIONS:

Question: How would I find such positions after completing my advanced degree? How would I find potential "internship" opportunities to determine if it is the right path for me?

Answer: Finding opportunities and marketing yourself

Invariably, when looking for a position, all potential employers will want to see a proven track record. Here are a couple of suggestions how to make yourself marketable.

Begin to amass excerpts of highly readable material you’ve written to use as a preliminary portfolio. It could be the background and rationale from a grant. It could be an outline for a course you plan to teach. Include fully fleshed out learning objectives and goals. You might have put together a snappy bio and key take-away messages about a lecture series you give on a health-related topic. Know your audience, whether it be cardiology fellows, nurse practitioners, third graders, whatever. Perhaps you’ve been the one to assemble your department’s end-of-year report, highlighting faculty contributions, guest lecturers, and talented students. Highlight your diversity. Keep your writing linear and clear. Don’t make the reader struggle through prose or complex words in the hope of sounding expert.

Cull through any PowerPoint teaching slides you may have created and develop a “mini-module” to show your range utilizing interesting graphics and visually appealing schematics. Clearly laid-out slides that are succinct, scientifically accurate, and grammatically correct, combined with high readability can take you far. Know what data to include in the body of the slide and what to relegate to the teaching point section.

Search the internet using buzz words on various websites I’ve described previously. While you may not have had the exact experiences a potential employer is seeking, read between the lines. Skill navigating PubMed, clinical trials.gov, and utilizing bibliographic packages like Reference Manager, show facility in researching techniques. If you have a particular area of expertise, capitalize on it!

Oncology, infectious diseases, central nervous system-related disorders, and cardiology are areas that continue to need writers. Don’t discount areas where you may not have any expertise like ophthalmology, dermatology, etc. Know where to find your resource material-yes, medline, peer-reviewed medical journals, and CDC reports - not Readers Digest or Good Housekeeping.

If you are lucky to get an interview, you will probably have to complete a writing test. These can range from being asked to read a highly complex manuscript and summarize the essence of it in layman’s terms. You could be asked to read 4 articles and develop them into abstracts. You may be given data slides and be asked to make them more readable or determine whether they contain any factual errors. Request previous examples when possible; know who your target audience is and the anticipated timeline. Always double and triple check your work for spelling and grammatical errors and visual appeal. Print out your work and read it off the computer. Put it down and come back hours later. It’s amazing what can be learned in that simple exercise.

Medical writing can be done as full-time, in-house work, or be taken per project. I have known many full-time faculty members who accept writing projects between teaching courses. Good medical writers and medical directors can work as much or as little as they like. Believe it or not, every week I receive at least 10 solicitations by headhunters and agencies to explore their roster of positions. Explore medical writer listservs. They can be a helpful resource as well.

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This page last updated on December 16, 2008
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