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How To Become a Medical Writer
Do you like medicine, biology, and science? Do you like to write? Congratulations, you could be a medical writer!
You don’t need an advanced degree to be a medical writer. I want to clear that up right away because it’s a misassumption that keeps a lot of potentially great medical writers out of the field.
In fact, I’m a medical writer and I do not hold any college degree. All you need is curiosity, the ability to learn on the fly, and a solid understanding of how to write well.
I won’t spend time here on my background and how I came into this field (I’ve covered that elsewhere), but I do just want to make clear that I am qualified to write about this topic. I am a Certified Medical Writer (MWC) and a Board-Certified Editor in the Life Sciences (ELS) — more on these credentials later. I learned enough on my own that I was able to produce a 1,406-page integrative medicine textbook, nearly 100,000 copies of which have been distributed to date.
Medicine isn’t something mystical. It’s very empirical. Experiments identify what works, then doctors apply the successful interventions to human patients. Anyone willing to dedicate the time to learn about medicine — either through self-teaching or structured formal education — can learn to write about medicine.
