Five reasons to start working with a medical writer early in your project

Hiring a medical writer can be a huge time-saver. One way to make sure the arrangement is as productive and cost-effective as possible is to begin to work with the medical writer early in the project. Here is why:

  1. For clinical development in particular, later documents build off early documents. If those early documents are done well, with well-presented rationale and accurate details, the later documents will be much more straightforward.

  2. Good medical writers have an eye for detail. We know how to carefully keep track of all pieces of data so that no errors are introduced during the writing process. If we are called on to edit a late-stage draft of the document, it is too late to prevent or catch those errors.

  3. The best way to figure out if you have the right freelance writer is to work with them on a project. If you bring one in early in the process, you have a chance, before crunch time, to make sure you have the right writer for the job and to work out a good system for working together.

  4. Experienced medical writers have a thorough knowledge of the final product and can use this knowledge early in the process to help you identify key deliverables, plan and manage timelines, and even design the study. Some researchers conduct clinical trials with the goal of publication in a high impact factor journal, but after completing the trial are disappointed to find that their trial design or their poorly written protocol precludes them from their target journal.

  5. Lastly, good medical writers are busy. If we have a long-term relationship with a client, we are aware of your timelines and can ensure that we have time in our schedules to prioritize your project.

Comparisons

If there is one simple writing skill all graduate students should be taught, it is how to write comparisons correctly. There are several ways to mess up comparisons, but there is one I see very frequently, from native speakers and non-native speakers alike: compared to is used instead of the word than.

Here are some examples paraphrased from works I have edited:

“The sodium concentrations were higher in sample A compared to sample B.”

“Spring had a much higher percentage of readings above 100 μg/m3 compared to the fall.”

In both examples, compared to should simply be replaced with than:

“The sodium concentrations were higher in sample A than sample B.”

“Spring had a much higher percentage of readings above 1000 μg/m3 than fall.”

In some cases, a little more work is necessary to correct these second-degree comparisons. Here is an example:

“SOD1 mRNA was significantly elevated in tumors as compared to normal tissue.”

We need to change the word elevated to a comparative adjective and then switch the compared to to than:

“SOD1 mRNA was significantly higher in tumors than in normal tissue.”

Unfortunately, these errors are so common in scientific writing and everyday speech that they can be hard to catch. But pay attention to those comparative statements, see what happens if you replace compared to with than, and your scientific writing will be more clear and concise.