If you're looking for the best free medical writing courses available, try auditing this course SciWrite. In the audit version, you can assess most of the material but will not be able to submit assignments or receive grades or a certificate for your work unless you upgrade.
For beginners looking to learn medical writing, John's Hopkins Clinical Trials Design course is a great starting point. This course, alongside A New Communication Framework for Healthcare, and Healthcare Organizations and Health Systems provide a comprehensive overview of medical writing topics, from trial protocols to healthcare communication.
Medical writing is a detailed style of writing used in the science, medicine, and healthcare industries. It is characterized by the use of formal language, the analysis of clinical research, and focusing on an educational or regulatory aspect. Medical writers are usually involved in the creation of medical content that is technical, educational, or clinical in nature. Medical writing can be found in online content for health care websites, science journals, technical news sites, and medical industry magazines.
It is important to learn medical writing, as the pharmaceutical and drug manufacturing industry has been pressured to supply more documentation of a regulatory and educational nature as a result of changing market dynamics for patents and product pipelines. With new medicines becoming of critical importance across our society, gaining knowledge in medicine, pharmaceutical, and healthcare education may benefit a person who is eager to embark on a career as a medical writer.
Typical careers for a medical writer involve writing science-based articles for health and science websites, newsletters for industry health professionals, or medical association blogs. A medical writer could write regulatory documents and educational research reports for a science-based organization like the National Institute of Health, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, a hospital organization, or a large healthcare agency that produces reports around consumer medicine products. Other possible career options for an aspiring medical writer are with health insurance companies, clinical research publishing companies, and medical communications marketing agencies.
Taking online courses in medical writing can help you gain a fundamental understanding of the principles of structured writing, the application of content for scientific formats, and writing for peer-reviewed journals and scientific research. You have the opportunity to learn how to translate complex clinical research papers into readable, easily understood reports for general audiences. When you take online courses in medical writing, your skills might flourish in framing your research, drawing conclusions, and presenting your work to the medical industry.