People looking for Freelance Medical Writer jobs have usually attained a life sciences degree and may well hold a higher degree such as a Masters or Doctorate.

Marketing Medical Writers are generally employed by pharmaceutical companies or medical communications / medical education agencies. They provide editorial services and produce marketing materials over a range of media (print, online, DVD etc.) for each and every therapy / disease area or indication.

Medical Writers create a diverse range of content for use in marketing, promotion, medical education and training including original manuscripts, articles, newsletter and posters; they produce training materials, slide kits and lecture notes as well as working on conference reports and abstracts. There is much more besides but these represent a core of the types of project a medical Writer will undertake. The aim of medical writing is to enhance and advance clinical medical knowledge so that the best healthcare and advice can be provided to patients.

Writers need to be able to communicate complex ideas and information making it readily understandable to their target audience; their audiences can be particularly diverse, from healthcare specialists to patient groups and the general public. The Writer needs to ensure that the message is clear and that it reaches the audience whilst remaining consistent with the client’s or agency’s ‘house’ style.

Pharmaceutical Marketing is a fast moving business with performance indicators measured locally, regionally, nationally, internationally and globally! There are many Medical Communications Agencies vying for position and product accounts are awarded and terminated without protracted build ups or handovers. This means that agencies can find themselves acutely over or under resourced. When an agency needs to get more resources immediately they will often utilize Freelancers as it can take anywhere between 1 and 6 months or more to hire permanent staff into the agency. Freelancers are able to bridge this resource gap whilst permanent hires are made, instantly providing the agency with appropriate levels of knowledge and experience.

So what happens when you want to go Freelance?

People looking for Freelance Medical Writer jobs have usually attained a life sciences degree and may well hold a higher degree such as a Masters or Doctorate. They also usually have spent some time employed in the pharmaceutical industry or in a medical communications agency and have a good understanding and experience of creating pharmaceutical marketing content over a range of therapy areas.

Being a Freelance Medical Writer can offer a range of benefits. It gives you the freedom and flexibility of choosing who you work for, how much time you work for and when you work. This can dramatically enhance the work life balance and allow you the time to follow personal interests or meet family commitments. Freelance medical Writer jobs often enable the Freelancer to work from home and to their own schedule, not necessarily working 9 to 5. It also allows you to set you own rates for work undertaken so you can feel satisfactorily rewarded for the work that you do.

Each Freelancer will have their own individual reasons for wanting the flexibility of this type of career but most will face similar challenges at some point in time. One of the main challenges is ensuring there is work when you want it, what happens if the work dries up?

This is when it is useful to have contact with a recruitment agency like ID Search & Selection. They may well have Freelance assignments available immediately for Medical Writers but you can also join their Freelancers Pages. This is a community of Healthcare Freelancers which is promoted to pharmaceutical companies, medial communications agencies and not-for-profit organisations. It allows you to profile your skills and interests and provides an alternative ‘shop window’ to market your services, presenting an extra revenue stream when you need it at no cost to you.

By Jim Damon finding Freelance Medical Writer Jobs