3 Premium Competencies and Skills Every CME/CEHP Writer Needs to Succeed in Today’s Market
Thought leaders Dikran Toroser, Genevieve Walker, and Joan Affleck recently shared their perspectives in an issue of the AMWA Journal on the skills that medical writers will need to succeed in the current market.
Here’s my take on 3 premium skills that continuing medical education/continuing education (CME/CE) writers will need.
- Cultural awareness
- An ethical compass
- Hands-on, high-touch language skills
Cultural Awareness
Medical writing is a global and diverse enterprise. So how do we build inclusion, equity, and cultural respect across identities and cultures into CME/CE content?
1. Use inclusive terms. Move beyond the gender binary and use preferred names to demonstrate respect and validate lived experience. At the very least, model safety by adding your pronouns to meeting introductions, your email signature, and Zoom profile. ReadySet has a brilliant resource on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Download it here.
2. Incorporate alternative wording into images. You’ll find great resources on content accessibility at the National Center on Disability and Journalism and digital accessibility from Harvard University and digital.gov.
3. Avoid discriminatory or stigmatizing language. Embrace intersectionality, acknowledge history, oppression, and systemic bias, and ask the people you are working with about their preferences for identity- or person-first language. There are several updated resources on inclusive language, cultural competence, and cultural humility specific to medical writing.
- Start with this AMWA resource
- The 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors provides specific guidance on using and reporting race and ethnicity in the biomedical literature, as does the JAMA journal network.
- The Council of Science Editors shares a thoughtful perspective on inclusive sex/gender language in medical publishing.
A combination of employee grassroots activity and Californian legislation allowed Heather Clemons to pursue a unique, health equity-focused CME and quality improvement process at Sharp Grossmont. Listen to our conversation on diversity, inclusion, and health equity on the Write Medicine podcast.
Ethical Compass
Like just about everything else these days, medical content is created at speed. Turnaround times for content deliverables in CME/CE are getting ever shorter.
But there’s no room for shortcuts.
Medical writers need to be acutely aware of ethical codes in CME. After all, writers are important bricks in the firewall between industry and education.
Writers are important bricks in the firewall between industry and education.
So supercharge the ethical compass you need for your specialty or niche in CME. Start with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education.
Hands-on, High-Touch Language Skills
Templates, automations, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT-generated content are already here.
Can AI help? Yes (I wrote about how AI can help in Medium).
But medical communicators are and will continue to be better than AI in finding and interpreting credible, evidence-based, trackable data and source materials.
Skill in using textual, visual, and numerical data to communicate clinical data and research implications from bench to bedside and beyond, with precision, nuance, and care is more indispensable than ever.
If you need to brush up on these skills, the American Medical Writers Association, AMWA, the European Medical Writers Association, and many other organizations offer plenty of options.
Use this reading list as your writing skills starter-pack or guide.
Connect With Alex
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