Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Think Outside the Pharmaceutical Industry Box at AMWA Annual Conference

Whether you’re a veteran medical writer with extensive pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience, or a newcomer to the medical writing profession, this year’s AMWA Annual Conference program offers a number of opportunities to broaden your professional horizons with sessions focused on the medical device industry.

Terminology, FDA structure, regulatory requirements, standards for clinical trial design and product promotion, and key professional qualifications for medical writers can differ significantly between the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. A basic understanding of these differences can give medical writers an entrée into a potential new market for their services.

For an overall introduction to the field, there’s “Scope of Medical Communication,” where Scott Thompson, a writer in the medical device field, will provide an overview of the medical device setting; discuss career opportunities in the field; talk about the knowledge, skills, and attributes that increase the likelihood of success; and tell you what you can expect to earn. Open sessions featuring content related to medical devices include “Current Regulatory Challenges for Reporting Drug Safety Information for Approved Drugs, Biologics, and Devices,” presented by Mary Whitman, and “FDA’s Other Box: Medical Device Regulation for Pharmaceutical Writers,” featuring a panel of device-industry veterans.

“The ‘FDA's Other Box’ panel discussion should appeal to medical writers working in the device or pharmaceutical industries,” says Cynthia Carr, PhD, a senior medical writer at Ventana Medical Systems Inc. and one of the panelists at the session. “Working for a device manufacturer, I've seen a huge increase in the number of collaborations with pharmaceutical partners in recent years. Our clinical study managers have expressed repeatedly how beneficial it is to the collaborative effort when our pharmaceutical partners have some basic understanding of device regulations.”

Medical devices is also a topic in this year’s Alvarez Award Address, titled “Medical Devices: Policy, and Politics. ” Gregory D. Curfman, MD, executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, and the 2013 Alvarez Award winner, will also discuss policy issues currently affecting the industry.

The growing number and popularity of device-focused sessions at AMWA conferences had its genesis after the 2011 annual conference in Jacksonville, when a small group of device writers noticed that the industry was underrepresented at the AMWA conference. Many had been flying under the radar for a few years and thought it was time they shared their knowledge to help enhance their fellow AMWA members’ knowledge and career prospects.

"I'm a medical device specialist, so I'm somewhat biased," says Christine Welniak, principal of Upside Communications and a long-time a champion for efforts to increase medical device educational content at the conference. "But I love that AMWA is expanding its educational offerings to include device-oriented sessions. In terms of unmet need, there's a dearth of people who specialize in devices. AMWA is a logical place for manufacturers and medical communication agencies to seek writers and editors. I hope attendees capitalize on the programming at this year's annual conference. They can quickly learn device nomenclature and unique considerations, such as patient selection or types of adverse events. That way, they'll be able to take advantage of the many and varied opportunities in the field."

Be sure to bookmark this session or add it to your schedule in the AMWA Annual Conference app.

--Jeanne McAdara-Berkowitz, PhD

No comments:

Post a Comment