By Adetutu Audu

Medical writers play a crucial role in the medical writing industry. They produce or assist with the production of technical, informative, educational, or promotional medical content. The specific jobs that medical writers do depend on their background, expertise, skills, and area of demand.

Oladimeji Ewumi,a medical writer in the life science industry has opened up on why medical writing is fasting gaining ground. Speaking in an interview,Ewumi said, pursuing a career in medical writing are fascinating and multifaceted.

‘I had read an article about how data science was considered the sexiest job of the 21st century, which encouraged me to enroll in several training programs from DBrown Consulting, AI Saturdays Lagos, Data Science Wednesdays, Dataquest, and the Commonwealth Bank to enhance my core competencies in the field, but God had other plans. While doom scrolling on Twitter (now X) during the COVID-19 lockdown, I stumbled on a free 1-week writing bootcamp featuring leading writers across the globe, and it was during the program that I learnt you could work from anywhere in the world as a writer, as many roles were location agnostic with the benefit of working for multiple companies simultaneously and getting paid in foreign currencies.

He continued;I began writing thought leadership articles on artificial intelligence in healthcare and the life sciences, offering insights on how industry leaders and health systems serving these domains can improve. Over time, core AI and medical publications started reaching out to me to collaborate as an independent contractor, and I was able to leverage my bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and prior skill sets. I have since developed over 300 evidence-based articles for patients and physicians, which have been published in various online and print media outlets.

According to him, in medical writing, research is the foundation on which every piece of content stands. Editors, medical review boards, and readers all expect evidence-based information supported by credible data. So his approach involves conducting both intensive and extensive searches of peer-reviewed research papers, clinical trial data, and authoritative medical sources relevant to the topic.

Ewumi’s most extensive projects are in the areas of endocrinology, nephrology, and cardiology. Others are primary care, oncology, public health, psychiatry, dermatology, neurology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, pediatrics, gene editing, and surgery. However, he finds every therapeutic area he has worked on exciting and fulfilling.

He avoids restricting himself to a particular therapeutic area because the fun in medical writing is in the diversity. ‘Just like the proverbial “thief in the night,” you usually never know what area of specialty your next project will be, and again, some projects stretch across multiple therapeutic areas. For example, I wrote a coverage article on the American Heart Association’s metabolic syndrome initiative to educate physicians on its potential impact and discuss strategies for integrating new ideas into kidney care. While this syndrome affects the heart and kidneys, two distinct organs, it has an endocrine undertone.

Because this was an interview-heavy piece that required me to interview the initiative lead, an associate professor of cardiology at Johns Hopkins, and two other associate professors of nephrology from Harvard and the University of Cincinnati, I had to read extensively on these therapeutic areas. As a medical writer, you may never have a favorite therapeutic area due to the multidisciplinary nature of some topics.; he revealed.

To ensure scientific accuracy, Ewumi, relies on credible and up-to-date primary sources, including PubMed, Frontiers, the CDC, NIH, and leading journals such as JAMA. ‘I prioritize studies published within the last five years and summarize findings clearly and objectively to reflect what the evidence truly shows. Another effective way to achieve scientific accuracy is to obtain expert insight and perspectives from a specialist physician in the therapeutic area I’m working on through interviews. The need for this varies by publication and has led to interviews with medical faculty from Harvard, the University of Illinois at Chicago, New York University Langone Health, Yale, RUSH, Baylor, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University, to name a few.’ He stated.

For regulatory compliance, he follows internationally recognized standards, including FDA and EMA guidelines, as well as ICH-E3, E6, and M4, depending on the type of document. These frameworks guide the structure, content, and data integrity of specific regulatory documents to ensure they meet global submission requirements.

So how does he leverage AI tools in your writing or research workflow while ensuring ethical use and data integrity? The medical writer said every organization has its own policy on AI use, and he always align with each company’s guidelines. ‘I view AI as a complementary tool that enhances, rather than replaces, a writer’s expertise. For example, I use Grammarly to improve readability and style, ChatGPT to refine interview questions for clarity, and transcription tools to efficiently convert recorded interviews into written text. These tools help streamline my workflow while I remain fully responsible for fact-checking, verifying all information against primary sources, and ensuring that the final content meets editorial standards. I always say that AI is here to stay, and the best writers are those who can effectively leverage it without compromising on their creativity.’ He emphasized.