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Editing in the Medical Field
Kelly Schrank, MA, ELSSenior Medical Editor
Who I Am
• Technical Editor/Writer
• 15 years
• Senior Member of STC
• Technical Editing SIG member and volunteer
• Rochester chapter member and Board member
• Currently Spectrum conference co-chair
Save the DateApril 17-19, 2016Rochester, NYhttp://stc-rochester.org/spectrum/
Who I Am
• Member of AMWA
• New York chapter member and Board member
• Currently New Member Liaison and Membership Communications Coordinator
• In 2014, member of Annual Conference Committee
• Medical Editor
• 5 years
Where I Work
• Company
– Med Communications, Inc
• www.medcomminc.com
– Pharmaceutical clients
• Location
– Remote, from my home in Canastota, NY
– Most of the writers and the other editors I manage are also remote
What we Do
• We provide Medical Information
– Call center staffed by Pharmacists
– They are the SMEs/Writers
• Health care providers (HCPs) call for information on drugs, and the pharmacists answer their questions on the phone
• If the HCPs want the answer in writing, they are sent a standard response letter (or SR)
Standard Response Workflow
Author Reviewers Author EditorCall
Center
What I Do
• I edit standard response letters (or SRs)
– 1-25 pages long
– Standard, boring format
– Copyediting only
– Edit in Word and activate in
Veeva Vault
Related Responsibilities
• Maintain and update US and Global “Style Guides”
• Act as expert on AMA Manual of Style
• Member of SR Working Group, tasked with helping writers shorten SRs
• Train new hires on Style Guide
What I Do (cont)
• I format and edit Dossiers
– Managed care companies/organizations use dossiers to establish formularies
– 125-300 pages
– Need assistance with formatting:
• Tables of Contents
• Linking
– Clean it up in Word, but provide track changes and comments for many edits
What I Do (cont)
• I edit Slide Decks
– Medical Science Liaisons and others are in the field and talk to HCPs about products
– Use slide decks to facilitate conversation
– 15-130 pages
– Edit in Veeva Vault using annotations; authors decide whether to make changes
– Quality check final version in iSpring to make sure it will look good on iPad
Growth in Responsibilities
Start of Project
Editing SRs
Year 2
Editing SRs
Managing Style Guide
Year 3
Editing SRs
Managing Style Guide
Year 4
Editing SRs
Managing Style Guide
Editing Dossiers
Year 5
Editing SRs
Editing Dossiers
Editing Slide Decks
Revamping Style Guide
Growth of a Team
Start of Project
FT Editor - US
Year 2
PT Editor -US
FT Editor - US
Year 3
FT Editor / Lit Search Spec - US
FT Editor/ Manager - US
Year 4
FT Editor - Global
FT Editor / Lit Search Spec - US
FT Editor/ Manager – US
Year 5
FT Editor/ Manager – US
FT Editor - Global
FT Editor / Lit Search Spec – US
FT Editor – US
Transitioning to this Industry
• AMWA
– American Medical Writers Association (www.amwa.org)
– Earning Essential Skills certificate
• BELS
– Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (www.bels.org)
– Three-hour multiple-choice certification exam
Other Types of Medical Editing
• Articles for academic journals
– Work for hospital or university
– Work for journal
• Continuing education materials and training
• Patient education materials
• Grant proposals
Questions?
• Feel free to contact me:
– Kelly Schrank
– http://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyschrank
– @headbookworm
– Headbookworm.com
