Let’s start with this question: what does medical communications involve? Medical communications is where scientific research meets storytelling prowess, where science blends with creativity. The main branches of medical communications are medical writing and copywriting. Medical writing creates content related to healthcare and scientific research, typically for academic or professional purposes. The deliverables for medical writing are usually clinical trial reports, regulatory documents, or white papers. Copywriting creates persuasive and engaging content to promote products or services, typically for marketing purposes. The deliverables for copywriting are usually advertisements, websites, or sales brochures. 

So, how are research skills useful in medical communications? By doing a PhD, I needed to conduct a lot of research and then communicate the research outcomes (usually complex data) into understandable formats for various audiences. These ranged from oral/poster presentations at conferences to professional or lay audiences, writing and publishing research papers in journals, and writing a PhD thesis.  

The research skills gained during a PhD, or any other form of academic research, are useful in medical communications because they demonstrate that you can effectively gather, analyse, and interpret scientific information. Research also builds critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. A combination of these skills and abilities is essential in medical communications.  

A final question: what are the main differences between working in medical communications and working in academic research? I no longer worry about experiments not working (I’m joking!). The nature of the work is very different: In academic research, you are designing and conducting experiments and collecting data. In medical communications, you understand and interpret data and create different types of content with the data. The timeline and impact are also different: In academic research, you typically have longer timelines (spanning months to years) to contribute to scientific literature over time. In medical communications, projects have shorter timelines (typically days to weeks), aiming for immediate impact. 

From clinical trial reports to compelling advertisements, research skills are the backbone of crafting impactful medical communications content that bridges the gap between complex data and diverse audiences.  

At Mednet, we have an experienced team of medical writers who understand how to harness the power of data to create innovative and engaging campaigns. Get in touch to discover more about how we combine in-depth research with creativity.