Medical Writing Programs

One of the questions that I'm frequently asked by students or via my website is, "are there any medical writing programs in Canada?" The answer, sadly, is no. Whereas a couple of Universities in the USA currently have Medical Writing programs, none exist in Canada.

The University of Toronto offers two MSc programs in Biomedical Communications, however neither focus on medical writing; they focus on medical artwork. The first program is in Biomedical Media Design. It prepares students to design and create interactive media tools. The second program, Biomedical Visual Design, is for students interested in medical illustration or producing animations of biological and physiological structures and processes. Tuition for current offerings is about $7,500.

Some post-secondary educational institutions in Canada offer stand-alone ‘science writing’ courses to students enrolled in undergraduate, graduate or post-doc science programs. For example, in Montreal, McGill University offers two courses on science writing designed to help budding scientists write better manuscripts for submission to journals. These courses appear to be open to graduate students and post-docs only, and are often not specific to medical writing.

Concordia University Continuing Education is currently the only post-secondary educational institution in Canada to offer courses in medical writing to part-time students; and no Canadian institutions are offering any kind of medical writing diploma or certificate program on a part-time basis.

Distance education through online course offerings is a welcome learning option for many professionals seeking to advance their skills or make a career change. Currently, in Canada, only Concordia University Continuing Education offers an online course in medical writing.

Professional development courses in medical and science writing are occasionally offered by groups like the American Medical Writers’ Association (AMWA) Canada, the Professional Writers’ Association of Canada (PWAC), and the Quebec Writers Federation (QWF), but these are usually few and far between and none are available online. AMWA, through it’s USA headquarters, offers a certificate program in medical writing that consists of about eight, three-hour workshops. Many Canadian AMWA members complete this program by attending chapter or national conferences. Costs for professional development offerings range from $150 for each three-hour seminar offered by AMWA as part of their certificate program, to about $200 for a 10-week series of two-hour classes offered by the QWF. Stand-alone workshops offered through PWAC or similar groups may be $10-$50 and free for members.