Travel Awards for Canadian Science Journalists to Attend AAAS

::Via the CSWA::

CSWA and EurekAlert! Announce Competitive Travel Awards for Canadian Science Journalists

Together with the Canadian Science Writers’ Association, EurekAlert!, the global science-news service for journalists, today announced a competitive travel awards program to help Canadian journalists participate in the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting taking place in Vancouver from February 16 to February 20.

EurekAlert!, the online science news service sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), will provide travel awards to 13 eligible Canadian reporters and two journalism students to help cover the cost of attending the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting. Each travel award will cover up to $1,000 of expenses upon submission of a signed request including original receipts and boarding passes.

The Canadian Science Writers’ Association will review nominations for the awards before passing finalist recommendations along to EurekAlert!

Nomination Criteria:

• Nominees eligible for travel awards must be full-time freelancers or reporters employed with accredited Canadian media outlets, covering science, technology or health-related topics. Travel awards are also available for one undergraduate and one graduate student studying science journalism.
• Nominees must not hold any ineligible dual affiliations; such roles may include, but are not limited to: financial consultant/investment advisor, policy analyst, public information/marketing professional, researcher, or manuscript editor/reviewer at a peer-reviewed journal. Any affiliation with AAAS is also deemed ineligible.
• Awardees must use one of seven preferred hotels in Vancouver, to be posted to the AAAS Meetings site as soon as registration opens (http://www.aaas.org/meetings). The travel award is applicable toward hotel costs or flights.

To nominate students, please submit two writing samples and a letter of recommendation from a professor to office@sciencewriters.ca The deadline for nominations is Dec. 1, 2011.

To nominate journalists, please send contact information, an editor's letter of recommendation and two or three clips to the Canadian Science Writers’ Association, care of office@sciencewriters.ca The deadline for nominations is Dec. 1, 2011.

The AAAS is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote quality science reporting around the world. AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal The CSWA is a national non-profit alliance of professional science communicators in all media. Its mission is to increase public awareness of science and technology in Canadian culture and to cultivate excellence in Canadian science writing and journalism.

For additional information about the EurekAlert! travel awards, contact Kristina Bergen (office@sciencewriters.ca) or Jennifer Santisi (jsantisi@aaas.org).

Manuscript Writing Workshop in Toronto Oct 28

I saw this in the Canadian Journal of Diabetes. I'm not sure if this is open to anyone or just those attending the CDA/CESM Conference, but if you're interested, it can't hurt to contact them and ask.

Writing Workshop
David C.W. Lau, Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Diabetes, will be leading a writing workshop that will take place during the 14th Annual CDA/CSEM Professional Conference and Annual Meetings. The seminar will focus on writing scientific and medical manuscripts for peer reviewed journals.

Date: Friday, October 28, 2011
Time: 12:30-2:00pm
Location: Metro Toronto Convention Centre-South Building, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: Free

For Inquiries:
cjd@diabetes.ca

Medical Writing I: Manuscripts at Concordia this Semester

I've been confirmed to teach the Medical Writing I: Manuscripts (CEJN 130) at Concordia's School of Extended Learning this semester. Classes are every Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm starting September 20th and running for 10 weeks.

Description: Students will learn how to access, understand and evaluate information on medical topics, including primary research articles, review articles, practice guidelines and poster presentations. Included in the discussion will be literature searches, document preparation, charts and tables, abstracts, guidelines for publication, and covering conferences as a medical journalist. Students will learn how to write an abstract, a clinical paper, and a review or magazine article.

The cost is $255. You can register in-person, by mail or by fax until the start of class. If you are already a Concordia student you can also register online via MyConcordia. The registration form is here. Please direct any registration-related questions to Communications and Public Relations. You can direct any course-related questions to me via e-mail.

Please note that if the course does not minimum enrollment then the class is cancelled. I often don't find this out until a few days before class starts. In the event of a cancellation, you will be notified by the University. If this happens, please feel free to contact me, since I do occasionally teach workshops not affiliated with Concordia. I can add you to my mailing list so you can find out when they are.

UPDATE: Concordia just confirmed that the class will definitely run this semester.

Mini-Med & Mini-Pharma at McGill

Mini-Med and Mini-Pharma at McGill have teamed up to offer weekly lectures on a great line-up of medical topics. They include, embryology, cardiology, obesity and diabetes, infectious disease, Alzheimer's disease, and neuroscience.

If you're free Wednesday nights and you're looking to learn more about these topics, register soon. My past experience is that they fill up quickly. The lectures are at a lay-person level, which makes them accessible and easy to understand. They are also packed with information and current research.

Intro to Medical Writing Presentation

Last June I was honoured to co-present a workshop on medical writing at the PWAC annual conference with fellow medical writer Giancarlo La Giorgia. In the presentation we discussed the scope of medical writing, what it takes to break into and succeed in the field, some basic tools of the trade, and some tips for finding work.

Here are the slides from the presentation. We hope you find it useful.

Medical Writing 101 (PWAC)

View more presentations from Amanda Strong.

Medical Writing 101 on June 18th, 2011 in Montreal

I'm really pleased to announce that I will be co-presenting an introduction to medical writing at the Professional Writers' Association of Canada (PWAC) national conference on June 18th, 2011 in Montreal.

Medical Writing 101
Are you curious about medical writing but not sure exactly what it is, what qualifications you need, or what kind of writing work is out there? Join Amanda Strong and Giancarlo La Giorgia as they share their experience writing for the pharmaceutical industry and medical publishers. Learn the basic tools of the trade, how you can build your portfolio, and where to find work.

The professional developmen presentation is mostly an information session about medical writing, the skills and education you need to succeed in it, and how to break into the various sectors of the field. The course fee is $80 ($60 for PWAC members), or free if you register for the full conference ($325 for non-members, $275 for PWAC members).

Here are the other professional development session taking place on the Saturday being presented at the PWAC conference:

• Editors Panel with Susan Nerberg (Deputy Editor, enRoute), Drew Nelles (Editor in Chief, Maisonneuve) and Carmine Starnino (Senior Editor, Reader's Digest)
• Writing for Trade Magazines: Breaking In and Staying In with Suzanne Boles
• Unleash Your Inner Entrepreneur: Panel with Hugh McGuire, Ben Yoskovitz, Jean-Benoit Nadeau & Craig Silverman
• Medical Writing with Amanda Strong and Giancarlo La Giorgia
• Computer-Assisted Reporting in 2011: A Journalist's Guide to Twitter, Facebook, and New Mobile Tools with Elias Makos
• The Pitch of your Life: Writing Book Proposals with Julie Barlow
• On Solid Grounds: Write to Live with Jean-Benoit Nadeau
• Travel & Food Writing with Alexandra Forbes

Complete descriptions, as well as information about other events--such as the Intensive Workshop on Contracts, Negotiation Skills and Small Claims Court--and registration are available on the PWAC site.

Current Workshop Offerings

I have been getting a lot of requests for in-person workshops recently. Here are some workshops that I've offered previously or have ready-to-go.

I strongly believe that students get the most out of workshops if they have to do some work before heading into the classroom, and then the classroom learnings are followed up with post-course assignments. All participants in my workshops gets some sort of personalised feedback on their work; and all workshops include in-class activities and opportunities for participatory learning.

If you're interested in any of these, please let me know. I'm very open to travel outside of Montreal. Typically I ask for a minimum six people to run a class. An overhead projector that I can hook up to my laptop is required for all my workshops. A whiteboard or flipchart to write on during the workshop is also really appreciated.

Finding and Assessing Literature
Duration: 2 hours plus pre-course and post-course assignments
Internet access is required to run this course
This introduction to finding and assess bibliographic literature in the health sciences focuses identifying pertinent, credible and current sources of information for medical writing projects. Topics include getting the most out of PubMed; search engines/databases other than PubMed; and other credible sources of information, like textbooks, authoritative web sites, government databases, NLM Gateway, Cochrane reviews, etc. The workshop also includes tips on developing a search strategy, narrowing down search results, keeping record of your search results, and assessing the strength and relevance of the literature found during the search.

Understanding and Critically Evaluating Clinical Research Articles
Duration: 2 hours plus pre-course and post-course assignments
Medical writers frequently have to assess clinical research articles to determine if they are pertinent, credible and current sources of information. This workshop reviews some of the elements of evidence-based medicine, study design, common ways of presenting data, and basic statistics. Participants will learn how to critical assess methodological quality of a study, and identify its strengths and limitations. The anatomy of a research article will be discussed.

Copy Writing Basics for Pharmaceutical Advertising in Canada
Duration: 3 hours plus pre-course and post-course assignments
Recommended skills: some comfort reading clinical papers; basic knowledge of charts, graphs and tables; prior exposure to pharmaceutical advertising is useful
There are many important differences between pharmaceutical advertising and non-'pharma' advertising, such as a tightly regulated environment, a multilayered approval process, and differences between the 'target' of the advertising and the end user. This workshop reviews the basics of pharmaceutical advertising and copy writing, including approval processes, developing copy, making sure your manuscript has the appropriate balancing copy and footnotes, keeping track of references, and tips for making sure what you write is "layout-friendly".

Developing Slides and Slide Notes for Oral Presentations
Duration: 3 hours plus pre-course and post-course assignments
Good slides and slide notes can make all the difference to an oral presentation, whether it’s a presentation of results at a conference or a CME activity. This workshop will review the basic principles for creative effective slide presentations, including creating a good logical flow of information, effectively conveying key messages, creating slides that complement the oral presentation, avoiding common mistakes, referencing and citing sources of information. Creating slide notes for different types of presentations will also be covered.

Medical Writing Course at Concordia

Concordia University in Montreal is once again offering a medical writing course this winter. The course is online and starts the week of January 11th and runs for ten weeks. You have until Monday December 7th to fax or mail in your registration (Maddeningly, registration via the Internet is not yet available.), after which you'll have to drop it off in person downtown. The course only runs if there are enough people registered by the end of next week. I should be teaching it, but Concordia does not confirm with me until later this month. (The joys of being sessional!)

CEJN 132N Medical Writing: Promotional and Continuing Health Education
In this on-line course, students will learn how to access, evaluate and use information on medical topics in order to start writing for the pharmaceutical industry. Topics covered include pharmaceutical advertising and copywriting, medical education, patient education, writing for the web, multimedia and newsletters. (Note: Medical Writing I CEJN 130 is NOT a prerequisite for this course. (Cost: $255 CDN)

Registration form and instructions are here.
Complete course calendar is here.

Any questions? Leave me a comment or drop me an email.

::EDIT:: Since this is an online course, there are isn't a fixed class time. I usually do a a few online chats for Q&A through the system used for the online course. These will probably alternate between Tuesday or Thursday evenings. The transcript of the Q&A is available online if you miss the Q&A. I also keep weekly online 'office hours' via skype.

Medical Writing Survey

I received an email from a graduate student in the Biomedical Writing program at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, who is looking for supervisors of medical writers to participate in survey she is conducting for one of her classes.

If you supervise at least 3 medical writers (including freelances), you are invited to participate in her survey.

The survey is being conducted by Jennifer Withers. You may contact her at jwithers@mail.usp.edu with any questions or comments. She is also asking for help reaching surveying participants, so please feel free to forward information about the survey to your colleagues.

AMWA-Canada Symposium Reminder

Time is running out to register for the AMWA-Canada Medical Writing Symposium taking place in Ottawa on April 18th, 2008. The deadline for registration is this Friday, March 14th.

This one-day events offers four AMWA workshops, three are accredited for the cores certificates and one is accredited for the advanced certificate. If you're enrolled in any of these programs, this is a great way to get the credits and meet up with some of your Canadian colleagues.

The event takes place at Foustanellas Auditorium of the Ottawa Heart Institute, located on the Civic Campus of the Ottawa Hospital. Workshops include:

Writing and Designing Materials for Patient Education (EW/PRAM) with Sharon
Nancekivell

Improving Comprehension: Theories and Research Findings (EW/ED) with Tom Lang

Principles of Pharmacoeconomics (EW/PH) with Christopher J. Longo

Reporting Randomized Trials in Science Journals (ADV) with Tom Lang.

Online Medical Writing Course at Concordia

For those of you who missed it this past winter session, Concordia University will be once again offering an online Medical Writing class (CE2769N/C1) next semester. The class starts April 5th and runs until June 5th. Registration is open and will continue until March 10th (next Thursday) for fax and mail enrollment, and for in-person enrollment until March 13th.

Most of this course is a basic introduction to writing for the pharmaceutical industry in Canada, including marketing (copy), CHE, and PR writing. It also takes into account the PAAB/Rx&D environment that exists in Canada but not in the USA. Actually, just about everything in this course is done within a Canadian context and it is the only course of its kind (that I'm aware of) in Canada. At the end of the course, students who have done all assignments will have at least two pieces of writing to add to their portfolios.

If you're interested in this course, time is short to register. Space is limited in the course and last semester the registration quota filled up. I believe that this course will not be offered again until 2009.

Here is a brief overview of each of the modules:

Scope and Resources: In this module we will (very) briefly review the different kinds of medical writing as well as some 'tools of the trade.' We will also explore how to find studies and information.

Pharmaceutical Industry and Marketing In Canada: In this module we will be briefly introduce you to the pharmaceutical industry in Canada. We will review the laws and industry codes that govern Canadian pharma, and will look at the relationship between health care professionals and industry.

Continuing Health Education: In this module we will be briefly introduce you to Continuing Health Education in Canada. We will review different Canadian accrediting bodies for CHE and their requirements. We will also discuss non-accredited CHE programs and take a look at the different types of CHE programs that medical writers may be called upon to create, and the role of the writer within CHE.

Advertising and Copy Writing: In this module we will take a look at pharmaceutical advertising and copy writing. We will briefly review the different types of marketing materials that medical copy writers may be called upon to write, as well as the basics of copy writing itself and the PAAB code. We will also explore how to 'translate' journal articles and clinical trial results into marketing 'copy'.

Representative Training Tools and Interactive Materials: In this section we will look at some special considerations when developing tools for sales representative training, including instructional design, learning objectives and writing evaluation questions. We will also learn how to write for web or computer-based learning environments.

Public Relations: In this very brief section we briefly look at the role of PR and media communications within the pharmaceutical industry. We will learn how to write press releases and touch on patient education material.

If you have any questions, send me a note. Also, please feel free to forward this information on to friends and colleagues who might be interested in the course.

Medical Writing Symposium in Ottawa

AMWA-Canada has announced the 'line-up' for its medical writing symposium that will be held on April 18th at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in Ottawa, Ontario. The symposium offers four AMWA credit workshops in two streams followed by a networking dinner. The workshops are nice cross-section of different styles and levels of medical writing. It looks like there is something for everyone. Note, that you do not need to be enrolled in the AMWA certificate programs in order to attend the workshops.

Here are the workshops on offer:

Writing and Designing Materials for Patient Education (EW/PRAM) [Course#224] Through lecture and discussion, writers with little or no experience in writing for patients will work through the “what, who, and how” of a patient education piece: planning, research, writing, design, production, and evaluation. Participants will critique sample booklets and review the homework. APPROXIMATE HOMEWORK TIME:2-3 HOURS. Workshop Leader: Sharon Nancekivell

Improving Comprehension: Theories and Research Findings (EW/ED) [Course#207] This lecture and discussion session for both experienced and novice writers will cover theories and findings from the scientific study of written communication. Applying these findings to medical writing can produce measurable differences in how well readers locate, comprehend, and use information. Participants will explore ways to apply the concepts to improve the readability of a piece of medical writing. APPROXIMATE HOMEWORK TIME: 3 HOURS. Workshop Leader: Tom Lang

Principles of Pharmacoeconomics (EW/PH) [Course#216] This workshop will introduce the principles of pharmaco-economics to medical writers unfamiliar with this field.The lecture will cover trial design, cost determination, sensitivity analysis, and research perspective in a nonmathematical manner. Groupwork will emphasize application of these principles to published materials. APPROXIMATE HOMEWORK TIME: 1-2 hours. Workshop Leader: Christopher J. Longo

Reporting Randomized Trials in Science Journals (ADV) [Course#719] This workshop is designed for experienced medical writers who want to report clinical research studies with a high degree of sophistication. The form and function of each component of the research article will be reviewed; however, emphasis will be placed on how to report all aspects of randomized controlled clinical trials. Participants will practice applying a set of detailed guidelines for reporting specific aspects of study design, research activities, and outcomes. APPROXIMATE HOMEWORK TIME: 3 HOURS. Workshop Leader: Tom Lang

For more information, visit the AMWA-Canada website

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.

What Do We Do Again?

In my Internet wanderings this week for course material for an online medical writing class that I teach, I found a nice, short video interview with Susanna Dodgson, PhD, Graduate Program Director for Biomedical Writing at University of the Sciences, Philidelphia, USA. In it she describes what medical writers do. She also offers her opinion on the continuously controversial topic of ghost writing. (The interview was done by pharmedout.org, an organization that aims to counter inappropriate pharmaceutical promotion practices.)



While I don't agree with everything that she says, especially how she breaks down medical writing into only two categories and her insistence that medical writers are scientists, the interview is pretty much 'on the money'. Speaking of, she also talks about money. Our salaries in Canada aren't quite as high as in the USA, but they are close. And certainly, I do agree that medical writers are often some of the best paid writers in the communications industry.

Concordia Offers Online Medical Writing Course

Concordia University's Medical Writing II, exploring writing for the Canadian Pharmaceutical Industry, is now available online! Enrollment is now underway. You can enrol by fax or mail until December 10th and in person until December 14th. The course mostly focuses writing for the Canadian pharmaceutical industry, in particular the marketing and mass media side of the business like CHE, copywriting, patient and educational materials, public relations, etc. For more information, please visit the Concordia Universities Continung Education pages.