What Medical Communication Specialty Is for You?

J. Kelly Byram, MS, MBA, ELS

Medical communications is a large field with many subfields and specialties, and it’s worth taking some time to explore which one is right for you! The medical communication fields fall, roughly, into 3 categories: medical writing, editing, and health writing. Figuring out which of these fields likely suits your preferences, experience, expertise, and education best is a great first step in narrowing your search for a fit. The matrix below helps you reflect on these facets and determine which of the 3 categories is likely to suit you best. 

Once you have determined which category is likely the best fit for your skills and preferences, you can efficiently take a deeper dive and explore specialties in the field.  

Some specialties for medical writers include regulatory writing, continuing medical education, publications (ie, peer-reviewed research and practice journals), research grants, and sales training. Medical writers write everything from clinical trial protocols, prescribing information, and research proposals to peer-reviewed journal articles. 

Health writers work in a broad range of areas, including health journalism, public relations, and marketing, writing everything from newsletters, press releases, and blog posts to long-form magazine articles. 

Editors usually edit for either technical or lay audiences, but some like to mix it up. A surprising number of editors have their roots in book publishing, so you may find medical editors who take on book projects outside the medical communications industry in addition to the usual medical and health writing projects.  

And, while some say you either write or you edit, you can’t do both, well. . . . True, there is something to be said for focusing on one or the other when you are first starting out in the field. It takes time and focus to hone your skills and get (and stay!) competitive, so choosing to work in one area or the other is probably wise advice for those who are early in their career; however, as you grow as a professional, you will find that working in both fields suits some people. 

Whichever field you choose, it’s good to know what you don’t know. That is, writing and editing both require skills, formal knowledge, and craft. Writing a dissertation or a grant proposal doesn’t make you a professional writer, and providing feedback to friends on their dissertations doesn’t make you an editor. If you wish to become a professional medical or health writer, learn to write. Take classes and practice writing to develop your craft. Likewise, if you wish to become a professional editor, learn how to edit and how to follow a style guide, and make sure your grammar and usage skills are objectively everything you think they are. They probably aren’t, so take classes if you need to, and practice editing to develop your craft.   

The matrix below provides some insights into how your preferences, experience, expertise, and education align with medical writing, editing, and health writing. This isn’t a magic eight ball—it’s only a guide to help you reflect and efficiently explore the field of medical communications.