A Recruiter’s Guide to Hiring a Medical Writer

In this recruiter guide, we explore the essential considerations for you to keep in mind when hiring a Medical Writer. From understanding the unique demands of the role to identifying key competencies and conducting effective interviews, this guide will help you to focus your candidate search and engage your target audience of talent.

Understanding the Role of a Medical Writer: What are the Key Responsibilities?

A Medical Writer plays a crucial role in the communication of scientific and medical information, serving as a bridge between complex, technical data and the audiences that need it, which can range from healthcare professionals to patients. Medical Writers are responsible for crafting clear, accurate, and well-structured documents that adhere to regulatory, journal, or other guidelines, depending on the target audience.

Documents can include clinical trial reports, research articles, grant proposals, educational materials, and marketing documents for healthcare products. Their work facilitates informed decision-making in healthcare, supports the progress of medical research, and aids in the marketing of new pharmaceuticals or medical devices.

Defining Your Candidate Profile: What Does a Successful Regulatory Affairs Associate Look Like?

Whilst the candidate qualities you’ll be seeking will vary between roles, some of the key skills, knowledge, and traits to look out for include:

• Strong Scientific or Medical Knowledge: This foundational knowledge is crucial for producing credible and accurate documents that meet the informational needs of their audience, whether it’s healthcare professionals, regulatory agencies, or patients.
• Excellent Writing and Communication Skills: This skill is vital for effectively conveying messages, educating readers, and influencing decisions in healthcare and research contexts.
• Attention to Detail: Precision is paramount in medical writing. A meticulous approach ensures the accuracy of data, adherence to guidelines, and consistency of information across documents.
• Research Skills: Strong research skills enable Medical Writers to find relevant data, stay current with scientific literature, and ensure that their writing is based on the latest evidence.
• Understanding of Regulatory and Ethical Standards: Knowledge of regulatory guidelines such as those from the FDA or EMA and ethical considerations is critical for preparing documentation for clinical trials, drug approvals, and publications.
• Project Management Skills: To help manage multiple projects with tight deadlines, effective project management skills are key to delivering high-quality work on schedule.

Remember that by focusing on skills-based hiring , you’ll allow for a more inclusive and diverse candidate pool, as you’ll be able to consider a broader range of candidates and create opportunities for those who may have been previously overlooked based on traditional criteria.

Interviewing Your Candidates: What Questions Could You Ask?

When interviewing candidates for the role of Medical Writer, incorporate some of the below questions to help you assess their suitability for the role:

1. Can you describe your experience with medical writing and the types of documents you’ve produced?
2. How do you approach writing about a medical topic that is new to you?
3. What strategies do you use to ensure your writing is clear and accessible to your target audience, especially if they are non-specialists?
4. Can you explain the significance of adhering to guidelines such as ICH GCP or AMWA in medical writing?
5. How do you ensure the accuracy and validity of the data you present in your documents?
6. Describe a challenging project you worked on. What made it challenging, and how did you overcome those challenges?
7. How do you manage feedback and revisions in your writing process?
8. What tools or software are you familiar with that assist in medical writing and research?
9. Have you ever dealt with tight deadlines for multiple projects simultaneously? How did you handle it?
10. How do you stay updated with the latest research and developments in the medical field?
11. Describe a time when you had to explain complex medical information to a lay audience. What approach did you take?
12. Have you ever had to write a document that required input from multiple stakeholders? How did you ensure consistency and accuracy?
13. What role do ethics play in medical writing, and how do you ensure your work adheres to ethical standards?
14. Can you share an example of a successful project you completed? What made it successful?
15. How do you handle situations where you disagree with a subject matter expert’s (SME) input on your work?
16. What experience do you have with regulatory submissions, and how do you ensure compliance with regulatory guidelines?
17. How do you handle writer’s block or difficulty in conveying a particular concept or data point?
18. What are the most important qualities of a successful medical writer, in your opinion?
19. How do you prioritise tasks and manage workload during peak times?
20. Why are you interested in this medical writer position?

Tailor these questions to your specific needs and delve deeper into the candidate’s responses to gain a complete understanding of their competencies.

Assessing Your Candidates: What Tasks Could You Set?

When interviewing candidates for the role of Medical Writer, utilising tasks and assessments can be instrumental in employing skills-based hiring techniques. These focus on evaluating candidates’ skills and assessing their capabilities through practical simulations or exercises.

Here are five tasks and assessments to consider:

• Writing a Mock Document: Provide candidates with a dataset or a summary of research findings and ask them to write a specific type of document, such as a clinical study report, a manuscript for a scientific journal, or patient education material. Evaluate their ability to comprehend and organise complex information, adhere to specific document standards, and target different audiences.
• Editing and Proofreading Exercise: Give candidates a sample document that contains intentional errors related to grammar, adherence to a style guide, and factual inaccuracies. Assess their attention to detail, knowledge of grammatical and stylistic norms, and ability to improve and refine existing texts.
• Research Proposal Development: Ask candidates to prepare a brief research proposal based on a hypothetical study or topic provided by you. Test their research skills, ability to formulate coherent research questions and proficiency in writing persuasive and clear content.
• Regulatory Compliance Test: Provide a scenario where the candidate must outline the steps they would take to prepare a submission document compliant with specific regulatory guidelines (e.g., for FDA or EMA). Assess their understanding of regulatory requirements and their ability to apply this knowledge practically in preparing compliant documentation.
• Presentation of Complex Information: Give candidates a complex dataset or piece of scientific literature and ask them to prepare a short presentation that explains the key points, suitable for a lay audience. Evaluate their ability to transform technical, complex information into understandable content for non-specialists, testing their communication and didactic skills.

These go beyond traditional interview questions, enabling you to observe candidates in action and gain more insight into their competencies and potential fit for the role.

Remember that tasks and assessments should be designed to allow candidates to show their potential, and not to trick them out. These tasks will take time out of their day, and as a recruiter, you should respect this time by:

• Giving candidates plenty of notice about the task at hand
• Providing in-depth information on what the task/assessment will involve and the criteria that will be used to measure success
• Providing tailored feedback on the task, giving candidates actions to take away

Benchmarking Your Salaries: What is the Average Pay in the UK and USA?

Whilst salary will always depend on numerous factors including location, employer type, contract type, years of experience and industry, we’ve included below the average salary for a Medical Writer in both the UK and USA, based on data collected by Indeed.

UK

In the UK, the average base salary for a Medical Writer as of May 2024 is ￡40,356 per year. The highest-paying towns and cities for this role are Macclesfield (￡46,244), South East London (￡43,780), London (￡41,489), Brighton (￡41,131), and Oxford (￡39,737).

USA

In the USA, the average base salary for a Medical Writer as of May 2024 is $94,590 per year, from a range of between $60,174 and $148,689. The highest-paying towns and cities for this role are Raleigh, NC ($129,132), Chicago, IL ($102,392), Philadelphia, PA ($100,026), New York, NY ($96,301), Woodcliff Lake, NJ ($90,600).

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