What's in Store
Health and Medical Writing
by Debra Gordon

So you want to be a medical writer? Or maybe you already are a medical writer and need to power up your career. Cast your eyes upon your bookshelf. If it doesn't contain several of the following, you're missing out. Full disclosure: Many of these suggestions came from my wonderful colleagues at the American Medical Writer's Association (AMWA). If you want to be a medical writer, you should join.

The Accidental Medical Writer: How We Became Successful Freelance Medical Writers. How You Can, Too, by Brian G. Bass and Cynthia L. Kryder, MS, Booklocker.com, Inc., 2008, 136 pp. (paperback), $15.25.

Brian and Cynthia are not exaggerating when they say they are successful. The cool part is that neither of them came from a super science background, proving that you don't have to have a Ph.D. to be a successful medical writer.

AMA Manual of Style, 11th Edition, by JAMA & Archives Journals, Oxford University Press, USA, 2007, 1,032 pp. (hardcover), $23.86.

If you plan to write for doctors and other health professionals, forget everything you ever learned about AP style and learn how to write in AMA style. This is the Bible of style when it comes to medical writing.

Anatomy and Physiology for Dummies, by Donna Rae Siegfried, For Dummies, 2002, 360 pp. (paperback), $12.46.

I have several "real" anatomy and physiology textbooks on my bookshelf, but this Dummies book is invaluable for translating medicalese into plain English and helping me better understand the technical stuff. I was, after all, an English major, not a medical student!

A Field Guide for Science Writers: The Official Guide of the National Association of Science Writers, by Deborah Blum, Mary Knudson, Robin Marantz Henig, Oxford University Press, USA, 2005, 336 pp. (paperback), $11.97.

I bought this book when I first became a health-care writer for a newspaper many moons ago; this reissue is still a gem for any medical writer's shelf. Basically, more than 30 science and medical writers provide personal essays. It's a compelling, behind-the-scenes look at science/medical writing.

How To Report Statistics in Medicine: Annotated Guidelines for Authors, Editors, and Reviewers, by Thomas A. Lang and Michelle Secic, American College of Physicians, 2006, 490 pp. (paperback), $58.45.

Another invaluable tome for those of us who would rather have our fingernails pulled out than figure out the NNT (number needed to treat) for a valid study.

Health Writer's Handbook, Second Edition, by Barbara Gastel, MD, Wiley-Blackwell, 2004, 366 pp. (paperback), $49.99.

Think of this as an A-to-Z, everything-you-need-to-know about the field of clinical medicine and medical research in short, easy-to-digest bites. This is where you turn when you're not sure what the difference between a consensus conference and a medical conference is (and, no, a consensus conference is not one where everyone gets along well).

Interpreting the Medical Literature: Practice Epidemiology for Clinicians, Fifth Edition, by Stephen H. Gehlbach, McGraw-Hill Medical, 308 pp. (paperback), $27.72.

Another recommendation from an AMWA colleague, who wrote: "I used it more years ago when I was less familiar with stats, but it is written in plain English and gives terrific explanations of various study designs, statistical tests, various interpretations of risk, and on and on. This book helps you understand precisely what all of these measures and tests are looking at, what they can tell you and what they can't tell you." Since math is my nemesis and statistics the bane of my existence, this is another one now enroute to me.

The Merck Manual of Medical Information, Second Home Edition, by Mark H. Beers, Pocket, 2004, 1,842 pp. (paperback), $7.99.

I love my bright red-covered Merck. It sits next to the aforementioned AMA Manual of Style and my 20-something-year-old Roget's Thesaurus to the right of my computer and is used more times in a week than I can count. Other Merck books worth purchasing include the classic The Merck Manual 18th Edition by Mark H. Beers, Robert S. Porter, and Thomas V. Jones ($65.00), and The Merck Manual of Patient Symptoms by Merck ($24.95).

Microsoft Word for Medical and Technical Writers, by Peter G. Aitken, PhD, and Maxine M. Okazaki, PhD, Piedmont Medical Writers, LLC, 2007, 158 pp. (spiral bound), $39.95.

I just ordered this book and am looking forward to finally getting the advice I need on the vagaries of Word for the documents I write. From auto text to updating fields, this is the one to have right next to the Dummies manuals.

Physician's Desk Reference, 2009, by PDR Staff, Thomson Reuters, 2008, 3,000 pp. (hardcover) $64.

Everything and more that you ever wanted to know about pharmaceutical medications. You can preorder the 2010 edition.

Debra Gordon, MS, has been a freelance writer for a decade now, specializing in health and medicine. She and her husband are also the authors of Wine on Tuesdays: Be a Serious Wine Drinker Without Taking Wine Too Seriously, so, when not writing about medicine, she can usually be found drinking wine in her home in Williamsburg, Virginia., to escape the chaos of life with two adolescent boys.