Jump to comment:
- Page navigation anchor for RE: A call for clarity and quality in medical writingRE: A call for clarity and quality in medical writing
I am amazed by the progressive deterioration in the quality of medical writing and the joy of reading medical writing. There is little respect paid to syntax, tense, or grammar. Circumlocution, tautology and obfuscation are becoming the order of the day. Here are samples of poor medical writing from my personal archive, collected from medical reports and medical journals. When I read of septic work-up, instead of sepsis work-up I wonder whether the culture was positive because the work-up was done in a nonsterile condition.I also often wonder why an author would write 'via vaginal delivery,' instead of 'vaginal delivery.' Why can't we say the patient had ultrasound rather than 'he underwent ultrasound'?. Why bamboozle your readers a myriad of acronyms?
The remedy to poor medical writing is contained in your admonition: Strive to be clear, concise and simple enough so as not befuddle an intelligent nonexpert.'
Competing Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for RE: A call for clarity and quality in medical writingRE: A call for clarity and quality in medical writing
This editorial calls for the clear presentation of study findings, to ensure that results, which have been so carefully gathered, are appropriately communicated. [1] The Global Alliance for Publication Professionals (GAPP), agrees with these sentiments, and that “Most of the responsibility for improving writing in academic medicine, however, falls upon the physicians and scientists who produce it”. However, it has been shown that the major barrier to publishing research is lack of time,[2,3] which may well lead to poorly written manuscripts, as well as non-disclosure of results. The issue of waste in biomedical research has been tackled before,[4] and GAPP has previously highlighted the role professional medical writers could play in resolving the burden of time constraints and lack of training faced by researchers (see Pubmed Commons comments [4]). We would like to highlight the role of professional medical writers in helping authors deliver high-quality, accurate and timely manuscripts in an ethical and transparent manner. Such medical writers are highly qualified individuals, combining scientific rigor, in-depth knowledge of publication guidelines and aptitude for effective communication. [5–7] Professional writing services have a recognized impact on publication success, [8–13] and although such professional assistance does have budgetary implications, as previously suggested, provision could be included in research [4] or departmental budgets.[3,14] Indeed, there may...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: GAPP (www.gappteam.org) is a group of independent individuals who volunteer their time and receive no funding (other than website hosting fees from ISMPP). All GAPP members have held, or do hold, leadership roles at associations representing professional medical writers (eg, AMWA, EMWA, DIA, ISMPP, ARCS), but do not speak on behalf of those organizations. GAPP members have or do provide professional medical writing services to not-for-profit and for-profit clients.