• SOLUTIONS
    • Quality

      QUALITY

      Quality management solution

      Embed quality throughout your business processes by aligning and centralising all key functions to elevate your organisation to its full potential.

      Find out more

      CASE STUDY

      JAE Oregon take ownership of ISO 9001 and 14001 compliance activities.

      BUSINESS NEEDS

      • APQP
      • ISO & Certifications
      • CAPA management
      • First article inspection report
      • Product part approval process
      • Quality management
      • Supplier management
      • Document management
      • Quality control

      INDUSTRIES

      • Aerospace and defence
      • Life science
      • Manufacturing
      • Healthcare
      • Food and drink
      • Pharmaceuticals
    • Health, safety and environmental

      HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL

      Health, safety and environmental management solutions

      Reduce risk, protect your people and drive sustainability, efficiently and effectively

      Find out more

      CASE STUDY

      News Corp streamline essential workplace training to suit everyone.

      BUSINESS NEEDS

      • Safety management
      • Incident management
      • Health and safety training solution
      • Enviromental

      INDUSTRIES

      • Food and drink
      • Energy
      • Transport and logistics
      • Aviation
    • Audit and risk

      AUDIT AND RISK

      Audit and risk management solutions

      Our powerful audit and risk management solutions help you protect your business, its customers and your corporate clients.

      Find out more

      CASE STUDY

      Cadence Bank integrate audit and risk to create a more powerful system.

      BUSINESS NEEDS

      • Internal audit
      • Risk management
      • External audit tools

      INDUSTRIES

      • Finance
      • Government
      • Education
    • Collaboration

      COLLABORATION

      Collaboration solution

      Bring your people, content and actions together with highly secure, cloud-based collaboration solutions.

      Find out more

      CASE STUDY

      Altera meet CMMI best practices with better control and efficiency.

      BUSINESS NEEDS

      • Bids and proposals
      • Document redaction
      • Document co-authoring and review

      INDUSTRIES

      • Aerospace and defence
      • Life Sciences and pharmaceuticals
      • AEC
    • PRODUCTS
    • Q-Pulse QMS
    • Q-Pulse PM
    • Q-Pulse WorkRite
    • Q-Pulse Law
    • Pentana Audit
    • Pentana Disclose
    • Pentana Risk
    • PleaseReview
    • Coruson
    • Ideagen Academy
    • Huddle
    • Qualtrax
    • InspectionXpert
    • Mi-Co
    • CompliSpace
    • OpsBase
    • Audit Analytics
    • Mail Manager
    • CompliancePath

    FEATURED RESOURCES

    CASE STUDY

    Q-Pulse enabled Anthony Nolan to meet a range of regulations and stay compliant.

    • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace and defence
    • Aviation
    • Energy
    • Financial services
    • Healthcare
    • Life science
    • Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceuticals
    • Transport & logistics
    • Food & drinks
    • AEC
    • Government

    FEATURED RESOURCES

    CASE STUDY

    Mettle Ops achieve AS9100 compliance with zero non-conformances.

    CASE STUDY

    NWDC drastically reduces time spent on creating documents.

    • RESOURCES
    • By Industry

      BY INDUSTRY

      • Aerospace and defence
      • Aviation
      • Energy
      • Financial services
      • Healthcare
      • Life science
      • Manufacturing
      • Rail

      FEATURED RESOURCES

      WHITEPAPER

      Manage anti-money laundering regulations in the UK and EU.

      CASE STUDY

      Nuffield Health establish a central database for pathology compliance activities.

    • By Solution

      BY SOLUTION

      • Quality
      • Safety
      • Environmental
      • Regulatory
      • Documents
      • Audit
      • Risk

      FEATURED RESOURCES

      WHITEPAPER

      Manage anti-money laundering regulations in the UK and EU.

      CASE STUDY

      Nuffield Health establish a central database for pathology compliance activities.

    • By Product

      BY PRODUCT

      • Q-Pulse QMS
      • Q-Pulse Law
      • Q-Pulse WorkRite
      • Q-Pulse PM
      • Pentana Audit
      • Pentana Disclose
      • Pentana Risk
      • Pleasereview
      • Coruson
      • Ideagen Academy

      FEATURED RESOURCES

      WHITEPAPER

      Manage anti-money laundering regulations in the UK and EU.

      CASE STUDY

      Nuffield Health establish a central database for pathology compliance activities.

    • By Resource Type

      BY RESOURCE TYPE

      • Brochures
      • Case studies
      • Flyers
      • Blog
      • White papers

      FEATURED RESOURCES

      WHITEPAPER

      Manage anti-money laundering regulations in the UK and EU.

      CASE STUDY

      Nuffield Health establish a central database for pathology compliance activities.

    View All Resources
    • COMPANY
    • About Us

      ABOUT US

      • Our company
      • Leadership team
      • Objectives
      • Strategy
      • Values
      • Our customer focus
      • Certifications
      • Investors

      FEATURED RESOURCES

      CAREERS

      We are recruiting! Take the next exciting step in your career

      VALUES

      We are ambitious - We are adventurous - We are community

    • Events and Updates

      EVENTS AND UPDATES

      • Events
      • News
      • Blogs

      FEATURED RESOURCES

      CAREERS

      We are recruiting! Take the next exciting step in your career

      VALUES

      We are ambitious - We are adventurous - We are community

    • Careers

      CAREERS

      • Careers overview
      • Current vacancies

        HIRING

      • Benefits
      • Apprenticeships
      • Meet our teams

      FEATURED RESOURCES

      CAREERS

      We are recruiting! Take the next exciting step in your career

      VALUES

      We are ambitious - We are adventurous - We are community

  • Contact Sales
Menu
  • Solutions
    • « Back
    • Solutions
    • Quality
      • « Back
      • Quality
      • Quality management solution

        Embed quality throughout your business processes by aligning and centralising all key functions to elevate your organisation to its full potential.

      • Find Out More

      APQP

      CAPA management

      ISO & Certifications

      First article inspection report

      Product part approval process

      Supplier management

      Quality Control

      Quality management

      Document management

      Aerospace and defence

      Life science

      Manufacturing

      Healthcare

      Food and drink

      Pharmaceuticals

      Contact us
    • Health, safety and environmental
      • « Back
      • Health, safety and environmental
      • Health, safety and environmental management solutions

        Reduce risk, protect your people and drive sustainability, efficiently and effectively

      • Find Out More

      Safety management

      Incident management

      Health and safety training solution

      Enviromental

      Food and drink

      Energy

      Transport and logistics

      Aviation

      Contact us
    • Audit & Risk
      • « Back
      • Audit & Risk
      • Audit and risk management solutions

        Our powerful audit and risk management solutions help you protect your business, its customers and your corporate clients.

      • Find out more

      Internal audit

      Risk software

      External audit software

      Finance

      Government

      Education

      Contact us
    • Collaboration
      • « Back
      • Collaboration
      • Collaboration solution

        Bring your people, content and actions together with highly secure, cloud-based collaboration solutions.

      • Find Out More

      Bids and proposals

      Document redaction

      Document co-authoring and review

      Aerospace and defence

      Life Science and Pharmaceuticals

      AEC

      Contact Us
    Contact us
  • Products
    • « Back
    • Products
    • Q-Pulse QMS

      Q-Pulse PM

      Q-Pulse WorkRite

      Q-Pulse Law

      Pentana Audit

      Pentana Disclose

      Pentana Risk

      PleaseReview

      Coruson

      Ideagen Academy

      Audit Analytics

      Mail Manager

      CompliancePath

      Huddle

      Qualtrax

      InspectionXpert

      Mi-Co

      CompliSpace

      OpsBase

    Contact Us
  • Industries
    • « Back
    • Industries
    • Aerospace and defence

      Aviation

      Energy

      Finance

      Healthcare

      Life science

      Manufacturing

      Pharmaceuticals

      Transport & logistics

      Food & drinks

      AEC

      Government

    Contact Us
  • Resources
    • « Back
    • Resources
    • By Industry
      • « Back
      • By Industry
      • Aerospace and defence

        Aviation

        Energy

        Financial services

        Healthcare

        Life science

        Manufacturing

        Rail

      • View all resources
      Contact us
    • By Solution
      • « Back
      • By Solution
      • Quality

        Safety

        Environmental

        Regulatory

        Documents

        Audit

        Risk

      • View all resources
      Contact us
    • By Product
      • « Back
      • By Product
      • Q-Pulse QMS

        Q-Pulse Law

        Q-Pulse WorkRite

        Q-Pulse PM

        Pentana Audit

        Pentana Disclose

        Pentana Risk

        Pleasereview

        Coruson

        Ideagen Academy

      • View all resources
      Contact us
    • By Resource Type
      • « Back
      • By Resource Type
      • Brochures

        Case studies

        Flyers

        Blog

        White papers

      • View all resources
      Contact us
    Contact us
  • Company
    • « Back
    • Company
    • About us
      • « Back
      • About us
      • Our company

        Leadership team

        Objectives

        Strategy

        Values

        Our customer focus

        Certifications

        Investors

      Contact us
    • Events and updates
      • « Back
      • Events and updates
      • Events

        News

        Blogs

      Contact us
    • Careers
      • « Back
      • Careers
      • Careers overview

        Current vacancies

        Benefits

        Apprenticeships

        Meet our teams

      Contact us
    Contact us
Contact Us
  • Home
  • Thought Leadership
  • Blog
  • 5 editing tips for medical writers

5 editing tips for medical writers

13 June 2022

ID_Blog_5_editing_tips_for_medical_writers_BH.png
5 editing tips for medical writers

Share this

You’ve spent months crafting an intricate medical writing document with your team. Although it’s been viewed and reviewed by many people, small typos and inconsistencies still jump out at your reader. They weaken your credibility. Doesn’t this seem unfair when you’ve spent so long on the research, ideas and content?

If you’re a medical writer or a medical editor, you have a crucial role to play in ensuring the accuracy, clarity and consistency of your organization’s manuscripts, as well as their compliance with key industry standards and guidelines.

As we heard at Ideagen’s webinar with the American Medical Writers Association, while medical writers are experts in writing and editing, they often struggle to collaborate efficiently on complex documents due to the number of editors involved in a single review. We frequently hear about these problems:

  • Version control (with some companies keeping so-called “final” versions in multiple different locations!).
  • The laborious process of consolidating edits and comments from multiple copies of a manuscript.
  • Inconsistencies in hyphenation usage, abbreviations and spelling.

In this blog, we look at five medical writing tips that you can use to simplify your editing process and assure a high standard of quality.

 

5 medical writing tips

  1. Use PleaseReview to enhance the quality, transparency and focus of your document reviews.

PleaseReview, a document collaboration tool for medical writers, allows multiple authors and reviewers to collaborate on a document simultaneously in a single platform. Delivering secure version control, it ensures that all authors and reviewers are working on the latest and greatest version of a manuscript—with real-time updates!

Kim Norris, Director of Medical Writing at UniQure, a global leader in gene therapy, explains why she has used PleaseReview for over ten years and why it an essential tool for her role:

  • Time savings of circa 65%. For Kim and others who work in the area of drug development, editing at pace is crucial for ensuring the timely delivery of completed documents—so that life-changing drugs can get to patients quickly. PleaseReview typically reduces the time spent on document reviews by at least 65%!

  • Easy to identify, and resolve, conflicting edits. “PleaseReview identifies conflicting edits, allowing the medical writer the opportunity to resolve them during the review using accept, reject, revise, or merge features. The resolution is incorporated into the document in real time, allowing participants to focus on unresolved items going forward.”

  • Keeps reviewers in their lane. “Managing the review process is really managing the people. The ability to lock-in sections of text for editing – down to specific paragraphs – ensures that reviewers focus on the sections where you require their input.”

  • Visibility and granular permissions. “PleaseReview allows for customizable visibility of edits, comments, and different sections of a document and configurable permissions and capabilities of all participants.”

  • Automatic capturing of activity. “The reconciliation report provides automated documentation of all review activities, thus eliminating the need for manual documentation of things like review participation and changes, comments, and resolutions.”

  • Prevent time being wasted on unnecessary points. “Comments, edits or questions beyond the scope of a particular functional area reviewer can be replied to and then closed by the medical writer without having to engage in time-consuming or unnecessary discussions.”

 

Since being introduced to this software years ago, I have made its acquisition a requirement at every organization for which I’ve led Medical Writing.

— Kim Norris , Director of Medical Writing , UniQure

 

  1. Save time and control quality with a specialist medical spellchecker

Experienced medical writers will know that conventional spellcheckers like to flag niche medical terms as misspelled because they do not recognise them. A Medical spellchecker, such as the one by Stedman’s, is a handy tool for medical writers.

When it is downloaded as a plug-in for MS Word, Stedman’s medical dictionary is integrated into the existing spell-checking dictionary. This saves medical writers time looking words up and they are more likely to identify the true misspellings.

 

  1. Quickly check consistencies in language use

Another handy tool for medical writers is PerfectIt, a proofreading and editing tool that many medical writers use to check consistency in hyphenation usage, locate undefined abbreviations, enforce style rules and more.

If you don’t have access to PerfectIt, you can use the Ctrl + F keyboard shortcut to search quickly for words in a document. Say you wanted to check if you had consistently hyphenated a term, you could type in the first part of the term (pre-hyphen) into the navigation to quickly check how it appears across the document. You can do the same to check consistencies in capitalisation or spelling.

 

  1. Edit two different pages at once

Medical writers are responsible for ensuring correct and consistent data across graphics, tables and texts. If a figure is on a different page of a document, it can be confusing and time-consuming to go back and forth between pages.

This problem can be solved by opening another viewing window in MS Word (View > New Window). Place both windows side by side on your screen and you can edit both pages at once!

  1. Use the ‘Styles’ function to save time on formatting

When working with a long and complex document, the ‘Styles’ function of Word can be a real stressbuster. Say you wanted to change the size of all the chapter titles across your manuscript, which you had categorised in Word as ‘Heading 2’, all you would need to do is go to Styles > Heading 2 > Modify to change the font size.

If you changed your mind over the course of the project and decided that all your subtitles should be bolded instead of non-bolded, you could change all of them—no matter how many there are—in seconds by simply modifying the ‘Subtitle’ style and applying bold to the text. As styles cascade automatically throughout the whole document, you do not need to waste time on combing through every page to make the formatting changes manually.

Discover why medical writers use PleaseReview

Are you ready to discover why 85% of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies, four of the top five CRO’s and four of the top five medical device companies use PleaseReview for medical writing and editing?

Book a demo
NP Profile.jpg
Written by

Nicola Pearson

After completing a PhD in French literature and film at the University of Bristol (UK), Nicola turned her passion for research and writing into a software marketing career! She currently specialises in PleaseReview, a collaboration solution for real-time document reviews that is loved by medical writers across the globe. When she's not working, she enjoys hiking, going to festivals and travelling. Connect with her on LinkedIn to get her latest blogs on all things medical writing, drug development and clinical trials. 

View LinkedIn Profile

Find the best product for you

Use our product assistance tool and get recommendations based on your business needs.

My Business Need

This will help us identify the best software product for you.

Please select at least one business need

Tell Us More

Please share some further detail so we can refine your product recommendations.

Please select a type of risk
Previous
Solutions Quality Health, Safety & Environmental Audit & Risk Documents & Collaboration Company Leadership team Our objectives Strategy Investors Careers Vacancies We're hiring
Ideagen products Q-Pulse QMS Q-Pulse WorkRite Q-Pulse PM Q-Pulse Law Pentana Audit Pentana Disclose Pentana Risk PleaseReview Coruson Ideagen Academy Ideagen Academy CompliancePath Huddle Qualtrax Mi-Co InspectionXpert CompliSpace OpsBase Mail Manager Audit Analytics
Pentana Disclose Pentana Risk PleaseReview Coruson Ideagen Academy CompliancePath Huddle Qualtrax Mi-Co InspectionXpert CompliSpace OpsBase Mail Manager Audit Analytics
Company Leadership team Our objectives Strategy Investors Careers Vacancies We're hiring
Connect with us
© Ideagen Plc.
Privacy Policy Terms and conditions GDPR commitment Environmental policy Slavery and human traficking statement Sitemap