Can You Trust a Freelance Medical Writer

In the United States, the health-care industry is a huge part of the economy. In 2018, spending on health care totaled $3.6 trillion, or 17.7% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. As Americans grow older, the demand for quality medical treatment continues to grow. To reach these potential patients, doctors need excellent health-care marketing services. Can you trust a freelance medical writer to create authoritative online content for your company?

Discovering the answer to this question is especially important in today’s digital world. One survey found that over half of millennials (54%) use online reviews to choose a health professional. There are over 83 million millennials in the U.S., which is a lot of potential patients.

According to the American Hospital Association, the use of telemedicine in hospitals has been growing for some time, increasing from 35% in 2010 to 75% just seven years later. Telehealth visits are booming in 2020, expected to reach over 1 billion by the end of the year. As more people look online for health information and base their health-care decisions on what they find, it’s obvious that trustworthy medical writing services are essential.

Freelance Medical Writers: Physicians No, Professionals Yes

Are medical writers licensed doctors? Not usually. Instead, these experts often have an educational background in journalism, creative writing or marketing, sometimes including a bachelor’s degree in English.

However, to produce content of the highest quality, medical writers base their articles on data from licensed physicians, trustworthy experts and government organizations. For example, when approaching topics such as arthritis, writers may turn to the Arthritis Foundation in search of helpful guidance.

Other valuable resources for well-written articles include the National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Center for Biotechnology Information offers access to published studies for analysis. The best medical writers constantly increase both their writing skills and their repository of scientific knowledge.

The Importance of Thorough Research

How can a writer approach in-depth scientific subjects without being a doctor? Just like other journalists, freelance medical writers gain experience by performing thorough investigation. The ability to do careful research is essential for any medical writer.

Not all talented writers choose to venture into health-related topics, of course, but the ones who do frequently have an intense thirst for knowledge. They’re often highly intelligent, excellent at reasoning and able to comprehend abstract topics.

These writing professionals take apart complex subjects piece by piece until they understand each part, how it works and where it fits with the rest of the information. As time goes on, a medical writer accrues years and even decades of experience writing about a wide variety of topics, from general health to specific treatment options.

The Basis for Expert Articles: Questions and Answers

What if a freelance medical writer doesn’t have personal experience with psoriatic arthritis? How can they talk about this subject? The key is performing in-depth research. In this case, the writer needs to gather answers to several important questions:

• What is psoriatic arthritis?
• What causes it?
• What are the symptoms?
• Who does it affect?
• What treatments are available?
• How effective are the distinct treatments?

By the end of this research session, medical writers have a solid grasp of the topic. They may not be able to dispense a clinical prescription, but they are equipped to write a high-quality, thorough and helpful article about the problem.

Areas Where Trustworthy Freelance Medical Writing Helps

Professional medical writers are experienced in creating high-quality content about health topics. Let’s look at why well-researched medical writing is a perfect fit for digital marketing:

Website Development

Web development companies often hire freelance medical writers to build out websites for medical clients. These clients may include dentists, physicians, massage therapists, eye doctors, chiropractors, veterinarians and other health experts.

The goal is to create a detailed website that attracts and motivates visitors. High-quality medical writing achieves this in three ways: capturing interest, answering the questions patients have and providing trustworthy information to help people make a decision.

Medical Blog Writing

Blog articles are a valuable link between health-care professionals and their patients. A great blog gives medical practices a human touch, making patients feel more comfortable. Articles such as “The Right Way To Remove Your Dentures at Night” and “10 Healthy Recipes for High Cholesterol” are interesting and helpful. They can act as pillar pieces to attract new clients.

It takes significant writing experience to give medical blogs a friendly feel that people of all ages can relate to. At the same time, great research skills and accumulated medical knowledge lead to authoritative articles. This increases patient trust, which is equally important.

Health-Care Web-Page Writing

If there’s one area where clear, attractive and helpful content is vital, it’s product/treatment pages. Visitors go to these pages in search of information. Professional writers make a huge difference by explaining what each treatment is, why it’s important, what to expect and what the advantages are.

Description Writing for Health Products

Whether your company sells nutritional supplements or medical devices, product descriptions that appeal to your clients are essential. Professional medical writing services offer real substance, talking in detail about features and benefits, and explaining why each product is better than alternatives.

Consumer-oriented health products on Amazon need punchy copy to catch the eye of visitors and stand out from similar alternatives. Store pages on company websites need to clearly show the applications and advantages of products.

The Medical Writing Process

One way to appreciate the attention to detail that goes into the best medical writing is to understand the content creation process. Here’s what happens from beginning to end when a client requests a medical blog or web page:

1. Reading the Client’s Instructions

Before writing a single word, a good medical writer takes the time to understand the purpose of the assignment. This is vital for producing content that motivates. What does capturing the client’s voice involve?

• Target audience: Writers need to know who they’re speaking to. An article for parents uses a different style and vocabulary than one addressed to medical professionals. There’s a significant difference in tone when writing about assisted living facilities to patients versus caregivers.
• Tone: Clients may want a post that feels urgent, compassionate, encouraging or matter of fact. The tone of the piece affects the ideas and expressions used, as well as the flow of paragraphs.
• Objective: What is the goal of the content? Some blogs are designed to drive purchases while others are for building authority. Local search engine optimization and lead generation are also valid strategies so having a freelance medical writer with SEO experience can be advantageous.

It takes time to piece together these details. The more your company and the freelance writer/medical writing team work together, the closer each piece of content reflects your organization’s voice.

2. Performing Research

With medical blog writing, the research portion is one of the largest parts of the project. It can be equal to the time invested in writing or even exceed it. The best freelance writers enjoy investigating.

The first step is to get a high-level overview of the subject. Before writing about treatments for a herniated cervical disk, the medical writer would likely perform general research. This may involve learning about the spinal cord, how it operates normally, what causes a herniated disk and what the symptoms are.

After that, the best writers dig deeper. They research the specific topic in depth, in this case looking at all treatment options available for herniated cervical disks. It’s important to find the pros and cons of each treatment in addition to looking at the latest medical articles for promising future options.

The passion for accuracy drives professional writers to consult multiple sources and develop a list of trustworthy references. Medical writers are only ready to go to the next step after they understand the topic so thoroughly that they can explain it in their own words.

3. Creating an Outline

After gathering extensive research, the next step in the medical writing process is deciding the best way to combine this information and client guidelines into an amazing article. Many writers start with an outline to organize their thoughts effectively.

A great outline can help lay out topics logically by answering the right questions in the right order. This step is especially important when dealing with complex health or science themes. Following an outline creates medical blog writing that is clear and simple.

4. Writing

Finally the time has come to flesh out the medical article by creating accurate and engaging content. Thanks to all of the research done, the writer understands why each topic matters to the audience. That makes it easier to create an attention-grabbing introduction.

A freelance medical writer’s background in content writing makes it possible to convey complicated medical topics using simple-yet-powerful sentences. Rather than being cold or intellectual, this kind of everyday prose feels warm and welcoming, like a friend explaining something.

Virtually all medical writing needs statistics and supporting references to drive the main points home. Writers take this data from what they discovered during research. These are more than random numbers. Writing professionals understand what figures mean and how they apply.

5. Editing and Proofreading

It’s critical for medical writing to be current, honest and accurate (and follow legal guidelines, if necesary). This requires extra attention compared to other types of writing. Freelance writers take time to carefully edit the piece, checking all the statistics, links and references to ensure that the information is 100% correct and up to date.

For the maximum quality possible, dedicated medical writing services often have professional editors on staff. These editors may have decades in the industry, often with numerous publication credits to their names. Editors proofread the content, checking the information yet again.

It’s obvious that the medical writing process involves significant time and research. Is the investment worth it? Absolutely, both from the viewpoint of consumers and search engines. Pillar content like this has great value for SEO and marketing purposes.

The Benefits of Choosing Skilled Medical Writers

What can you expect when working with a team of knowledgeable medical writers? Professionalism, dedication and expertise are some hallmarks of the best. Here are several other benefits:

• Engaging content: Excellent blog articles provide well-researched tips that really make a difference in the lives of patients. Engaging content answers questions and makes readers feel like they’ve learned something of value.
• Personalized tone: A large hospital may opt for a neutral, authoritative voice while a pediatrician may choose a warm and friendly focus. It takes an experienced medical writer to produce high-quality content while making it sound like the client is doing the speaking.
• Increased page visits: Medical writers are like translators, receiving information from doctors and putting it into language anyone can understand. Satisfying content leads to more click-through rates and page visits.
• Trustworthy reputation: People can tell the difference between empty marketing promises and articles that have a firm scientific foundation. In reality, high-quality content speaks for itself and search engines notice.
• Persuasive writing: The best medical writing is convincing because it offers plenty of details. Instead of vague descriptions such as “helps arthritis,” well-researched web pages mention specific benefits: reduced swelling, relief from joint pain, improved mobility and improved cartilage health.

Talented medical writers can make a huge difference in the quality of your web content. Of course, to get the best, you need to choose carefully.

Hiring a Freelance Medical Writer

What should you look for when hiring a freelance medical writer? As they say, the proof is in the pudding. Ask for past writing (sometimes this is prohibited by NDA) or writing samples on an appropriate health topic for your business.

Check for accuracy, clarity, quality and experience. Expert medical writers are comfortable with the subject matter and careful not to make unfounded claims. This mixture of content writing skill and research aptitude results in articles that are instructive and enjoyable to read.

At BKA Content, we have many professional content writers with extensive experience in complex fields, including industrial engineering, software design, law and health care. Our dedicated medical blog writing experts have written articles on a wide variety of health-related topics, from HIPAA compliance to cosmetic dental procedures.

Medical writer needed? Discover our incredible medical content writing team and learn more about our credentials by contacting us today.