History and expansion of medical writing as an outsourced service.

In India, Medical writing has evolved from Atharva Veda, Sushruta Samhita and Charaka Samhita, which included scripts of medical information for each therapeutic ailment. Globally, similar observations were noted on papyrus scrolls or walls. With the paradigm shift to writing observations, clinical practices into medical records, books and guidelines compiled in write-ups and summary format. Later, owing to the critical pharmaceutical needs, continuing healthcare education, and promotional requirements, medical writing was done on a small scale in-house. Medical writing service industries bloomed around 2003-2008 after the Centre Watch report, during which financial profits were gained. Over the years, as more and more research took place, new thoughts and ideas emerged, which led to the expansion of Clinical research organizations, information technology and business process outsourcing services. The scope of medical writing transitioned to scientific documents required for different purposes depending on the target audience, such as regulatory writing for the regulatory and continuance of drugs in the market, publication writing for new research and manuscripts and medical communication writing for promotional and educational purposes. 

The current scenario in medical writing

Each section of medical writing was specialized to niches like research-based, educational material, promotional material for product-based (drugs or medical devices), safety aspects, and publication process and skilled professionals crafted such material for a wide range of audiences such as doctors, drug regulatory agencies and the general public. The vast clinical data evolved into diagrammatic, schematic, and tabular representations to emphasize clinical data’s clarity and concise content. As time passed, scientific writing for conferences and posters evolved, with the theoretical abstracts converted to graphical abstracts. Given the busy schedules of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and clients and for patients’ ease of understanding the medical content, a transformation towards strategic use of visual aids like graphics or picture representation (scans, diagrams, etc.) has benefitted the industry. The emergence of podcasts, slides, and videos for marketing and using other digital technology (artificial intelligence) or software tools improved medical communication and writing quality and efficiency. 

Future Scope of Medical Writing

With the advancement of Artificial intelligence and other software tools, the trend towards planning, creativity and quality of new content will be a major focus. Ethical consideration of content remains constant throughout the period. Also, data differentiation and effective dissemination of knowledge to promote products and create awareness remain essential throughout the future.