Many of you, in the course of your clinical practice, might have come across situations, where you thought you could have guided your clients in a better way. There might be instances when- as a doctor you felt that whatever you explained at length about cholelithiasis to a patient, not a single word was heeded to; as a nurse you felt that health education about care of a neonate to the new mother went unheard; as a physiotherapist you felt the patients do not exercise their muscles as per your instructions to or as a lab technician you found the patient has not prepared himself for the test as per the instructions All these scenarios point towards one common problem- COMMUNICATION GAP. We must understand that a patient represents the a common man who does not understand the medical terminologies and are rather scared of then. Mention of a single term that bounces off their head, makes them dis-interested in the content- how ever valuable it might be. In contrast, there is another group- the peers- people who are well versed with medical language and are comfortable using it. Same communication for both the groups does not work; the content should be customized for each.

These are very few examples from a limited setting in healthcare; there are plenty of instances where ends do not meet because the information was not expressed or written properly, in the way the target audience would understand. Expressing or writing information the right way may sound easy, but can turn out to be a Herculean task when you actually get down to doing it. Expressing scientific thoughts or writing medical information the right way- is what we call MEDICAL WRITING– it is an essential and indispensible quality in the healthcare sector- be it clinical or non-clinical professions. This quality of writing right is inborn is some and imbibed by others. And it is never too late- to polish the skill if you already have it or to learn it if you don’t.

Contributing to Healthcare the WRITE way– Medical writing is one of the non-clinical ways to contribute to healthcare. It requires the art of a writer and science of a healthcare professional to make a complete medical writer.