





































       V37 N1 / 2022 

©2022 American Medical Writers Association. All rights reserved.  
ISSN 2163-5315

AMWAJournal.org     50

Q1: In the new digital age, what are some of the 
changes you have been making as a medical writer?

One of the keys to freelancing success is adaptability, and 

nowhere is that more important than in the area of technol-

ogy. My goals are to optimize my productivity and to stay at 

least 1 step ahead of my clients.

 These are a few of my most recent advancements to 

keep up with or ahead of the curve:

• Online software: I get about 5 years out of a computer. 

When it’s time for a new one, I have to upgrade most 

of my software as well. Getting used to new hardware 

and software at the same time is a nightmare! In 2019 

I subscribed to Office 365, and last year I upgraded to 

Microsoft 365. I also switched to the online version of 

my bookkeeping software, QuickBooks. Online soft-

ware upgrades continuously so the changes are incre-

mental instead of sweeping. It also ensures I’m always 

working with the latest versions.

• Cloud backup: About 3 years ago, I switched from a 

local backup for my computer files to a cloud backup 

system. I did my research, consulted with my com-

puter guru, and went with Carbonite. It offers 128-

bit encryption, world-class security, and Health 

Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compli-

ance support. It saved my life! During the summer, 

my computer system had a bit of a hiccup and I lost 

everything. Within 24 hours, I had it all back.

• Password manager: I’m overwhelmed with pass-

words. Recently I began researching password man-

agers and questioning why I’ve been so hesitant to 

use one. The answer is fear of the unknown. Now that 

I have a better understanding of their security and 

potential benefits, I’m getting closer to switching over 

from my current archaic method.

• Multiple monitors: I’ve always docked my laptop 

to an external monitor. About 7 years ago I added a 

second external monitor and immediately wondered 

why I waited so long! Today I use 3 external monitors 

and could easily justify more. Not only has it made 

me more efficient, but it has also saved me a ton of 

money on printer supplies.

— Brian Bass

Naturally, we all try new programs to keep up—but I try 

to avoid spending money unless something is truly essen-

tial for me (eg, Microsoft Word). Having worked with 

many new small programs that I found unhelpful and too 

glitchy (eg, EndNote, Grammarly), I stopped using them. 

I use the spellcheck and grammar check in the Word pro-

gram. Because I have been a medical writer for more than 

25 years now, I trust my English usage without adding yet 

another electronic helper. Of course, newer people with 

little hands-on writing experience who are trying to enter 

the field of medical writing likely need the grammar check 

programs more than those with years of experience. I do 

feel that new graduates, or those switching from other 

professions to medical writing, should practice writing on 

their own so they are more skilled at writing better and 

faster—this skill comes solely from practice, not from read-

ing about it. But almost everything can be obtained online 

now.

 Because of the annoying (to me) practice of having to 

subscribe to programs on a monthly basis rather than pur-

chasing them outright and owning the program, I have 

stopped using certain programs—eg, QuarkXPress, Adobe 

Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Photoshop. This 

means that I also have stopped taking on projects that 

require these programs; I do not regret it, although I was 

once reasonably proficient with Quark and Illustrator. To 

me, the editing function in Adobe Acrobat is far more cum-

bersome and less efficient than editing in Word, so I also 

no longer take on projects that require heavy editing in that 

program. I prefer now to focus on medical writing, editing, 

FREELANCE FOCUS

Brian Bass Melissa L. Bogen Gail V. Flores Ruwaida Vakil

http://www.amwajournal.org


AMWAJournal.org     51Freelance Focus

editorial review and critique, format correction, template 

creation, and quality assurance for regulatory documents.

 Today, almost everything is now done via the Internet 

and social media, and we all have gradually adjusted to 

this. No longer is it so easy to call a client or consultant 

on the telephone; now it is either email or text messaging. 

Nonetheless, I always speak to a new client by phone before 

accepting a new project; it is simply more efficient. Today 

most pharmaceutical/contact research organization clients 

use shareware programs such as DropBox or GoogleDocs 

rather than attaching the files to an email; this change has 

been required for several years now. Because of poor proj-

ect management on the part of too many clients, this pro-

cess is frequently more cumbersome than receiving the 

required materials via email, but one has to ride the horse in 

the direction he’s going so I accept this. Once in a while (not 

often), I encounter a good project manager, and materials 

are well organized, clearly labeled, and easy to grab.

 One can obtain templates and samples of most regula-

tory reports in the International Council for Harmonisation 

of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human 

Use format online as necessary—but I have all that already 

from having written so many throughout my career. Likewise, 

today it is easy to download sample articles from a specific 

journal (in addition to the Instructions for Authors) to ensure 

using the proper formats and editorial styles.

 On the whole, over the last many years, clients expect 

medical writers to have a strong facility with technology; 

often they care more about the tech aspects than the actual 

writing and the skill of good communication. Equally often, 

they do not seem to recognize the difference between clear 

communication/decent writing and the kind of rote things 

that less experienced people produce. So, I think the horse 

will continue galloping in this direction and all of us must 

adapt. If there is too much technology involved and too 

much unclear data provided, one may opt not to accept that 

particular project.

— Cathryn D. Evans

 In the last 1-2 years, I’ve made changes enabling me to 

become increasingly less reliant on paper. To proofread my 

own work, I now save my Word or PowerPoint documents 

as Portable Document Format files (PDF), which differenti-

ates them enough that I spot errors I wouldn’t have noticed 

in the native files. I review the PDFs on one monitor and 

enter edits directly into the native files on my other monitor 

instead of printing the document, proofreading with a red 

pen, and entering edits into the native files. Not only am I 

saving paper, but I’m also saving time.

 To reduce my use of notepads and sticky notes, I’ve 

started using OneNote (part of the Microsoft Office suite). 

I have various notebooks for meeting notes, invoices, and 

to-do lists, with tabs for different clients. I particularly 

like being able to take meeting notes in calendar invites 

imported from Outlook, so I can capture the date/time of 

the meeting and the attendees.

 I recently started using the scheduling feature of the 

online time-tracking platform I’ve been using for years 

(PayMo). I can see my entire week and month at a glance, 

including the due dates for each deliverable for each proj-

ect. It had made scheduling so much easier that I no longer 

need a physical planner.

 Overarching these individual changes is my move to 

100% cloud storage. I’m a Mac and iPhone user, and every-

thing on my computer is backed up to my iCloud account. 

I didn’t realize how useful this was until one day last year 

when my Mac completely died, late in the afternoon, when 

my first deliverable was due to a new client. I was able to 

log on to my iCloud account from another computer in the 

house and was up and running in the same Word file and 

could access the same highlighted references, bookmarked 

websites, and emails within 20 minutes.

 As medical communicators, I believe we should con-

tinue to learn about new programs, platforms, and tech-

nologies to increase our value to clients. For those of us 

who don’t have tech support, so many issues can be solved 

through a simple Google search or YouTube video, empow-

ering us to approach our clients with solutions rather than 

problems.

— Gail V. Flores

The primary change is that I now have a cloud backup 

system in place. In June, I bought a new computer. I thought 

my external 1-TB backup drive with nightly backups would 

work seamlessly to transfer all my data to the new computer 

in case the Geek Squad had trouble with the computer’s 

hard drive.

 The day I gave my computer to the Geek Squad the 

external backup drive said it was full. Because of the pro-

prietary backup software, the files could not be dragged 

and dropped off the drive, and I had trouble clearing space. 

Nevertheless, I thought I had managed to do a full backup 

that day.

 My computer’s hard drive had been working fine, but 

the Geek Squad said the hard drive failed during the data 

transfer, so they used the external backup drive to transfer 

data. Unfortunately, something must have gone awry with 

the backup and many of my Word files were missing.

http://www.amwajournal.org


AMWAJournal.org     52Freelance Focus

 Another American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) 

colleague suggested using a cloud back-up system. Many 

such systems are available. I chose Carbonite Safe Basic 

(https://www.carbonite.com/). Usually $84/year but now  

on sale at about $60/year, the service includes automatic 

unlimited backup and remote access from any device. 

The files can be accessed individually by drag and drop 

or restored as a group. Now I no longer worry about my 

backup. Another bonus: I can access my complete hard 

drive remotely, so I don’t have to copy files to Dropbox to 

transfer them to my laptop.

— Melissa L. Bogen

* * *

Q2: What software do you recommend to a new  
freelancer?

Microsoft Office is of course a must for any new freelancer 

for creating and working in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel 

documents; other features such as Outlook and OneNote 

are optional, but I prefer using them as they work well with 

my other Office products (for example, my customized 

spellcheck and autocorrect settings are automatically incor-

porated across all products in the Microsoft suite). Adobe 

Acrobat Pro DC is critical for highlighting and annotating 

journal articles and other references. Finally, an accounting 

program is key for submitting and tracking invoices.

 In addition to software housed on a computer, I rec-

ommend that new freelancers subscribe to an online 

time-tracking platform, a medical dictionary, and a cloud 

storage system, such as Dropbox. I resisted investing in 

such tools for years because I didn’t want to spend addi-

tional funds, but once I got them I couldn’t believe I ever 

functioned without them, as they have both increased my 

efficiency and let clients know that I take my work seriously 

and have more than paid for themselves over the years.

— Gail V. Flores

Go to https://www.amwa.org/page/Partner_Discounts to 

find discounts for AMWA members on some of these soft-

ware programs:

• AMA Manual of Style (20% off for AMWA members): 

I bought the hardcover edition with one year of the 

online subscription so I can look things up quickly 

while I’m working. The online version has automatic 

updates. However, the online version is not as clearly 

set up as the hardcopy, so I often consult my hard copy 

once I know where to look.  

https://www.amamanualofstyle.com

• Stedman’s Plus 2022 Medical/Pharmaceutical 

Spellchecker: This software works seamlessly in 

Microsoft Office programs (Word, PowerPoint, 

etc) and contains all the latest medical and 

pharmaceutical terms. USD $99.95. 

https://shop.lww.com/Stedman-s-Plus-2022-

Medical-Pharmaceutical-Spellchecker--Single-User-

Download-/p/9781975183677

• PerfectIt (30% off for AMWA members): Proofreading 

software for professionals. 

You can start a free trial for 14 days. 

https://intelligentediting.com

• Jack Lyon’s Editor’s ToolKit Plus and List Fixer, 

among others. You can strip footnotes to the end of 

a file, change automatically numbered lists to fixed 

numbers, and automate many repetitive tasks to free 

up your brain for the more substantive edits. 

https://www.editorium.com

— Melissa L. Bogen

* * *

Q3: What are the pros/cons of using grammar or proof-
reading software such as Grammarly or PerfectIt?

I have only used PerfectIt, which has been essential for my 

work as a medical editor. PerfectIt automatically runs some 

standard consistency checks (eg, compound adjectives 

before a noun, hyphen or no hyphen, common typos). When 

an inconsistency is found, it shows the 2 variations and the 

user chooses the preferred form. The program will stop at 

each instance to let you decide how and whether to fix the 

inconsistency. PerfectIt cannot replace an editor. It handles 

mechanical aspects of job, leaving the editor to make sub-

stantive edits.

 The Table of Abbreviations that PerfectIt creates at the 

end is worth the price of the program. The Table that is cre-

ated must be double-checked because, for example, abbre-

viations in square brackets are not found and it “thinks” 

author initials are abbreviations, but the Table easily com-

piles the vast majority of the abbreviations in a file that can 

be saved as a separate document.

Versions

• PerfectIt 5 (standalone) is the latest version

• PerfectIt Cloud (is Mac compatible)

– Secure connection does not send data anywhere

– Files are confidential

http://www.amwajournal.org
https://www.carbonite.com/
https://www.amwa.org/page/Partner_Discounts
https://www.amamanualofstyle.com
https://shop.lww.com/Stedman-s-Plus-2022-Medical-Pharmaceutical-Spellchecker--Single-User-Download-/p/9781975183677
https://shop.lww.com/Stedman-s-Plus-2022-Medical-Pharmaceutical-Spellchecker--Single-User-Download-/p/9781975183677
https://shop.lww.com/Stedman-s-Plus-2022-Medical-Pharmaceutical-Spellchecker--Single-User-Download-/p/9781975183677
https://shop.lww.com/Stedman-s-Plus-2021-Medical-Pharmaceutical-Spellchecker/p/9781975164324 
https://intelligentediting.com/
https://www.editorium.com


AMWAJournal.org     53Freelance Focus

Tutorial: https://intelligentediting.com/product/

introduction/

Tips for editing in PerfectIt: https://intelligentediting.com/

support/faqs/categories/tips-for-editing-with-perfectit/

— Melissa L. Bogen

As a writer, I have not invested PerfectIt primarily because 

I use a Mac, and PerfectIt only has cloud support on Macs. 

Many of PerfectIt’s functions are limited while using a Mac, 

so I have not found it worth the investment. I would con-

sider it if they offered a Mac version that is as good as the PC 

version. However, I have used Grammarly. I found it very 

helpful for doing grammar and language checks that Word 

will often miss. It is like a second set of eyes for me and is 

very valuable when working on the same document for too 

long. On Mac, Grammarly is also cloud-based and is not 

integrated with Word. But it seems to have all the features 

that the PC Word-integrated version has. Therefore, I have 

found it to be a good investment.

— Ruwaida Vakil

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