Newsletter – February 2010

Adam Boyle became interested in medical writing through his involvement in clinical medicine and the public health and journalism fields.  These activities helped him to establish his current business as a freelance medical writer. Adam recently launched Adam Dean Bioscribe, Inc. The company delivers writing projects in bioscience, clinical research, and health education.

Adam began his education with aspirations of becoming a physician. He earned a BS in biology from Colorado State University at Fort Collins. While in college, he volunteered at an emergency department and later worked as an emergency medical technician for a year before entering medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Once there, he found that direct patient care was not to his liking. After 2.5 years in medical school, Adam said, “Seeing patients every day was not for me.” He began to think about an alternative career that could still satisfy his interests in medicine.

Adam earned two additional degrees that helped set the stage for his writing career. He earned his MA in Public Health at the Northwest Ohio Consortium for Public Health in Toledo, Ohio, followed by an MA in Health Journalism at the University of Minnesota. The degrees helped fuel his interests in working with researchers and educators and helping others present their work. Adam says, “The medical school, public health, and health journalism educational endeavors introduced me to the arenas in which I find satisfying work.”

His keen interest in the latest medical and health innovations and good communications skills meshed well and helped guide his new career. Over the years, he found that he had a knack for organizing complex bioscience concepts and explaining them in a way others could easily understand. He was already an avid writer—keeping  a personal journal since the age of 15—so combining writing and medicine seemed a logical career decision.

Adam launched his business to remain current about advances in biomedical research and to satisfy a need to explain the findings to others. These two desires complemented his educational background and skills. Adam delivers custom writing projects in bioscience, clinical research, health education, and health marketing. He has worked on continuing medical education (CME) monographs, medical journal submissions, technical white papers, and clinical trials–related documents. He notes that one problem with working with proprietary information, however, is that it can limit what one can use for marketing or displaying on Web sites.

He has written on multiple diverse topics, including a CME monograph about advances in echocardiology and a prostate cancer radiotherapy presentation at a national medical symposium. He has also written 2 articles for Minnesota Healthcare News: one about the care of frail elderly patients, the other on the recent Minnesota smoking ban legislation.

Adam joined AMWA as a way to broaden his contacts and meet new colleagues.  He has found that the national job board and chapter activities have begun to help him with building new business contacts, an important aspect of a successful freelance career. At our fall chapter event, he met individuals who might have potential projects for him in the future.

Adam finds that his business allows him to keep a work schedule he might not be able to enjoy with a different job. He says, “Freelancing lets me be my own boss and work how and when I want to.” He likes the ability to pace his work. He says, “I like to work hard for 4 to 5 hours straight, and then head outside for a run or shovel snow—it’s that time of year—for some exercise.” The flexibility allows him to have time to make a meal for the family or just enjoy the evening.