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-Member Profile: Ellen O’Malley

-Bulletin Board 

Ellen O’Malley is a Medical Writer and Publications Specialist for Entellus Medical, a medical device company specializing in the minimally invasive treatment of chronic sinus disease. Ellen’s position allows her to work on a variety of documents, including clinical protocols and study reports for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She also edits manuscripts for submission to medical journals, as well as other internal documents.

Ellen’s path to becoming a medical writer began at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University where she earned her BS in Medical Technology. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Clinical Laboratory Sciences from the University of Minnesota, where she also completed PhD coursework in Pathobiology. Additionally, she obtained a Medical Writing and Editing Certificate from the University of Chicago. Ellen says that her educational background has given her the opportunity to “take on jobs in a variety of medical specialties, including diabetes, neurobiology, cardiology, laboratory sciences, emergency medicine and electrophysiology.”

Originally, her career plan was to become a clinical medical technologist, but after accepting a research job at Michael Reese Hospital, her path started to turn toward research. Early on she worked in academic research at UCSF and Stanford University. After returning to Minnesota, she took a position at Park Nicollet Medical Center where she started writing abstracts and posters, and eventually became a lead author on manuscripts and protocols. From there, Ellen’s career transitioned into the medical device industry where she worked as a clinical research associate and clinical project manager for companies such as St. Jude Medical, Medtronic, and Boston Scientific. She started focusing more on writing, as she discovered that the parts of her jobs she enjoyed most were writing-related.

Before joining the team at Entellus, Ellen was a medical writer for a small start-up medical device company, CoAxia, and she also spent some time freelancing. “I never planned to be a medical writer when I started my career,“ says Ellen, “but I tried to keep an open mind as opportunities arose. Each step led to the next, and eventually I found that I enjoyed writing, so that is what I ended up doing. However, I think that each job I did before becoming a medical writer, even the ones I didn’t enjoy that much, strengthened my skill and knowledge base to make me the medical writer I am today.”

One of the things that Ellen enjoys most about medical writing is the sense of accomplishment that comes along with having her work accepted for publication or by the FDA. “Knowing that my work helps to provide new therapies to patients, whether through a medical journal article or an FDA approval, is an important motivator for me,” she says. She also likes analyzing data and finding ways to present it clearly and concisely.

Although she has received encouragement from numerous mentors and supervisors, Ellen says that one special mentor was the pathologist she worked with who got her started in writing. “He had an interest in research and accumulated more data than he had the time to write up, so he asked me to write up some manuscripts. Although my first attempts had a lot of grammatical errors, he worked patiently with me to learn to correct the common errors I was making,” she says. Together, they published twelve papers. He was also the person who encouraged her to get her Master’s degree.

Ellen has been a member of AMWA since 2008. She was encouraged to join by Tom Lang and Mary Anne Foote, AMWA members who taught Medical Writing and Editing certificate classes at the University of Chicago. She has also earned her Essential Skills certificate and is currently working on her Regulatory and Research specialty certificate through AMWA.

Ellen attended the annual conference in 2010, 2011, and 2013. She notes, “The education I have had through AMWA seminars and workshops has definitely helped to improve my skills and confidence as a medical writer, especially with regard to grammar, an area of particular weakness for me. I have also found AMWA to be a great organization for networking with other medical writers, both locally and nationally.”

Away from work, Ellen enjoys traveling internationally, singing in a church choir, making pottery with her daughter, and spending time with her husband, two dogs, and two cats.

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Early registration for the AMWA annual conference ends on August 30, after which the fees increase. The conference is a wonderful opportunity to learn new skills, engage with other biomedical communicators, and have some fun in Memphis, so register now while you can still get the lower prices!

AMWA offers a variety of online educational activities including webinars, Google Hangouts, YouTube videos, and more. Learn more at: http://www.amwa.org/online_offerings.

Our next book club meeting will be: Monday, September 29, 2014, 6 pm, at Boca Chica Restaurant, West Side of St. Paul, 11 César Chávez [Wabasha] St., just west of Robert St. The book is Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss.