RESOURCES

A repository of websites and courses for medical communicators

COVID-19

The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook: A practical guide for improving vaccine communication and fighting miscommunication

Developed by a team of scientific experts, this guide aims to arm people with practical tips and provide up-to-date information and evidence to talk reliably about the vaccines, reduce fear and constructively challenge associated myths.

Education and qualifications

Postgraduate university courses in health communication:

Undergraduate blended degree:

Swinburne University’s Bachelor of Health Science/ Bachelor of Media and Communication

Short courses can help writers upskill in specific areas including editing, consumer health writing, freelance writing, magazine writing and technical writing:

Science journalism – a free online course for budding science writers and journalists, developed by a team of 35 writers and editors
Copy writing and other writing courses – Australian Writers Centre
Fundamentals of technical writing – University of Western Australia
Courses in journalism, editing and publishing – Australian College
Copyediting course – Capstone Editing
AMWA Professional Development Program

Readability tools

These tools help ensure your writing is easy to understand:

Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG)
Gunning’s Fog Index (or FOG)
The Up-Goer Five Text Editor
Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) and User’s Guide: helps you assess how understandable and actionable print and audiovisual patient education materials are
Plain language summary toolkit— Envision Pharma Group has developed a best-practice resource for PLS of peer-reviewed publications and congress abstracts
The EAST framework for behaviour change— four simple ways to apply behavioural insights

Medical writing career resources

From academic to medical writer – a guide to getting started in medical communications
MedCommsNetworking – networking and dialogue amongst professionals working in med comms
Science communication toolkit – practical tools developed by experts to help science communicators, researchers, journalists and policy makers add quality, impact and influence to their science engagement activities
Health Writer Hub – blogs, short online health writing courses and free resources for health writers
Ragan’s Healthcare blog – news in healthcare social media, marketing and communications

Codes and guidelines

Accessing journals

PubMed – archive of medical journal literature with links to the full-text sources
Unpaywall – unpaywall is a legal, open-source database that allows you to access free scholarly articles

Style and grammar resources

Health reporting

Responsible reporting on medicines, tests and treatments – tips to help journalists accurately and responsibly reflect independent, reliable evidence in their writing and reporting on medicines, medical tests and treatments.

Guidelines for writing about specific health conditions:

Cancer Institute NSW has produced guidelines for writing about cancer
Mindframe’s guidelines for communicating about mental health issues, including suicide and alcohol and other drugs
A group of independent experts produced these guidelines for journalists reporting on alcohol and other drugs, in an effort to reduce stigma, improve accuracy in reporting, and minimise harm
Dementia Australia has developed guidelines for talking or writing about dementia and people living with dementia.
Mindframe and the National Eating Disorders Collaboration created these guidelines for reporting on eating disorders
People With Disability Australia developed these guidelines for portraying people with disability
This position statement from Diabetes Australia focuses on improving communications with and about people with diabetes.