AMWA 2025 was a huge success. We would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who was involved in another very successful AMWA conference. Feedback from attendees has been really positive: “It was a fantastic day filled with insightful talks, engaging workshops, and great opportunities to connect with fellow medical writers.”
Congratulations to Halimat Atanda, winner of the 2025 AMWA Early Career Award.
The judging panel was impressed by the quality of her submission, 'Methylation Simplified'. One judge commented, “This was a thoroughly
enjoyable and highly engaging read. The writer made excellent use of literary devices to explain complex concepts. The flow was good and it
was written at an appropriate level for the intended audience.”
Registration for AMWA's 2025 conference is now open! Early-bird pricing is available until 5 September, so register quickly to take advantage of the great discount.
Workshop spaces, and the coveted conference dinner tickets are limited. Another reason to register now!
Join host Erin Hackett for another of our popular AMWA networking events. Enjoy the relaxed, casual networking and socialising, catching up with familiar faces and welcoming some of AMWA's newest members. The event is free-of-charge, with a drink and some nibbles
provided by AMWA.
Non-members are always welcome at networking events, so feel free to circulate the details to your network, along with the link to register.
Neena is a Sydney-based freelance foreign correspondent with a focus on health and disability issues. Read about how her own lived experience has driven and shaped her career, and how a unique piece of writing helped facilitate policy change.
Join hosts Sally Bathgate and Serina Stretton for some casual, relaxed networking and socialising. The event is free-of-charge, with a drink and some nibbles being covered by AMWA. Non-AMWA members are welcome, so spread the word to your network, along with the link to register their attendance.
Join us in Sydney on 18-19 September for the AMWA Conference 2025 - Charting a Course Through Change.
Join us on Wednesday, April 2, at 1:00PM AEST, for the first of our webinars for 2025. Prof. Virginia Barbour and Prof.
Jennifer Byrne
bring us 'Navigating Unethical Publishing Practices: Predatory Journals and Paper Mills'.
This webinar will provide valuable insights and strategies to help you identify and avoid unethical practices in the publishing industry.
Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your knowledge and protect your work!
Join AMWA Secretary, Sophia Auld, for some casual, relaxed networking and socialising in Noosa. Non-members of AMWA are also welcome!
We hope to see you on Saturday, April 2, 4:30-7:00pm, at Beach Road By 4 Pines, 81 Noosa Drive Cnr.
Come and join us in Auckland for our first Networking Event of 2025, being held on Thursday 20 March at Brew on Quay, Downtown Auckland, from 5:00-7:00pm. Everyone is welcome!
Meet Serina. Throughout her evolving career at Envision Pharma Group (which includes a new challenge for 2025!) Serina continues to write. She also finds time to be Treasurer of AMWA's Committee, and has a piece of advice that everyone should read!
This could be your year! Entries for the 2025 AMWA Early Career Award are now open. Every year we are amazed at the quality of the entries received, making judging a very difficult task. If you have previously submitted an entry but missed out on the win, we encourage you to try again as there have been many entries that have been deserving of a win!
Erin Hackett is under the AMWA spotlight for December. Erin works as a freelance content and SEO copywriter specialising in corporate, technical, and medical communications. Read about how her nursing background, passion for creative writing, and maternity leave led her to where she is today!
This month our spotlight is on Gauri Godbole. Gauri is currently practicing as a clinical hospital pharmacist specialising in aged and palliative care pharmacy practice. She is heavily involved in creating education resources for medical, allied health and nursing professionals in her clinical practice as well in her consulting roles.
Find out more about Gauri and how she has created her own writing niche in the creation of continuing professional development resources.
October is Health Literacy month! Check out the blog by AMWA Executive Committee member, Sophia Auld.
There's one week to go until the AMWA 2024 Conference. You are able to register up to, and including, the day of the conference, so there's plenty of time to register if you haven't done so already. We're looking forward to reestablishing connections with friends and colleagues, and having the opportunity to make new ones and form some great new working relationships.
This month, Sally Bathgate is under the spotlight!
Like many freelance health and medical writers, Sally helps with a diverse range of projects needing a medical writer’s niche skills. She assists with things such as patient-friendly materials, web content for healthcare organisations/services, medical/health copywriting for therapeutic products, educational materials for HCPs. Sally has some very wise words, excellent advice and pertinent reminders for medical writers, so be sure to check out her full Member Spotlight interview here.
It gives us great pleasure to announce that the winner of the 2024 AMWA Early Career Award is Alexa Arganda. Her article entitled "Mind
over matter? Exploring the impact of childhood trauma on the developing brain" stood
out to this year’s judges for its insightful overview of a complex and sensitive topic.
We hope you’ll join us in congratulating her and look forward to seeing what her future career will bring.
Read Alexa's winning article here.
Registration is now open for AMWA 2024! Be in quickly to register for this year's conference to take advantage of our early-bird pricing. Remember - all workshops are included in the registration fee for the first time this year!
For details, and to register visit https://www.medicalwriters.org/events/amwa-conference-2024/
Make a note in your calendar! Registration opens for AMWA 2024 on Monday 24 June. This year all workshops are included in your registration
fee!
A near-final conference programme as well as registration details can be found here.
Meet Nerissa, The Melbourne Health Writer. Her work helps national organisations, global companies and health practitioners connect with patients and consumers and be seen as a trusted health authority in their field. Read more about her valuable work and her medical writing journey here.
Dr McKay is a respected medical practitioner, media personality, and author. He is perhaps best known for hosting “Embarrassing Bodies Down Under” and his regular media contributions, and is a leading voice for evidence-based medicine in healthcare and wellness. Do join us for what promises to be an enlightening and engaging start to the conference!
Entries are now closed for the 2024 AMWA Early Career Award. Good to all those who entered. Keep an eye out for the announcement of this
year's winner
Don't delay...add this to your calendar today! Exciting details about speakers and workshops will be following soon.
Meet Sophia! She was a physio for 30 years before making the transition to medical writing, and now focusses on writing marketing and educational materials for health, medical and health tech businesses and organisations. Find out more about what prompted the career change, how she went about it, and what her days look like now!
Michael gained his PhD at Otago University and then secured a postdoctoral research position at the University of Oxford. He is
currently working as Scientific Director in the Melbourne office of Oxford PharmaGenesis, working remotely from New Zealand. His role
mainly involves overseeing strategy and content development for scientific publications across several client accounts.
He shares more about his journey, and some very wise insights and words of advice, on our Member Spotlight page.
Applications are now open for the 2024 AMWA Early Career Award. Are you the next winner?
Meet Lesley Cunliffe. Lesley is a freelance Medical Copywriter and Creative Director, working mainly in pharmaceutical advertising. She is also a new member of the AMWA Executive Committee.
Ian is currently a Medical Manager for CSL Seqirus, based in Melbourne. He developed a passion for medical writing during his PhD.
AMWA 2023 in Auckland proved to be an incredible two days. Check out a few of the photos!
What an incredible two days we had! Watch this space for photos and all the details from #AMWA 2023!
It's not too late! Conference registration is still open!
General registration is available up to the day, and you can even register on-site during the event. We'd love to see you there.
Dinner registrations have closed, but come and join us for the Networking Event on 24 August from 6.00-8.00pm at The Red Room, SkyCity.
We are thrilled to announce Amy Kelly as the winner of the AMWA Early Career Award for 2023. Amy's article is titled, "Friend or
foe? How bacteria in the uterus may influence IVF outcome", and impressed all our judges, including guest judge, Blair Hesp, Managing Director at Kainic Medical Communications and members of the AMWA committee.
We are thrilled to announce that Dr Siouxsie Wiles will be the Keynote Speaker at AMWA 2023! An unmissable opportunity to hear from this
award-winning microbiologist and science communicator.
Registrations will be opening soon!
Meet Marie Cheeseman, a freelance medical writer based in Auckland and a member of the AMWA executive committee.
Meet Dr Aajuli Shukla, a Deputy Editor and GP based in Sydney who is also on the AMWA Committee.
Meet Sheridan Henness, a Sydney-based medical writer who is also AMWA's Treasurer.
Meet Brisbane-based freelance medical writer, marketing consultant and AMWA executive committee member Eve Vickerson.
Meet Nicola Ryan, a freelance scientific medical writer based in Auckland, and learn about her journey to medical writing.
It was on a family trip to Mildura in north-west Victoria as a young child that I was first given penicillin. While I don't remember why, nor do I remember the rash I developed, it was then I was first introduced to my penicillin allergy - a seemingly innocuous friend that nonetheless threatened its pernicious intentions should it be taken for granted.
Viral nucleic acid tests, antigen tests, antibody tests, T-cell analysis, serology, sequencing. Just a sample of the terms and tech that you need to understand when writing about COVID-19 testing. Understand them all? Good, but I’m now going to spring a quick test on you – just like your favourite high school teacher:
I have lived my whole life with a rare disease I didn’t know I had. Only, recently have I come to know the name of it. This experience has been for me, one of equal part bewilderment, and of pieces of a puzzle finally slotting into their rightful place. A true watershed moment.
We are delighted to share the recent Joint Position Statement from our international counterparts AMWA, EMWA and ISMPP on Medical Publications, Preprints, and Peer Reviews which was published in CMRO.
Thank you to all of our applicants for the 2021 Early Career Award. We had many strong applications and we are delighted to announce the winner as Manuela Callari!
Achieving vaccination rates that provide herd immunity and protect populations from disease has challenged public health officials for decades. Vaccination against COVID-19 is no exception.
As countries around the world look to rapidly vaccinate entire populations against COVID-19, we take a look how this is being achieved in New Zealand
In the era of COVID-19 the interest in vaccine development and regulatory approval processes have never been greater. Find out how A/Prof Joanna Kirman tackles the big questions of how the COVID-19 vaccines were developed and approved so quickly.
Creating multiple vaccines for widespread use in the space of less than a year is boldly going where no humans have gone before. But, it does raise the question, how did we get here so quickly?
Congratulations to Halimat Atanda, winner of the 2025 AMWA Early Career Award.
The judging panel was impressed by the quality of her submission, 'Methylation Simplified'. One judge commented, “This was a thoroughly
enjoyable and highly engaging read. The writer made excellent use of literary devices to explain complex concepts. The flow was good and it
was written at an appropriate level for the intended audience.”