Virginia Chachati

The main difference between a medical writer and a medical copywriter is purpose. To be clear, medical copywriting is just one of the may a types of medical writing.

When you write you should always think about your “why?”. What’s your purpose for writing and why does your writing matter?

With medical writing the main purpose is usually to inform an audience in an unbiased way. You can think of this as presenting the facts, and any advantages or disadvantages.

With medical copywriting your purpose is to persuade the reader. This persuasion happens through a call to action (CTA).

For example, you might write about a medical condition an online doctor website. Let’s say eczema.

As a medical writer you would write purely about eczema as a medical condition. As a medical copywriter you would also include a CTA.

This CTA could be to:

• book an appointment with a doctor
• consider buying a product
• fill out a questionnaire
• sign up to a newsletter

Medical writing is often the more “serious” sister of medical copywriting.

With medical copywriting, you have the space and freedom to be more creative. For example, you can create videos, blogs, social media posts and more.

Medical copywriting is used in the commercial or “marketing” side of medical communications (medcomms).

I’ve written for digital health brands, the NHS, online doctors, medical products and hospitals. They all require different levels of medical copywriting to grab the reader’s attention, and then entice them to take action.

For example, when writing video scripts for the NHS, I want to provide information and then encourage the person watching to seek medical advice from a healthcare professional if needed.

When writing for a digital health company, I want explain that I understand the “pain point” of the reader, then offer the solution as the digital health product.

Medical copywriting is all around you, and medical writing is too – just in different forms.

Other types of medical writing include medical education (such as textbooks), publications (articles in journals), regulatory writing (for clinical trials and medicines approvals), medical journalism (when you are interviewing people or reporting on an event).

Want to learn more about medical copywriting? Check out my medical copywriting course at Write Clinic.