AMWA2022: Plain Language, Lean Authoring, and Warm Networking at a Conference Dedicated to Medical Writing

The American Medical Writers Conference for 2022 wrapped up less than a week ago in Denver, CO, and while I still have a lot of catch up to do, I can’t wait to share about AMWA2022!

It gave us everything an in-person conference can ask for: excellent organization, plenty time to network, a great exhibitor hall, one of the best posters sessions ever, and of course, insightful, informative, and interesting sessions and workshops. We also had water, coffee, and tea available, and two out of the three days, brown bag lunches further helped us mingle with friends and colleagues and meet new ones.

Among the posters, I must mention “Regulatory Pathways for Drug Repurposing” by the fantastic Teresa McNally and Haroon Mohammad (I did not have the pleasure of meeting Haroon yet). I have followed Teresa’s work at Whitsell Innovations for some years now, and her contributions are always impactful: she shares powerful insights in clear ways. Teresa and Haroon showed in a poster—driven by a rhetorical story supported by visuals—the difference that repurposing can have. The process of various pathways was visualized from standard 505(b)1 to emergency use authorization (EUA) in such a way that visuals helps us easily see how each process compared in terms of steps and duration. And, speaking of visuals, I must also mention “Visualize the Story: A Process for Creating Infographics” by Jason Mathes (Associate Director and Senior Graphic Designer, RTI Health Solutions, Winston Salem, NC), Emily Gill (MA, Graphic Designer, RTI Health Solutions, Durham, NC), and Ryan Miller (Senior Graphic Designer, RTI Health Solutions, Raleigh, NC). They emphasize an iterative process that includes determining the question your visualization wants to answer, gathering and sorting the data, and applying a visual concept for unity. They show how preliminary ideas full of brilliant separate pieces can get transformed into an impactful and easy to read visualization free of clutter.

In the sessions and workshops, we had a strong presence of plain language and health literacy! Thursday morning, we launched the conference with a dynamic presentation by presentation by Susan Aiello (DVM, ELS, WordsWorld Consulting, Townsend, TN) on “Communicating Science to the Public.” Faithful to her veterinary background, Susan used furry and feathered friends’ examples about engaging audiences and developing trust. Did you know that parrots can imitate the sound of a doorbell? To encourage us to think in threes when writing steps, using examples, or listing warnings, Susan shared a parrot story: her friend’s parrot would trick her to go check her front door after settling in for a cup of tea in her kitchen only to discover no one was there. Guess hoe many times it took the parrot owner to realize what was going on? Exactly, three!

Thursday afternoon, Lisa Chamberlain James (PhD, Senior Partner, Trilogy Writing and Consulting Ltd., Cambridge, UK) lead the workshop “Writing Clinical Study Report Lay Summaries—A Survivor’s Guide.” Lisa walked through definitions of plain language and health literacy (focusing on personal health literacy) and shared the requirements from the European Union Clinical Trials Regulation (EU CTR) 536/2014, which, while published in 2014 has just come into application this year.

The EU Regulation was picked up Friday morning by the panel session “New EU CTR Landscape Changes for Medical Writing” dynamically moderated by Jeannene Butler (Senior Director, Global Head of Medical Writing, Otsuka, Princeton, NJ). The speakers included Dr. Simin Takidar (BDS, Post‑Graduate in Clinical Research, Senior Principal Medical Writer, Parexel, Jersey City, NJ), Dr Lisa Chamberlain James, Dan Bilodeau (Plain Language Summaries Manager, ICON plc, Wilmington, DE), Thomas Wicks (Head of Data & Partner, TrialScope Informa Pharma Intelligence, New York, NY) and Shirisha Kanthala (Associate Director, Incyte Corporation, Wilmington, DE). The panelists discussed how the newly adopted EU CTR changes the landscape for how organizations conduct clinical trials and create  medical writing deliverables. They briefly walked the audience through what the regulation asks for in terms of content and style guidelines.   

On Friday, two sessions covered from different angles the use of visuals in medical writing and patient education. In the morning, Laurie LaRusso (MS, ELS, Principal and Owner, Chestnut Medical Communications, Walpole, MA) gave an unapologetic “DIY Graphics for Medical Writers.” She was energetic, knowledgeable and full of information about creating high-quality visual elements without the help of a graphic designer. Using spreadsheets and slides, she shared tips and tricks that went beyond the usual how-to to identify and exploit opportunities for visual presentation.

On Friday afternoon, Liz Proper (Managing Editor, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN) and Mary M. L. Curtis (Managing Editor, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN) presented “Beyond Words—Learn How to Use Visuals for Effective Patient Education.”  They talked about design, illustration, data, photos and other elements to support your text. And mind you, support here is a huge word! They, like myself, advocate for show AND tell. Humanize images where the body is concerned, fall out of love with depicting everything (i.e., limit your visual content), and apply plain language principles to the graphics themselves. This last tip made me think of my favorite example about using familiarity and parallel structure to explain the strength and flexibility of spongy bone by comparing it to the structure of the Eiffel Tower. 

I must confess I could not make it to all the offerings. On Wednesday, we had a workshop on “Visual Communication” by Cynthia L. Kryder (MS, MWC, Medical Communications Consultant, Phoenixville, PA). On Friday, we had a “Lean Authoring” workshop by Elizabeth Brown (MS, PMP, Director, Medical Writing Oncology, Merck & Co., Inc., North Wales, PA) and Kimberly Jochman (PhD, RAC, Senior Director, Medical Writing, Merck & Co., Inc., Apex, NC), and a session on “Strategies for the Development of Culturally Competent Low Literacy” by Kristie Holt (MPH, MCHES, SVP Behavioral Sciences, Atlantis Health, Santa Ana, CA. I also missed the roundtable “Plain Language Summaries and Beyond: Tips and Tricks for Improving Outreach and Engagement” which was moderated by Sara Musetti Jenkins (PhD, Medical Writer, RTI Health Solutions, Research Triangle Park, NC). I really appreciate the presence of this topic at AMWA 2022, as lean authoring (or plain language for technical communciation) is a hot and exciting area—and what got me involved in the development of the ISO Plain Language standard (upcoming as ISO-24495). I passionately believe that most clarity guidelines can be applied across the spectrum of communication: technical, lay, and easy-read.

On Saturday,  I gave my workshop “Plain Language” with a full room of writers from a variety of backgrounds. After a brief context setting with definitions and rationale for plain language and health literacy (both personal and organizational), we set out to work on real-world examples for how to apply what I call RAISE guidelines: relevance, accessibility, intelligibility, suitability, and efficacy. While not a linear process, we can separate these aspects as we create or edit text to tackle content, structure and visualization, wording, style, and reader involvement and testing. We had great questions and better ideas from the audience! If you are curious about RAISE, reach out!

Of course, we had several fantastic association-wide talks. Dr. Leana Wen’s address as Alvarez Award Winner in 2022 centered around communicating health in the face of disparities, uncertainty, and polarization.  She used clusters of threes, humanized examples, and concrete statistics to share her points, thus applying plain language guidelines so needed in the communciation about public health. “Public health belongs in a nonpartisan state,” she asserted. And for that space to bring about better outcomes, we communicators need to foster fruitful conversation through transparency and intellectual honesty (even when it means acknowledging uncertainty), be open to negotiations (as public health is about values as much as science), and seek the hard truth while acting with dignity towards all involved.

Outside of conference time, we had the opportunity to mingle and make new friends and colleagues. I had rich conversations about education, relationships, and communciation. And mind you, also health and the weather. (Ok, diversion here: have you watched  “My Fair Lady” with the charming Audrey Hepburn? In the movie, the professor tells Eliza, played by Hepburn and who he is teaching to mingle in high society, that she is to keep to two subjects as uncontroversial: health and the weather!)

I had the chance to meet in person members of my Northern California Chapter, including President Faezeh Koohestani (MS, PhD), Vice President Mark Hagerty (MS), and Yule Lee who did a fantastic job organizing our dinner. Being able to feel at ease and go straight past the pleasantries to meaningful discussions with people with diverse and well-thought out views who are also willing to listen is a writers bliss!

Last but not least, I want to also thank the late Lori Alexander, who was a brilliant communicator and an inspiration in medical writing education. She had the patience and determination to bring elegance, simplicity, and warmth to all she did. Without her encouragement and support, I would not be in the industry today. Susan Krug, AMWA’s Executive Director who I met at the end of the conference, shared with me Lori’s desire to have me included in the back-to-in-person program. So, I also thank you both for welcoming me into this fantastic community.