Alchemy Medical Writing Ltd

Happy Clients, Happy Alchemy How we go above & beyond for clients 😎 We live and breathe dynamic healthcare communications. And client satisfaction is our number one priority. From long-term clients to new partnerships, everyone we work with is treated with the highest level of respect and professionalism. And we strive for excellence in every project we work on. ✨ Everyone can say they go the extra mile. But the A-Team can prove it. Here’s a quick round-up of just a few pieces of unsolicited feedback our medical communications clients provided about the value our team delivers and our friendly, ethical approach: 🌟 “Jess your work on the booth was just so great; brings it all together and a coherent story. So detailed and well thought through. Fabulous!” 🌟 “Nessie, I wanted to say a huge thank you for the truly incredible job you've done on the functional cure literature review. Especially your insights on the deck (ie your assessment of how the conversation has evolved from 'no cure' to 'cure is needed'). I mean is there anything you can't do?” 🌟 “Mel T amazing work on the scientific platform updates! You have literally smashed through it.” 🌟 “Emily integrated so easily, communicated well and delivered wonderful content that the speakers loved. The quality is always great and she's quick to turn things around if any feedback is needed – we would love to work with her again.” We are super proud of our MedComms team for their outstanding work and feedback. A huge well done to everyone! Curious how we achieve this? Let’s talk. 💬 #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalWriting #MedComms

Alchemy Celebrates 🎈 Happy Alchemy-versary, Claire! 🎉 Today we’re celebrating 3 years of Claire Macdonald-Clarke, PhD, RNutr, one of our Senior Medical Writers here at Alchemy. Claire regularly goes the extra mile, and we couldn’t be more thankful. 🙏🏻 Her exceptional talent, dedication and positive energy is infectious and she’s a pleasure to have on board. And our clients agree! Her work on a recent Lancet Respiratory Medicine manuscript received fantastic feedback:  💬 “Thank you so much for your great efforts to get the revision to almost completion. So appreciative of your diligence and great work!”   It must be your Scout Leader values that help you engage and empower, Claire. The sew-on Alchemy badge is in the post. ⚜️ #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalWriting #Anniversary

Alchemy Celebrates 🎈 Happy Alchemy-versary, Lee-Anne! 🎉 Today we’re celebrating 4 years of the fabulous Lee-Anne Simpson, our multi-tasking wonder-woman and project manager here at Alchemy.  With her meticulous organisational skills and leadership qualities, Lee-Anne keeps the whole team on track. Everyone appreciates her calm, but disciplined approach. Here’s what Claire Macdonald-Clarke, PhD, RNutr from the team has to say: 💬 “Lee, thank you so much for being so caring and supportive to absolutely everyone in our team and juggling so many jobs, wearing so many hats every day! Sometimes I don’t think you realise how absolutely brilliant you really are!”  From deadlines to finish lines, Lee-Anne is always up for a challenge, whether she’s rallying the team to join the Banchory Beast Race or running solo. 🏃♀️ She’s a superstar that always gets the job done, with a rare mix of productivity and poise. Podium performance! 🥇 #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalWriting #Anniversary

Are Psychedelic Medicines Coming to Europe? 🌿 We’re following the progress of regulatory changes overseas.    At Alchemy, we work with several pharmaceutical clients in the psychedelics therapy area. And with 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 10 children experiencing mental health issues, our finger is always on the pulse of new advances. New treatments in this area would be life-changing for millions. 🙏🏻 As global interest in using psychedelic drugs as medicines grows, regulatory bodies are shifting towards acceptance. And for good reason – these types of medicines could revolutionise the treatment landscape for people with a range of conditions, from PTSD to anxiety and depression. So, what’s new overseas? 🌎 Some significant advances have been made recently in the United States, Australia and Europe: • The United States Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve MDMA for the treatments of PTSD soon, followed by psilocybin for various mental health disorders. • In 2023, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration approved the use of MDMA as a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to treat PTSD and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, making them the first country to allow these types of medicines for clinical use. • On the 3rd of March 2023, the European Medicines Agency issues a letter to Members of the European Parliament detailing its initial approach to using psychedelics as medicines and encouraging developers to engage regulators in the region.  We’re keeping a close eye on European developments as they unfold. What’s your view on the use of psychedelics as medicines? Drop us a comment below. 💭 #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalWriting #PsychedelicMedicines

“Say What?” 🤔 Translating commonly confused terms in medical writing ✏️ Who’s been practicing their adverse event reporting abbreviations since our last post? It’s time for another translation, in our new series of commonly confused medical terms. Words that sound the same can have vastly different meanings and lead to significant misunderstandings. And it’s so easy to do, given our fast-paced world of last-minute meetings and pending deadlines. 📆🤯 This month, we’re focusing on two basic but often misused terms – “effect” and “affect”. 👉 “Effect” refers to the outcome or result of a particular event, action or situation. In medical writing, this usually means the result of a treatment, intervention or condition. Example: The effect of the new drug on blood pressure was significant. 👉 “Affect” means to influence or make a change to something. In medical writing, it often describes how one variable might influence another. Example: The medication can affect heart rate. 😀 *Fun fact: in psychology, “affect” also means the outward expression of feelings and emotion.  Master this simple term and inject clarity into every piece of writing. What commonly used terms in medical writing do you struggle most with? Let us know in the comments below.👇 #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalWriting #MedicalCommunications

Learning Our True Colours 🎨 Using psychometrics to understand personality types Medical writers are known for their precision, attention to detail and accuracy. But what drives that? And in a medical writing team, does everyone share the same personality traits? 🧠 It’s an interesting one. We love a bit of psycho-analysis, so when we were given the chance to assess our personality traits using Insights Discovery, we went all in… Insights Discovery is a psychometric tool that uses a four-colour model to join the dots between personality types and associated behaviours. So how did we get on? Can you guess who our harmonising types are? And who the fiery ones might be? 🔥 💙 Cool, calm and collected. That’s the cool blue personality type of half of our medical writers, valuing knowledge, quality and reflection. 💚 The other half of the A-team lead with earth green, with traits of harmony, trust and support to boost our collaborative efforts. ❤️ And the lady in fiery red herself, our founder Dr Lesley Taylor, CMPP. Her passionate energy and fearless determination keep us all moving forward.  Our team’s unique mix of colour energies come together to make a diverse and dynamic working environment. You could say we passed with flying colours. 😉 #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalWriting #InsightsDiscoveryWheel

Neve’s Highlights Graduating from Alchemy! 🎓 Neve will soon be graduating from Alchemy. And we’re giving her a first! Here’s a round-up of her incredible progress… During her time with us, Neve worked alongside Emily and Mel B in our publications team on a variety of different projects, each offering a unique learning opportunity.  She impressed us with her unwavering enthusiasm and commitment to perfecting her skills. Here’s a snapshot of her schedule: 📋 Understanding and simplifying medical terminology 💻 Completing her first graphical abstract 💬 Using lay language to make research accessible for all  ✔️ Learning reference mark-ups and how to proofread  📝 Constructing journal templates  And in her own words: “I am thoroughly enjoying being part of the publications team. Everyone has been so welcoming and eager to mentor me which has made my transition into summer internship incredibly smooth.” Good luck with your Biomedical Science degree Neve, it was a pleasure to have you back again.    #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalCommunications #MedicalWritingIntern

The Evolution of AI in Healthcare Communications 🤖 All eyes are on AI right now. From an AI-focus at this year’s EMWA conference, to our own curiosity, we’re considering how we can harness the power of AI while upholding the highest standards in healthcare communications.   Currently, we have several commercially available tools at our disposal to help us speed up our processes. Most are still algorithm based, but AI is being introduced: 📖  EndNote to manage references (algorithm based) 👌🏻  PerfectIt to improve the quality and consistency of documents (uses advanced algorithms, with AI-like features) ✏️  Grammarly to assist users in writing more effectively and efficiently (uses advanced AI techniques) Some larger pharmaceutical companies and agencies are developing in-house AI solutions, but we’re yet to see tools that can help freelancers and smaller agencies handle content creation and data analysis, with a specialist edge. And we’ll always need authenticity, originality, and human intervention. That’s what makes our writing easy to understand, relatable, and implementable after all! Read more about our thoughts on AI in our blog  👉 https://lnkd.in/eaj5k-zA   #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalWriting #AI

Setting the Tone  Engaging Two Audiences for One Goal 👩🏻⚕️ 🧔🏽 When it comes to tone of voice, versatility is key. 🔑 In MedComms, we’re not just thinking about what we’re saying, but how it’s being said. That way, it becomes more engaging, understandable and relatable. From formal manuscripts to chatty socials, we switch up our style all the time. And recently, we had an opportunity to really hone it, authoring the same content for two very different audiences: healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients.  Our mission? To create two quick-reference handbooks to educate both HCPs and patients on a chronic inflammatory disease, including best practice management and communication skills. Writing for HCPs requires a whole new skillset compared with writing for patients. Here’s how we approached it…  📚 We established an overall tone for each handbook: Direct and instructional for HCPs, empowering and relatable for patients. 📚 We stripped back scientific jargon: To make the patient handbook accessible, we defined and simplified technical terms. 📚 We balanced efficiency and empathy: For maximum impact, we made sure our HCP handbook was full of practical tips to use in the clinic, while our patient handbook was written with empathy and sensitivity.  Find out more in our case study 👉 https://lnkd.in/eCAu2MJV #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalWriting #HCPs

Spotlight On: 🔦 Refining a Manuscript for Lancet Respiratory Medicine We recently had the privilege of supporting a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with their submission to Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The publication reported the pivotal trial results from a Phase 3 randomised controlled trial in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer.   Here’s how we did it… 🎯 We provided strategic guidance regarding journal expectations, Good Publication Practice (GPP) guidelines and reporting requirements for clinical trials. 👍🏻 We adhered to journal and CONSORT requirements. 🔍 We worked with a statistician to interpret the study data. ✔️ We prepared responses to peer reviewer and editor comments, coordinating with the relevant stakeholders to address requests for additional data or scientific rationale across multiple review rounds. Our diligent collaboration, meticulous organisation and clear communication meant that the manuscript was accepted by the Lancet Respiratory Medicine. And our client was over the moon with the results! 💬 “Thank you so much for your enormous efforts and great job! You are so organized! We are so appreciative of your diligence and great work!” Check out our case study to find out more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eCNiWenF #AlchemyMedicalWriting #MedicalWriting #Publications