Name: Pablo Duro-Ocana
Where you are from: Spain
PhD University: Manchester Metropolitan University
PhD topic area: Life Science. “How fitness affects surgical outcomes on patients preparing for an abdominal surgery”
Current job title and company: Senior Medical Writer – Bionical Emas
Current location: Manchester, work from home

How would you describe to your granny/granddad what you do for work?
I prepare regulatory documents for pharmaceutical companies. These documents are submitted to regulatory agencies, like the European Medicament Agency or the Food and Drug Administration in the USA, so research about new medicines can progress until new they are approved and marketed. Some of these documents are used to give patients access to unapproved medicines.

What does a typical day/week look like for you? 
I turn on my computer and review unanswered emails related to the projects in which I am involved. Then, I continue drafting the documents that I have in my agenda and need to be reviewed or sent for approval. In occasions, I have documents coming back from revision and I must amend according to the comments from reviewers. I also attend online meetings that set the start of a project or that control the well development of the project.
My role also involves operational management this means that I have to make sure that the medical writing operational procedure runs effectively, in other words, documents are ready according to timelines so the delivery of the whole project is not compromised.

What’s the best thing about your job?
Working from home and get to know a lot of different new therapies.

What hard skills does someone need for your job?
Good knowledge about physiology and research. I think the second is more important than the first. A good Medical Writer needs to understand very well how clinical research develops. The most common documents that I write are protocols, clinical study reports and informed consent forms. Thus, the knowledge I gained during the PhD leading an NHS clinical study has been useful. I learnt the importance of a well detailed protocol to have a successful clinical study, that clinical studies enrol participants frequently ill and they need to be treated with dignity and being well informed, and the integrity when reporting the results of the clinical study. In addition, a good knowledge about statistics is important to properly understand the results of the studies.

What soft skills does someone need for your job?
Good knowledge about Microsoft office, especially Word, it makes Medical Writing efficient. A Medical Writer should master all the capabilities that Word offers to make writing time efficient. It is important to create own quick access toolbars with the most used commands while writing and have ready templates with different styles that can be applied in different documents. 
One may think that good writing skills is important but usually the text included in the different documents can be copied and paste from sources that the client shared. Besides, new artificial intelligence softwares help to enhance writing skills. 
Good organisation is key, as a Medical Writer is always working in different documents at the same time and when the career progresses is likely to lead a team of writers to organise.
Good communication skills are important to communicate well with clients and colleagues in the company, so the projects run efficiently without misunderstandings.
Finally, attention to detail is a must, when a document is approved a Medical Writer is sure that from the first letter to the last one there are no grammar, spell or formatting errors.

In 10 years' time, what job/position do you see yourself in? 
I recently started a new position as Senior Medical Writer and I hope soon I will stablish my own department of Medical Writing in the company. This will give me enough experience about the business and provide me with the necessary skills to monetize efficiently my work. Answering the question maybe I would like to be a freelancer and start my own business in 10 years but that is something I do not have clear yet.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in your industry?
Understand why each document is written, for what they are used and what are the essential sources that you need to write every document. Try being exposed to different documents so you gather as much knowledge about the job as possible. After that, make your writing more efficient discovering new Microsoft Word functions. 

What advice would you give to someone coming to the end of their PhD?
Have a detailed plan about to finish writing your thesis. Meet the deadlines that you proposed to yourself, this will give you a sense of control and will increase your confidence. Do not think a lot about the viva, I felt that it is impossible to prepare for a viva; if you knew more limitations about your research you would have written them in your thesis, therefore you will never imagine which questions will come up during your viva.

How can people contact you?
Google scholar
Linkedin