Gaining experience of medical writing
Green Templeton is grateful to its partners at Oxford PharmaGenesis for offering an internship opportunity for clinical medicine students for the second year.
Zheqing Zhang (Clinical Medicine, 2023) writes:
I completed a four-week internship at Oxford PharmaGenesis, working with the Open Pharma team. I was involved in projects to promote open access publishing and data sharing in pharma and medical research. One of my main projects was to find and compile evidence for an ‘open access objection handler’, which aims to address common objections (general, internal and external) to open access. Through this, I came to understand the advantages and challenges of open science for different stakeholders.
After identifying useful sources of information, I synthesised and summarised findings from white papers, reports and journal articles. Additionally, I had two opportunities to write the Weekly Digest for the Open Pharma blog. This is a weekly summary of recent news stories and events related to open science and open access. Besides, I helped write a plain language summary for a clinical trial research paper, which tested my ability to present scientific findings in layman’s terms. Finally, I wrote a blog piece on open science in the context of rare diseases, approaching the topic from a patient perspective. For this, I interviewed two patient advocates with rare diseases, which was an impactful and memorable experience.
This internship opened my eyes to the world of medical writing and science communication, as well as the wider ecosystem of industry, publishing and policymaking that extend beyond what we are typically exposed to as medical students. I learned about the challenges of making scientific information and data more accessible, not just to institutions and researchers, but also to healthcare professionals and members of the public.
Moreover, this experience sharpened my skills in research, literature review, reading and writing. I was given a lot of independence to make decisions and take ownership of the projects I worked on, with feedback from senior team members, which challenged me to learn and improve. Having spent some time in the Oxford Central office, I found it a pleasant environment to work in. Everyone was very kind and tried to give me a variety of tasks throughout the internship.
Overall, I am grateful for the unique and enriching experience I had at Oxford PharmaGenesis, and I would recommend it to other students who are interested in research and writing.
About Oxford PharmaGenesis
Oxford PharmaGenesis is an independent, award-winning, global HealthScience consultancy providing communications services to the healthcare industry, professional societies, and patient groups. More information
