I am thrilled to have Nicky Parry back for another guest post while I am out walking 60 miles to stomp out breast cancer.

White papers are an anchor of my business writing services and those for the healthcare industry have unique characteristics, particularly in the medical industry.

That’s a specialty of Nicky’s so I asked her to write a post on what makes them different from other white papers. As always, Nicky delivered with an informative post and plenty of great tips. Enjoy!

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Writing White Papers for the Medical Industry

by Dr. Nicola Parry

 

White papers are an important marketing tool in the medical industry, just as in other types of business organization.

Many people describe them as a hybrid between a magazine article and a sales brochure: the magazine article portion starts by describing a problem that may be facing the reader, and the sales brochure portion closes by telling the reader why the product can help them.

When it comes to medical white papers in particular, however, their tone tends to be much more academic than other white papers – especially if they are aimed at medical professionals rather than the general public.

Consequently they tend to become more of a cross between an educational essay and a sales brochure.

If you are considering branching into medical white paper writing for the first time, these points may be helpful as you start out.

Four Important Points To Consider

1. Know Your Target Audience

This is especially important with respect to your writing style.

General Public – If the paper aims to educate the general public about the benefits of a new drug, it is important to keep your writing as free as possible of medical jargon. This type of writing will need to appeal more to the emotional side of a consumer.

Educate Physicians – If, however, your report aims to educate physicians about a new drug or medical device, then although the report should still be reader-friendly, you will undoubtedly need to adopt a more academic style, using more medical terminologies, as well as providing evidence-based scientific facts to appeal to medical professionals.

2. Know What Problem The Product Hopes To Solve

Since the white paper aims to grab the attention of readers in order to make sales, you must convince them that this product will help them in some way.

Do your research to gain as much background information about the problem as possible.

If, for instance, you are writing a paper about a new antacid drug, your background information might include facts such as:

• The incidence of gastric acid-related problems in people
•  Who is affected
• Short and long term consequences of such problems

Your client may have some information to share with you about the problem, and certainly they may have some specific data that they wish you to concentrate on.

But it never hurts to do some of your own background research in addition.

Present your findings in various formats:

• Simple text
• Graphs
• Tables
• Charts
• Images

Although great content always trumps presentation, it is even better if great content is well-presented! Plus, when large chunks of text are broken up, the paper is much more readable.

3. Understand Your Product

It is vital to get to know the client’s product up close and personal.

Speak directly with client – Although they can provide you with a lot of documentation on the product, try to speak to them too. A conversation can sometimes provide a little something extra that a pile of documents just doesn’t convey.

Have a face-to-face meeting – If you live close to the client, try to meet in person for this. If not, a telephone (or even Skype) conversation is a great start. There’s no such thing as “knowing your product too well”.

4. Discuss How The Product Can Help The Problem

This is an important aspect of the paper, since inevitably the aim is to market the product along the road to a sale.

Understanding your product – If you have done your homework and really understand your product, it shouldn’t be too difficult to educate the audience as to its benefits.

Knowing your audience – This also allows you to pitch the tone of your writing, depending on whether you are writing for the general public or medical professionals.

Highlight features – Since the new product likely isn’t the “first ever” of its kind on the market, it is vital that you highlight features that set it apart from its competitors.

Using our example of an antacid drug again, you might want to discuss things that the company wishes to promote – compare it to its competitors by considering factors such as:

• Does it have a reduced incidence of certain side effects?
• Is a single dose effective for longer?
• Does it act more quickly, meaning it can be taken when symptoms arise, rather than needing to be taken preventatively?
• Does it have fewer interactions with other drugs?
• Is it safe for use by pregnant women?
• Is it safe for use by children?

Basically you should focus on what will benefit the buyer, and this often translates into benefits that the product has over its competitors.

I Have No Scientific Background

Can I Still Write Medical White Papers?

Overall, medical products usually need to be sold through a data-driven approach, allowing readers to develop some trust in their credibility.

Readers are much more likely to be converted into buyers if they are able to see the scientific value of a product in your paper, rather than getting the impression that the paper is just another heavy sales pitch.

Although a science background certainly helps when writing a medical white paper, it’s not a necessity. If you are a non-scientist, you may simply need to do some extra research into your product to ensure that you are comfortable with the science behind it, as well as any medical problems that it aims to alleviate.

So ultimately the most important thing is that you present your paper in a way that converts the science behind the product into persuasive writing that leads to sales.

BigStock Photo Credit

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Dr Nicola Parry is a freelance medical writer and medical editor in Boston.

Her website is www.bioscientificediting.com and her blog is http://bioscientificediting.wordpress.com/ 

 

 

 

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