AMWA Southwest Medical Communications Conference

June 6, 2008
7:45 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Tulane University Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine
1555 Poydras Street, 22nd Floor
New Orleans, Louisiana

Registration deadline: May 16, 2008

Find out what’s in the future for healthcare in New Orleans while furthering your own education in medical communications at the American Medical Writers Association Southwest Chapter’s Medical Communications Conference on June 6, 2008.

The conference features a plenary lecture by David Hood, Senior Healthcare Policy Analyst of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana on Reforming Louisiana's Health Care System: Strategies for Change.

Workshops:

* Basic Grammar I (G)
Instructor: Jude Richard, ELS
Thorough knowledge of parts of speech is truly basic to good writing and editing. This workshop, originally part of Basic Grammar & Usage, focuses entirely on parts of speech and their use in the sentence. Types of nouns and pronouns, verb tense, pronouns and case, phrases and clauses (with special emphasis on verbals and on noun, adjective, and adverb clauses), and the types of sentences are some of the primary topics that the workshop covers. Information in this workshop is, in essence, basic to every other AMWA workshop. If you took Basic Grammar & Usage for credit, you can still take this workshop for credit if you need additional grammar review.

* Elements of Medical Terminology (G/SG)
Instructor: Barbara Gastel, MD
This workshop, which will consist mainly of lecture and exercises, is designed primarily for beginning medical writers with little or no biomedical background. Basic roots and resources will be emphasized.

* Statistics for Medical Writers and Editors (G/SG)
Instructor: Susan Bairnsfather
This workshop is designed for participants who have little or no background in statistics. Elementary statistical concepts needed to understand medical and scientific articles will be covered, including types of variables, levels of measurement, summary statistics, estimation and confidence intervals, and Student t test. Emphasis will be placed on understanding statistical presentations and on reporting statistical information—not on calculations or mathematical explanations.

* Advanced Writing (ADV)
Instructor: Marianne Mallia, ELS
Experienced biomedical writers will explore ways in which they can become even better. Participants will discuss the cognitive processes used by advanced writers and a few finer points of style, and they will learn some successful strategies for approaching (and completing) a writing project. For the precourse assignment, participants will begin to analyze the process used in their writing and the effect of writer’s block on that process.

Note that both Elements of Medical Terminology and Statistics for Medical Writers and Editors can be taken for credit towards AMWA’s Core Certificate or the Science Fundamentals Certificate.

Click here for the registration form.