Veterinary Medical Writing - Special Interest Group
The Veterinary Special Interest Group (vetSIG) was founded in 2019 to raise awareness of Medical Writing in the Veterinary Community
vetSIG objectives
Provide a forum for EMWA members (in 2021 also for non-members) to discuss and share information in the area of veterinary medical writing
Present and illuminate the broad and diverse area of Veterinary Medical Writing
Encourage veterinarians as well as others to get in touch
Organisation Co-chairs: Cemile Jakupoglu, n.n.
Committee members: Jennifer Freymann, Miyuki Tauchi, n.n.
Supporting members: open to any interested EMWA member
Regular activities
The vetSIG hosts the “Meet & Share” session on the last Friday of January, April, July and October to discuss current topics of interest. Our regular activities include:
Contributing to the Veterinary Section in the EMWA journal Medical Writing
Planning and development of new EMWA workshops and other educational offerings (Expert Seminar Series and webinars)
Providing networking opportunities virtually and at EMWA conferences.
Get involved
All EMWA members interested in veterinary medical writing and networking with like-minded colleagues are welcome to join us. To receive an invitation to join our quarterly meetings, please send an e-mail to: vets@emwa.org
Quarterly Meeting
At last meeting was held on January 29th, 2021, and the topic for discussion covered career entry paths into veterinary medical writing, with reference to the varied backgrounds and experiences of our individual members.
Our next meeting will be held on Friday, April 30th, 2021 at 15:00 (3 pm) Central European time. Louisa Marcombes will give a talk titled “Sweet Secrets of Honey in the Air: Anatomy of an Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine (EBVM) Report” based on her experiences evaluating evidence on the use of honey on wound healing in dogs. We are also planning a poll question on a veterinary medical terminology conundrum and further topics for discussion. Please e-mail vets@emwa.org for further details.
NC3Rs (National Centre for the Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of Animals Research) https://nc3rs.org.uk
The vetSIG Story So Far …
EMWA’s veterinary medical communication special interest group was founded at the 2019 spring conference. A group of eight veterinarians came together at that conference. Realising just how many vets and vet-related medial writers were active across EMWA, they set up a group to meet, share information, and hold discussions across the wide-ranging area of veterinary medical communication.
EMWA’s president, Dr. Beatrix Dörr (herself a veterinarian!) has described the group as “vets and friends of vets”. Currently, we consist of about 30 “vets and friends of vets”, and that umbrella term covers veterinarians who treat pets and farm animals, vets doing veterinary or human regulatory writing for (V)ICH submissions, , vets writing for government and EU officials on public health, for pet owners and farmers, for the general public, vets teaching future vets, vets researching just about anything, and medical writers getting involved in any of these activities.
Our quarterly meetings have covered a range of topics from writing case studies, career entry and development, and One Health to the regulatory writing under the aegis of International Cooperation on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Veterinary Medicinal Products (VICH). From April 2021, we aim to include a “taster of veterinary medical communication” in meetings. Each taster is a short a talk delivered by one member about some aspect of veterinary medical communication. Meetings will also feature short questions on terminology conundrums.
As well as the meetings, we have our own section in Medical Writing, EMWA’s journal. Please see the “What we write for EMWA members” section for quick links and summary of our output
Drs. Beatrix Döerr and Isabelle Wohllebe wrote about the growing use if real-world data in veterinary medicine, following similar developments in human medicine (Vol. 28, No. 4, December 2019)
Dr. Beatrix Döerr writes about developments in veterinary medical research, Dr. Cemile Jakupoglu wrote about developments in regulatory veterinary medicine and Henry Smith wrote about the situation with a zoonotic disease in Japan (Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2020) See: Medical Writing | The Data Economy | Veterinary Medical Writing (emwa.org)
