How to Become a Medical Editor – A PNC Classic from 2020

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 380

How to Become a Medical Editor - A PNC Classic from 2020

- Interview with Dr. Jennifer Spector
John: Dr. Jennifer Spector. Welcome to the PNC podcast.

Jennifer: Hi. Thank you so much for having me today.

John: I'm glad that you accepted my invitation to be a guest here because I've had this interest in learning about medical writing and also about being an editor for a publication that would hire medical writers or engage them in some way or another. So, when I saw that's what you were doing I thought this would be fantastic to add to that story that we've been following for several months.

Jennifer: Well, great. Happy to help.

John: Let's see. I always give a little bit of background. I've done an intro and I've put in there your background training and so forth. But, I'd just like to hear from you, directly, how you got into medicine, what you do, and how did you transition into what you're doing now at some point?

Jennifer: Sure. Well, I was always interested in medicine from a very, very young age. No matter what career at any given stage I said I wanted to go into, it was always something health `care related. When I was in high school I ended up shadowing a general surgeon back home in Pittsburgh for a while in the days pre-HIPAA. I had a lot more free reign in that OR than a high school student would have today. But I really, really loved what these people were doing and I really felt at home in that environment. That led me to a pre-med track in undergrad. While I was an undergrad I ended up working for a group of podiatrists. Just as a summer job, medical assistant type of duties.

I loved that they formed a real connection with their patients. I loved that there was a lot of good that they did with patients with diabetes. I love that they never saw the same thing every day. I really liked the fact that it seemed that they had a pathway towards some work-life balance. They had families, they had outside interests, and it really was a great example for what my life could look like in the future.

That's how I got into podiatry. After my training, my four years in podiatry school post-undergrad, I did three years of residency in Delaware and began practice in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I was in private practice as an associate for 12 years, partially in Pennsylvania and then later in New Jersey. Really enjoyed my work. I did a lot of work with wound care and limb salvage. I became board certified in foot surgery. I did a lot of work in my latter practice in sports medicine, as the practice owner was a runner and climber herself.

I really enjoyed that work. But, as time went on, and I became a mother and medicine changed significantly, I realized that my goals and my long-term track that I wanted to be on was changing. I started to see what I might be able to do about that, and what was at first a very long-range goal turned into maybe a five-year plan, turned into a one-year plan, turned into, [crosstalk 00:03:26] "I'm going to do this now plan." The lucky thing was is in the last five years of my clinical practice I had a lot of great opportunities to flex some non-clinical muscles. That's what led me on my current path.

John: Okay. We're going to stop there because I always have to rewind and clarify some things-

Jennifer: Of course.

John: Yeah. I've been in practice a long time. I actually was out of practice for four years. But, and I would say that I'm just observing that the podiatrist's role in my world changed over the years. 30 plus years ago when I started, I think there were a lot of podiatrists that weren't necessarily residency trained or maybe they had a year or two. Maybe you can talk a little bit just for those that don't quite have that much exposure to podiatry. What is the current state of requirements for training, number one. Then also, I was just curious. Do most podiatrists work in the office doing minor surgery? Do they work in a surgery center? Do they work in a hospital? All of the above? That would be very interesting as well.

Jennifer: Absolutely. As a requirement for admission into podiatry school you've got your standard pre-med prerequisites, all of those basic sciences, along with the MCATs for the vast majority of us. We do take that. Then it's four years of post-undergrad training. The first two years are pretty much on the same track as allopathic and osteopathic. The difference becomes in that we just specialize a little bit earlier in below the inguinal ligament, basically. Once we finish our four years of podiatry school, where there are rotations in non-podiatric fields, usually [inaudible 00:05:13] vascular surgery, trauma. All of those things. Then we move on to our residency. Which at this point is standardized to be at least three years of medical and surgical training, various sites throughout the country where that leads you then to board qualification. Once you're in private practice and working towards board certification like most young practitioners are, you could be practicing in a multitude of environments.

I'd say the probably the most common is someone joining a practice as an associate, and then having surgical privileges with a hospital system. I'd say the vast majority of our surgeries do take place in an outpatient ambulatory surgery center. However, we do have capability of performing some smaller procedures in the office. Also, some more complex procedures in the hospital environment. There are some podiatrists who are employed by a hospital or employed by a wound care center, perhaps. They do use that to be their focus. But I think the majority are still in outpatient private practices with inpatient capabilities.

John: Okay. I knew we had the same experience of as many of the other medical fields, I would assume, in terms of taking call and rounding on patients, post-op, and all those kinds of things. And of course we were always getting consults on our diabetics in the hospital, which you probably hated to see. I mean, it's like, "Okay. What am I going to do here when this patient's here for three days because their sugar's a little high?" But it was a good way, at least, to get them lined up with a podiatrist, I guess,

Jennifer: For sure. It's a great way to maintain that continuity of care.

John: Okay. You were doing that and then you had the long-range plan, or long-term plan, which became very short-term, I guess. It's makes me think that things happen a little quicker and you did make a transition sooner than you had initially thought. What were you looking for and what, I mean, what was the original plan in terms of not the timeframe, but what you were going to do? Or was that part of the issue? Like, "I got to figure out what I'm going to do."

Jennifer: I think in the beginning it was a matter of me figuring out what can I do outside of medicine? What am I qualified to do? I had been very fortunate to become involved with the American Association for Women Podiatrists, probably about six or seven years ago. I joined their executive board. I've worked my way through several positions on that board, most recently having finished my tenure as president. I really had the opportunity to do a lot of work with medical education, with medical writing, with editing, because we are a very grassroots DPM-led and run organization. We don't have anybody writing our newsletter for us, or editing our newsletter for us, or doing our social media for us. We do it all ourselves.

I really had a great opportunity to get some experience there. I realized that I had a real passion for medical education, for bridging that gap between the didactics and the people. I felt, over time, that that's where my strengths lie. Therefore, that led me to look for non-clinical positions in medical writing, medical editing, medical education, medical communications, and I was able to narrow it from there.

John: All right. Very good. You really had some on the job training in a sense. I mean, that position, I assume, was a volunteer position for the association?

Jennifer: Yes, absolutely.

John: And you guys were putting together these communications, whether it's newsletters or publications through the association. I guess the president had the responsibility and the ability to be involved with that very heavily, I guess.

Jennifer: It was more in the beginning actually, as our secretary does a lot of that portion of the job. But, I was also fortunate to be conference chair at one point, where we put on our own continuing education conference about every 18 months or so. That really was a great dive into the deep end as far as getting experience goes. But it definitely is what led me to some of the more current experience in that area.

John: Now, once you had already had the writing and editing experience then, and you started looking for something, did you look specifically for associate editor or editor jobs? Or were you thinking about becoming a writer or a freelance writer or something? How did that go through the process in your thinking?

Jennifer: You know, I think I sent my resume to half a million places. I would search for medical writer, medical editor, and medical education on LinkedIn and Glassdoor and all of those usual sites. Really, I just wanted to see where things would land. I was hoping to get some experience with the interview process and with the application process. I pretty much I cast a very wide net in the beginning, but it served me well in the end. When I actually applied for my current position, I did not know what publication it was with. I only knew the parent company, which I had recognized the name of the parent company as being the one that had a journal in my profession. But I also knew they had multiple other journals that I felt that my experience would lend itself to. I was excited about the opportunity regardless, but when I found out that it was actually for a journal in my specialty, I was ecstatic.

John: That really was pretty fortuitous then. You didn't know at the time that you tried to send your resume in. But let me back up again. As you were going through this process, you were learning a lot, right? Because as you were doing the applications, you were sending your resumes out, you were looking at all the job descriptions. Right?

Jennifer: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

John: To me, I mean, that's a learning process right there. Okay. What are they putting in that job description? Wow. There's things in here that are very similar from place to place looking for a writer or looking for an editor. Those kinds of things started to gel for you and it really made sense that you were looking where you would be happy?

Jennifer: Yes, it really did. I really enjoyed the fact that they're working with clinical information. Sometimes that clinical information was going to be conveyed to consumers or patients, and sometimes it was going to be conveyed to fellow health care workers. I have prided myself over the years on being able to be a connection or a bridge between that gap. Whether it be as a physician bridging the educational gap to patients or families, or to fellow practitioners when we're putting our heads together on a case. I felt that would translate really well into that education and writing environment.

John: The parent company for the journal or the magazine that you work for now, is pretty big, so they probably have a pretty standardized approach to interviewing and hiring. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Jennifer: Yes, absolutely. I did initially have an interview over Zoom, an intake interview, with somebody from the HR department. It was just basic review of my application, review of my background, assessing my reason for wanting to transition, because that was obvious from my resume. Just talking a little bit about the requirements of the position and if I felt it would be a good fit. It was my first Zoom interview ever, so I was terrified of technical difficulties, but luckily that didn't happen. Then after that I was asked back for an in-person interview with multiple staff members at the publication.

John: Was that anywhere near where you live or was that at a distance or-

Jennifer: I was very lucky that it's relatively close to where I live. It was actually closer than my last practice. I was-

John: Wow.

Jennifer: In my last practice I was commuting about an hour each way. By choice, because it was a great place. But this is probably about 35 minutes from my home and I don't have to cross state lines to do it. That was a bonus for me. It was a very comfortable process. They did a great job of making it clear that they wanted to get to know the applicant and what their strengths they could bring to the table.

John: That's awesome. I have more questions. I guess I should've asked you this before we started today, but is there any problem with us discussing the name of the company?

Jennifer: No, I don't think so.

John: Okay. It's Podiatry Today, and it's part of this large group, this large parent organization. It's very similar, probably, to other, these journals, these online and paper journals. Tell us about that process in terms of once you started and what that's like. I'm interested in whether it's something you do from home, or you have to travel there every day. All those kinds of things.

Jennifer: Right. Well, my answer is different both pre and post-COVID-19. Pre-COVID-19 I was in the office. In the beginning five days a week. A very regular schedule, which was a breath of fresh air for me. Having not had pretty much a regular schedule for my entire adult career. The office was a very interconnected and very team approach environment, which was fantastic. I had immediate access to so many people with such rich experience that I was made to feel welcome very quickly. I needed a lot of help in the beginning because it's a whole different world and a whole different language I had to learn between the editing process, the ... I know a lot of physicians struggle with EMR in the beginning. I felt like I was learning a brand new EMR.

John: Really? Okay.

Jennifer: As far as working with our publishing process. I did, over time, I was granted the ability to work from home one day per week, which was standard at our company. I loved it. It was a phenomenal flexibility that really helped me as a person and as a mom. Then COVID-19 came and our company made the decision to have all the employees work from home for a time. That was a big transition for everybody. But I think our team was phenomenal in making sure that communication lines were open and ready to go. We all became intimately familiar with our Zoom capabilities. Most of us have continued to work primarily from home at this point, although our offices are open. I believe after Labor Day we're going to reassess what our plan is in that respect.

John: Well, heck. You know, if you have to commute 30 or more minutes, then just think of that time saved and you can actually spend another hour working or not. I mean, that's just good now. Of course, I'd miss all my podcasts that I listen to if I wasn't in the car driving to and from work. Okay. What are the core responsibilities? I mean, we assume we know what an editor does. But I guess, what does an editor do? Maybe there's things that you're doing that maybe you hadn't thought an editor typically would do. Like to hear more about what you're actually doing in your job.

Jennifer: Absolutely. I love everything I've been doing. I've been able to learn so many new skills and I'm continuing to learn and improve on them every day. The basis of what I do in my position is I'm responsible for the first pass edit of any piece that comes across our desk. Whether it be intended for the print journal or as an online exclusive, I'm the first person to go through and make those edits, both for style of our magazine, for layout purposes, and also just general edits to improve a piece. It then gets passed onto my executive editor who takes the second pass at it. Then we go through a layout process. I had to learn multiple layout capabilities and software programs, and many different steps of the editorial process through a Word document to layout, to proofs, to the actual publication process.

I'm also responsible for the maintenance of our online website, as far as maintaining the content. Anything that's in our print journal will end up on the online website, along with online exclusives we have every month. We also have DPM blogs that run several times a week that we're responsible for putting through the editorial process and publishing. We've started a podcast ourselves too in the past several months. We've been really expanding our multimedia reach, so I've been learning how to edit multimedia, how to publish a multimedia. We also have a strong social media presence. We have a Facebook page, a Twitter page, and a LinkedIn group at this point, which part of my job is to make sure that we are posting twice a day, for the most part, on those websites. That's all our-

John: [crosstalk 00:19:16] you're responsible to make sure you have two posts on each of those social media platforms?

Jennifer: For the most part. I think one of them we do only once a day [inaudible 00:19:27] multiple times a day across multiple sites and always looking to improve our reach as well. We might be expanding our social media outlook for the next several months too.

John: All right. Well, let me go back to the beginning of the whole process. Who decides what is going to be published? It sounded like you were already in some a queue with these people, you're working with them, and making sure things are appropriate. You're doing the first pass. But who decided whether we're going to talk about topic X, Y, or Z?

Jennifer: It's a very collaborative effort between our editorial board, our contributing authors, various key opinion leaders in our field, and our editorial staff. We determine a loose editorial calendar very early in the process so that we have ideas of generally what each issue is going to look like for the year to come. We are working on 2021 as we speak. Then from there we see what else may fit along the way. We always want to make sure that we're representing a wide variety of topics across podiatry, including surgery, including limb salvage, including biomechanics, practice management, all different types of topics. Our executive editor is leading the charge on that, but it's definitely a collaborative effort among many people.

John: Okay. I'm assuming like when COVID came up then there had to be something squeezed in there that wasn't in the original plan from six months before. Makes good sense, obviously. Okay. That's really interesting. How would someone prepare themselves for a role like you're in now? How would it be different, if at all, than just, say, being a very good writer or having worked with other editors?

Jennifer: Yeah. I think learning a little bit more about the conventions of the American Medical Association style of editing, knowing a little bit more about that is extremely helpful. I think, also, getting to know what other publications are doing, especially in your field or in your area of interest. Having a pulse on what they're good at and what might need to improve for the future. I was very familiar with the publication that I currently work for. It was something that I read prior too, obviously. That was also a big help because I already had a first-hand knowledge of the types of articles that ran in the publication, the authors that generally tended to pop up more often. I think that really helped me a lot because I was able, I already had a grasp of the vision of what the end product should be.

John: Okay. Yeah. That definitely helps a lot. You're in the specialty to begin with and you've already been consuming that, so that's very helpful. But a lot of those things I would assume would apply to many other medical journals. There's so many things that overlap, I would guess.

Jennifer: Absolutely. I think so too.

John: If there's some writers out there, how much of your writing is done by in-house writers versus, let's say, people that just submit articles that might be working podiatrists, or what have you?

Jennifer: The majority of what goes into our journal is preplanned. Not in house, per se. They're all docs that are out there practicing, researching, lecturing, really involved in the field and in their areas of expertise. But we do have writers that send us submissions for consideration. When they are applicable, and when they're right, a good fit for us, we do accept those. They could end up being online exclusive pieces. They could end up being a guest blog depending on the format and the topic. But yeah, we do work with both channels of submission.

John: If somebody was interested, they could go to podiatrytoday.com, which is the online website, which also has the blog in there and everything. But they could find someone to contact there if they wanted to submit or get some information about how to submit an article or something.

Jennifer: Absolutely. There is a brief explanation on our website along with our contact information as the editorial staff. Many people have contacted us through that route with no problem.

John: Then, if there are other clinicians listening that would like to just get a better idea of some of the other journals that are being published by the parent, the parent's name is what?

Jennifer: It's HMP Global. There are multiple publications and medical conferences throughout multiple fields of health care.

John: If they looked them up they would see the different publications and maybe one would appeal more than another if they're writing articles of a certain nature or certain clinical topics and so forth.

Jennifer: Yeah-

John: Okay. Well, that's good to know, for those out there that might want to pursue that. Because I get questions all the time from writers. Like, "How do I get started?" And, "Where do I find publications to write for?" And, "Do I always get paid?" Which, at some point you better get paid. But there are things you can submit and not get paid just to establish some kind of authority. But once we're talking about writing for a medical journal or publication like this, hopefully there's going to be some standardized payment that would result. Very useful information. That's great.

All right. Well, let's see. What other advice would you have for physicians who are thinking about they maybe have done some writing, but they're really thinking, "This editor position sounds pretty interesting." Any other advice you would give them that would help to get them moving along a little bit?

Jennifer: I think potentially working [inaudible 00:25:31] physician [inaudible 00:25:32] if it's a good fit, could be a fantastic way to go when you're looking into this type of thing. I did work with one and it was immensely helpful for me. I knew I had skills that would translate into a non-clinical environment, but I didn't exactly have a clear vision of what that might look like or where that might best fit. Someone like that may have the background and tools to help you move forward in that respect.

I also think that just writing anywhere you can, and editing anywhere you can, is a great tool to have a portfolio. When I was asked for writing and editing samples, for the most part, what I was able to give was blog posts for my previous practice, the newsletter from the organization that I mentioned, both from a writing perspective and an editing perspective. The other [inaudible 00:26:32] I would also say is don't sell yourself short. As physicians, we develop such deep and diverse skillsets that I don't think we realize we're developing. There's distinct leadership capability. There is distinct organizational skills. And, depending on the individual practice and person, there could be regulatory, research, writing. There's so many things that we might have dipped our toes into in clinical practice without realizing how they can apply outside of actual practice.

John: I think that's great advice. That's very helpful. I was going to ask you earlier, but you got a little bit of the coaching. Did you do anything along the lines earlier in terms of anything formal in terms of the writing side of things? Any courses, or did you have anyone look at your writing? Anything like that?

Jennifer: I didn't, but I was certainly willing to. I did research those opportunities and I was very open to pursuing them. Had I not been successful at the stage that I was in, it certainly would have been another step I would have readily turned to. I was willing to obtain additional certification, additional courses, whatever it would take to make my background more appealing to those looking at the resumes. I think it's a great tool. I was just fortunate that things worked out at an earlier stage for me.

John: I think it's about 50/50 in people that I talked to. Though many physicians have, they've been writers their whole life in one form or another. They've always been writing something and a certain percentage just like it. They'll just write because they like to write and they'll contribute. They just learn and really don't need the formal training. But there are courses you can even take at a local community college that matter. They'll look at your writing and give you feedback if you're feeling a little rusty.

All right. Well, I think we're going to run out of time here any minute. I always say that. We could probably go on for another half hour. But I think it's only, I should respect your time. I think I've got a really good idea about pursuing a job as an editor, and at least in this particular type, as opposed to say technical writing or something like that. I really appreciate it. This has been very eye-opening and it really helps us all think more about where we would fit in, in terms of writing or editing and how to pursue a career like that.

Jennifer: Well, thank you. I am so happy that I made the leap when I did. I'm so happy with where I ended up. I really encourage anyone that's looking into a non-clinical career to not give up, to believe in themselves, and to continually search for what is out there. My husband used to tell me when I was going through this process, that I shouldn't get frustrated because the right job for me wasn't ready for me yet. Although [inaudible 00:29:36] in the end he was totally right, so I have to give that credit.

John: You know, t's just amazing because people have some of these limiting beliefs and some fears about making the transition and have almost no idea where to start. Then I find similar other people that were in your position. This perfect job just showed up. I think they're out there, but we're not looking so we don't know they even exist. They're just flying by us every day and we have no idea. But as soon as we start to turn that part of our brain on to look and be open to these opportunities, they just show up.

I mean, I can tell you about other people who made a decision to switch and the job showed up a week later. I mean, just really remarkable things that you can't count on that. It might take some work. It might take some time. But boy, there's so many opportunities for physicians. It's just amazing. you're a really good example of that. It's great. I'm sure we all love to hear that you're happy doing what you're doing now.

Jennifer: I am, I love what I'm doing. I love the company I work for. I hope that other people wishing to make this transition have that opportunity as well.

John: Yeah. It's so inspirational to hear someone that's done it and it didn't take 20 years to make the transition. Okay. Now, someone might want to get ahold of you. I know they could probably track you down at podiatrytoday.com. But you're also on LinkedIn, correct?

Jennifer: Absolutely.

John: If we look for Jennifer Spector, we're going to find you there? DPM and ask a few questions without being overly burdening to you. But we really appreciate that you've made yourself available for us today.

Jennifer: Of course. I'm happy to answer questions that anybody might come up with.

John: All right, then. With that, Jennifer, I will say goodbye. And thanks again.

Jennifer: Thank you. Have a nice day.

This transcript was exported on Sep 01, 2020 - view latest version here.

PNC Episode 160 Jurica Spector Combined Tracks -... (Completed 08/31/20)

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