The Invisible Skill That Makes Great Medical Writers Indispensable

“Am I even needed anymore?”

If you’ve asked yourself that lately — as AI systems crank out content, clients push for faster turnarounds, and science seems to evolve at warp speed — you’re not alone. The medical communications field is shifting, and fast. Writers, editors, strategists, and creatives are watching large language models generate reasonably decent first drafts in seconds. Teams are experimenting with AI to summarize clinical data, populate slide decks, and even craft key messages.

So what does that mean for you?

It’s tempting to think your value lies in how fast or how much you can produce. But that’s a dangerous trap. Because the truth is: you’re not a typing machine. You’re a thinker.

And the one skill that makes you truly irreplaceable — the invisible skill that separates a decent med writer from an indispensable one — is something no AI can do well yet:

Connecting the dots between data, meaning, and message.

Let’s unpack why that matters more now than ever — and how you can strengthen this skill in a way that not only makes you AI-proof, but future-proof.

The AI Elephant in the Room

Let’s be honest. If your job involves summarizing long PDFs, transcribing webinars, or translating jargon into plain language — AI can already do a lot of that. And it’s only going to get better. That’s a tough pill to swallow, especially for those who’ve built their careers around clarity, structure, and precision.

But here’s what AI can’t do:

• Ask why the results of a trial really matter
  
  

• Spot an inconsistency between a data point and a message
  
  

• Push back on a claim that doesn’t align with the biology
  
  

• Build a story arc that makes a strategy come alive for a client
  
  

• Sense what a brand is truly trying to say, not just what it says
  
  

Those are human skills. And they’re all downstream from one foundational capability:

Understanding what you’re working with.

You Can’t Tell a Story You Don’t Understand

Let’s imagine two writers.

Both are working on a leave-behind for a new drug in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer. The brief is to “highlight the benefit of progression-free survival in the context of earlier lines of therapy.”

• Writer A plugs the background into ChatGPT, takes a few snippets from the clinical trial publication, cleans up the wording, and generates a decent summary. It’s accurate, readable, on-brand.
  
  
  

• Writer B knows what EGFR is. Knows why progression-free survival matters more in first-line vs later-line. Knows what the biomarker means, how it’s tested, what the resistance pathways are — and how that fits into the physician’s mental model of the patient journey.
  
  
  

Who do you think the client keeps calling back?

The second writer isn’t faster. They’re deeper. They understand the context, which lets them spot what matters and what doesn’t. And that’s what allows them to write less, but say more.

That’s the skill. Not typing. Not paraphrasing. Not plugging and playing from decks and publications.

It’s connecting the dots.

“But I Don’t Have a Science Background”

That’s okay. Most people in med comms don’t.

And here’s the secret no one tells you: even most scientists aren’t great at communicating across disciplines. Their expertise is often siloed and ultra-specific. But your strength isn’t having a PhD — it’s being able to learn just enough to understand the moving parts, then translate them into meaning and story.

It’s not about memorizing pathways or being fluent in PubMed. It’s about knowing how to learn just enough science to be dangerous — to be able to read a protocol or a poster and see the point.

That’s not a superpower. That’s a skill. And it’s learnable.

The Stakes Are Real — But So Is the Solution

Let’s zoom out for a moment.

The next few years will be tough for anyone in medical communications who isn’t evolving. AI will eat the low-value work. Budgets will shrink. Clients will demand both speed and substance. The people who thrive will be those who:

• Understand the biology and trial design well enough to add insight
  
  

• Can translate complex ideas into messaging and narrative
  
  

• Know how to use AI as a tool, not as a crutch
  
  

• Build confidence in cross-functional teams because they ask smart, contextual questions
  
  

If you’ve ever sat in a medical-legal review and felt lost…
If you’ve ever nodded along while someone discussed hazard ratios, but weren’t sure you really got it…
If you’ve ever feared being “found out” because you don’t have a science degree…

You’re not broken. You’re exactly who this industry needs — as long as you’re willing to learn what matters most.

So What Can You Do?

1. Pick your battleground.
   You don’t need to know everything. Pick an area — like trial design, biomarker testing, or mechanism of action — and start there. Learn the basics, and then build outward.
   
   
   

2. Think in systems, not silos.
   Don’t just learn what a drug does — learn why it matters. Where does it fit in the treatment journey? What makes it different from its competitors? What does it change in the life of the patient or the workflow of the physician?
   
   
   

3. Treat every asset as a chance to deepen your knowledge.
   Writing a slide? Look up the endpoint. Editing a brief? Ask what the biomarker test actually detects. Every project can be a mini-course.
   
   
   

4. Find a way to learn that respects your time and brain. You don’t need a degree — but you do need a structured way to absorb the right scientific concepts at the right depth. That’s where tools like what we’re building at MedKnowl come in: designed for people like you — curious, creative, brilliant — who just want the science to make sense.

You’re Not a Content Bot. You’re a Context Builder.

In a world where AI can churn out paragraphs at lightning speed, your value isn’t in how many words you write — it’s in the meaning you give them.

That invisible skill — of connecting the science to the message, the data to the strategy — is what clients, colleagues, and brands will always need.

Don’t bury it. Build it.