Bliss Mishler, MSPT

Bliss is a PT with a passion for patient education. She began working as a medical writer, editor, and content developer in 2009 and is dedicated to the spread of high-quality and useful health information. She helps healthcare providers serve their patients and attract new ones by extending value into the community and online.

Want to Be a Great Medical Writer? Get a Grip on the ‘Known-New Contract’

Being a great medical writer means putting yourself in your readers’ shoes. That can be hard to do when writing for the lay public: especially the more medical and science expertise you have.

With all your years of training and medical practice, jargon and medical concepts can become so second nature that it is hard to know when you sound like an alien-speaker to your readers.

But, you can leverage your expertise into readable and even delightful prose that fully engages your readers. Maybe you already do. If not, there is a formula you can follow! It is called the known-new contract. [Read more…] about Want to Be a Great Medical Writer? Get a Grip on the ‘Known-New Contract’

Bliss Mishler, MSPT

Bliss is a PT with a passion for patient education. She began working as a medical writer, editor, and content developer in 2009 and is dedicated to the spread of high-quality and useful health information. She helps healthcare providers serve their patients and attract new ones by extending value into the community and online.

More of an Analogue Person? Try a Bullet Journal for Medical Blog Management

This world of content marketing that Amy and I talk about is almost completely digital: we create content online, deliver it online, and most of the time we organize it online. Here at CB Medical Marketing, Trello is our preferred system for keeping our content and clients organized. And though I adore Trello, I can be a bit of an analogue gal. That is why, I organize my day-to-day personal and work life using a Bullet Journal.

There is something about working with paper and pen, making lists, and checking off boxes that can be so much more satisfying than clicking and scrolling by phone or computer. Sometimes it is just quicker too to just grab my bullet journal and see what my tasks are on any given day. Keeping a bullet journal is key to my own personal and work productivity, so I thought I’d introduce it here in case this analogue system speaks to you. [Read more…] about More of an Analogue Person? Try a Bullet Journal for Medical Blog Management

Bliss Mishler, MSPT

Bliss is a PT with a passion for patient education. She began working as a medical writer, editor, and content developer in 2009 and is dedicated to the spread of high-quality and useful health information. She helps healthcare providers serve their patients and attract new ones by extending value into the community and online.

Must We Always ‘Omit Needless Words’ in Medical Writing?

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences…― William Strunk Jr., The Elements of Style

Many of us writers grew up teething on The Elements of Style and still consider it our bible today. Sometimes, though, it is important to note that the original version of that book was written in 1919– almost a hundred years ago.

Without a doubt, language and writing has changed since then and perhaps more importantly, the medium of writing has expanded in previously unfathomable ways. Could Professor Strunk or E.B. White have imagined such a thing as a blog? [Read more…] about Must We Always ‘Omit Needless Words’ in Medical Writing?

Bliss Mishler, MSPT

Bliss is a PT with a passion for patient education. She began working as a medical writer, editor, and content developer in 2009 and is dedicated to the spread of high-quality and useful health information. She helps healthcare providers serve their patients and attract new ones by extending value into the community and online.

Be a Better Medical Blogger by Breaking These 5 Grammar Rules

Learning English as children growing up in America (or New Zealand, England, or Australia, I imagine) is easy. The words and grammar just seem to flow into our ears and fall out of our mouths. We don’t think about it much. Learning English formally in school, though, is another story.

Suddenly we have all these terms and rules to learn that make this native tongue, that we thought we had down, very confusing. But we struggle through, and we do learn the rules, whether they make sense to us or not. And as adults, we diligently use them in our writing in the hopes that we don’t come across as idiots.

Have you noticed though, that the way we communicate formally (whether spoken or written) has gotten more casual over the last few decades, and a lot of people seem to be ignoring many of these rules? In fact, in some media outlets, a blog for example, a more rule-based formal style can come off as stodgy and pretentious. [Read more…] about Be a Better Medical Blogger by Breaking These 5 Grammar Rules

Bliss Mishler, MSPT

Bliss is a PT with a passion for patient education. She began working as a medical writer, editor, and content developer in 2009 and is dedicated to the spread of high-quality and useful health information. She helps healthcare providers serve their patients and attract new ones by extending value into the community and online.

How I use Baby Steps to take the Pain out of Medical Writing

For me, writing can be painful and easy to procrastinate. I have chosen to do it for a living though because once I get over the hump, I can fall into it and time stops for me. And I love having written.

Sometimes I just loath having something in front of me that I need to write. Like getting a kid to eat liver and onions, I need external structures (like bribery) and trickery to get me to do it. And it’s how I make a living, so that can be a problem. I do manage to do it, though, by employing a number of strategies I have picked up over the years. [Read more…] about How I use Baby Steps to take the Pain out of Medical Writing

Bliss Mishler, MSPT

Bliss is a PT with a passion for patient education. She began working as a medical writer, editor, and content developer in 2009 and is dedicated to the spread of high-quality and useful health information. She helps healthcare providers serve their patients and attract new ones by extending value into the community and online.

How Much Does a Medical Writer Cost? AMWA Salary Survey Results are In

Writing the content for your website or blog can be fun, it is a great resource for your patients, and it will attract new people to your practice. But it does take time, and sometimes you need to consider out-sourcing this service.

Before you do, read Amy’s post, Searching for Mr. Write: What to Look for in a Medical Content Writer, and then take a look at your marketing budget. The good news is that content marketing is one of the least costly forms of marketing, so you might already have budgeted what you need. [Read more…] about How Much Does a Medical Writer Cost? AMWA Salary Survey Results are In

Bliss Mishler, MSPT

Bliss is a PT with a passion for patient education. She began working as a medical writer, editor, and content developer in 2009 and is dedicated to the spread of high-quality and useful health information. She helps healthcare providers serve their patients and attract new ones by extending value into the community and online.