Knowledge and attitudes of Indian surgeons regarding professional medical writing support

Abstract

Aim:The number of scientific papers published from India each year is low. We tried to determine how often Indian surgeons publish in biomedical journals, challenges preventing them from publishing more often, their awareness of the international guidelines that acknowledge professional medical writing as an ethical service, and their willingness to hire medical writers for their publications.Materials and Methods:A convenience sample of 100 of the surgeons attending a national conference were explained about the survey and asked to complete a survey questionnaire. All results were expressed as absolute frequencies and percentages.Results:Of the 81 who responded, 43 (53%) had never published. Only 31/81 (38%) had published in the last 5 years. The challenges preventing more frequent publication were reported to be the lack of support for carrying out statistical analyses (58%), lack of time (41%), lack of sufficient data (38%), and lack of support for literature search (37%). Twenty-two (27%) surgeons were aware that they could hire a professional medical writer (PMW), 26 (32%) knew that the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors allowed PMWs to contribute to articles published in the biomedical journals, 75 (93%) were interested in hiring medical writers or to consider it in the future. Only 6 (7.4%) showed no such interest.Conclusion:There was poor awareness and great interest in hiring PMWs. It might be beneficial to increase the awareness of clinicians about the scientific expertise and communication skills of PMWs and how they can add value to biomedical publications.

Insights of Healthcare Professionals into Medical Writing Support at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Saudi Arabia

“…Since knowledge affects perception, the higher knowledge of the senior and experienced professionals may presumably influence their higher perception regarding PMWS [31]. Moreover, a study was conducted by Das and Das (2018) on Indian surgeons' knowledge and attitudes regarding PMWS where respondents cited a lack of time and support as the key challenges that prevented them from publishing often [24]. Accordingly, the high perception of experienced researchers toward writing services may be presumed concerning the support it offer.…”

“…Assessment of knowledge and attitude is useful for identifying gaps and barriers pertaining to a specific problem and thus conducting effective interventions [20][21][22]. Several studies have been conducted in different regions to examine the attitudes toward proofreading applications and professional medical writers [23][24][25]. However, there is limited research related to healthcare professionals' knowledge, attitude, and perception toward PMWS services within Saudi Arabia.…”

Professional medical writing support: The need of the day

“…The current issue of the journal reports an important Indian survey undertaken with 100 surgeons attending the National Conference which shows that over half of the respondents had never published their work, citing either lack of time or lack of data analysis support as the main reasons for not publishing. [ 3 ] There was also a poor awareness of the fact that professional medical writing support is available and ethical to take. The respondents expressed a great deal of interest in utilizing such a service, if available locally.…”