AMWA EXPANDS CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The AMWA workshop and certificate program is expanding! Medical communication has changed significantly since AMWA started its flagship workshop and certificate program more than 30 years ago. To reflect this changing environment and to meet the evolving needs of our members and the profession, AMWA ’s educational program is being updated. The updated program will raise quality standards, expand our workshops offerings and certificates, and ensure consistency of requirements in the certificate program across all tracks.

The original purpose of the certificate program remains the guiding principle of the updated program: to ensure that a comprehensive set of relevant communication skills is provided regardless of particular job function, environment, or specialty.

The New Tracks

The new certificate tracks follow a discipline-based approach that allows for future growth and that increases flexibility for AMWA members and the profession. The foundation of the program is formed by a new track called Essential Skills. Beyond Essential Skills are 4 specialty tracks, each focusing on an area of key interest.

• Essential Skills (ES)—the new “core,” ie, skills that all medical communicators should possess, regardless of the area in which they work
• Specialty Tracks

• Composition and Publication (CP)—specialized editorial and publication skills
• Regulatory and Research (RR)—specialized regulatory writing/drug development and scientific research skills
• Business (B)—management and operations skills for freelance and larger organizations
• Concepts in Science and Medicine (SM)—broad, introductory concepts in science and medicine for nonscientists, or as refreshers
• All advanced workshops will also still be offered, and new certificate programs for advanced specialty tracks will be added in the upcoming months.

Certificate Requirements

• A separate certificate can be earned in each of the 5 tracks listed above.Each certificate will require successful completion of 8 workshops (including 1 ethics-related workshop) in the relevant track within 6 years of enrollment.
• You can enroll in multiple tracks and pursue multiple certificates at the same time.
• However, an Essential Skills, Core, or Advanced certificate will be required before you can earn a certificate in a specialty track.
• As before, you can take any workshop from any track at any time, but earning workshop credit toward a certificate in a track requires being enrolled in that track.

Transition Issues

• No workshop credits will be lost! If you are currently enrolled in an existing certificate track, you can complete the original certificate track, or transition into the new system to earn the relevant certificate(s). As always, credit for a workshop can be applied only once, toward only 1 certificate.
• If you have already earned a current Core or Advanced certificate, you can enroll in a specialty track immediately (ie, a Core or Advanced certificate can be substituted for an Essential Skills certificate).

We know you’ll be excited about this and want to check your certificate records. Headquarters is in the process of adding the many credits that were earned at the recent Dallas conference, so please be patient.

More to Come

Watch for more updates and detailed information about the expanded educational program and certificate offerings over the next several months in the AMWA Journal and on the AMWA Web site!

Susan E. Aiello, DVM, ELS
Chair, 2008-09 Certificate Expansion Subcommittee

Douglas Haneline, PhD
2009-10 Education Administrator

Dane Russo
AMWA’s Education Manager

AMWA-Northwest (AMWA-NW) is an official chapter of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA). Our members create and edit biomedical communications for a variety of businesses and organizations. We have approximately 230 Pacific Northwest members living in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and British Columbia, Canada.

Through symposiums, chapter meetings, and informal social gatherings, the NW chapter promotes the professional development of its members and provides opportunities for networking and information sharing among colleagues.

AMWA-NW events are open to the public and provide a great way to become acquainted with our organization.