AMWA e-news September 2010

Transcription

1 AMWA e-news September 2010 Greetings! AMWA has a new president, Dr Justin Coleman from Brisbane. Justin is an experienced freelance medical writer and columnist, and has edited four medical books. He s also a GP with a special interest in indigenous health. To see all the new members of the AMWA committee, elected at the 2010 Annual General Meeting, see AMWA Executive, below. The AMWA 2010 conference: I was really impressed with the high levels of presentations at the conference, and the meeting organisation was superb. Ian Muchamore, vice-president, Australian Science Communicators Excellent conference. Stimulating, engaging and highly thought-provoking. Excellent range of speakers not a weak link! Gary Layton, Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd. What s new? AMWA is surveying the membership about our conferences. Please take a few minutes to do the survey so we can work together to create a rewarding annual get-together. Go to survey. Participants in the social media workshop at AMWA2010 signed on to Twitter, many for the first time, under the tutelage of James AMWA members and supporters on Twitter are invited to add their names to the new list, oznzmedwriters. Those exploring social media may find useful these tips about integrating all the various tools. Some interesting health/medical topics being pitched by the public on the innovative peoplepowered YouCommNews website. Freelance journalists can register at the site if interested in story commissions Qualitative study just published on media coverage of health issues what happens in the real world, and what Australian working journalists think about it, and the public health implications. Croakey has a comment thread going about it too. Analysis of Media Doctor proves specialist health reporters do it better! See Amanda Wilson s published study. An AMWA member has drawn attention to this article from Reporting on Health, commenting it is scary for freelancers. At AMWA2010 film-maker Sonya Pemberton revealed how she had been targeted by the Australian Vaccination Network and received hate mail after the ABC screened her awarding-winning production Catching Cancer. Magcloud, a website enabling people to publish their own printed magazines has gone global. You send them a pdf, they send you back a printed magazine or you can use their ipad app. Thanks to NZ s Freelance Market for this tip. Warwick Carter s massive medical encyclopaedia (for lay people) is now available as an iphone app (from the itunes store) all one million words! AMWA newsletter September

2 Getting to know one another Natalie Korszniak, freelance editor, Melbourne Having completed a PhD in Pharmacology in 1992, I dutifully toddled off to pursue a research career. Despite enjoying writing papers and giving presentations, I found that the actual lab work needed prior to doing the fun things wasn t for me. So, after completing a post-doc at the Victorian College of Pharmacy, I left to take up a position with the Australian Radiation Laboratory to prepare a report for the Federal Government on the early medical uses of radioisotopes in Australia. Having well and truly left research behind, I then wrote a brief history of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne before moving on to work in-house at Blackwell Science Asia (now Wiley-Blackwell). It was like coming home! I loved the work: liaising with societies, authors, suppliers, copyediting (with the occasional rewrite of papers) and the production process needed to get the journals out. After the birth of my first child in 1999, I left Blackwells to become a freelance editor and have continued working on Blackwell journals, along with journals from CSIRO and Taylor & Francis. I have expanded my English-language editing work and now spend considerable time rewriting both clinical and experimental papers for authors whose first language is not English. I joined AMWA in 2009 and was co-opted onto the Executive Committee as of the 2010 AGM. I hope to help strengthen AMWA s position as a dynamic organisation supporting and promoting medical writing in the region. Featured conference Sydney Bloggers Festival, 9 12 November This conference will be of particular interest to those in corporate comms and social marketing. All about employing digital media in your business, integrating your blog with other social media etc. Sponsored by the PR Report. AMWA executive New committee: the following members were elected at the AGM held August 27, 2010 at the Victorian State Library, Melbourne. President: Justin Coleman Vice-president (and newsletter editor): Rada Rouse Treasurer: Tina Allen Secretary (and webmaster): Rhana Pike Membership secretary: Jacinta Miller Education subcommittee chair: LE Ohman Ordinary members: Natalie Korszniak, Mai Maddisson Affiliate representative: Lisa Yates For committee member contact details, please see the website. AMWA newsletter September

3 The new committee met for the first time via teleconference on 7 September. We welcome new members Lynn Gunning, Nadia Cerminara and Bruce Waxman. Website we like One for anyone interested in language Newsletter editor To contact the AMWA e-news editor rada_rouse@yahoo.com or call Follow me on Copyright AMWA 2004 PO Box 1261, Chatswood 2067 AMWA newsletter September

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