Scientfic Content Editor

Position at WebMD

Medscape, a division of WebMD, develops and hosts physician portals and related mobile applications that make it easier for physicians and healthcare professionals to access clinical reference sources, stay abreast of the latest clinical information, learn about new treatment options, earn continuing medical education credits and communicate with peers.

WebMD is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, ancestry, color, religion, sex, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, medical condition, disability, veterans status, or any other basis protected by law.

What You’ll Do:

• Initiate production documents to include project features by adding appropriate sections and removing unnecessary ones
• Develop and format PowerPoint slide decks that supplement live and online educational content
• Generate tables and figures in PowerPoint from text-based educational content
• Provide instruction to graphics editors to create complicated figure recreations and illustrations
• Select images from our image database to augment educational content
• Identify the need to and obtain permission from copyright holders to republish images
• Perform quality control checks throughout the content development process to ensure completeness and consistency with product standards and requirements
• Facilitate hand-off of material from editorial to web producers and manage the staging review process
• Ensuring consistency and correctness in spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax, and usage per AMA and Medscape house style; applying judicious substantive and clinical edits, as well as offering suggestions for improving clarity, format, and flow (all while upholding the author's voice)
• Revising scientific language for usage, flow, and clarity, as well as ensuring facts, data, and scientific units have been used consistently
• Formatting reference citations according to modified AMA style
• Providing insight and guidance to other team members on editorial style, policies, and best practices
• Maintaining friendly and productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders by clearly articulating with an effective communication style
• Conveying edits and queries using a respectful tone and concise format
• Continuously identifying opportunities for process improvement
• Completing other responsibilities, as assigned

Who You Are:

• Have a solid editorial background in multiple medical therapeutic areas (eg, oncology, infectious diseases, cardiology, endocrinology, neurology) and in the healthcare industry (pharmaceutical terminology, clinical trial designs, understanding of biostatistics, peer-review journals, etc)
• Someone highly skilled in using all features of PowerPoint and Microsoft Word
• Someone with strong team-building and interpersonal skills, and a cultural awareness to build relationships with internationally recognized medical experts and colleagues
• Someone who takes satisfaction in the accuracy and consistency of their work
• A self-motivated, positive, critical thinker, with a willingness to accept varied assignments
• Possess a positive attitude, friendly query style, and who knows how to prioritize multiple deadlines in a high-volume environment and return work on time (and how to proactively assess and inform other stakeholders of any delays)
• Enjoy the opportunity to write and wordsmith, as needed
• Comfortable in a highly deadline-driven environment, and able to pivot quickly between tasks and adapt to rapidly shifting priorities
• Be a team player enjoys working collaboratively with members of other teams and departments, but works just as well independently
• A technologically savvy individual who can easily pick up new software to use Medscape and WebMD applications and content development tools
• Willing to work overtime, as needed

What You'll Need to Succeed:

• Bachelor degree in a life science, English, or journalism, or equivalent work experience
• Minimum of 3 years' related medical/scientific editing experience, preferably in a large medical education and/or medical communications company, and/or professional medical publisher
• Proven medical editing skills, with high level of attention to detail and experience in a broad variety of medical therapeutic areas
• In-depth knowledge of medical/scientific phrasing, nuances, and terminology, including statistical concepts
• Demonstrated understanding of editorial processes and procedures
• Proficient in AMA style and experience with in-house styles
• Familiarity with PubMed and similar sites to locate scientific publications
• Above average expertise using PowerPoint masters, applying animations, and formatting slides according to pre-specified template
• Efficient capabilities for developing and editing Word documents and performing image searches
• Excellent time management and organizational skills, with the ability to efficiently coordinate and work on multiple tasks simultaneously in a highly deadline-driven environment, while taking into consideration global stakeholders based across multiple time zones
• Ability and desire to meet deadlines and deliver results with minimum supervision by creatively using existing resources in a productive and/or innovative way, to quickly deal with unforeseen issues, and suggesting plausible solutions to ensure that timelines are consistently met
• Self-motivated, possessing a positive attitude and very high energy, with a willingness to accept varied assignments
• Exceptional focus on accuracy, attention to detail, and consistency of work, without being officious
• Excellent communication (verbal and written) skills
• Excellent computer software skills (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, SharePoint Online, Gmail)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Board-certified editor in the life science (BELS certification)
• Experience editing independent medical education materials
• Understanding of ACCME and/or EBAC and EACCME guidelines a plus
• Experience editing non-native English writing
• Experience with web-based document sharing sites (such as SharePoint Online)
• Experience using web-based project management tools (such as WorkFront, ProofHQ, or MS Project)
• Experience with ReadCube or other referencing software