Discovering unconventional realms with Dr. Anubha Karol
Dr. Akanksha Mahajan
Dr. Anubha Karol, a distinguished graduate holding an MBBS degree from AIIMS Bhopal, discovered a profound shift in her professional trajectory during the third year of college. Realising that her true calling was beyond the traditional bounds of medicine, she embarked on a transformative journey into the realm of medical writing during her internship.
For the past three years, Dr. Anubha Karol has fervently pursued her twin passions—medicine and adventure. This unique amalgamation of skills has positioned her as a valuable resource in medical writing. Dedicated to her role, Dr. Anubha Karol actively supports fellow healthcare professionals in navigating the intricacies of securing non-clinical positions and bridging the gap between medicine and effective communication.
With an unwavering commitment to healthcare and the thrill of exploration, Dr. Anubha Karol continues redefining her path, meaningfully contributing to the dynamic intersection of medicine and the written word.
Q: What was the turning point that led you towards such a humungous transition in your career?
A: It was while I was on a trip, during a night trek with my friends, I engaged in a conversation with one of the tour guides and randomly asked him about his dream. His reply left me utterly awestruck when he said he wanted to climb Mount Everest, his zeal and his courage left me absolutely speechless. That was the moment when I realised that travelling was something I really wanted to do, to be honest, even more than medicine. I just felt that as medical practitioners, we don’t really meet people and talk about dreams that often. But that’s what I have been wanting to do ever since that day. So, I started exploring more career options that required my skillset as a medical professional and at the same time, could allow me to travel and embark on this adventure. Medical writing was one such avenue that I started working on, especially, during my internship.
Q: What is medical writing?
A: Any medical content that you see out there is written by medical writers. It can be anything including medical blogs, medical articles, medical research papers, medical websites, medical books, even the question papers that you see in your colleges, video content like- YouTube videos, social media content, brochures, medical documents in pharma companies, and medical device companies. So, it’s a really vast arena, and to begin with, you need to explore, what part of it fascinates you the most.
Q: What sort of skillset is required for medical writing?
A: Firstly, it is preferable to have a medical background because you are supposed to be working with numerous medical terminologies and all. Other than that, the kind of skillset that is required varies based on whatever area you wish to pursue in medical writing. For instance, if you wish to work on research publications, you need to have the required expertise for that; if you wish to work in medical marketing, you need to have that creative mindset along with the ability to create content which is easily understood by the general public, etc.
Q: How can medical students get into medical writing? Where do they begin? What are the various career options? How can they go about looking for jobs?
A: Most importantly, as a medical student, you need to build your CV based on what kind of career you are looking for as a medical writer, whether you wish to get into research or marketing, etc. For job searching, you can use resources like- Linkedin, indeed.com, glassdoor.com, monster.com, naukri.com. There are various freelancing sites available as well these days such as freelancer.com, truelancer.com. As a freelancer, it’s also preferable to create a LinkedIn profile for getting clients or you can also try cold emailing regarding all sorts of services that you provide.
Medical writing is a humungous field. There can be countless options. You can also pursue an MBA, or an MPH, and work with different CROs or even pharmaceutical companies as a researcher. Even various health setups are started by techy people most of the time who don’t come from a medical background, therefore, they also are really eager to have someone from a medical background in their team.
Q: Do you have any advice for medical students who are struggling to find their true calling?
A: Especially, if you are an undergraduate student, you are in a stage where you can literally explore as much as you feel like. You don’t have to restrict yourself to being a clinician alone. If you feel like, it isn’t where you fit in, you can try experimenting with so many different options. You can even start by learning digital marketing, and social media management, some of the unconventional areas for people like us, which are actually in high demand in the contemporary world. As a medical student, such kind of transitions are mostly considered unacceptable and most people are never really able to gather the courage to even think about trying. Your family may not be supportive and there’s so much more that might prevent you from pursuing this track, but at the end of the day, you need to keep on supporting your journey even when no one else does.
Q: To what extent has your journey led you towards believing, “words can, what medicine can’t”?
A: My journey has started to make me feel that somehow our medical system is sort of very constrictive. We are never really taught what medicine is, or what treating a patient actually means. Most of the time, as a clinician, we are focused on prescribing drugs. I believe that it’s a very limited way to deal with health. Moreover, how many times, do we really focus on preventing an illness in the first place? Pharma companies are relentlessly working on countless drugs to treat cancer and as compared to that, on the other hand, there’s quite limited work on developing screening tools and making them easily available to the general public as an effort towards preventing cancer.
