My Bottom Line: Better Health for Patients
It seems that everyone and everything these days has a “bottom line” describing a desired result or reason for being. Businesses talk all day about their bottom lines, as do politicians, athletes, and just about anyone involved with any kind of goal, activity, or mission. The more I heard about “bottom lines” the more it got me thinking: “What’s my bottom line, and why does it matter to me?”
As the owner of a private consultancy, my bottom line could be based on how much I can grow company revenues and clientele over a given time frame. As a medical writer, my bottom line could be writing flawless documents that help my clients advance their research and products to win regulatory approval. There are many ways of gauging success and setting goals, any of which could constitute a bottom line. But for me, I found my bottom line in the most basic reason for doing what I’m doing: helping patients attain better health.
Even though we don’t work at the point of care as clinicians, my company is nonetheless a vital part of the vast scientific and human workflow that brings new and better medicines and therapies to people in need. Without research there would be no new medicines, and without accurate documentation there would be no regulatory approval, and hence, no new pharmaceuticals brought to market. I’m really in this line of work because I ultimately want to help people get better and restore their health. It really doesn’t get any more basic, or profound, than that.
My bottom line is the big reason why I’m so excited about the rise of structured content in the world of medical and clinical documentation. Here’s a stunning application of AI and other advanced technologies that makes a huge difference in the workflow that delivers trial results to regulatory bodies.
Structured content frees the medical writer from the tedium of drafting the boilerplate content that must be included in all clinical reports and documents. Time spent researching and cross-referencing sources is also minimized because a well-curated structured content library can find and present such information in a fraction of the time compared with traditional methods.
All of this means that documents are written and populated with pertinent information a lot faster than before, allowing regulators and review bodies to get on with their work a lot sooner too. New, fully vetted and approved medicines would reach patients much quicker than before, and that’s good for everyone: researchers, medical writers, pharmaceutical companies, and, above all, patients.
I’m excited about and proud of the work we’re doing with structured content authoring, and already we’re establishing Watchglass Consulting as a prime source for pharma companies wishing to benefit from the advantages of this technology.
