Why so few medical techwriters

["Mark L. Levinson" <nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il>]

A year or two ago, one of Israel's major techwriting
contractors gave a little talk about his research into
medical techwriting.  He said he had noticed that while
recently there was less work in software, biotechnology
companies were opening up and new medical devices were
being manufactured.  However, he had found to his dis-
appointment that however much effort may go into designing
a little plastic stent for your artery, the amount of
user documentation does not reflect that effort the way
it does in the software field.  In short, medical products
need less writing than software products.

Maybe it's just as well.  Most of us will someday be
patients, and as you know, nobody reads the manual.

Mark L. Levinson
Herzliya, Israel
nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il



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