Welcome to another episode of Beyond the Thesis with Papa PhD!

This week, I'm talking medical writing, specifically continuing medical education, with my guest, Alexandra Howson. With Alex, we look back on her career journey after her PhD and we explore her expertise in making the PhD to CME career transition.

Get your pen and paper out! You'll be wanting to take notes!



Alexandra Howson is a medical writer, educator, and podcaster. A former trauma operating room nurse, Alex was faculty at the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh in Scotland for a decade, where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the sociology of the body, gender, and health. She left academia in 2004 and subsequently built a thriving freelance medical writing business in the USA that specialized in creating content for continuing education in the health professions. Alex now shares her deep expertise in health care and education with new-to-the-field medical writers. Through courses, coaching, and community, she teaches writers how to confidently create education content for health professionals and build a sustainable CME/CE writing niche.
What we covered in the interview:

Alex's journey from research to medical writing
Disidentifying with being an academic
The complexity of medical writing
Using your transferable skills for medical education
Day-to-day tasks in CME
The importance of building relationships for finding clients
Advantages of defining a niche: energy conservation, building authority
Making CME writing sustainable

This episode’s resources:

Write Medicine | Website
Write Medicine Podcast | Spotify

Thank you, Alexandra Howson!
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You might also like the following episodes:
Olivier Bernard – Debunking Pseudoscience

Kate Dahl – Reinventing Yourself after Academia

Merle van den Akker – Debunking PhD Misconceptions

Sirisha Kuchimanchi – Navigating Manufacturing and Engineering as a Woman

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