Medical Communications · Scientific Editor · Technical Writer
Judgment grounded in domain knowledge.
I assess whether scientific writing stands up to scrutiny: whether the reasoning is sound, the claims are supported by evidence, and the terminology is technically accurate. I edit medical communications, from proofing regulated promotional copy against approved sources to putting drug information into plain language, and I write technical documentation for software and APIs. More than thirteen years of scientific editing and 2,400 edited manuscripts have taught me when precision is essential and when plain language serves the reader better.
Portfolio
Fidelity and clarity work on regulated pharmaceutical materials and clinical manuscripts. The two apixaban pieces are self-authored training samples built on the public Health Canada monograph (ELIQUIS®); the third is a substantive edit of a published open-access manuscript. No client material is used.
The fidelity check performed before a healthcare-professional promotional piece is released. A mock ELIQUIS® web page was proofed against its approved copy deck; the annotated proof identifies all fourteen planted discrepancies, from reversed clinical figures and altered dosing to a dropped fair-balance line.
A dense, monograph-derived drug information page rewritten for patients, from a reading grade of 14.6 down to 8.2, over tracked-changes passes. The mechanism and safety points are kept and defined rather than cut, with margin notes explaining each editorial decision.
A substantive tracked-changes edit of the abstract and background of a published open-access clinical manuscript on nutritional status in tuberculosis patients. The edit sharpens the scientific writing and adds margin queries where figures need reconciling, statistics need defining, and abbreviations need to be spelled out.
End-user guide for a Salesforce CRM (customer relationship management) implementation, covering record creation for accounts, contacts, cases, and Chatter posts. Numbered task-based procedures with annotated screenshots and document conventions defined up front.
View documentAPI reference for a surf conditions data service: endpoint description, path and query parameters, an example request, and a full response schema with field-level definitions. Adapted and extended from Tom Johnson's Documenting APIs course exercise.
View documentField reference covering six corrosion types for engineers in marine and infrastructure construction. Each entry gives identification cues, at-risk conditions, and mitigation options, with a quick-reference comparison table.
View documentAnnotated before/after edits on open-access (CC-BY) research excerpts, each showing tracked changes and the editorial reasoning behind them, across the sciences.
One edit, in full
Before Decrease in wear resistance or increase in the coefficient of friction can lead to loosening of implant.
After A low wear resistance or high coefficient of friction can lead to loosening of the implant.
The original blames a change. What loosens an implant is the level, not the direction of travel: a material that has low wear resistance or high friction. That is a materials point rather than a language one, and it is the kind of thing an author rarely catches in their own draft. From the zirconia-toughened alumina sample below.
Substantive edit of an open-access preprint applying a neural network to cervical-cancer brachytherapy outcomes.
Substantive edit of an open-access preprint on use of physics-guided machine learning to predict cracking in recycled aggregate concrete.
Substantive edit of an open-access tribology preprint on a ceramic biomaterial for total hip implants.
Substantive edit of an open-access preprint on biofunctionalized carbon nanotube substrates for promoting neuronal outgrowth and neural regeneration.
About
I am a scientific editor and technical writer based in Toronto. My background is in bioengineering (M.S., University of Illinois Chicago), and I spent 13 years at Cactus Communications, editing more than 2,400 research manuscripts across materials science, engineering, and the physical and life sciences.
I currently edit medical communications materials for a consultancy client, proofing slide decks and product web copy against approved source documents. That work draws on the same discipline as my manuscript editing: accuracy against a source of truth, and a careful eye for when a claim says more than the evidence supports.
That editing background shapes how I approach technical writing: I am attentive to audience calibration, information hierarchy, and the difference between what subject-matter experts assume readers know and what readers actually need. I am also a published peer-reviewed author.
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