I don't consider myself "a writer". If I wanted to break into this field, how could I go about learning more about it and developing the skills to do so?

Try the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA). It's the professional organization for medical writers.

There are also programs, usually at the masters level, for science writing. UC Santa Cruz has a well-respected program, and MIT has one too.

Has anyone here done any of these programs or is a member of AMWA?

My husband works with many physician medical writers. You may want to contact him if you have any specific questions about medical writing by visiting his blog (it's in my signature).

Thanks for listing the association! That will be a real help for me professionally.

Devi
www.prescribinginformation.com

What is the name of your consulting company or how did you go about getting this off the ground? I would love to get into writing and consulting but am having difficulty figuring out where to start or who to contact.

Hi!

I started my own consulting company as a medical writer. I started out by creating a profile with writing samples on Elance and have now edited and ghostwritten books for other physicians in my speciality - pain management. Since I also have an interest and background in CAM therapies and Integrative Medicine, that niche has proven to be a steady and continuous source of income. I have written some training programs, academic articles, web content for other physicians and now I am doing a video shoot for one of the programs that I have created the content for.
I am not the fastest typist or earnings would be double. If you type fast, and do a deep brush up on grammar and punctuation, and find a niche, like say, pediatrics, or psychiatry in medical writing, Elance is an excellent way to get started.
I am a recent member to this forum and i am surprised how many women are searching for non-clinical, medical work. I hope this helps. I have an interview I did recently for a blog in the UK about how i did this coming out in a few weeks. I'll share it when it posts.

Devi
www.prescribinginformation.com

If I saw a sample of your writing, and discovered what field of medicine you enjoy the most, or have the most experience with, I could give you some pointers. If you are comfortable with using the administrative side of web sites, it helps. Also, being very organized is a big plus. I don't use any fancy technology - just the GTD system by David Allen, a "Low-Information Diet," and Skype for phone meetings. It does help that I was using Elance for 2 years to "outsource" some of my admin, billing, legal and assistant work before I started providing writing services.

Hope this helps...

Devi
www.prescribinginformation.vom