As a freelance healthcare writer for more than 30 years, I’ve helped hundreds of patients share their stories of facing illness with courage and resilience. The first patient I interviewed while working in marketing communications at Rush University Medical Center was a young mother with breast cancer who lived in the Chicago suburbs. We met in person and connected immediately over our mutual love of greyhounds and corgis. She impressed me with her quick wit, still razor-sharp despite bouts of chemo-induced fatigue and brain fog. After describing the daily life of a cancer patient with genuine, self-effacing humor, she urged me to use her story to educate others on the benefits of screening.
As a former healthcare magazine editor, I had interviewed physicians and industry executives but never a patient until that moment. After we published her story, I realized that effective healthcare marketing content could make a difference in outcomes by motivating people to seek expert help for their health concerns. Since then, I’ve been privileged to interview a firefighter with a rare skull tumor, a woman who had debilitating GERD for 50 years, and countless other patients who chose to share their deeply personal stories.
Not long ago, it was time to tell my own.
Going Public About My Health Issues
Like many people who pursue writing careers, I’m an introvert who gets squeamish sharing personal information with people who aren’t my closest friends. I studied journalism so I could build a career turning the focus on others by asking questions. So, deciding to reveal my private, yearslong struggle with chronic pain and end-stage osteoarthritis in my forties was a big leap.
For courage, I looked back on my own copywriting portfolio of patient stories. Their honest, unfiltered accounts inspired me to go public — with my most personal byline yet.
From Writer to Patient Advocate
After finding relief from my hip pain, I wrote about having a hip replacement at 49. The story was widely circulated on Rush’s Facebook page, earning nearly 800 likes. Based on the response, my client asked me to document my patient journey in a video, which received more than 20,000 views on YouTube.
Sharing my personal experience has helped me understand the overlap between education and advocacy, which now informs my healthcare copywriting with greater purpose. Besides writing copy that educates and empowers, I also aim to create content that can remove barriers and improve health outcomes for individuals whose lives are limited by chronic pain and other conditions.
What Patients Have Taught Me About Healthcare Writing
As medical writers, we don’t question the importance of conveying clinical information accurately. We owe it to patients to apply the same high standards when presenting their narratives, using as much empathy and dignity as possible.
What’s more, many marketing materials set unrealistic expectations about what patients can expect after treatment. That’s why I strive to ensure that healthcare marketing content I write is supported by evidence from peer-reviewed journals and other primary sources.
If you work for a healthcare organization and need support writing clinically accurate stories that inspire, I can apply my years of professional and personal experience to help your patients take the next step forward. Contact me to learn more.
