ABSTRACT
Health care remains a basic tenet of our society, whether in the worlds of yesterday, today, or tomorrow; or whether on local, national, or international bases for provision. Throughout the international healthcare milieu, public attention broadens audiences for documents crafted by medical writers. Medical writers must broaden along with health care. New areas of research engender new topics for documents, and sometimes new media for new audiences. Just as medical writing ignited from the spark of medical breakthroughs, new flames burn as our technological society fans this current fire. Once, it was enough for the medical writer to know biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and other life sciences. Soon, writing, rhetoric, and language fortified this foundation. Expanding topics, widening media, and broadening audiences position the medical writer as more than a communicator. Indeed, by influencing behaviors toward healthcare practice and policy, the medical writer now becomes an agent of social change.
