A Veterinarian’s Journey to Medical Writing

As a child, Kathy Adamson was the one with the shoebox full of frogs and spiders, spending her days exploring outdoors in an era before cell phones kept kids inside. This early fascination with animals, combined with an early inclination toward reading and writing—which drew her to major in English and minor in philosophy—would eventually lead her to an unexpected career combining both passions.

The path revealed itself gradually. After completing her veterinary degree and a year-long rotating internship where she trained other students, Adamson entered private practice. There, she found herself gravitating toward the communications side of veterinary medicine. “I was always the one who would write up a little blurb for the newspaper or for clients,” she recalls. “Everyone just naturally asked me, and then I started doing it naturally.”

Her writing role evolved further when she began exploring ways to balance her professional expertise with family life. She transitioned to relief work, filling in at various practices, but continued to think about how to better utilize her unique combination of skills. “I always kind of had in the back of my mind, ‘What can I do from home that still uses my degree and my knowledge and my love of animals?’ And I just kept hitting on writing,” she explains.

Her online searches for medical writing courses consistently led her to the University of Chicago’s Medical Writing and Editing certificate program. After carefully comparing the university’s program to other options, including traditional journalism degrees, she decided to start with a single course. That first step opened a new world of possibilities. “You start out looking down this little portal, and then as soon as you go into it, it just opens up into this huge, vast area that you didn’t even realize was there,” Adamson says.

The curriculum’s practical approach particularly impressed her. “There’s nothing impractical about what they do. There’s no busy work—it’s all going to help you as a medical writer.” From manuscript development to statistical analysis, each course provided concrete skills she could immediately apply.

The ethics course proved especially valuable, helping her navigate complex professional situations with confidence. She describes a recent project where her training helped her identify potential ethical issues in citation updates—which involve ensuring research references are properly verified and up to date—problems that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. Beyond the technical training, the program’s freelancing course provided indispensable business guidance. “For someone like me, who had never taken a business class before, I had no idea how to market my services or what papers I needed to make my business legal,” she explains.

Today, Adamson balances work in both human and veterinary medical writing. “I wouldn’t be doing medical writing right now if I hadn’t taken this program,” she reflects. The certificate provided a crucial element: structure and direction in a field that can seem overwhelming to newcomers. “You’re frozen by too many options,” she says of starting out. “As soon as I filtered into the class, I had tasks to work on. I slowly started moving forward and created some order out of all that chaos.”

For those considering the program, Adamson highlights the program’s practical value and flexible design: Students can test the waters by taking individual courses before committing to the full curriculum, and stackable credentials allow systematic skill development over time. “If you’re serious about wanting to work as a medical writer, there is no reason to wait,” she advises. For Adamson, what began as a glimpse through a small portal has opened into an expansive new professional world—one where she’s found not just opportunities for growth, but a supportive community of writers eager to help each other succeed.