Mary Hines of inScience Communications and currently based in Italy, is looking forward to tonight’s italian lessons.

My MedComms day started with checking emails at my flat at 7.30am (nothing that can’t wait until I get in the office today). After lovely 20-minute walk via the weekly market to the office, I arrive just before 9am and start through the emails (a selection of author and client comments and revisions to ongoing manuscripts, requests for editorial assessments and estimates of hrs required for potential projects, various requests for proofing of printer-ready jobs, and native English edits of manuscripts written in English by Italian authors.

Nothing odd about that you may think but it is very strange for me as I usually work from home in Christchurch, NZ (in earthquake damaged house!) and now I’m here in Milan on a 6-month secondment from New Zealand as the only native English medical writer in the office, to project manage English-language med comms projects – mainly manuscripts destined for international journals.

With the help of several espressos (or should that be espressi?), the morning included yet more discussion on GPP and copyright issues –and how best get the main messages across to clients and authors (and client management team). We also have a meeting later to try to predict our med comms work load for the next 12 months – yes wish me luck with that!
I am currently having a break from checking the editorial hrs spent on various projects against total budgeted hrs – we need a better system to do this automatically, and then feed that information back into the whole proposals process.

After a leisurely lunch at local café, everyone carries on working until about 6.30 or 7pm. I will then wander via the gelateria and park to my Italian class!

Ciao