How To Become A Medical Editor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a medical editor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

The Medical Editor is responsible for ensuring the accuracy and clarity of medical publications. You are to ensure the use of the right grammar, spellings, punctuation for jobs assigned. As a medical editor, you will be required to review publications for correct usage of medical language, flow, and clarity. You are also expected to get rid of awkward phrasings, inappropriate jargon, and biased language.

A medical editor also ensures the accuracy of facts and data and sees to it that units are used consistently throughout the publication. You are expected to ensure that the project complies with standards, stylesheet, or outline for the job. You are to further ensure that all medical writing complies with current health industry trends, regulatory, pharmaceutical guidelines.

A medical editor is expected to exhibit a good command of the English language and has excellent communication skills. You must also pay attention to detail and be able to follow project formats accurately. A bachelor's degree in writing or communications field and a medical degree may be required for this job. Also, years of experience in a medical environment may be necessary. The annual average salary for a medical editor is $67,435

ScoreMedical EditorUS Average

Salary

4.6

Avg. Salary $59,482

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.7

Growth Rate -5%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.27%

Asian 6.99%

Black or African American 3.47%

Hispanic or Latino 7.81%

Unknown 4.55%

White 76.91%

Gender

female 78.16%

male 21.84%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress Level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.0

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.3

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a medical editor

Explore medical editor education requirements

Most common medical editor degrees

Bachelor's

58.5 %

Master's

12.7 %

Associate

12.1 %

Start to develop specific medical editor skills

Skills	Percentages
Proofreading	8.41%
Style Guides	8.14%
FDA	6.62%
PowerPoint	6.47%
Transcription	6.17%

Complete relevant medical editor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New medical editors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a medical editor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real medical editor resumes.

Research medical editor duties and responsibilities

Manage slide decks with medical information on specific diseases within oncology and cardiology to meet FDA requirements.
Minimize error rate, providing meticulous QC, proofreading, and editing.
Create and edit PowerPoint presentations.
Post entire show for DVD and web delivery.

Prepare your medical editor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your medical editor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a medical editor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Medical Editor Resume templates

Build a professional Medical Editor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Medical Editor resume.

Apply for medical editor jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a medical editor job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do medical editors rate their job?