Medical · Scientific · Clinical Research

Science that reads like medicine.

I translate clinical evidence, pathophysiology, diagnostics, laboratory science, and healthcare operations into writing that is rigorous enough for experts and intelligible enough to be useful.

About

A physician's view of the evidence.

The strongest medical communication does not simplify the science until it is thin. It preserves the mechanism, the uncertainty, and the clinical consequence—then makes all three easier to understand.

I am a foreign-trained medical doctor and clinical research operations professional whose work sits at the intersection of medicine, laboratory science, healthcare operations, and education.

My writing is informed by direct exposure to clinical workflows and the systems that surround them: laboratory operations, quality management, regulatory documentation, clinical research, practice administration, and physiology education. That background changes the way I approach a brief. I am not starting with a blank page; I am starting with a clinical question, a biological mechanism, an audience, and a decision that the reader ultimately needs to make.

I write across medical education, clinical communication, diagnostics, laboratory medicine, regulatory and technical documentation, medical affairs, and patient-facing content. When a concept is difficult, I use mechanism, anatomy, visual hierarchy, and narrative—not jargon—to make it tractable.

ISHMAEL AMU, MD · Medical & Scientific Writer · Clinical Research Operations
MDUniversity of Warsaw — College of Medicine
MS BiologyBrooklyn College
BS BiochemistryStony Brook University
Clinical ResearchOperations, laboratory & regulatory environments
Selected work

The Differential.

A curated set of original portfolio demonstrations. Each sample is written for a defined audience, with the scientific story designed before the prose is written.

PFC · striatumcatecholamine signaling
CME · Neuroscience · ICD-10 F90.9

ADHD: A Circuit-Level Pathophysiology

ADHD is better understood as distributed network dysfunction than as a single "attention deficit." This briefing follows frontostriatal circuitry, catecholamine signaling, network dynamics, development, and the pharmacologic logic of stimulant therapy—without reducing a heterogeneous disorder to one neurotransmitter.

Patient education · Pulmonology · ICD-10 J44.9

COPD: What Is Actually Happening in the Lung?

An anatomy-first explanation of emphysema, airway inflammation, mucus hypersecretion, expiratory flow limitation, dynamic hyperinflation, and why pulmonary rehabilitation and breathing strategies can change symptoms even when damaged alveolar architecture cannot simply be restored.

CME · Infectious disease · ICD-10 U07.1

SARS-CoV-2: The Host Response Matters

A mechanistic narrative linking viral entry and replication with innate immunity, inflammatory injury, oxygen requirement, and treatment timing. The central teaching point is not "virus versus inflammation," but how disease biology changes over time—and why therapeutic rationale follows that biology.

FDG · METABOLIC ACTIVITY · CT ANATOMY
Diagnostics · Nuclear medicine · Imaging

PET/CT: Reading the Metabolic Question

A diagnostic explainer that separates anatomy from metabolism: how FDG enters cells, why phosphorylation traps the tracer, what SUV can and cannot tell us, and why uptake must always be interpreted in clinical and anatomic context rather than treated as a binary malignancy test.

RAS · BRAF · MSI/dMMR · HER2
Oncology · Medical affairs · ICD-10 C18.9

Colorectal Cancer: From Anatomy to Molecular Decision-Making

A biomarker-led clinical narrative showing why metastatic colorectal cancer is not a single biological disease. The piece connects RAS/BRAF status, MSI/dMMR, HER2, pathway biology, treatment selection, and the limits of biomarker interpretation.

SPECIMEN → RESULT → VALIDATION → CLINICAL USE
Laboratory medicine · Regulatory · Technical

From SOP to Clinical Workflow

Technical writing built around how laboratory work actually happens: pre-analytical controls, specimen integrity, analytical performance, validation evidence, quality systems, documentation, and the downstream clinical meaning of a result.

Portfolio demonstrations are educational writing samples, not clinical advice. Scientific claims should be referenced and updated against the current literature, labeling, and applicable guidelines before external use.

Visual science

Mechanisms should be visible.

A medical writer can do more than explain a pathway. The visual architecture can make the pathway memorable: anatomy, causal sequence, molecular target, diagnostic signal, and clinical consequence on one page.

01
Define the mechanism

Identify the biological event that actually explains the clinical phenomenon.

02
Build the causal map

Connect trigger, pathway, cellular response, tissue effect, phenotype, and intervention.

03
Design the visual

Use anatomy, molecular diagrams, timelines, decision trees, and data visualization selectively.

04
Write around the figure

Let the prose answer the questions the figure raises rather than repeating labels.

Capabilities

Writing that can survive scrutiny.

Built for audiences that care about both scientific precision and practical communication.

Medical Affairs & HCP

Mechanism-of-action briefs, disease-state narratives, scientific decks, KOL materials, clinical summaries, literature synthesis, and evidence-based educational content.

CME & Medical Education

Needs-assessment-informed educational content, learning objectives, case-based narratives, slide-deck companion text, faculty materials, and physiology/pathophysiology teaching assets.

Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine

Diagnostic explanations, assay and workflow documentation, laboratory policies, validation narratives, LIS documentation, quality systems, and technical education.

Clinical & Patient Communication

Clinician-facing reports and summaries alongside patient education that preserves medical accuracy without forcing the reader through unnecessary terminology.

Regulatory & Technical

SOPs, controlled documentation, implementation guides, workflow specifications, compliance-oriented materials, and operational documentation.

Scientific Visual Communication

Mechanism maps, pathogenesis diagrams, diagnostic workflows, graphical abstracts, clinical infographics, and anatomy-first educational figures.

Contact

Have a difficult medical story to explain?

Bring the science. I will help turn the evidence into a narrative that clinicians can use, learners can remember, and patients can understand.

ISHMAEL AMU, MD

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