On 24 June 2026, we celebrate MedComms Day, a global initiative dedicated to recognising the incredible work and dedication within the medical communications (MedComms) industry. Here at YHEC, we are marking the milestone by sitting down with our Senior Medical Writer, Emily Gregg, who is the senior specialist for YHEC’s MedComms service. In this blog, we dive into the daily life of a consultancy medical writer, look at the reward of turning complex data into high-impact deliverables, and share advice for those looking to make the leap into the industry.

What is your name and role?

My name is Dr Emily Gregg, and I’m a Senior Medical Writer within the MedComms service at YHEC.

Tell us about your qualifications and career path that brought you to YHEC

Like many medical writers, my journey began in academia. I completed a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science, followed by an MSc in Sport and Exercise Biomechanics. While the science of human movement in sports performance initially drew me to the field, I soon realised that I wanted to apply these analytical principles to broader health and clinical challenges.

This led to a PhD combining biomechanics, healthy ageing and machine learning. My research focused on identifying key factors, like muscle strength and balance variables, to accurately distinguish between older women with a history of falls and those without. Alongside my PhD research, I also taught on several undergraduate and postgraduate biomechanics modules. This teaching experience gave me valuable insights about the importance of creating engaging materials, translating complex science into clear narratives, and tailoring my communication style to suit different audiences.

While I really enjoyed lecturing and the hands-on lab work (which involved plenty of tea and cake with participants), I got the most satisfaction from diving into complex datasets, writing my thesis, and identifying the best way to communicate science clearly and effectively. I’ve always had a keen eye for detail, so reviewing and editing plays to my strengths. Given this, it was an easy decision to make the jump to medical writing, and I joined YHEC nearly six years ago.

What is the main focus of your work at YHEC?

I am the senior specialist for YHEC’s MedComms service. Our work is very broad, but it typically focuses on translating complex economic and clinical data into clear, evidence-based, cohesive narratives. We ensure every deliverable is tailored to the appropriate audience and is designed to meet our clients’ strategic goals.

The MedComms team is adept at building expertise across many disease areas and interventions. We collaborate with colleagues throughout YHEC, including economic modellers, reviewers, information specialists and statisticians. The cross-functional environment is fantastic because it enables us to leverage their technical expertise.

Our MedComms projects are extremely varied, and we are continuously developing a range of outputs, from very detailed technical reports to summary slide decks and visual infographics. The flexibility of the MedComms team enables us to not only identify the right format for a particular audience but also the most effective way to communicate complex evidence.

What clients do you typically work with? And what’s a key challenge that you help YHEC’s clients overcome?

In MedComms, we work with a diverse range of clients. On any given day, we could be conducting an early evidence review and gap analysis for a small MedTech startup that’s developing a new diagnostic tool, writing a peer-review manuscript reporting a cost-effectiveness analysis for an established medical device, or supporting a global pharma company to navigate a Health Technology Assessment (HTA).

One challenge that appears in a lot of our work is the need to craft content that is accurate and based on available evidence but still tells a compelling story. We help our clients find the ‘so what?’ in their data and communicate it in a way that resonates with their specific audience, without losing any of the scientific rigour. For example, this might mean translating clinical data into a high-level summary for payers or building an engaging slide deck that helps a sales team explain their product and complex results to clinicians. We also create plain-language summaries and other disease awareness materials, which can be used to engage patient communities and raise public understanding. This means translating complex data into clear, accessible language and using infographics and other visual storytelling to make the output engaging.

Can you give some more details about the types of projects you work on?

This is difficult, because of the sheer variety of work we do as medical writers and, for me, that’s one of the best things about it! To pick out a few examples, I manage the development of HTA dossiers, manuscripts, and expert opinion elicitation projects. With HTA dossiers, MedComms is involved in the whole process – from collaborating early with the client to align on a robust strategy, to integrating all content into a comprehensive dossier and ensuring a unified voice and consistent value narrative, through to post-submission tasks.

Another key element of our role is helping clients to disseminate evidence through peer-reviewed manuscripts, as well as publishing YHEC’s self-funded research. A project I really enjoyed working on was a manuscript reporting systematic reviews of health-related quality of life, utilities, costs and healthcare resource use data in mitochondrial disease with associated seizures. We worked from a dense technical report, which was originally written for the client’s internal use, and combined two separate reviews into one journal article for a broader clinical audience. We had to carefully balance the level of detail with the journal’s word limit, ensuring the methods used were fully transparent and our key messages remained clear and impactful.

I also lead the design and delivery of care pathway analysis (CPA) and other expert opinion elicitation projects. CPA is a useful tool to identify and map the medical decisions within an existing care pathway, explore the potential value of a technology and its optimal positioning within the pathway, and identify potential barriers and facilitators to adoption. These projects are completely different because I get hands-on with all stages of the primary research – leading the stakeholder interviews, conducting thematic analysis, and facilitating group workshops. In these projects, we tailor our language for different types of stakeholders in order to elicit evidence efficiently and accurately. 

The outputs are often used to inform economic models and in the context of early HTA, making it a valuable method for new diagnostics and devices in the early stages of development. We previously delivered a CPA for a host-immune response assay (a type of diagnostic test) to distinguish between bacterial and viral respiratory tract infections. The results provided an understanding and validation of where the technology could fit into the pathway, clarified the populations of interest, and identified evidence generation needs to support adoption. The findings were of strategic value to the technology developer and were vital to our internal team, who were developing an early economic model for the diagnostic.  

What international impact does your work have?

YHEC’s HTA work provides a perfect example of this, because we often deliver projects outside of the UK. Recently, we prepared a submission to a European HTA organisation for immunisation against a respiratory infection and, in another project, completed a review and critique of two company submissions to an Australian HTA body for blood glucose monitoring devices. We’ve also worked with a large pharmaceutical company to develop and subsequently update an HTA learning platform, which is being used globally across the company to educate staff about the principles and methods of HTA, as well as navigating specific HTA requirements in over 20 countries.

Looking ahead, we’ve been actively preparing for the EU Joint Clinical Assessment (JCA). The introduction of the JCA represents an important milestone in HTA, and the first JCA report was very recently published. While national reimbursement decisions will continue to be made at the country level, the JCA will play an influential role in how clinical evidence is assessed across Europe. Alongside preparing JCA submissions, MedComms has an important role in helping stakeholders to navigate the JCA process and understand the complex evidence requirements and their implications for decision-making across multiple healthcare systems.

Outside of our HTA work, I’m currently leading an ongoing, multi-phase expert opinion elicitation project in Sjögren’s disease. This draws on international perspectives to explore how clinicians define and apply core concepts like disease activity, severity and progression in their daily practice. The first phase of this qualitative study has already been published, highlighting substantial variation in how concepts are applied and proposing initial working definitions to encourage further discussion and greater alignment in the clinical community. We are now progressing with the next phases of the project, aiming to build on these findings and reach a formal, international consensus to support more consistent routine care. It’s fantastic to collaborate with leading global experts on this work, and I can’t wait to see how the outputs will impact clinical practice and patient care.

As we celebrate MedComms Day and spotlight the diverse careers in our industry, what tips would you have for someone looking to move into medical writing in a consultancy setting?

If you are looking to make the transition from academia to consultancy, my first tip would be to embrace the fast pace and dynamic nature of the work. Consultancy moves quickly compared with academia, and you will be required to work on several projects simultaneously, frequently switching between different health technologies and disease areas. The ability to grasp new, complex concepts quickly is really beneficial.

Secondly, you need to be able to adapt your writing style, tone and format to suit different audiences, whether that’s an HTA body, a global pharmaceutical team, patients, or a group of clinicians – all while maintaining scientific rigour within your work.

Finally, my last tip goes back to finding the ‘so what?’. It’s important to consider the wider context of your work and link back to the bigger picture of healthcare value and patient impact. Overall, if you love variation and producing accurate, evidence-informed deliverables, it’s a very rewarding role.

What’s your favourite thing to do outside work?

I’m a big fan of staying active and getting outdoors. I really enjoy going walking or running in the North York Moors; we’re very lucky to have this incredible landscape right on our doorstep. I play a lot of tennis, keeping busy in the summer with up to four doubles matches a week. I’m also a keen skier and absolutely love spending time in the mountains.

Want to find out more?

To learn more about how our MedComms team can support your projects, visit our webpage. You can also dive deeper into preparing comprehensive HTA submissions by securing a spot in our upcoming training course: How to build an HTA dossier.