Introduction to Medical Writing

Speakers

Speakers

Joseph J. Abrajano, PhD

Publicis Healthcare Communications Group

Joseph holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Biology from the University of California at Los Angeles and a PhD in Neuroscience from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His thesis work examined the properties of neural stem cells during embryonic development. He has a strong publication record, with 4 peer-reviewed articles, 3 of which he is the first author. Joseph is also a member of the American Medical Writers Association.

Joseph joined Medicus International New York, part of the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, as a Medical Writer in August 2010 and was promoted to Senior Medical Writer in April 2012. Prior to working at Medicus, Joseph worked for one year as an Assistant Editor for the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Kakuri M. Omari, PhD

Publicis Healthcare Communications Group

Kakuri began his carrier in the medical communication and education field as a Biomedical Writer in 2007. Prior to that, Kakuri had more than 12 years of research experience in pathologic and immunologic processes, especially as they pertain to the central nervous system. His doctorate research in Pathology and Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Canada, looked at the activation of immune cells at the blood brain barrier with a specific focus on costimulatory molecules involved in T-cell activation. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, Kakuri conducted research on the pathogenesis of the autoimmune disease, multiple sclerosis, investigating the role of proinflammatory and regulatory cytokines and chemokines.

Over the past 5 years, Kakuri has gained experience developing and executing publication plans in neurology, oncology and invasive fungal infections. Kakuri has also gained valuable knowledge of scales used to assess disability and quality of life in patients with neurological deficits, and has experience in developing content for speaker programs, scientific advisory boards, congress abstracts, posters, and oral presentations, primary clinical and reviews manuscripts, case-based content, and Web-based medical education scientific platforms.

In addition to conducting research, Kakuri has served as a reviewer for a number of national and international journals. He has a strong publication record with 10 peer-reviewed articles, 8 of which he is the first author.

Nancy Plese, PhD

Publicis Healthcare Communications Group

As Associate Scientific Director at Medicus International New York, part of the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group (PHCG), Nancy designs and produces professional education materials in the fields of women’s health, infant nutrition, medical devices, and multiple sclerosis. She served for more than a decade as the Executive Editor of The Pfizer Journal, a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal about medicine, medical economics, pharmaceutical policy, and scientific innovation. She was the author of the Pfizer Corporate Citizenship Report. Previously, Nancy worked as the Program Director for The National Kidney Foundation, representing the foundation with key opinion leaders and national medical conventions and congresses. For this leading nonprofit group, she wrote professional education material, journal articles, clinical alerts, and patient education. At the Kidney Foundation, she was responsible for directing cardiorenal and diabetic nephropathy programs for physician education, as well as materials about immunosuppression, kidney cancer, and the international guidelines committee for anemia of renal disease. She began her career as a reporter for Medical Tribune, the weekly newspaper of medicine, and rose to the position of Executive Editor of the journal supplement division. She was the founding editor of America’s Health, the first consumer publication about medicine, with a circulation of more than 150,000 patients. Nancy was also the founding editor of a number of monthly medical news publications, including Urology Times and Ophthalmology Times, and executive editor of Frontiers of Psychiatry and Sexual Medicine Today. Nancy also wrote the mass market paperback from Bantam: Questions Patients Ask Their Doctors.

During her year at Discovery Chicago, another company within PHCG, Nancy worked closely with the Advocacy team on advocacy outreach programs, identifying influential disease and treatment advocates and designing social marketing opportunities in health care. Having been in medical education, medical news, and pharmaceutical promotion for more than 30 years, she has experience developing content for monographs, executive summaries, slide kits, journal supplements, scientific advisory boards, continuing medical education, review manuscripts, case-based content, and Web-based medical education.

Andreea Radulescu, PhD

Publicis Healthcare Communications Group

Andreea holds a Bachelors of Arts in Biology with a minor in Chemistry and Italian from Hunter College of CUNY and a PhD in Developmental and Molecular Biology from the Einstein College of Medicine. Her thesis work focused on organelle biogenesis and protein trafficking from the Golgi apparatus. She did postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Don Cleveland at the University of California San Diego and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research where she studied how nuclear architecture regulates gene expression and consequently disease and aging. Andreea has co-authored 5 peer-reviewed manuscripts (4 as a first author) and has presented her research at several international conferences.

After her post-doctoral work, Andreea decided to gain experience outside the laboratory and on the accounts side of the medical communications field. She joined Medicus International New York, part of the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, in December 2011 as a Publications Coordinator and was promoted to Associate Account Manager in March 2012. Her day-to day activities include liaising with clients and authors, budget analysis, publication planning, and general project management.

Organizer

Monica Kerr, PhD

The New York Academy of Sciences