The hidden challenge of writing for MedTech

What writing for MedTech taught me about copywriting

When I first started writing for a MedTech company a few months ago, I assumed I knew what the hard part would be.

Complexity.

Medicine is complex. Technology is complex. Put the two together and, naturally, the job gets harder. Translating highly specialised, tightly regulated subjects into something engaging and memorable takes work.

And it deserves respect.

But after writing multiple pieces of short- and long-form copy, I realised that the part that made me re-read my own drafts more times than usual turned out to be something else entirely.

Something a lot more subtle.

In MedTech, the copy is, of course, explaining how something works. But it is also dealing with topics that touch people, often at moments when they’re vulnerable. Symptoms, uncertainty, waiting for results, trying to make sense of information about their own health.

Sometimes it’s bad news, sometimes it’s reassurance, but it’s always personal.
Once I realised this, it has changed how I write copy.

I started paying much closer attention to phrasing, pacing, humour, comparisons, tone, even the weight of a single word. It is no longer just about making the complex technology easy to understand.

It has become more about understanding how information meets the person on the other side of the screen.

That isn’t always obvious. I certainly didn’t fully appreciate it at the start.

But once you notice it, you can’t un-see it.
And it gives a new meaning to the word 'empathy'.