How to Write a Medical Article?

14 March 2025

Significance of Medical Article Writing

Apart from creating multiple medical terms, researchers are required to learn how to write a medical article. This is because medical articles are essential for a researcher to reach out to the relevant professionals in the area of study. Preparing a medical article is both an art and a science.

The objective of this paper is to provide essential details which might assist the aspiring authors in understanding the nuances. End this one with the relevant knowledge and skills that are needed in writing a medical article as well as the ability to make such contributions to the health care research in a considerable manner.

Significance of Medical Article Writing:

The goal of writing a medical article isn’t restricted to making a claim; rather, it’s addressing the issues of the audience on a broader scale. There are several important points and reason why article writing should be considered to be one of the important Attributes of a physician in the fabrication of medical and health argot, some of them are:

Sharing Knowledge: It is common for medical research to help improve health care policies, clinical practices and the discipline of medicine in general. Publication of articles is the main vehicle through which the outcome of such research is made available.
Influence and Impact: An article well written can have the potential to change treatment guidelines, clinical practices as well as influence public health policies. It can also alter how funding is given out for future research.
Professional Development: In the case of researchers, medical articles assist in career progression. It gives chances for achievement in your discipline, strengthens your resume as well as improves your likelihood of getting research and job offers.
Collaboration: Writing articles is a means of collaborating with other researchers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers with similar interests.

Process of Writing a Medical Journal Article:

Writing a medical journal article requires the authors to pass through a number of processes. Each step is essential for enhancing the clarity, precision and scientific integrity of the article. Let us look at the process:

1. Choose a Relevant and Timely Topic:

The first step of writing a medical journal article is choosing the topic for the article. The topic should be able to prove its relevance in the area of healthcare or medicine. Here’s how to choose:

Identify Current Trends: It is important to be in touch with the latest trends in your niche. Any of the recent changes or arguments regarding any medical practice may be topics worthy of discussion. Such issues have gained particular importance in the past 5 years. Telemedicine, personalized medicine and treatments for COVID-19 are some of the examples.
Find Research Gaps: In a wide range of science, there is a body of literature and the published works of scholars. Identify areas that have been neglected or need to be investigated further. For example, in the last five years, while studies of the effect of artificial intelligence on healthcare have been numerous, there still remains work to be done on the ethics and privacy of patients aspect.
Practical Relevance: Make it sure that the topic is relevant not only to the academic researchers but also to the clinical staff and policy makers. Other subjects such as new medications, vaccines or diagnostic procedures are of relevance in the routine practice of medicine.

2. Literature Review:

The prior thing that one must do is a thorough literature review. In order to achieve this, the following strategies are employed:

Understand the Existing Body of Knowledge Assess: what has been written about the subject or theme you are working on. Furthermore, armature in the said discipline or knows nothing about the context will impede your ellaboration. This is particularly important for determining the newness and the relevance of what you have done.
Identify Research Gaps: collating existing work may lead to self-identification of research gaps that your article is conceived to fill, For instance, a good number of medical articles in the last five years have been centered on the COVID-19 pandemic. But there remains a gap in the area of research on mental health of individuals after the pandemic.
Avoid Redundancy: Your work aims to be novel, avoid doing work that has been done elsewhere. This is because, through reviewing the past literature, you identify the studies which have already been done and therefore do not see the reason to repeat them.

You can conduct a search through such medical sources as PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar for accurate and reputable sources. And to take control of your references, you can employ software such as EndNote or Mendeley.

3. Structure Your Article Using IMRAD:

A properly formatted medical piece of work comes in IMRAD structure which is an abbreviation of Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. With such an organization, the reader is able to follow the content of the article without straining.

Introduction:

The introduction is the most important component of the research paper since you have to give the readers an exposition on the field:

Background Information: In any scientific research, this is an important aspect in every research as it depicts the larger picture of what is being targeted in the research, what issues are being addressed, as well as the existing knowledge on this issue.
Research Objectives: Citing a major goal of your undertaking. Besides the above, what else would you expect to achieve from such type of research? Stating a clear hypothesis or a research question.
Literature Review: State in brief what many major research works as well as theories have been relevant to your particular area of research.

Methods:

This is how you carried out the research, the details of your methods: this section should answer the above trough the following:

Study Design: Specify whether your study is qualitative, quantitative, or both. You must clearly describe how it was carried out.
Participants: These are the people who participated in the study, including their selection, their socio-demographic characteristics and what was the inclusion/exclusion criteria.
Data Collection: How was data collected, for example, was it via survey, was it experimental or a clinical trial.
Statistical Analysis: Mention the ways through which data was analyzed. Also mention the relevant software or any statistical tests that were performed.

Results:

This section displays the findings of your study, and they should be presented succinctly. This encompasses:

Data Presentation: Tables, charts and graphs should be used to present your data. For instance, one may provide outcomes in the hypertension clinical trial where a new drug that is believed to lower hypertension is used. Here’s a page from the book:

Group	Cross (mmHg)	Baseline BP (mmHg)	Post-Treatment BP (mmHg)
Treatment Group	160	130	-30
Control Group	162	158	-4

Discussion:

The interpretation of a study is done in the discussion section. Therefore, it is important to include the following parts in this section:

Interpretative Conclusion:

It is of great importance to comment on the significance of your findings. These results should be interpreted in the context of existing research, highlighting how they advance current understanding.

Limitations:

Those present in the room should recognize the limitations of this research. Factors that may have affected the results and any challenges encountered with the methods used should be clearly acknowledged.

Implications:

Implications include the potential clinical, practical, or policy-related outcomes of the findings. These results should be presented in terms of how they can assist in improving patient care or healthcare systems.

Future Investigation:

Point out some directions for future investigations, especially those that may extend the scope of your original investigations or address the literature gaps.

4. Use Visuals to Enhance Data Presentation:

It is imperative to note that diagrams such as charts, graphs and tables are best used while writing medical articles. This is because they assist in the representation and understanding of complex information. For example:

Bar Charts: Use bar charts whenever you are interested in comparing results across various groups (example: control group vs experimental group).
Line Graphs: In other cases, line graphs can be representative of the trends observed across time for example in regards to disease progression or treatment effects.
Tables: Tables can be effectively used to showcase specific and organized numerical information.

The readers of your post will find it more interactive as well as even easier to comprehend, should you incorporate images.

5. Be What You Say:

Above all, medical writing articles require straightforwardness and precision in their wording. Therefore, consider the following words of advice:

Bar Charts: Use bar charts whenever you are interested in comparing results across various groups (example: control group vs experimental group).
Line Graphs: In other cases, line graphs can be representative of the trends observed across time for example in regards to disease progression or treatment effects.
Tables: Tables can be effectively used to showcase specific and organized numerical information.

Writing a Medical Article: Possible Difficulties

These are some difficulties you might encounter while writing the medical article and how to deal with them:

1. Heavy Use of Medical Jargon:

When possible, avoid jargon and start sentences with straightforward wording, for other terms, use them in the beginning for elaboration.

2. Finishing on Time:

Focus on portions such as introduction, methods, results, and discussion so that it doesn’t seem overwhelming as a whole, and give a deadline for every part to yourself.