From the AMWA Conference

Today I returned from Louisville, Kentucky, where I took part in the annual conference of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA). At the conference, I attended sessions, gave sessions, and talked with old and new colleagues.

Highlights of the conference included the awards dinner. AMWA’s highest award, given for distinguished contributions to medical communication, went to Norman Grossblatt, a senior editor at the US National Academies. Grossblatt has contributed much to AMWA, and he was a founder of the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences.

In his acceptance speech, Grossblatt talked about how his work has changed during the 50 years that he has been a manuscript editor. For example:

• In the early years, Grossblatt received typewritten manuscripts and edited them with pencil. Then someone re-keyboarded the manuscripts before printing. Today, Grossblatt receives word-processed manuscripts and edits them electronically. Re-keyboarding no longer is needed.
• For most of his career, Grossblatt often consulted reference books. Now he uses mainly online reference resources. He especially likes OneLook, which simultaneously searches more than 900 dictionaries.
• Until recently, checking authors’ references required going to the library to find the cited articles. Today, Grossblatt and his colleagues look at the articles online.

Because of such changes in technology, Grossblatt noted, being an editor is easier now.

Being an author also has become easier because of these technologies. And of course, these technologies help make AuthorAID possible. I wonder how the work of authors and editors will change during the next 50 years.