Tracking time when working for multiple companies

Keeping track of charges to clients was a headache until I developed an Excel spreadsheet with formulas to help me. The following is my situation. I am currently working for 3 companies. Even though I get a lot of repeat business, I average working for about 8-10 companies every year. This year I have worked for 6 companies to date.

I work as a technical service veterinarian for one company. When a call comes in from them I have to drop everything else to focus on reporting adverse events as needed. My hourly rate varies depending on the urgency of the situation at hand. My wife works with me and screens calls, but even so, sometimes I must stop one project midstream and start another at a moments notice.

So I developed an Excel spreadsheet with columns for date, start time, stop time, and hours worked. There is also a place to log in my hourly rate. In addition I have a spot to log in travel miles and a formula that automatically calculates the total charge (currently figured at $0.505/mile). I keep a separate sheet for each company and have developed a habit of clocking in and out as needed. The hours are figured by a formula comparing starting and stopping time and a running total is available at the top of the sheet. I use freeze panes to keep the essential information such as column titles, running total invoice charge, and date of last invoice visible, because the number of rows with data entry can get quite high. It is not unusual for me to log in 5 rows each day as I time in and out.

What works for me is that I use quick keys to log in the current date (Ctrl-; for Mac) and time (Cmd-;) when I start working that day. Then when my wife intercoms me saying, “Mr. B is on line 1. Can you talk with him now?” I click on the spreadsheet that I have open for that company, select the cell for stop time and hit the quick keys for current time (Cmd-;) and save (Cmd-S) and I am ready to get on the phone with Mr. B.

If you want to check it out and give it a try or whatever, just leave me a comment and I’ll send you (via an e-mail attachment) a basic Excel spreadsheet with formulas you can use as a template (no charge). After you leave me a comment shoot me an e-mail to [coles at everestkc dot net] so I have your e-mail address to send the template to you.

This is the spot

I am at that spot in writing a paper where I am editing in full force. The lion’s share of the text is on the page, it just needs to be shuffled a bit here, preened a bit there. I know the material, have educated myself by reading what the masters have published on the topic at hand - feline calicivirus, and am in that wonderful spiritual place where I know it will all come together. I was working on the paper until 5 AM and up and working again at a little after 10 AM, excited to get back to it. I alternate between silence and playing music, sometimes concentrating with intensity, sometimes clicking the keyboard in rhythm to a tune.

A few weeks ago I was traveling with my wife in Chicago, on a train from suburbia to downtown for a little vacation break while in the area on business. I saw a man on the train with a stack of papers he was shuffling, marking here, looking there, going back and forth in an anal retentive fervor to get it right, just right. There on a vacation break with my beautiful, interesting soul mate, with new sights and sounds to take in, to discuss with my best friend, I ashamedly felt envy, wished I had a paper to edit.

I revealed this perplexity to a creative writer friend who understood. He said editing is like working a crossword puzzle is for some people. So here I am now, riding the crest of the wave that will soon crash to the shore as a finished paper. But for now, I am riding the wave, baby. This is where I love to be. This is why I look for writing and editing jobs. I love this process.

FDA Guidance on off label journal article use

On 2/15/08 the FDA made a news release (can't get link to work so you must cut and paste!)
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01798.html
announcing their issuance of draft Guidance for Industry of Information on Unapproved Uses of Medical Products
www.fda.gov/oc/op/goodreprint.html
and stating that they welcome public comments on the draft, which they will accept until 60 days after the Federal Register notice of the availability of the draft guidance (4/21/08). The actual title of the document is more explanatory, “Draft Guidance for Industry on Good Reprint Practices for the Distribution of Medical Journal Articles and Medical or Scientific Reference Publications on Unapproved New Uses of Approved Drugs and Approved or Cleared Medical Devices.”

To view the comments that have been submitted see
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=FDA-2008-D-0053

I work freelance for many pharmaceutical companies and I imagine they welcome the changes proposed in the draft. This may be sticking my neck out a bit, but I am concerned that given the opportunity to essentially market off label use by disseminating journal articles reporting the results of off label use, pharmaceutical companies will have no incentive to properly test new uses for approved drugs and that, as a result, the public safety will be at risk. I prefer the FDA to require pharmaceutical companies to go through existing procedures before allowing approved drugs to be used for new indications.

Could this be yet another instance of the Bush administration rendering regulatory agencies powerless over the industries they were set up to regulate?

What do you think?

Diversity of medical writing jobs

I’ve been really enjoying the diversity of the jobs I’ve been working on the last few months. I get deep into a subject and before I really tire of it, well it’s time to move on to another topic. I love that about my freelance job.

There are an incredible number of subspecialties within the field of medical writing. Did you know that there are people who specialize in indexing? That’s right, these people, indexers, figure out which words in a text are most important to include in the index and then they go after it. OK, maybe my understanding of indexing is not very deep. Computer programs can provide a concordance, but the human touch is still necessary to get a high quality index. Although indexers are not the highest paid medical writing specialty, they serve as an example of the diversity in the field.

A brief review of the specialties that American Medical Writer Association members can pick from to describe the services they provide is an eye-opening experience. There are medical writers to help you with everything from Web site development to photojournalism. Most medical writers list at least a handful of the types of services that they can provide. In general, these specialties are split into one of these three categories, marketing, scientific, or journalistic.

Most of my work falls within the scientific, rather than marketing or journalistic, category of medical writing. I specialize in working for pharmaceutical and nutrition companies, interfacing with researchers and writing clinical trial reports for publication in refereed journals, but I’ve also written technical reports, executive summaries, white papers, continuing education (CE) articles, Internet content, and written review articles on pharmaceuticals and biologicals. I’ve authored several topical articles for veterinary trade magazines. I’ve also taken audio, transcripts, and PowerPoint presentations from expert lectures at professional meetings and generated CE articles. Because of my background most of my work has been written for the veterinary professional audience.

Estimate and bill by the hour or by the job – Pick One

One of the most difficult parts of my job is making up estimates. Some freelance medical writers bid and bill the job by how much the result of the job is worth, regardless of how many hours it will take them. I don’t feel comfortable with that approach.

Last year a client I’ve worked with extensively needed to have a drug covered in a new edition of a pharmacology book. The author of the book had requested the company provide the draft material about the drug’s pharmacokinetics, therapeutics, mode of action, and potential side effects. I had written two refereed journal clinical trial reports on the drug in addition to an executive summary “white paper,” which was used by the company to train the sales reps and technical service staff. If I would have bid that job by what it was worth, not by much time it required, I could have probably bid it at around $2,500.00. The fact is, the job took less than 4 hours to complete and I felt great about charging much less than what it was worth. Sure, I could have made a lot more money on that job, but instead I gained respect in the eyes of that client. I demonstrated integrity and gained respect that could not be gained in any other way.

What have been the benefits of that respect? I no longer need to bid on jobs for that client. He knows I will turn in a great product at a reasonable cost. He simply gives me the contacts and essential information and I am off and running; usually there is no need to even talk about cost or make an estimate for him. This client and I have developed a level of trust that I hope to develop with other clients. When something goes a bit hinky; you know, when an author I’m working with can’t make up their mind about what they want and they need to see it a few different ways on paper before they can decide, that sort of SNAFU, then this client is completely understanding about why my bill is a bit higher. That level of trust, which has resulted in an easy-going give and take in our business conversations, is priceless.

Blessed profession – No Foolin’

Perfect spring weather in KC yesterday and today prompted extended bike rides of over 20 miles each day with a multitude of birds playing morning tunes, highlighted by a manic-obsessive Cardinal constantly singing until it stopped to listen to my whistle mimic; afternoon sun smiled down warmly, exertion-heated muscles strained, tendons taunt, the breezes cooled my moist brow and back, all fed the fully-in-the-moment theme that prevailed.

Although there are times under deadline when there is no flex in my schedule and I am essentially working full out, the last two days have been filled with gratitude for this blessed profession. Two of my estimates were accepted recently. Both projects are for the production of clinical trial reports for refereed-journal publication. Both projects are with established companies and both of my contacts with these companies are holding carrots out in the form of, “There are many more of these reports to write, if things work out well on this one.”

The cynic in me has begun to wonder if that is just a standard line for these folks, but the hope the line generates certainly fits with my current goal of working more closely with clients and developing a relationship of trust where they feel comfortable coming to me for repeat business, knowing I will do a great job, and not having to fool around so much with the estimate process. One of the things I miss after a few years of freelance independence is the team feeling, the camaraderie of the group. Focusing on projects with the potential for repeat business and long-term relationship development is my plan. We’ll see how that goes.

The day is nearly over at this point. Time to go check out the final four, which I taped for playback to skip the commercials. Barring unforeseen pranks I might just make it through this day without any April Fool’s Day foolishness. All-in-all, this is one grateful medical writer.

WebRings for medical writers - Need One

I've searched around and can't find any medical writing WebRings. I posted a query on the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) http://www.amwa.org/ Freelance listserv and found several people who were interested, but no active medical writing WebRing to join. An AMWA friend of mine found a biotechnology WebRing and I joined it at the first of this month. I put the code on my web page http://homepage.mac.com/tcoles/home.html, but the ringmaster has not generated any activity on the ring since 12/17/05 and my site is still classified as pending. Oh well…

So, I guess it might be time to get off my gluteus maximus and start one. Why do I want my site to be linked to other medical writers? One reason is to improve my Google search standings, another is to keep tabs on the sites others have out there and watch fellow writers develop. With Google AdSense it might even make a bit of money – not really my main reason for doing this stuff, but could be a nice side benefit!

Still, I think it best to be a member of a WebRing for a while before jumping in with both feet and trying to manage one. I’ve found another ring, “Science For All,” and submitted my site just this morning. Think I’ll wait and see how that goes for a while. When I look at some of the blogs and some of the sites out there it can be a bit daunting. They probably got to be such behemoths little by little. So here I go, one foot in front of the other, one baby step at a time. Steady…steady…