Content and ID Overview

Axiom—Content/ID Department

Who We Are

The Content/ID department is the division of Axiom by ApotheCom dedicated to all things content development and instructional design. Our day-to-day responsibilities can vary greatly, ranging from participation in proposal responses and brainstorming sessions, to attending client meetings and pitches, to creating components for any of our diverse deliverables. These include, but are not limited to:     eLearning, workshops, print, webinars, and assessments. The content side is composed of medical writers, the ID side instructional designers. While many of our responsibilities can overlap, there are some clear distinctions.

What We Do

Medical Writers

Each member of the medical writing team has a medical or scientific background and is a member of Scientific Services. To that end, we are responsible for ensuring that the content we produce is accurate, fully referenced, and appropriate for the specified audience. Our primary role is that of scientific storyteller. In collaboration with our clients and the client services team, we drive the content development process. This often begins at the proposal stage with high-level content outlines and continues throughout the life of the project as we create and refine individual deliverables. Examples of medical writing functions include:

• Researching and writing all medical content
  • Porrima
  • aZine
  • Print
  • PPT
• Writing animations and medical illustration descriptions
• Addressing client edits
• Creating PowerPoint slide decks/Facilitator Guides on scientific content for virtual meetings or webinars
• Creating assessment questions
• Participating in MLR meetings, concept review meetings, and client calls
• Participating in brainstorming sessions
• Attending new business pitches
• Reviewing freelancer submissions and providing direction
• Collaborating with ID and Digital to create new screen types, ILEs, or brand new deliverables

Instructional Designers

Instructional designers are responsible for the instructional soundness of all training deliverables Axiom by Apothecom produces. What does that mean?

1. We help to ensure any training programs or deliverables we develop are based on measurable learning objectives that utilize action-oriented verbs geared toward the different levels of learning as defined by Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning (see separate handout). We help to ensure that content developed for each training program/deliverable directly links back to these learning objectives and that assessment questions appropriately test to these learning objectives.
2. We incorporate different instructional design models and adult learning principles into the overall design of a training program. There are a variety of approaches to learning and instruction. As IDs we try to ensure the most appropriate approach is applied to a given deliverable. We take into consideration the objective for the training, the learner audience (what types of experience do the learners bring to the training? What learning style do the majority of learners prefer?) and the available technology in which to deliver the training.

ID works closely with the medical writing team to develop effective and accurate training deliverables. IDs are very involved in the initial proposal and design phase for any project. IDs help to answer the question: what ID approach and training methodology would best meet the needs of clients as defined by the request for proposal. We then work closely with the client services, medical writing, digital, and creative teams throughout the development of the training deliverables. We provide recommendations on the best method in which to implement various training deliverables to both internal teams and to client teams.

Examples of ID functions include:

• Writing proposals or elements of proposals in response to request for proposals (RFPs)
• Designing curriculum maps to show the big picture plan for our recommended training curriculum
• Participating in brainstorming sessions
• Attending new business pitches
• Creating content for non-medical modules (eg, selling skills, business acumen, REMS)
• Conducting ID reviews of content written by medical writers (eg, detailed outlines, storyboards, assessments)
• Creating PowerPoint decks/Facilitator Guides for live training workshops or virtual meetings or webinars
• Creating coaching guides
• Creating companion guides or participant workbooks to either support home study e-learning modules or live training workshops
• Creating assessment questions
• Participating in MLR meetings, concept review meetings, and client calls, as appropriate
• Reviewing freelancer submissions and providing direction from an ID standpoint
• Collaborating with Medical Writing and Digital to create new screen types, ILEs, or brand new deliverables
• Updating all writing templates to reflect new screen types, changes to screen types, etc.