Meet our Board: Anna Boyum, PhD

Our new series aquaints you with our Neurology Times board members through brief profiles.

1. Please state your name, title, and the organization you work for.

Anna Boyum, PhD, medical writer at Boyum Edison.

2. Why did you choose your profession?

I wanted to understand and help others understand neurologic conditions, many of which are chronic and affect both patients and their families profoundly.  

3. What is the most rewarding part of your work?

I write about medical discoveries for professional and lay audiences. The most rewarding part of my work is knowing that the medical knowledge I disseminate empowers patients, their families, and their healthcare providers. 

4. What is the most challenging part of your work?

The most challenging part of my work is relating to the pains of my audience. 

5. What one thing would you like to see change in your field?

I would like to see widespread awareness of ways to minimize incidence or consequences of preventable conditions like brain trauma and stroke.  

6. What is the best piece of career advice you received?

My father has encouraged me to use my skill set to make a difference in the biomedical field beyond research. I am a biomedical scientist by training, but I write about medicine because I followed his advice to not limit my contribution to the area in which I started my career. 

7. How do you picture the future of neurology?

I imagine therapeutic goals shift even further from controlling specific neurological symptoms to improving overall quality of a patient’s life. Hence, therapies of the future may need to modulate overarching pathological processes to have such a holistic effect.

8. What do you most enjoy doing when you’re not working?

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_crop","fid":"42419","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image media-image-right","id":"media_crop_5558685046637","media_crop_h":"0","media_crop_image_style":"-1","media_crop_instance":"4586","media_crop_rotate":"0","media_crop_scale_h":"0","media_crop_scale_w":"0","media_crop_w":"0","media_crop_x":"0","media_crop_y":"0","style":"width: 250px; height: 188px; float: right;","title":"Anna Boyum and her husband Bradley visiting Leo Tolstoy’s estate near Tula, Russia.","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]When I am not working, I journal about my life and my family and do genealogy research to better understand my roots. Along the same line of interest, I love learning about other cultures and about lives of their notable representatives through books and travel.