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Hi there! I’m Daphne, a pharmacist and writer for life. After graduating from pharmacy school, I spent two decades balancing part-time clinical work with raising my four kids. About five years ago, I began freelance medical writing while working in oncology infusion. Writing and med comms have become a joyful second career that blends science, storytelling, and service. I’m endlessly curious, a bit of a maverick when problem-solving, and driven to find a way through hard things, always with collaboration and care as core principles.

If you’re looking for a writer or health comms team builder who brings heart, curiosity, and follow-through to every project, I’d love to connect.

My Services

  • Medical writing and content management
  • Health reporting and narrative journalism
  • Patient and HCP education
  • Needs assessments and proposals
  • Social media and creative storytelling

GoodRx •

Aspirin Overdose: Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention - GoodRx

Taking too much of any medication can be harmful, even ones you buy over the counter (OTC). For example, high doses of Tylenol (acetaminophen) can cause liver damage. High doses of aspirin can cause toxic effects, too. But how much is too much? Here, we’ll sort it all out so you know how to take aspirin or use aspirin-containing products safely. Keep reading to learn whether an aspirin overdose is the same as salicylate toxicity, what to watch out for, and more.
Meet Me at the Medcart •

Menopause Hormones, Minus the Hype with Pharmacist Dr. Hollie Wakelyn

Hey Medcart readers! Yesterday, I had the honor of talking with Dr. Hollie Wakelyn PharmD, a former Navy and public health pharmacist who now focuses on menopause education. We had fun chatting before the interview (pharmacists don’t get much time to just talk), and she is uh-mazing! It’s so great to see a fabulous pharmacist sharing her wealth of expertise to address very real knowledge gaps in practical, no-drama, evidence-based menopause information for women and clinicians.
GoodRx •

9 Clozapine Side Effects: Everything You Need to Know - GoodRx

Schizophrenia is a serious mental health condition. Living with schizophrenia or loving someone who has this condition can make everyday life challenging. But with treatment and support, symptoms can be managed so that you can live a healthy and full life. Medications are an important part of treatment. Clozapine (Clozaril, Versacloz) is an oral atypical antipsychotic that’s FDA approved to treat severe schizophrenia.
Meet Me at the Medcart •

My mother's little helper: how valium sedated a generation — including my mom

Long before Ozempic, Viagra, and Prozac, Valium was America’s “it” drug — everybody knew the name, and everybody knew someone who was on it. In the late 1960s and 70s, Valium topped U.S. prescription charts, with billions of tablets dispensed each year.Valium, the brand name for diazepam, is a benzodiazepine type drug that amplifies the effects of GABA, an inhibitory brain neurotransmitter.
MedShadow Foundation •

Inside the FDA Drug Development Process: The Limits of Clinical Trials in Preventing Side Effects - MedShadow Foundation

Each year, a select group of novel new drugs enter the U.S. market. In 2023, 55 new drugs were approved—adding to the more than 20,000 prescription drugs already in circulation.


The process of evaluating and approving new drugs dates back to the 1960s, when the FDA began requiring evidence of a drug’s safety and efficacy based on data collected in multi-phase controlled clinical trials.


As the decades have passed, the FDA has refined and reformed its process, with important efforts being m...
Meet Me at the Medcart •

We have the receipts (but we probably shouldn’t touch them)

Hey Medcart readers!Pharmacies are where we go to fix what ails us, not expose ourselves to new health problems. But a familiar and seemingly harmless product behind the counter continues to concern a whole host of people:I’m talking about receipts.Some researchers say these little slips of paper may contain chemicals linked to health risks. But where does this fear come from, and how worried should you actually be?The paper trailConcerns surrounding receipts first surfaced years ago during the...
Meet Me at the Medcart •

What a startling new statistic reveals about your local pharmacy

Hey MedCart readers,Today, I want to talk about a serious but essential topic: The mental health of pharmacists, including the very real risk of self-harm.A few weeks ago, a study published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP) found that male pharmacists and female technicians have higher suicide rates than the general population. This retrospective study was based on CDC mortality data from 2011 to 2022.Coauthor Kelly Lee, Pharm.D., highlighted the “unique strains” of pharma...
Meet Me at the Medcart •

Everything you think you know about iron deficiency is (probably) wrong

Body, meet iron: known on the periodic table as Fe, short for the Latin ferrum, which means “firmness.” Iron is a mineral that makes up most of the earth’s core and sustains life in nearly every plant and animal, including us.Iron is a precious metal for life. It’s not only critical for bringing oxygen to tissues throughout the body, iron is needed for a host of other processes, including energy production, immune regulation, and DNA synthesis.Most of the 3 to 4 grams in our bodies is tucked int...
Meet Me at the Medcart •

Using the pharma rep model for good

Pharmaceutical reps are a constant presence in clinics. They’re personable, patient, and persistent, often arriving with samples, food, and branded supplies. Over time, the staff gets to know them, trust them, and value their help. Interactions between reps and prescribers are educational and collegial, but they’re also strategic. And there’s a name for this strategy: pharmaceutical detailing.Pharmaceutical detailing relies on relationships. Sales reps build one-on-one connections with prescribe...
Daphne Discloses •

Thriving with your new baby during Wisconsin’s long winter slog

A similar version of this piece was first published in 2023 in the Musical Pathways school parenting blog, where I originally wrote it as a board member. I’m updating and moving some of my parenting stories here. The holiday lights are flickering off and it’s back to the normal, everyday EVERY DAY. It’s January. If you’ve spent a few winters in Wisconsin, you know there’s no end in sight to the blustery bite of winter … regardless of whether some chosen groundhog sees its shadow next month. And...
Daphne Discloses •

A midlife refusal to be remade for anyone else’s comfort

This is for every woman who’s been told she’s “too something” at the exact moment her life was expanding. I’m purposefully not putting any pictures of myself or any other women in this piece. Women already have too many in their own heads, often at the expense of the very special one they truly are right now, no makeover needed.At 51, I feel a lot like I did at 17: like I’m too much, and everyone wants me to go back to who I was before. At 17, you become “too much.” Too sexy, too bitchy, too kno...
MedShadow Foundation •

What Is Step Therapy? And Why It Might Delay Your Medication - MedShadow Foundation

Navigating the healthcare system to get the care you or a loved one needs can be challenging. Just when you think you’ve cleared the hardest parts — finding the right provider, getting an accurate diagnosis, and choosing a treatment plan — your insurance company can throw in a surprise roadblock by denying coverage for a prescribed medication. One possible reason? A policy called step therapy.

Step therapy is a requirement that makes people try a lower-cost or insurance-preferred medication b...
Meet Me at the Medcart •

This is not a story about how an estrogen patch will fix everything

This is not a story about how an estrogen patch will fix everything.It’s about how confusing perimenopause still is and how easy it is to mistake hormonal chaos for a menopausal hormonal decline. This is especially true in a moment when menopause advice is louder, more confident, and more commercial than ever.When I was the youngest in my group of mom friends, the older women used to talk about something they called “the change before the change.” It sounded ominous and vague, and I didn’t fully...
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