Seattle, WA, USA. Researchers can now access a toolkit based on plain language, a communication style centered on the audience's needs and abilities. Often, a trip to see the doctor means exposure to a storm of medicalese: like pyrosis, myocardial infarction, and more terms from a specialized vocabulary. If the doctor would say heartburn or heart attack, the patient might have a chance of learning what caused the chest pain.

Jessica Ridpath observed health care researchers asking people to take part in clinical studies. She found that consent forms were to complex for people to understand and grant informed consent.

A language lover, slam poet, and healthcare professional, Ridpath worried that unreadable consent forms were hindering informed decision making — and raising risks for participants and research institutions alike. So four years ago she created the Project to Review and Improve Study Materials (PRISM).

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• First it was a short-term internal training initiative to boost consent form readability.
  
  
• Since then, PRISM has expanded into an enduring suite of hands-on resources. It includes a customizable training workshop and an editing service.
  
  
• Its centerpiece is a Toolkit that illustrates strategies for communicating clearly in written materials for study participants, such as informed consent documents, study invitations, letters, and information sheets.

The Toolkit is based on plain language — a communication style centered on the audience's needs and abilities. Researchers can see how to use plain language in study materials through the Toolkit's many concrete examples, including an alternative word list.

• Instead of Abdomen, try Stomach, tummy, belly
  
  
• Instead of Abrasion, try Scrape, scratch
  
  
• Instead of Absorb, try Take in fluids, soak up
  
  
• Instead of Abstain from, try Don't, don't use, don't have, go without
  
  
• Instead of Accomplish, try Carry out, do
  
  
• Instead of Accrue, try Add, build up, collect, gather

PRISM swiftly drew interest from U.S. researchers and other health care professionals. They downloaded the Toolkit 2,000 times in its first year on the CHS web site. Ridpath and colleagues have presented PRISM resources at more than 10 professional conferences nationwide. [C.f. citation for download.] Ridpath led training workshops for external and non-research audiences, including Public Health — Seattle & King County. Her training of Group Health patient education writers led to an organization-wide plain language initiative, resulting in revisions to dozens of patient letters, brochures, and consent forms.

Efforts to give health information a plain language makeover have been gaining steam across health care since the Institute of Medicine issued a report on the subject, Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion (2004). The report concluded traditional health information is too complex for roughly 93 million Americans — half the adult population — to understand.

Since then, the American Medical Association (AMA) and federal government have also focused on health literacy. Many plain language resources aimed at improving health literacy have sprung up online. Most focus on specific populations or illnesses. The PRISM Toolkit provides practical guidance addressing special challenges that researchers face when communicating with study participants.

"The Toolkit is unique for its emphasis on research," said article co-author Sarah M. Greene, MPH, a CHS research associate. "But it can also be extended for use in health care and education." PRISM may help meet the Healthy People 2020 objectives: For the first time, they'll include health literacy targets and measures.

"Centering research materials on patients is simply the right thing to do," said co-author Cheryl J. Wiese, MA, manager of the Survey Research Program. "Anecdotally, we think using plain language has helped us recruit study participants."

As part of the PRISM editing service, Ridpath tracks readability improvements to study consent forms and other participant materials. To date, her readability editing has dropped reading level by an average of at least 2 grades, with most research materials now between 6th- and 8th-grade reading levels. And these scores don’t account for additional improvements from designing and reorganizing the documents.

The TS-Si News Service is a collaborative effort by TS-Si.org editors, contributors, and corresponding institutions. Sources can include the cited individuals and organizations, as well as TS-Si.org staff contributions. Articles and news reports do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. We welcome your comments. Use the form below to leave a public comment or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.


TS-Si is dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, and legal protection of individuals correcting the misalignment of their brains and their anatomical sex, while supporting their transition into society as hormonally reconstituted and surgically corrected citizens.

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..., Of course it would help if our schools really educa

10 July 2009     

Of course it would help if our schools really educated people rather than just passing them along to get rid of them; all the examples given should be understandable to anyone with a competent high school education. This is reducing things to "See Dick" ; See Dick Run"; "Run Dick Run", level.
Pamela Dunn

Pamela, The author designed her plain English equivalent

11 July 2009     

The author designed her plain English equivalents to satisfy an elementary education. Studies have shown that many people operate at that level, but even folks with more advanced educations do not use all of their training. A great many simply skim over the top and do not focus on the content or maintain their focus to fully absorb the discussion. We see that around here: sometimes people come in and leave comments that demonstrate either a lack of reading comprehension or an unwillingness to apply their skills. The latter may have something to do with protecting their preconceptions. Having said all that, I am impressed with the number of thoughtful people who take the time to really understand what they have read. They may vary in their opinions but what they say is informed. There really is a gulf between the intellectually aware and comatose.

Sharon S. Gaughan

..., I just hate getting treated like a brain damaged, l

11 July 2009     

I just hate getting treated like a brain damaged, low IQ 10 year old by anybody that thinks they are in a position of authority and all wise. My Doctor has discovered that about me recently; that I not only read, but also comprehend quite well what I read and she is finally begining to listen when I bring up a subject and that I wont be put off on it. I do understand your explanation and thanks; I've dealt with folks like that, sometimes they were my boss.

Pamela Dunn

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