Precision: Effective medical communication is short and precise

In the spring of 2022, I started taking care of a huge garden. Inspired by my dad, who could easily feed Lichtenstein with his vegetable crop, I wanted to grow some myself. With a simple goal in mind I bought soil, seeds and fertilizer.

My “simple” goal: Grow enough vegetables to have sufficient during the summer. At this stage, I'm probably as far away from the goal as I could be.

Figure 1: Effective medical communication is like a healthy vegetable bed.

Looking at my failed-so-far experiment I tried to extract some useful data and – lo and behold – I have identified, what I call, “The Four Laws of Garden-Dynamics”:

1. If something grows fast and looks like weeds, it’s weeds.

2. If something grows fast and does not look like weeds, it’s weeds.

3. If something grows slowly and looks like weeds, it's weeds, BUT

4. if something grows slowly at the exact spot where you planted seeds, watered daily and caressed the soil as if it were a newborn ... it's still mostly weeds, but occasionally you will find an actual seedling.

Removing weeds is a key requirement for a healthy garden and a gratifying crop (at least I think so). The same is true for medical communication (of that I’m sure).

We must get rid of the “weeds of writing” in effective medical communication. To keep the idea of the “4 Laws of Garden-Dynamics” alive a few seconds longer, I have categorized the most annoying weeds (in my humble opinion) of medical writing in four categories:

1. Grows fast, looks like weeds – phrases you can remove without replacing them

2. Grows fast, doesn’t look like weeds – phrases you can replace with a single word

3. Grows slowly, looks like weeds – verbose phrases you can replace with strong verbs

4. Grows slowly, doesn’t look like weeds (but still is) – complicated words you can replace with a shorter, often simpler, word

1. Grows fast, looks like weeds – phrases you can remove without replacing them

There are plenty of words, phrases and even sentences that don’t add value to your medical communication. Delete them and never look back. See examples in Table 1.

Table 1: Phrases you can remove without substituting them.

Instead of …	Write …
Patients were 50 years of age.	Patients were 50 years.
Adverse events were often mild to moderate in severity.	Adverse events were often mild to moderate.
Treatment with drug A reduced HbA1c by x %.	Drug A reduced HbA1c by x%.
We would like to draw your attention to the safety profile of drug C, which was …	The safety profile of drug C was …
The triage process ensured	Triage ensured

2. Grows fast, doesn’t look like weeds – phrases that can be replaced with one word

The majority of Most medical communication is cluttered with long phrases you can replace with one word. See examples in Table 2.

Table 2: Phrases that can be replaced by one word.

Instead of …	Write …
has been shown to	was
at this time	now
in light of the fact that	because
in close proximity to	near
with the exception of	except

3. Grows slowly, looks like weeds – weak phrases you can replace with strong verbs

You will often find phrases that include weak verbs and “nominalizations” – nouns that, for strong writing, should be verbs. They often end with “-ion”. If you want to strengthen your writing immediately, replace weak phrases with strong verbs, as you can see in Table 3.

Table 3: Weak phrases you can replace with strong verbs.

Instead of …	Write …
make an application	apply
cause a reduction	reduce
give it consideration	consider
conduct an analysis	analyse
give information	inform

4. Grows slowly, doesn’t look like weeds – complicated words you can replace with a shorter, often simpler, word

Are you afraid that if you use everyday, plain words you may be perceived unprofessional, unscientific, or uneducated? If so, worry not. Most of us fear simple words because of that. Regardless, most readers prefer plain words and phrases. We can digest them faster using less brain-energy.

Table 4 shows my 10 favourite complicated words you can replace with a simpler word.

Table 4: Complicated words you can replace with a simpler word.

Instead of …	Write …
administer	give
approximately	about, almost, nearly
commence	start
demonstrate	show
experienced	had, suffered
methodology	method
proximity	close to, near to
rationale	reason
subject	patient
utilize	use

Removing weeds from your writing is important for a healthy medical communication document.

References:

Taylor RB. Medical Writing - A Guide for Clinicians, Educators, and Researchers. 3rd ed. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG; 2018.

Goodman NW, Edwards MB, Langdon-Neuner E. Medical Writing - A Prescription for Clarity.4th ed. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press; 2014

Cutts M. Oxford Guide to Plain English. 5th ed. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press; 2020.

Do you have comments, doubts or questions for me?

… I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

See you soon, best wishes