Patients have expressed a strong desire to see the medical jargon in correspondence between specialists and their GPs translated into plain English, a New Zealand study of 60 outpatients found.
The study at a New Zealand hospital found that patients had a much better understanding of their chronic disease management when discharge letters had medical jargon replaced with plain English.
Almost 80% of patients preferred the translated letter over the original, and 70% said this enhanced their perception of the doctor’s professionalism.
Here are 9 examples of medical terms (“doctor speak”) with their translated plain-English equivalents. How many of the medical terms on the left do you understand?
| Original term | Translated term |
| Peripheral oedema | Ankle swelling |
| Echocardiogram | Heart ultrasound |
| Tachycardia | Fast heart rate |
| Ischaemic heart disease | Coronary artery disease |
| Hypertension | High blood pressure |
| Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea | Waking at night breathless |
| Orthopnoea | Breathless while lying down |
| Sub-therapeutic | Low-level |
| Idiopathic | Unknown cause |
11 March 2016
Michael Woodhead
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