Brit doctors urged to tone down the Latin, use English

Forget the jargon that only other doctors understand, just write for the patient, British doctors have been told.

In an effort to improve written communication with patients, an initiative unveiled this week by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges — which represents 250,000 doctors in Britain — is encouraging doctors to ditch confusing medical jargon and instead write to their patients directly in plain, simple English.

The project says with more than five million outpatient visits a month in England, outpatient clinic letters are “the most written letters” in Britain’s National Health Service.

That's advice some U.S. doctors should follow as well. My experience has usually been that physicians are good at translating when talking to patients or families. Put a pen in their hand or sit them in front of a keyboard, though, and it's another story. Medical terminology takes over.

Once we get the doctors taken care of, we can start working on the lawyers.