How to Write Easy-to-Read Healthcare Materials for Blogs and Websites that Result in New Patients

Most physicians and others in the healthcare professions have spent their entire professional lives writing for medical and professional publications. Few of us, however, have training or the skills necessary for writing medical content directed toward our patients and potential patients. Medical concepts and language can be complex. Our current patients and potential new patients need easily understandable health information regardless of age, background, or reading level. We offer three guidelines and resources to help you create easy-to-read health materials that will generate new patients and also retain your existing patients.

Step 1: Plan and Research

Know your target audience. Consider the reading level, cultural background, age group, and English language proficiency of your intended audience. Who would you like to read your health materials? Next think about the objectives and outcomes of your content. What do you want your target audience to do as a result of reading your materials? For example, if your objective is to show the proper use of a Kegel exercise app to women with stress urinary incontinence, emphasize the outcome of their proper use and the likelihood that the patient will no longer be incontinent. A sample sentence might be: “Following the directions for your condition of loss of urine may help you to not rely on adult diapers!” We can assure you that will capture the attention of all women who suffer from stress incontinence.

Step 2: Organize and Write

Now that you have selected your audience, consider it carefully when writing. Cultural, age, and gender differences may have an impact on your content. For example, the writing style and graphics may be different for a brochure for teens about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) than for adults over age 50 for whom you want to provide information on STDs.

By using the keywords that your users use, you will help them understand the copy and will help optimize it for search engines.

Keep the language within the range of a 6th- to 8th-grade reading level. A number of readability checkers are available online. The Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score is the most widely used readability checker (https://readable.io ). These readability checkers serve as a guide so that your writing will be easy to read and understood by your targeted audience.

Use the words your readers are most likely to be familiar with. By using the keywords that your users use, you will help them understand the copy and will help optimize it for search engines. We suggest that you ask patients who have accessed your site what words they used in the search bar of Google or any of the other search engines. Keep a record of these keywords and use them in the titles of your articles and in the first sentences, which will make your material come to the attention of the search engines and help with your placement on the first page of Google—or even the “Holy Grail,” number one on the first page of Google.

Grab your readers’ attention in the first few sentences. Make those sentences stand out by using compelling, clear language. For example, a website trying to encourage men in the New Orleans area to obtain a PSA test might begin as: “Nearly 30,000 men will die from prostate cancer each year. That’s half of the capacity of the New Orleans Superdome. Most men will not die from prostate cancer if they get an annual blood test called the PSA test, or prostate-specific antigen test.”

Include specific action steps users can take, and emphasize the benefits of taking action

Structure the material logically. Start by stating or defining the topic. Include the most important points about what you want people to learn. Then write the body of the material. Finish with a summary of the material and restate the key concepts. It’s the old tell ’em what you are going to tell them. Then tell ’em and finally tell ’em what you told them. It worked for Aristotle more than 2000 years ago and it still applies to today’s writing for websites and blogs.

Include specific action steps users can take, and emphasize the benefits of taking action. For example, proper use of erectile dysfunction drugs can make you and your significant other very happy.

Examples and stories help engage readers. We suggest that you tell a story about a patient; however, it is imperative not to mention the patient by name or make any reference to the patient such that the reading audience might be able to identify the patient. Just keep HIPAA in mind, and you won’t go afoul of the Office of Inspector General!

Write your draft, then review and edit several times. Remove words, sentences, or paragraphs that do not help the reader understand the concepts. For website and blog writing, brevity is always best. We suggest an ideal length of 400 to 700 words—any longer, and the reader is likely to “click off” and leave your page.

Consider incorporating Web-accessibility best practices. An accessible website helps people with reading and learning disabilities. (For more information on Web accessibility, see the WebAIM.org site.)

Language and Writing Style

Avoid medical jargon unless it is clearly and succinctly defined. Find alternatives for complex words, medical jargon, abbreviations, and acronyms. At times there may not be an alternative, or you may want to teach patients the terms because their healthcare providers will be using them. In those cases, teach the terms by explaining the concept first in plain language. Then introduce the new word or words. It is also helpful to provide a simple pronunciation guide. For example, “Urine is stored in the bladder and kept in the bladder by a muscle, the urine sphincter or sfink-ter, until it is socially acceptable to empty the bladder contents into the toilet.”

Be specific about the advice you give. For example, if you are instructing a man following a vasectomy, instead of writing “Don’t lift anything heavy,” say “Don’t lift anything heavier than a bag of groceries, or about 15 pounds.”

Use varied sentence length to make the material interesting, but keep sentences simple. A general guideline is to limit most sentences to no more than 10 to 15 words. I suggest limiting each paragraph to no more than five sentences.

Where appropriate, use bulleted lists instead of blocks of text to make information more readable.

Make it conversational. Use words like “you” instead of “the patient.” A personal voice can help engage readers as if you are actually speaking to them. Where appropriate, use bulleted lists instead of blocks of text to make information more readable. Use the active voice. Direct language helps people associate concepts with actions:

• Active: Caesar used his vacuum erection device today for a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

• Passive (which should be avoided): The vacuum device was used by Caesar today.

Be consistent with terms. For example, using “drugs” and “medications” interchangeably in the same document can cause confusion.

When possible, say things in a positive way. For example, say “Drink less caffeine” instead of “Don’t drink lots of coffee.”

Visual Presentation and Representation

• Use illustrations and photos with concise captions. Keep captions close to images.

• Avoid graphs and charts unless they are essential to convey the concepts. If you do use them, make sure they are simple and clear. We suggest that any graph in a blog or website article have only two lines, because many lines, as might be found in a medical journal, can be very confusing to the non-medical reader.

• Balance the use of text, graphics, and clear sections, or “white space.” Try for about 40% to 50% white space.

• Use sans serif fonts such as Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, or Helvetica. Sans serif fonts are considered easy to read even at smaller sizes.

• Use boldface headings and subheadings to separate and highlight document sections, as in this article.

• Justify the left margin only. This means the left margin should be straight and the right margin should be “ragged.”

• Use column widths of about 30 to 50 characters (including spaces).

Step 3: Evaluate and Improve

As you are starting on your blog and website writing, we suggest that you test your materials on a few patients or a sample group from your target audience. Testing during the writing process can help ensure your audience understands your materials. Evaluate the feedback you get and revise your materials if necessary. For more information, see the list of resources at the end of this article.

Bottom Line: Writing for lay audiences is not always something that comes naturally to physicians. However, if you follow a few of these suggestions, you can attract readers and convert web surfers to paying patients. Follow this three-step process and you will soon see your Google search soar to the top, with patients soon following from the Web to the telephone calling to make an appointment with your practice.

Resources

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective, Part 6. www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/WrittenMaterialsToolkit/index.html?redirect=/WrittenMaterialsToolkit/ .

Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score. https://readable.io .

National Institutes of Health. Clear and simple. www.nih.gov/institutes-nih/nih-office-director/office-communications-public-liaison/clear-communication/clear-simple . See especially Part 5, Pretest and Revise Draft Materials.

Web Accessibility in Mind. WebAIM. https://webaim.org/