Written Communication
Our health system provides access to hundreds of different types of written information for patients, their carers, and the general public. Sadly, much of this information is too hard to read and understand and does not provide the advice and guidance intended. Organisations such as the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care have standards and guidelines that local health districts are required to meet for patient education materials.
We now better understand how to prepare written information using simplified language and effective illustrations to make information far more accessible and useful. We recommend some of the more commonly used tools to check language complexity and improve communication
The Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) and Users Guide, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
The PEMAT is a checklist to evaluate and compare patient education materials. It is designed as a guide to help determine whether patients will be able to understand and act on information. Separate tools are available for use with print and audio-visual materials.
SHeLL Editor
The Editor gives you real-time feedback on how easy your texts are to understand – not just the Grade reading score, but it will also point out things like uncommon words, public health jargon (and give you alternatives), passive voice, and use of acronyms.
Universal Precautions Toolkit, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
The Universal Precautions Toolkit provides evidence-based guidance to primary care practices to ensure that systems are in place to promote better understanding by all patients.
Muscat, D. M., Smith, J., Mac, O., Cadet, T., Giguere, A., Housten, A., Langford, A., Smith-Lickless, S., Durand, M-A., & McCaffery, K. (May 2021)
Addressing health literacy in patient decision aids: An update from the International Patient Decision Aid Standards. Medical Decision Making. 2021 May;
Ayre J, Bonner C, Muscat DM, Dunn AG, Harrison E, Dalmazzo J, Mouwad D, Aslani P, Shepherd HL, McCaffery KJ.
Automated Health Literacy Assessments of Written Health Information: Development of the SHeLL (Sydney Health Literacy Lab) Health Literacy Editor v1. JMIR Form Res. 2023 Feb 14;7:e40645. doi: 10.2196/40645.
Mac O, Ayre J, Bell K, McCaffery K, Muscat DM.
Comparison of Readability Scores for Written Health Information Across Formulas Using Automated vs Manual Measures. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Dec 1;5(12):e2246051. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.46051. PMID: 36508219; PMCID: PMC9856555.
Mastroianni F, Chen YC, Vellar L, Cvejic E, Smith JK, McCaffery KJ, Muscat DM
Implementation of an organisation-wide health literacy approach to improve the understandability and actionability of patient information and education materials: A pre-post effectiveness study. Patient Educ Couns. 2019 Sep;102(9):1656-1661. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2019.03.022. Epub 2019 Mar 30. PMID: 30962076.