How Clinicians Can Avoid ‘Medspeak’ When Communicating with Patients

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By Christopher Cheney

For clinicians, communicating in a clear and understandable manner is crucial for providing quality care.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 12% of U.S. adults are highly proficient in health literacy.

“Medspeak” is characterized as medical terminology used by clinicians that leads to communication gaps with patients. Medspeak gets in the way of effective shared decision-making for clinicians and patients.

There are several steps clinicians can take to make sure they communicate medical terminology and procedures effectively, and it’s the CMO’s job to make sure their clinicians are aware of medspeak and how to avoid it.

“The jargon, the abbreviations, and the terms we use in medicine seem natural to clinicians, but patients often do not understand these terms,” says Donald Whiting, MD, CMO of Allegheny Health Network and president of Allegheny Clinic. “Clinicians can fly through an explanation without getting the patient engaged, then leave them behind.”

Medspeak undermines shared decision-making, according to Whiting.

“If a patient does not understand the problem they are trying to solve, then they cannot make an informed decision,” Whiting says. “If a patient does not understand the components of the problem and the decision process, then that gets in the way of shared decision-making.”

“The warning signs include when you look into a patient’s eyes, and they are not connecting,” Whiting says. “Another warning sign is when you are having a conversation and you think you are explaining things, but the patient is just shaking their head. Another warning sign is when the patient is not asking questions.”

Avoiding medspeak

There are several steps clinicians can take to communicate medical terminology and procedures effectively with the 88% of U.S. adults who are not highly proficient in health literacy, Whiting says. These include:

  • When patients come into a doctor’s office, they are often nervous. Clinicians should make patients feel comfortable—greet them warmly, make eye contact, and listen to the patients’ questions. Clinicians need to connect with their patients.
    Once a clinician has connected with a patient, the clinician should use plain English to explain things rather than using jargon and terminology.
  • Clinicians should start a medical conversation with the basic components and make sure the patient understands the components. That involves speaking clearly, speaking slowly, and getting feedback from the patient.
  • Sometimes, a patient comes in with specific questions, but the patient and the clinician talk past each other. In these situations, the clinician should use the patient’s questions in their own words to help address their concerns.
  • It is important to not rush through a discussion. The clinician should take the time to pause periodically and make sure the patient understands what has been said. The clinician should ask the patient questions to make sure they are understanding the content that is being explained to them.
  • Clinicians can use images and graphics to explain medical terminology or procedures.
  • A clinical encounter with a patient should be interactive conversation because the clinician and the patient can be clear that they are talking about the same thing and that they are on the same page. With a two-way conversation, the clinician can make sure what they are saying is comprehended by the patient.
  • For a clinician, the best metric to determine whether you are communicating effectively with your patient is when the patient asks relevant questions about what you are saying.