How to Write Patient Education Materials

A medical writer shares tips for how to write patient education materials that effectively bridge the knowledge gap between providers and patients.

In this article:

1. Use plain language

2. Make content inclusive and culturally relevant

3. Use storytelling

4. Add visuals

5. Make it interactive

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Writing patient education materials that speaks to individual needs, combined with verbal guidance from healthcare professionals, can boost patient satisfaction, encourage healthier habits, and lead to better health outcomes. It can also help cut down on hospital visits and healthcare costs. 

Knowing how to use effective communication strategies, like tailoring materials to individual patient needs, is imperative for keeping patients engaged in their care.

Before we start, imagine you are Sarah, a 45-year-old woman, newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Initially, you were overwhelmed and anxious with your diagnosis, unsure what to do next, so you sought guidance from your healthcare team. Through a series of plain language patient education materials — printed brochures, videos, and a website — you learned more about type 2 diabetes and its management.

With this knowledge, alongside one-to-one consultations with your healthcare team, you started to make informed decisions about meals and daily activities, gaining control over your blood sugar levels and, ultimately, your long-term health outcomes.

This is what effective patient education can look like.

How to write patient education materials

Now, let's look at five strategies for providing effective patient education materials, which you can implement in your writing today.

1. Use plain language

Plain language is communication that is clear, accessible, and useful. Using plain language helps the reader to:

• Find the information they need

• Understand that information the first time

• Use that information to meet their needs.  

Writing in plain language means finding the simplest, most straightforward way of communicating a point. Without plain language, health information can be complex and difficult to understand, and it becomes easier for inaccurate and misleading information to spread. 

Here are some ways to make your writing clearer: 

• Keep sentences brief

• Choose active verbs

• Address the reader using words like ‘you’ and ‘we’

• Select audience-appropriate words

• Avoid nominalizations (turning verbs into nouns)

• Use lists when appropriate. 

Key resources: 

• The Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires federal agencies to use language that the public can understand and use. These guidelines help writers to do that.
  

• The CDC provides a resource that suggests simple words for complex health terms, helping to keep language accessible and engaging while covering health topics.
  

• The Program for Readability in Science & Medicine Toolkit (PRISM) aims to promote readability awareness and provide plain language training and tools to researchers nationwide. One example is PRISM’s online training session that helps research teams enhance the readability of participant materials, like consent forms. 

2. Make content inclusive and culturally relevant

Readability of patient education materials directly impacts the effectiveness of those materials. Understanding the reader’s literacy levels, cultural background and health knowledge — then tailoring patient education materials accordingly - will ensure the information is accessible and relatable. 

This involves using plain language and clear writing techniques (see above). Highlighting key information in bold or italics, maintaining consistent terminology, and incorporating visual aids (see below) are also important.

Additionally, consider cultural differences and tailor language and examples to be inclusive and relatable to diverse audiences. This may involve translating patient education materials into multiple languages, and including racially and ethnically diverse groups within imagery and content. Finally, seeking input from the intended audience is a must.

Key resources: 

• The American Cancer Society Inclusive Language Guide offers language guidelines on health equity topics, including social determinants of health, shifting to person-centered language, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability status.
  

• The APA Inclusive Language glossary of terms covers topics of equity and power, person-first and identity-first language, identity-related terms, culturally appropriative and pejorative language, violent language, and language that doesn't say what we mean.

  
  

3. Use storytelling  

Storytelling is another powerful way to improve patient education. Real-life stories shared by patients, families and healthcare providers often impart deeper, more actionable knowledge compared with traditional learning methods. 

Use narrative storytelling in your writing to:

• Improve engagement: Stories can make complex information more relatable and easier to understand.

• Build empathy: Stories evoke emotions and create a sense of connection, potentially helping patients feel more understood.

• Promote behavioral change: Stories could help illustrate relatable examples of behavior change. 

• Improve recall: People may be more likely to remember information presented in a story. 

You might include testimonials or case studies, which describe patient experiences, the challenges they faced, how they overcame them, and the support they received.

You may create narrative videos related to specific health issues. Or, you could incorporate culturally relevant stories that reflect the relevant patient population, building trust and relatability. 

Key resources: 

• This article explores applications of digital storytelling (the use of photos, videos, and sound) in healthcare.

• The National Storytelling Network offers resources, events and a community for those interested in storytelling, including in health contexts.

4. Add visuals

Another way to create effective patient education materials is to consider presenting information in different formats, such as:

• Using visual tools like infographics or animations alongside text

• Thinking about how to present numerical information in an accessible way (e.g., using charts).  

  
  

Well-designed visuals can clearly and effectively convey health messages. For example, visuals can show the structure of data in a way text cannot and can improve accessibility for people with limited reading ability.  However, poorly designed visuals may have the opposite effect, confusing people or hindering decision-making. 

Visual tools are especially helpful for explaining health-related risks. Most risk information is shown with numbers or brief explanations, but adding visuals may help people to better understand risk information. 

Key resources: 

This paper includes illustrative examples of visuals used for three common health communication tasks: comparing treatment options, interpreting test results, and evaluating risk scenarios.  

5. Make it interactive 

Writing patient education materials that encourage engagement may help patients retain information and feel more involved in their learning process. 

Here’s how that might look for your work:

• Ask questions: Integrate questions that guide patients to think about their personal experiences. For example, "Have you noticed any triggers that make your symptoms worse?" 

  
  

• Provide checklists or quizzes: Offer a short checklist or quiz so patients can assess their understanding or track their symptoms. For example, include a simple checklist on medication management. 

  
  

• Use call-to-action prompts: Encourage patients to discuss or ask their healthcare providers questions with call-to-action prompts like, "Consider asking your doctor about..." or "Make a list of symptoms you've noticed recently".

  
  

Key resources: 

This paper explores the teach-back method of engagement in patient education, which is a technique where patients are asked to explain back what they’ve understood.  

It’s a wrap!

Effective patient education doesn’t just inform — it can empower, engage, and support patients to make decisions about their health. These strategies can help you create materials that are clearer, more relatable, and truly impactful.

Your next step? Test these strategies with your next patient education project. Whether you’re drafting new content or refining existing materials, try implementing plain language, engaging storytelling, visuals, and interactivity to better connect with your audience. Here are some specific prompts: 

• Compare your efforts to these before and after examples using plain language. 

• Read this paper about applications of digital storytelling in healthcare. 

• Review the Program for Readability in Science & Medicine Toolkit.

FAQs

What should a patient education brochure include?

Depending on the purpose of your patient education brochure, you may want to include: 

• Relevant visuals and photos

• Short, benefit-oriented headings and subheadings

• Accurate information that the person needs, written in plain language

• An FAQ section / a glossary of terms

• Contact information for support /advice

• A clear call-to-action for the patient to take a desired action

How to write easy-to-read health materials

To ensure your patient education materials are easy to read: 

• Organize information clearly with headings and subheadings.

• Use plain language. 

• Use a simple layout and incorporate visuals.

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Rachel is a medical writer and healthcare communications specialist. With more than a decade of writing and editorial experience within the healthcare and medical industries, she works with brands and businesses to tell clear, compelling and evidence-based stories to patients, physicians and the public. She recently completed a ‘Writing Patient Information’ course with the Patient Information Forum. Read more about her work at https://www.rachelpascal-healthcarewriter.com/.

References 

1. Bhattad, P. B., & Pacifico, L. (2022, July 27). Empowering patients: Promoting patient education and health literacy. Cureus, 14(7), e27336. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.27336. PMID: 36043002; PMCID: PMC9411825.

2. Paterick, T. E., Patel, N., Tajik, A. J., & Chandrasekaran, K. (2017, January). Improving health outcomes through patient education and partnerships with patients. Proceedings (Bayl University Medical Center), 30(1), 112-113. https://doi.org/10.1080/08998280.2017.11929552. PMID: 28152110; PMCID: PMC5242136.

3. The effectiveness of patient education in improving health outcomes. (2022). Journal of Population Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology, 29(4), 2174-2179. https://doi.org/10.53555/jptcp.v29i04.5308.

4. Public Health Collaborative. (2023). Plain language for public health. https://publichealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/PHCC_Plain-Language-for-Public-Health.pdf. Accessed November 2024.

5. Center for Health Care Strategies. (2024). How improving health literacy can advance health equity. https://www.chcs.org/resource/how-improving-health-literacy-can-advance-health-equity/. Accessed November 2024.

6. Plain English Campaign. (n.d.). How to write in plain English. https://www.plainenglish.co.uk/how-to-write-in-plain-english.html. Accessed November 2024.

7. Ingram, C. (2021, July–December). Storytelling in medical education, clinical care, and clinician well-being. Archives of Medicine and Health Sciences, 9(2), 337-344. https://doi.org/10.4103/amhs.amhs_289_21.

8. Patient Information Forum. (n.d.). Using plain language in health information: A quick guide. https://pifonline.org.uk/resources/using-plain-language-in-health-information/. Accessed November 2024.

9. Woloshin, S., Yang, Y., & Fischhoff, B. (2023). Communicating health information with visual displays. Nature Medicine, 29, 1085-1091. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02328-1.

10. Lipkus, I. M., & Hollands, J. G. (1999). The visual communication of risk. JNCI Monographs, 1999(25), 149-163. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jncimonographs.a024191.