ArticleBMC medical education2016
Translating medical documents improves students' communication skills in simulated physician-patient encounters.
Article in BMC medical education, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Interventions for improving medical students' interpersonal communication in medical consultations.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Can Patient-Provider Interpersonal Interventions Achieve the Quadruple Aim of Healthcare? A Systematic Review.Journal of general internal medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Use of Digital Technology for Developing Communication Skills in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Education: Scoping Review.JMIR medical education · 2026Article
- Development of a multidimensional measure of health care access among LGBTQ midlife and older adults in the United States.SSM - health systems · 2024Article
- Development and pilot test of ComCare - a questionnaire for quick assessment of communicative and social competences in medical students after interviews with simulated patients.GMS journal for medical education · 2021Article
- Development, testing and generalizability of a standardized evaluation form for the assessment of patient-directed reports in the new final medical licensing examination in Germany.GMS journal for medical education · 2021Article
- When Doctor Means Teacher: An Interactive Workshop on Patient-Centered Education.MedEdPORTAL : the journal of teaching and learning resources · 2020Article
- Parental understanding of crucial medical jargon used in prenatal prematurity counseling.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2020Article
- General population's knowledge about the anatomical locations of organs and medical terms today and 50 years ago: a replication study.GMS journal for medical educationArticle
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatient-physician communication should be based on plain and simple language. Despite communication skill trainings in undergraduate medical curricula medical students and physicians are often still not aware of using medical jargon when communicating with patients. The aim of this study was to compare linguistic communication skills of undergraduate medical students who voluntarily translate medical documents into plain language with students who do not participate in this voluntary task.
methodsFifty-nine undergraduate medical students participated in this study. Twenty-nine participants were actively involved in voluntarily translating medical documents for real patients into plain language on the online-platform https://washabich.de (WHI group) and 30 participants were not (non-WHI group). The assessment resembled a virtual consultation hour, where participants were connected via skype to six simulated patients (SPs). The SPs assessed participants' communication skills. All conversations were transcribed and assessed for communication skills and medical correctness by a blinded expert. All participants completed a self-assessment questionnaire on their communication skills.
resultsAcross all raters, the WHI group was assessed significantly (p = .007) better than the non-WHI group regarding the use of plain language. The blinded expert assessed the WHI group significantly (p = .018) better regarding the use of stylistic devices of communication. The SPs would choose participants from the WHI group significantly (p = .041) more frequently as their personal physician. No significant differences between the two groups were observed with respect to the medical correctness of the consultations.
conclusionWritten translation of medical documents is associated with significantly more frequent use of plain language in simulated physician-patient encounters. Similar extracurricular exercises might be a useful tool for medical students to enhance their communication skills with respect to using plain language in physician-patient communication.
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