Understand a medical letter in plain English

Redact first, every time

Before any of the letter goes near a chatbot, remove the name, date of birth, patient or Medicare number, address, and the names of clinicians and hospitals if included. What is left is the clinical content: the findings, the terms, the recommendation. That is the part you need translated, and it carries none of the information that would identify anyone.

Redacting is a few minutes with a pen on a printed copy, or a find-and-replace pass on a typed version. Do it every single time, including for a letter that feels routine. No letter is unimportant enough to skip this step.

Ask for three things, not one

Once you have a redacted paragraph or letter, an assistant can do three separate jobs well: rewrite it in plain English, build a glossary of the terms it used, and generate a list of questions worth bringing to the next appointment. Ask for these one at a time rather than all at once. A plain-English rewrite that also tries to be a glossary and a question list ends up doing all three badly.

The plain-English rewrite should keep every fact in the original and add nothing. If a sentence in the letter is ambiguous, a good rewrite says so rather than picking an interpretation and presenting it as fact. The glossary should explain each unfamiliar term in one line, the kind of explanation you would get from a patient information leaflet, not a textbook. The question list should be short and specific: three to five questions that would actually change what you do next, not a general list of things you could ask about the condition.

What an assistant is good at here

Vocabulary, structure and question generation are the strengths. An assistant has seen enormous amounts of medical writing and is reliably good at explaining what a term means, at reorganising a dense paragraph into a readable one, and at spotting the kind of question a letter's phrasing invites, such as "the letter mentions a follow-up scan but gives no date, ask when that is booked for."

What an assistant is bad at here

Prognosis, numbers and anything that reads like a second opinion are where it goes wrong, and the wrongness is hard to spot because it sounds confident. If a letter includes a test result with a reference range, do not ask whether the number is concerning: ask the clinic. An assistant does not know this person's history or the context the specialist had in the room, and a plausible explanation of a number is not the same as an accurate one. A plain-English explanation of what a term means is useful; an opinion on what it means for this person is not something to take from a chatbot.

Watch for one specific failure: asked to "explain" a result, an assistant will sometimes fill in a likely-sounding interpretation rather than say it does not know. Ask it to flag anything it is inferring rather than reading straight from the text, and treat anything flagged that way as a question for the clinic, not an answer.

Bring the glossary and the question list, not the rewrite

At the next appointment, the plain-English rewrite has done its job once you understand the letter. Bring the question list on paper, because a twelve-minute consultation goes further with three written questions than a vague sense that something needs clarifying. Keep the glossary for yourself, so the next letter is a little easier to read.

I am going to give you a paragraph from a medical letter with all names, dates of birth, addresses and ID numbers already removed. Rewrite it in plain English, at about a ninth-grade reading level, keeping every fact in the original and adding nothing. If a sentence is ambiguous, say so rather than choosing an interpretation. Do not offer an opinion on prognosis or what the result means for the person; explain only what the words say. I have removed names and identifying numbers.

[paste your redacted paragraph here]

From this redacted letter, list every medical term a non-clinician might not know, with a one-line plain-English explanation of each, the kind you would find on a patient information leaflet. Do not explain what the terms mean for this specific person, only what the words generally mean. I have removed names and identifying numbers.

[paste your redacted letter here]

Based on this redacted letter, list three to five specific questions worth asking at the next appointment, focused on anything unclear, any next step mentioned without a date, and any term used without explanation. Do not include questions about prognosis or what a result means; focus on gaps and next steps stated or implied in the letter. I have removed names and identifying numbers.

[paste your redacted letter here]

Never paste someone's medical records, ID numbers or bank details into a chatbot. Remove names, dates of birth and account numbers first, or work from a summary instead of the original document. See AI safety for carers.

This is not medical, legal or financial advice.