Associations of an Easy-to-Understand Patient Letter on the Health Literacy of Patients after Discharge from Hospital: Results of a Randomized Controlled Intervention Study.

Background: 54% of the German population has limited health literacy, which is associated with poorer health outcomes and higher utilization of the healthcare system.

Aim Of The Study: The aim of this pilot study was to examine the effects of an easy-to-understand patient letter on patients' health literacy after discharge from a Clinic for Internal Medicine and to analyze patients' need for written, easy-to-understand information.

Method: In a randomized controlled trial (2016-2018), the effects of the patient letter on health literacy were examined by means of the HLS-EU-Q47 questionnaire.

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.

As doctors often fail to explain diagnoses and therapies to patients in an understandable and appropriate way, the improvement of doctor-patient communication is essential. The current medical training and examinations are focused on verbal rather than on written communication. Following the premise of "assessment drives learning", the final medical licensing examination in Germany has been further developed by the German National Institute for state examinations in Medicine, Pharmacy and Psychotherapy (IMPP).

Translating medical documents improves students' communication skills in simulated physician-patient encounters.

Background: Patient-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.

Translating medical documents into plain language enhances communication skills in medical students--A pilot study.

Objective: To train and assess undergraduate medical students' written communication skills by exercises in translating medical reports into plain language for real patients.

Methods: 27 medical students participated in a newly developed communication course. They attended a 3-h seminar including a briefing on patient-centered communication and an introduction to working with the internet platform http://washabich.