Plain Language for Healthcare Professionals: Patient Education Handouts & Tools

Links to resources to translate medical language into plain speaking

Carilion Subscription Resources

Cochrane Library The Cochrane Library is the gold standard in evidence-based practice. Search a topic and look for the "plain language summary."

Children's Health Resource Center
The Children's Health Resource Center includes Access to E-books, Information on Health Conditions from A to Z, Information in Multiple Languages, and Daily News Articles.

Drugs & Supplements NIH NLM Medline Plus - Answer questions such as "Why is this prescribed?" or "What are some of the side effects?" or "Are there any dietary restrictions while taking this medication?"
Health Topics Medline Plus Symptoms, causes, treatment and prevention for over 975 diseases. Illnesses, health conditions and wellness issues.regularly reviewed, and links are updated daily.
Medical Encyclopedia - Medline Plus "The A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia includes over 4,000 articles about diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries, and surgeries. It also contains an extensive library of medical photographs and illustrations."
Pill Identifier NLM - NIH - Pillbox: Tool helps identify pills by shape, color, imprint, size, name of active or inactive ingredients.

NIH - NLM Consumer Health Information in Multiple Languages
The National Cancer Institute
This website offers free, credible, current, comprehensive information about cancer prevention and screening, diagnosis and treatment, research across the cancer spectrum, clinical trials, and news and links to other NCI websites.