You're sitting in the doctor’s office, anxiously awaiting test results.

The doctor enters, glances at your file, and speaks: "Your cholesterol levels are borderline hyperlipidaemic, and there's mild atherosclerosis. We might need statins, but we'll start with a therapeutic lifestyle change first."

You nod, but inside, you feel a growing sense of confusion and anxiety. What exactly does all of this medical jargon mean? Are you in immediate danger? What steps do you need to take next? This flood of technical gobbledygook leaves you feeling overwhelmed and uncertain.

Sadly, this scenario is all too common.

Medical topics are inherently complex, with specialised terminology and concepts that can create a gap between healthcare professionals and the general public. This communication barrier can lead to misunderstandings, poor adherence to medical advice, and, ultimately, poor health outcomes.

This is where the importance of readability comes into play.

Ensuring that health information is understandable to everyone is crucial for effective patient outcomes. Readability tools can help bridge this gap by assessing the reading level of your writing and highlighting improvements.

Tools to Assess the Reading Level of Health Information

Readability tools are brilliant for checking the reading level of your health writing and ensuring that it is clear, concise—and accessible to all.

These tools can help you evaluate how accessible your content is and make necessary adjustments to bridge the gap between medical experts and the general public.

I use these tools regularly in my health writing services and suggest you check them out, too.

1. Hemingway App

You’ve likely heard of the Hemingway App. It’s a general readability tool used by health writers and novelists alike, designed to make all types of writing clearer and more concise.

It highlights complex sentences, passive voice, and jargon and offers suggestions for simplifying your text. And my favourite part: everything’s nicely colour-coded for a visual snapshot of areas that need improvement.

As well as suggestions, Hemingway gives your text a readability grade. Anything below Grade 9 is considered “good” (which, depending on the audience of your materials, might be “good” enough), but aiming for a Grade 5 means most adults will understand your writing.

2. Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

The Flesch-Kincaid test is another tool that grades content readability. But unlike Hemingway, this test is based on statistics. The grade is calculated using sentence length and word syllable count to give you a number between 1 and 100, with each number corresponding to a reading level.

As a health writer, I love using the Flesch-Kincaid test to get a quick overview of my content's readability. However, it only provides a quantitative figure rather than highlighting complex passages or making suggestions for improvement—you’ve got to use your judgement to refine your text instead!

3. SMOG Readability

SMOG is another quick formula-based measure of readability. It calculates readability based on the total number of complex words with more than one syllable across 30 sentences. Plug this figure into the SMOG formula, and you’ll get a readability grade.

SMOG's syllable-based approach is quite helpful in medical writing, where long, complex words can easily find their way onto the page. (Believe it or not, SMOG stands for  “Simple Measure of Gobbledygook,” so it certainly has its place in the world of health and medical writing!)

Just remember, not all medical jargon consists of long words, so keep an eye out for simpler terms that might also complicate understanding.

4. ReadabilityFormulas.com

One of my go-to shortcuts for assessing readability is to head to ReadabilityFormulas.com. While the website design might transport you back to the 90s, its formulas are accurate. It’s a quick way to calculate reading grades using standard formulas like Flesch-Kincaid and SMOG without doing the math yourself. Listening now, eh?

Copy and paste your health content into their Readability Scoring System, select the readability formulas you want to use, and let the tool do the rest. Just make sure you know how each formula works so you can choose the right one for your needs.

5. AHRQ Patient Materials Assessment Tool

Unlike all the tools so far, the AHRQ Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) is specifically designed to evaluate the quality of patient education materials. It assesses readability and other crucial factors like content clarity, organisation, and overall effectiveness.

Using the PEMAT is straightforward. You review each item on the form—covering areas like content, word choice and style, and “organisation—and rate your writing accordingly. Calculate the average rating and turn it into a percentage; the higher it is, the clearer your material.

6. CDC Clear Communication Index

Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the CDC Clear Communication Index is another tool specifically designed to assess public health communications. Rank your health writing against each item in the index, giving it a score of 1 or 0, and convert this to an overall score. Anything above 90 is considered a pass.

The perk of this readability tool is that it’s super versatile. It can be used to evaluate materials for healthcare professionals and policymakers. You can even use a modified score sheet to assess health content for social media, podcast scripts, and infographics.

Why Should You Use Readability Tools?

We need readability tools to enhance the understanding of health and medical communications and highlight difficulties that might be overlooked.

The gap between medical understanding among healthcare professionals and the general public is not intentional. Many medical professionals aim to communicate clearly. But despite their best efforts, they often unintentionally use jargon and complex sentences that confuse patients.

This happens more than you might think.

Healthcare experts are immersed in medical terminology every day. Often, they may not realise they’re using complex language or not explaining concepts clearly. To them, technical terms and phrases seem standard. But to the general public? They can be pretty overwhelming and bewildering.

Readability tools are key as they help identify complexity that might otherwise go unnoticed. This helps guide improvements to ensure your health communication is as effective as possible.

In health writing, where clear understanding can directly impact patient outcomes, using readability tools is crucial for bridging the communication gap and enhancing patient engagement.

Limitations of Readability Tools for Health Writing

While readability assessments are a great addition to your health writing toolkit, they have limitations.

These tools cannot guarantee the accuracy of the content, address ethical considerations, or address cultural appropriateness. They also don't evaluate the effectiveness of images or the overall layout of your document—all of which can impact its overall readability and understanding.

In other words, these six readability tools focus on text complexity but can't measure how engaging or practical your material is in real-world settings.

To ensure comprehensive health communication, it’s important to complement these tools with a holistic review of your content, including visual elements and cultural sensitivity.

Need Help Improving Your Health Content Readability?

Readability tools are invaluable for ensuring that complex medical information is presented in a way accessible to all readers—but sometimes, they aren’t enough.

If you’re looking to enhance your health communication and ensure your materials are impactful, feel free to reach out. As a freelance health writer, I specialise in creating content that bridges the gap between medical experts and the public.

Or, if you already have content that needs tweaking, I can help there, too. My medical editing services transform your current communications into engaging, understandable, and actionable content that can improve lives.

Let’s work together to make your health writing as effective as possible! Contact me to get started, or read more about my expertise here.