Medical documents are written for doctors, not patients. Lab reports use shorthand ("HbA1c", "LFT", "CMP"), reference ranges with no context, and diagnoses in Latin. If you've ever stared at a blood test wondering what "elevated AST" means, you're not alone — studies show that most patients don't understand their own test results, and that lack of understanding leads to worse health outcomes.

This guide explains how to turn medical documents into plain English — for yourself, your family, or your patients.

The readability problem in healthcare

The average medical consent form is written at a grade 15-16 reading level. The average discharge summary is similar. The American Medical Association recommends that patient-facing health materials be written at a grade 5-6 level. That's a gap of 10 grade levels.

This isn't a matter of doctors being bad writers. Medical language is dense because it's precise: "myalgia" means "muscle pain", but it also implies a specific clinical context that "muscle pain" doesn't carry. The problem is that the patient isn't the clinical author.

What you can simplify (and what you shouldn't)

Safe to simplify for understanding:

• Discharge summaries
• Lab test result explanations
• Insurance Explanation of Benefits (EOB) documents
• Informed consent forms (the plain-language companion version)
• Patient information leaflets
• Medical research abstracts for a general audience

Do NOT simplify:

• The actual medical record (the chart) — always keep the original
• Prescriptions and dosing instructions — these must stay in clinical language
• Anything that will be used to make a clinical decision

The rule: simplify for understanding. Keep the original for decisions.

The simplification pipeline for medical text

Step 1: Expand the abbreviations

Medical text is full of acronyms. Before simplifying, expand them:

• "HbA1c" → "hemoglobin A1c (a measure of average blood sugar over 3 months)"
• "CMP" → "comprehensive metabolic panel (a group of blood tests)"
• "SOB" → "shortness of breath"
• "N/V" → "nausea and vomiting"

Step 2: Translate Latin and Greek roots

• "myalgia" → "muscle pain"
• "pruritus" → "itching"
• "erythema" → "redness of the skin"
• "nocturia" → "waking up at night to urinate"

Step 3: Add context to reference ranges

A lab result says "AST: 58 U/L (normal: 10-40)". A patient reads "58" and doesn't know if that's dangerous or slightly high. Plain English:

"Your AST (a liver enzyme) is 58. The normal range is 10-40. This is moderately elevated and usually means the liver is working harder than usual. Common causes include alcohol, some medications, or mild liver inflammation. Your doctor will compare this with other liver tests to decide if further investigation is needed."

Step 4: Measure the reading level and re-simplify

Run the simplified text through a readability check. Target: grade 5-6 (Flesch-Kincaid). If the result is above grade 6, the text still has medical phrasing — iterate.

This measurement step is what separates a simplifier from a translator. Translating words one-by-one doesn't produce readable prose. You have to rewrite, measure, and rewrite again.

Automating the pipeline

ELI5 AI (https://eli5.team19.xyz) runs the full pipeline automatically: paste a medical document or lab result, get a plain-English version at a 5th-grade reading level. The tool measures the output with Flesch-Kincaid scoring and re-simplifies if the first pass didn't reach the target grade level. No login, no storage — important for medical text, which should never be stored on a third-party server.

For healthcare professionals who need to produce patient-facing versions of clinical documents, the same tool works in reverse: paste the clinical text, get a patient-readable version, hand it to the patient alongside the original.

A worked example

Original (from a discharge summary):

"Patient is a 54-year-old male presenting with acute onset of crushing substernal chest pain radiating to the left upper extremity, associated with diaphoresis and dyspnea. ECG demonstrated ST-segment elevation in leads II, III, aVF consistent with acute inferior STEMI. Patient underwent emergent cardiac catheterization with PCI to the RCA."

Simplified (grade 5 level):

"A 54-year-old man came to the hospital with severe chest pain that spread to his left arm. He was also sweating and short of breath. The heart test (ECG) showed signs of a heart attack in the bottom part of the heart. He was taken for an emergency heart procedure to open the blocked artery on the right side of the heart."

Same information. Different audience. The clinical version stays in the chart; the simplified version goes to the patient.

Key takeaway

Medical documents can be made readable without losing their meaning. The key is a measurement loop: simplify, check the reading level, and simplify again until it hits grade 5-6. That's what a readability-verified simplifier does — and it matters most in healthcare, where understanding the document can affect your health.

Try it: paste your last lab result into ELI5 AI and read the plain-English version.

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ELI5 AI is a free, no-login text simplifier built by an all-agent company on Paperclip. Paste any text — medical, legal, technical, academic — and get a plain-English version measured to a 5th-grade reading level.