1. How to translate patient
information leaflets
A guide for medical translators by Maja Źróbecka, EN-PL

2. Who reads PILs
• Patients and users
• Older children
• Adolescents
• Patients with poor literacy skills
• Patients with some degree of sight loss
• Due to wide audience PILs should be well
designed and clearly worded

3. Guide: type size and font
• Font should be easy to read: product vs. product
• A type size of 9 points is a minimum
• Different text sizes can be used to highlight key
information
• Larger type size should be considered for products
indicated in visual impairment diseases
• Capital letters, underlining and italics should not
be used, except for capitals for EMPHASIS and
italics for foreign words

4. Guide: syntax
• Use simple words: the fewer syllables, the better
• Split long sentences into shorter ones
• For side effects lists, use bullet points
• Use no more than 5 or 6 bullet points in a list
• Side effects should start with the highest frequency
• Side effects should not be grouped by the
organ/system class as patients are not familiar with
this classification

5. Guide: style
• Use active voice instead of passive: „take 2 tablets”
vs. „2 tablets should be taken”
• When telling patients what action to take, provide
reasons
• Instructions should be followed by reasoning:
„monitor your dosage - an overdose may result in
a serious side effect”
• Don’t repeat the name of the product - use „this
medicine” or „your medicine”

6. Guide: style continued
• Don’t use abbreviations and acronyms
• But when they are justified, write their meaning in
full when they are first mentioned
• Don’t use scientific symbols such as < or +
• Translate medical terms by using lay language,
however, this may differ between languages. Polish
tends to be more „medical” than English

7. Based on EMA’s guidelines
http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/
http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/