Primer on Plain Language Summaries for Advanced Practice Providers With Published Examples and Practical Applications to Practice

Abstract

Understanding clinical information can be challenging for patients, their caregivers, and other lay audiences because of complex scientific concepts, interventions, procedures and/or evaluated outcomes. It is also challenging for health-care providers to effectively communicate such medical research to patients, which is essential for patients' informed involvement in shared decision-making (SDM). Advanced practice providers (APPs) are on the frontlines of care, often providing detailed and extensive education for patients in and outside of clinical trials. In recent years, scientific researchers, particularly those involved in clinical trial research, have been increasingly using plain language summaries (PLS) to summarize journal publications and conference abstracts in easy-to-read nontechnical language while providing key findings and implications. In this review article, we aim to provide an overview of PLS and show by using published examples, how such communication tools may assist APPs to communicate medical research effectively to patients. This evolving form of scientific communication may be useful to APPs, not only for translating the findings of clinical trials and other health-care research to patients and their caregivers, but also facilitate informed SDM, help them keep up to date on the latest clinical research, and share research perspectives with their care teams.

Figure 1

Translation of the findings from A) an original manuscript abstract (Rugo et al., 2022)^a to B) the plain language summary publication (PLSP) brief summary for a lay audience (Rugo et al., 2024)^{b a}Reproduced under the Creative Commons CC-BY license. ^bReproduced with permission granted from Taylor & Francis Informa UK Ltd.

Figure 2

Example of the content of a PLSP (Rugo et al., 2024). HER2 = human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; HR+ = hormone receptor-positive.

Figure 3

Translation of the findings of A) forest plots on time to chemotherapy by treatment arms from randomized controlled clinical trials (Rugo et al., 2022)^a to B) an infographic in the plain language summary publication (PLSP; Rugo et al., 2024)^b. ^aReproduced under the Creative Commons CC-BY license. ^bReproduced with permission granted from Taylor & Francis Informa UK Ltd.

Figure 4

Translation of the findings of A) Kaplan-Meier curve of overall survival by treatment arm from a real-world database study (Rugo et al., 2023)^a to B) an infographic in the plain language summary publication (PLSP; Rugo et al., 2024)^b. AI = aromatase inhibitor; CI = confidence interval; HR = hazard ratio; NR = not reached; OS = overall survival; PAL = palbociclib. ^aReproduced under the Creative Commons CC-BY license. ^bReproduced with permission granted from Taylor & Francis Informa UK Ltd.

Figure 5

Translation of the data on the impact of palbociclib plus fulvestrant on tumor growth rate presented in a conference abstract into an infographic in the plain language summary (PLS; Yeh et al., 2022a, 2022b).