The power of language: how to bridge the gap between healthcare research and patients: a scoping review

<b>Objective:</b> The value of patient involvement to the design, conduct, and outcomes of healthcare research is increasingly being recognized. Patient involvement also provides greater patient accessibility and contribution to research. However, the use of inaccessible and technical language when communicating with patients is a barrier to effective patient involvement. <b>Methods:</b> We analyzed peer-reviewed and gray literature on how language is used in communication between healthcare researchers and patients. We used this analysis to generate a set of recommendations for healthcare researchers about using more inclusive and accessible language when involving patients in research. This scoping review adheres to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. <b>Results:</b> Four major themes about the use of language were developed from the literature analysis and were used to develop the set of recommendations. These recommendations include guidance on using standardized terminology and plain language when involving patients in healthcare research. They also discuss the implementation of co-development practices, patient support initiatives, and researcher training, as well as ways to improve emotional awareness and the need for greater equality, diversity, and inclusion. <b>Discussion and Conclusion:</b> The use of inclusive, empathetic, and clear language can encourage patients to be involved in research and, once they are involved, make them feel like equal, empowered, and valued partners. Working toward developing processes and guidelines for the use of language that enables an equal partnership between researchers and patients is critical. Patient and public involvement is when patients, carers, and the public are included as partners in all stages of healthcare research. Patient involvement has been shown to have a positive impact on people and on research itself, but researchers often use language that is complicated, confusing, or unsuitable for patients. This can lead to less meaningful patient involvement in research. Our work looked at 2 areas: (1) how using unsuitable language can be a barrier to effective and meaningful patient involvement; and (2) what can be done to help improve communication between healthcare researchers and patients. We started by finding out what has already been researched and published in these areas. We looked in medical journal databases for articles that were relevant to the topic. We also searched Google and the websites of relevant organizations. From looking at these sources, we found 4 common themes. These themes are: (1) lack of standardized terminology for patients involved in research; (2) consistent overuse of technical, scientific, and medical language; (3) positive outcomes of using language to show emotional understanding; and (4) language as a powerful tool for promoting diversity, equality, and inclusion of patients involved in research. Using these themes, we then developed 7 recommendations to help improve how healthcare researchers and patients communicate with each other. These recommendations are: (1) using standardized terminology; (2) using plain language; (3) co-developing patient information; (4) providing patient training, mentoring, and support; (5) introducing researcher training; (6) having emotional awareness; and (7) improving equality, diversity, and inclusion.