Profile: An interview with Blanca Mayor Serrano on the state-of-the-art of health literacy in Spain - Volume 22, Issue

There seems to be a move towards ‘patient-centred’ health care as part of an overall effort to improve the quality of health care and to reduce costs. Individual patients and providers have to work together to ensure effective communication.…

Thirty-seventh EMWA Conference, 7–9 November 2013, Barcelona, Spain - Volume 22, Issue

EMWA's 37th Conference will be held at the Fira Palace Hotel in Barcelona from Thursday, 7 November to Saturday, 9 November 2013. The Fira Palace Hotel is ideally situated in the trade-fair and exhibition area and is a short walk from Barcelona's…

Announcing AERTeM, the Spanish Association of Medical Writers - Volume 22, Issue

The Spanish Association of Medical Writers – in Spanish, the Asociación Española de Redactores de Textos Médicos (AERTeM) – is a young association focused on the specific needs of Spanish writers. Local organisations such as AERTeM can augment the…

Regulatory writing - Volume 21, Issue

The EMA, the FDA, and Health Canada head to head A recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine carried an article comparing the regulatory review times of novel therapeutics by three different regulatory agencies (FDA, EMA, and Health…

EMWA News - Volume 26, Issue

The 45th EMWA Conference in Cascais, Portugal, has recently finished and we are all waiting for the upcoming annual event in Barcelona, Spain, next Spring. In the meantime, the Executive Committee is working hard on improving what EMWA has to offer…

Gained in Translation - Volume 24, Issue

Editorial Welcome to the Translation Section editorial! What we call ‘lay-friendliness’ is a key characteristic of Patient Information Sheets (PIS), which are tightly regulated on a European level to guarantee a comprehensible document that…

EMWA social media team - Volume 23, Issue

Time to make it shorter: Plain English in our context - Volume 24, Issue

Plain English in medical and scientific writing is not one-size-fits-all, because audiences differ. Advice on writing plain English abounds. In 1946, George Orwell, best known as the author of 1984, formulated a much quoted, compact set of rules for…

Plain language and readability - Volume 24, Issue

Plain language is writing in clear, concise language that is easy to read and understand. Whenever I hear the term plain language I am reminded of a lay summary I was once asked to edit. The stream of technical language (‘self-source bias’, ‘effect m…

Online plain English and readability resources - Volume 24, Issue

To encourage individuals and businesses to write in simpler, more readable English, private and government-backed enterprises have created a number of freely available online resources. While most relate to general English use, some are devoted to…