When I was a young reporter in Milwaukee, comedian George Carlin was arrested for publicly performing what was then becoming a popular part of his routine – “the seven words you can’t say on television.” Carlin ridiculed network censors by expounding on the attributes of the seven words he claimed could not get on the airwaves.
Over a career (of now more than 40 years) in medical journalism and health care communications, I have developed my own list of taboo terms – all of which appear in print and on the public airwaves too frequently. I offer my own list of the seven words you shouldn’t use in medical news and health care communications. I urge colleagues – both health care providers and professional communicators – to abandon their use for the sake of health consumers everywhere. I urge consumers of all health care information to be wary of these words because they mean different things to different audiences.
GET-IT provides plain language definitions of health research terms
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