Is there a job in medicine where I could translate medical jargon to plain English? Like maybe to patients?

Question

Something I realized in the past 24 hours: One of the few areas of medicine I *like* is medical translation. Not translation of English medical terminology to another language's medical terminology. The translation between medical jargon and regular language. I like explaining things to people. I love it when they understand. I like it so much, one of my highlights of OB-GYN surgery elective in January was, after my attending left, fielding their questions about cervical dysplasia and explaining everything to them simply and even with drawings I made up on the fly. Is there a job like that? Can I be a patient explainer? :P

Answer 1

Pharmaceutical companies hire writers to create those patient leaflets explaining the drugs. I suppose the job title is technical writer, though I could be wrong. Pay would be around $50,000, I believe.

Lots of physicians write medical books and magazine articles for the general public to read. It's more freelance than a job, unless you become a syndicated columnist. But you could write articles as you have time until you're known and can do it full time.

You can also invent this niche for yourself. You'd just need a way to make it salable.

Hmmm. how about a physician's blog? Write entries, let people write in with questions and answer them...

Answer 2

There's not a job for a "medical explainer."  As you mentioned, there is one for a translator.  The people responsible for explaining conditions, illnesses and procedures to the patients are: the Dr., PA., RN, LPN, etc.