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The Thimble vs the Trash Can Why Brief is Better in Healthcare Communications

Our minds are like thimbles. They can hold only a little bit of content. When you pour too much information into a thimble, it overflows, all its contents spilling out. In a similar way, giving people too much healthcare information can be counterproductive.  

Clinicians and patients have limited time to read, process, and understand medical and drug information. This is why drug marketers narrow down their consumer and clinician messaging to two or three salient points. These companies know the importance of condensing complex ideas into brief, concise, and persuasive, “scientific sounding” messages. And this is one of the main reason healthcare content developed by industry is easier to recall than the long-form text used by so many healthcare communicators. Am I the only one who tosses long-form handouts into the trash after my healthcare visits?

People may laugh at iconic images from TV prescription drug advertising like the Nasonex bee, the Lunesta butterfly (actually a luna moth), or the Xifaxin gut. However, these advertisements are often remembered long after the commercial stops running on television. A powerful image — combined with a few choice words — is a very powerful way to communicate.

Instead of cramming your healthcare handouts with too much information, figure out the minimum you need to say and then say it with as few words as possible. If people need to know more about the topic, they can research it online or ask questions of their healthcare provider. 

To condense clinical information into a few “thimble-worthy” key points may be time consuming. But it’s better than winding up in the trash.

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