Patient Information Leaflets Editing and Proofreading Services

Somebody reads the leaflet because something has happened. A rash, a headache that will not go, a dose missed on Tuesday, a strange feeling half an hour after taking it. They are not reading the leaflet to learn about the medicine; they are looking for one thing — whether this matters and what they should do — and most leaflets make them read a list of forty side effects to find out.

We edit what marketing authorisation holders and manufacturers produce — patient information leaflets and package inserts, side effect sections and their ordering, dosing and administration instructions, missed and double dose guidance, warnings and interaction sections, storage and disposal information, readability user testing documentation and revisions, leaflet updates following safety changes, large print and accessible formats, translated leaflets and their harmonisation, and patient-facing supporting material such as diaries and alert cards. Our editors work on the section somebody reads when something has happened.

The side effect section is where a leaflet either helps or merely complies, and the failure is organising by frequency instead of by action. A list running from very common to very rare tells a frightened person nothing about which entries require a phone call. We work through these so the section opens with what to do immediately and about what, naming the small number of symptoms that mean stop and seek help today, with the symptoms described as a person would experience them rather than in clinical terms — not angioedema but swelling of the lips, tongue or throat; so the next group is what to contact a prescriber about without urgency, and the third is what is expected, unpleasant and will pass, since these three groups are the actual decision and frequency is a secondary detail within them; so frequencies are given as natural frequencies with one denominator rather than as verbal categories; so each urgent symptom carries where to go — not "seek medical attention" but call 999, go to A&E, or ring your GP today; so the timing is included where it matters, as a reaction that occurs in the first two weeks and one that appears after six months are different instructions; and so nothing important sits below a long list. Leaflets written this way are used rather than discarded.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including labelling, safety information and readability documentation. We are editors rather than clinicians or regulatory advisers, and we offer no view on safety information, categorisation or compliance. What we can do is put the action before the list.